It has been a very eventful couple of months for Spencer and I! Spencer and I both celebrated our birthdays in March. Spencer turned 23 and I turned 25. We had a lot of fun celebrating together.
My hip recovery is going super well! I'm still regaining my flexibility, but I've been able to jog a little bit and I have been going out on my bike a ton! It has been so fun and I've really been getting into it. I’ve been saving up and plan on buying a road bike in the next couple weeks. For one of my birthday gifts my parents registered me to participate in my first official bike event. It's called The Goldilocks. It's a women only joyride bike event and participants can bike anywhere between 20 and 100 miles. I registered for 20 just because I wasn't sure what my hip could handle, but I think I'll plan on going 40 because I've been feeling so great! I’ve made some goals for things I’d like to accomplish in the next year and a century ride is what I’m working towards! I can’t wait! But first I’m excited to do my first bike event.
April was also an exciting month because I was able to walk at my BYU graduation. I officially graduated in December, but it was fun to celebrate all my hard work from the last five years with my awesome family. I felt so loved and supported by my incredible in laws and my parents, who flew out to celebrate and spend time with Spencer and me. Spencer also finished another semester at UVU and did an outstanding job! He is so smart and works so hard. He really does inspire me because he is so incredibly diligent. He took a break for the first part of Summer, but he starts classes again at the end of June. I've enjoyed his break too! It's nice for us both to be homework free.
The real highlight of our Summer so far has been our family vacation to Florida. My parents took us and all of my siblings, their families, and my grandma Bonnes to Disney World. It has been a truly magical experience! We were there for a week and got to visit Hollywood Studios, Epcot, Magic Kingdom, and Universal Studios (where Harry Potter is!!). It was so fun to get to experience Disney with all of our family and it was especially fun to see our cute nieces and nephews experience the magic of Disney. There were so many fun memories made. Here are a few of my favorite trip moments.
Hollywood Studios
- Going on the Tower of Terror with my mom and grandma. They didn't do too many of the rides, but whenever they did they did not disappoint. My mom became notorious for her awesome ride faces caught on camera.
- My nephew Austin and niece Madelyn got to go to "Jedi Training" where they receive some special training with real Jedi Masters and get to practice their skills fighting against Darth Vadar, some evil girl from clone wars who I had never seen before, and Kylo Ren! It was amazing to watch them use the force! I can't believe I'm related to real Jedi's! ;)
- We went to a Frozen sing-along with Anna and Elsa. I am pretty sure I enjoyed this more than any of the kids. I definitely did not hesitate to sing my heart out! Then at the end of the sing-along Elsa made her ice castle on stage and made it snow! It was AWESOME!
Epcot
- Going on the Finding Nemo ride with the family. It was so cute and felt like you got dropped right into the sea with Nemo and his friends! It was so cute!
- Eating lunch with all the Disney Princesses. It was so fun to see all the nieces and nephews give the princesses hugs and just be so excited to see them! I also got a little sad because I WANT TO BE A DISNEY PRINCESS!!
- Exploring all the different places “around the world.” Spencer and I ate so many good snacks that day. My favorite snack was from France and was called the Croque Glace. It was AWESOME! It was a brioche roll sliced in half, with a scoop of ice cream in the middle and sauce drizzled on top of the ice cream. Then the roll was placed in a little waffle maker so the outside got all warm and soft, but the cream magically stayed frozen in the middle. It was amazing!
Our beautiful creation on Fast Track
Quality niece and nephew time
Nemo and Friends
Croque Glace with Vanilla Coconut Ice Cream and Raspberry Sauce
Snow White's Wishing Well
Magic Kingdom
- Going on the Seven Dwarves Mine Train. We went with all the little kids and the Grandmas again. It was SOOO CUTE!!! It played Heigh Ho from Snow White and took you through the dwarves mine with all their jewels. Then it takes you past their cottage at the end. I absolutely loved it!
- Lunch at Be Our Guest restaurant. I’ll be honest, the food wasn’t that great, but the ambiance made it worth it. It is inside of the Beast’s castle. You can eat in the library, the west wing, or the ballroom. The ballroom has a large glass wall and it looks like it is snowing outside of the castle! It was so beautiful! Disney really knows how to transport you right into your favorite disney moments.
- Space Mountain with my nephew Austin. He was so excited to go on it and he sat behind me on the ride. Hearing him shout out with joy throughout the ride made me so happy!
- Disney Parade. So. Magical. All the princesses, princes slaying dragons, dancing, singing, fireworks. Amazing. I LOVE DISNEY WORLD!
- Spending the day exploring places from my favorite disney movies with my favorite prince. I loved spending all of this time with Spencer. He sure makes me feel like a princess every day :)
Snow Whites Cottage
Adult Picture
The Enchanted Rose!
Tale As Old As Time
The Coveted Disney Castle Photo!! At last!
