Big Green Tractor

Yesterday we went to Ft. Wayne, Indiana to see one of Ken's favorite country singers, Jason Aldean in concert.

Before the concert we got some dinner at a sushi place we happened to find very close to our hotel. Ken had had sushi with Matt once before, but I'd never had it. My first sushi experience was so-so. Some of the things we ordered I really liked, but some of it was either boring or not so great.

The plate was very pretty. We went the safe route and didn't have anything raw.

Ken's technique was to chomp the whole thing in one bite. They were a little too big for me to do that, so I had to tear it apart and eat it in pieces.

At the hotel ready for the show -- I finally got a cowgirl outfit complete with boots!

Rocking our country plaid shirts. There were a lot of them at the show.

I love going to concerts. I love the energy from both the crowd, and the performers. I love the music so loud you can feel it in your heart. I love singing along at the top of my lungs along with 5000 other people in the arena. I love the talent of the band, and I'm always amazed (and appreciative) when the songs sound as good live as they do on the radio.

The opening act was Luke Bryan, a new-ish guy on the country scene. He didn't talk a whole lot, but his little dance moves and facial expressions were very funny. He was super smiley and personable. He seemed happy to be there and sounded great.

A lot of his songs are about drinking, and how good or bad you feel depending on how much you had and what you remember doing.

He sang 90% of the time with his eyes closed, which was kind of endearing. I would like to know if he does it in the studio, or if it's only during a live show.

Jason Aldean has been around for a few years and has a lot of good songs. He also didn't talk much, but did play a few songs from his new CD. It's always fun to hear something before you can buy it.

Jason's and Luke's personalities are totally different. Jason was good, but not as smiley.

My favorite song of his is called "Big Green Tractor." I even got a green tractor tshirt :)

Corn Maze

Yesterday Ken, Syd and I went to a corn maze just about a mile from our house. We've been having a last blast of heat around here, so it was about 85 degrees the whole time we were walking around. It's not a small corn maze, either. I think I saw somewhere that it's 24 acres of corn, with over 4 miles of trailes thru it.

I've been to corn mazes before where they have check stations throughout where you punch a card and collect all the different punches. This had the same thing, but with a little extra game involved too. We were playing a little Clue type game, to figure out which barnyard animal kidnapped Farmer Joe in which location with what weapon. At each check station we elimnated one animal, location and weapon. It was fun to see if our initial predictions were even close.

An ariel view of the corn maze we did. There were 12 different check stations we had to find.

Getting our detective on in the FSI game.

Ken and Syd being sneaky

Found a check station!



Looking down from the one and only lookout tower in the maze

Going up on the tower didn't really help us find anything, but it was fun to see how big it really was.

We were roasting so bad we had to take a breather by the consession stand in the only shade we could find.

When we finished the maze, Syd rode these funny pedal go-carts.

This was a great maze, and every year they do a different pattern in the corn. We'll definitley be back next year.

My Harry Potter Experience

My love of Harry Potter started my first semester of college when I was staying at my aunt and uncle's house in New Hampshire. I was lonely and bored when I happened to pick up a copy they had. I fell in love and devoured the 3 books that were out at the time in less than 2 days. I've read every book multiple times and will continue to read them for the rest of my life. I like the movies, but not nearly as much as I love the books.


This last weekend I got to do what every Potter fan has been dying and waiting to do -- become a part of the Potter universe.

For my birthday, Ken surprised me with a weekend trip complete with 2 day passes to Universal. We were just there in April, but Potter World (as I like to call it :) wasn't open yet and I was so bummed. Ken's cousin Christi was nice enough to be my taxi driver/ride buddy for the weekend. We got a hotel in Orlando and had a great time jus the two of us.

The first day we got there right when the park opened and headed straight to Potter World. The wait for the main ride -- The Forbidden Journey was only 20 minutes, and believe it or not, I would have been happy with an hour wait for my first time through. The detail is unbelievable, and I wanted to just stand there and soak it all in. The second day we got there a little later and the wait was right at an hour. Christi and I totally beat the system by going in the single rider line. Our total time, including waiting, was 23 minutes. We missed all the cool rooms doing that, but it got us on the ride tons faster.