Defeating the Evil Emperor Zerg
Splash Mountain: Don't Miss My Mom and Grandmas Bags Over Their Faces
Seven Dwarves Mine Train
Universal Studios. AKA HARRY POTTER! AKA THE BEST PLACE EVER!!!
- Oh. my. goodness. I loved Disney so so so much. But my experiences at Diagon Alley, Hogsmeade, and Hogwarts literally transported me to my dream world; the wizarding world of Harry Potter. I can’t even put into words the pure elation I felt exploring Diagon Alley especially. When you walk into it, it literally feels like you are actually there. We got to the park about 30 minutes early, but they let people people start trickling in then. We went straight to Ollivanders wand shop to buy our wands and experience the magic. You can purchase special wands that allow you to interact with different things around Diagon Alley and cast spells. They do wand ceremonies with groups that come in. Our group went in and a little boy was selected to go to the counter and have his wand choosing experience. He pointed his wand at different things around the room causing bookshelves to fall, flowers to die, and glass to break. When his correct wand was finally presented the music from Harry Potter swelled throughout the room and a light fell on him. It was so wonderful and it literally brought tears to my eyes. After this everyone trickled out of the room, but Spencer and I lingered behind because I wanted to get a picture. I asked the woman leading the ceremony if we could take a picture with her. She said of course, then paused and said, “Why don’t you step in front of my desk. Both of you.” I almost died of pure joy. So Spencer and I, alone in this quiet, dimly lit room in Ollivanders wand shop, stepped in front of her desk. She pulled out a couple of wands from her collection and placed them in front of us. She had me point the wand at a bell and told me to make it ring once. I pointed my wand and the bell started jingling out of control. She mumbled something about that being curious then had Spencer point his wand at a light which she told him to turn on. The light swelled then turned off quickly.
After both of our failed magic attempts she placed her fingers on her chin and stared at us then said “Ahhh, of course.” At this point the magical Harry Potter theme song started playing as she gave me the wand Spencer had been using and him the wand I tried. As they were placed in our hands the music swelled and the lights glowed around us. She then told Spencer that he was obviously a very powerful wizard and that his wand was excellent for performing spells of protection. She then told me that I was obviously a very joyful witch (I think this may have been apparent from my tears of joy and the fact that I had literally been grinning from the moment we walked into the room) and that my wand was excellent for performing charms. Then she told us that we were both very loyal to our friends and extremely loyal to each other and that interestingly enough our wands shared heartstrings from the SAME DRAGON!!!! I seriously was freaking out with joy because this all felt SO REAL! After that experience I am throughly convinced that I am actually a witch and Spencer is a wizard. There is no way that we aren’t. Haha!
The day only got better from there. Spencer and I both wore Gryffindor Quidditch t-shirts and that definitely contributed to a very interactive day. People everywhere either cheered for us or booed us. In one instance our shirts and enthusiasm of all things Harry Potter allowed us to skip the line for the Forbidden Journey through Hogwarts. It was awesome! Gryffindor pride!!! Throughout the day we tried every form of butterbeer possible (multiple times in fact). Frozen butterbeer is THE BOMB! And Butterbeer ice cream is also incredible! I LOVE BUTTERBEER!!! The ride through Hogwarts and Gringotts also did not disappoint. Both made me feel like I was actually soaring through the tunnels of Gringotts and flying through Hogwarts. I made a point to do both of those more than once before we had to go. All the Harry Potter stuff was definitely the highlight of my Florida trip. I have been waiting for my chance to go to Hogwarts since my eleven year old birthday party where I sent out Hogwarts acceptance letters as invitations. It was definitely worth the wait! HOGWARTS FOREVER!!!!!
The Wand Ceremony
Enjoying a Delicious Frozen Butterbeer
Delicious and Magical
Enjoying Beautiful Diagon Alley
The Infamous Platform 9 3/4. There was a whoosing noise when you walked through the barrier!
Hogsmeade and Hogwarts
Hogwarts Forever!
We had a nice chat with Stan and the talking head. The head talks back to you!
Other trip highlights
- We definitely enjoyed our days at the parks, but it was also nice to just relax at our resort and hang out at the pool. Spencer and I were like fish and lived in the pool and hot tub when we weren’t at the parks or sleeping. We got lots of quality niece and nephew time playing at the pool. We also saw tons of lizards, a snake, and even got attacked by frogs! We were walking to the pool and a frog jumped onto my leg! I started screaming in terror and jumping around like a looney person. But having a frog jump out at you from the bushes is a really terrifying experience. A couple days later the same thing happened to Spencer. It was so funny! We definitely had a lot of laughs on our trip. It’s sad to see such a fun and memorable vacation come to an end but I am soooo grateful for my parents who allowed us all to have this experience together. I will never forget it! Especially the Harry Potter part haha!
Bradfield Family Vacation 2016
So our vacation is done, but the Summer is just starting! Stay tuned for more of our Summer adventures!