The first thing you see is the Hogwarts Express. It doesn't move, but the train conductor is around all day and takes pictures with people.

Then you walk around a corner and are transported right into Hogsmeade. It takes your breath away and almost a tear to your eyes. It feels like you are there. The snow on the roofs just adds to it. It sparkles in the sun and the icicles look like they could drip on your head.

I could not get over the amount of detail. Everywhere you looked there was a piece of the Harry Potter world that readers knew was there, but never got to appreciate as fully as we would have liked.

Hogwarts!! It was immense, and the detail went from the roof all the way to the ground. Nothing was left out.

How cool is that street sign?!?

It looked just like movie Hogwarts -- towers, windows, rocks, cliffs everywhere.

No matter where I stood I found more and more to love about it.

The Forbidden Journey ride is a trip through the grounds of Hogwarts on an enchanted (of course Hermione knew the spell to make that happen :) bench. Before you get to the actual ride, you get to walk all thru Hogwarts.

I feel like such a bad Harry Potter fan. I'm not sure who this statue is supposed to be, and I'm too lazy to look it up right now, so we'll say he's one of the founders of Hogwarts. He was the first thing you saw when you walked in, so it makes sense.

**I interrupt this blog post to apologize for the quality of the pictures to follow. I didn't take my regular camera, and it was so dark and dim inside the castle that my iPhone had a hard time taking pictures. I'm posting them anyway because they're too cool not to talk about.**

The hourglasses where class points are recorded. They really did have colored gems in each one. I didn't see any being dropped in or taken away, but I wasn't stopped in front of it for very long.

The Mirror of Erised. It was too dark to actually see anything reflected inside it.

The Phoenix statue that guards the entrance to Dumbledore's office

Paintings covered every inch of the walls. Many of them did move and talk, and I have no idea how they did that. They didn't look like tv screens at all -- they really looked like paintings!

The Fat Lady! We didn't climb thru her portrait hole to get to the Gryffindor common room, but it was still cool to see her.

The Sorting Hat is the last thing you see before you actually get on the ride. I guess the ride could be classified as a simulation ride. The majority of what you see is animated, but then all of a sudden you would be in a real part of the castle or Forbidden Forest. A dragon breathes fire at you, Aragog actually spits water at you, the Whomping Willow almost smashes you, and you are almost upside down in some parts of it

A perfectly blue, cloudless sky behind the wonderful Hogwarts

After the Forbidden Journey, we got in line for the Ollivander wand experience. We were both disappointed with it, and it definitely wasn't worth the wait. You wait in line to be crammed in a tiny shop and watch the wand maker go thru a 10 minute spiel of "choosing" a wand for one 10-12 year old kid. It was silly and hokey and could have been done much better. But you have to do everything once right?

Standing in line did give us a chance to look at more of the details. This Quidditch supply shop had the case of balls in the window. The Bludgers really tried to escape!

Quidditch pads

The best part of waiting in line for Ollivander's was the butterbeer. We killed two birds with one stone -- I stayed in line for Ollivander's and Christi got the butterbeers. The line for butterbeer was almost as long as the line for the rides. They serve butterbeer either cold in liquid form, or frozen in slushy form. We got the frozen one, and I think it was definitely the right way to go. When it started getting melty I didn't like it near as much. As it melted you could feel it coating your entire mouth. We googled the recipe, and found a few different ones. One of them has 6 tablespoons of melted butter in 4 servings! It was very sweet, without being overly so, or enough to make your teeth ache. It was also very rich and filling. I wouldn't want to drink it with food -- it's almost a meal in itself.



The inside of Ollivander's was crazy. Floor to ceiling wand boxes and maybe 50 square feet of floor space.

A few of the wands on display in Ollivander's

There was no doubt that we would have lunch at the Three Broomsticks. The spiral staircase at the end of the room was so tightly wound I don't know how anyone can navigate it.

I've never seen a restaurant actually show you what the food looks like before it comes to you. Very smart. Made us very hungry.

Eating in the Three Broomsticks. I didn't even mind they antlers on the wall. It felt like they were supposed to be there. Here's one example of the amount of detail everywhere -- the fireplace looked like it had had hundreds of fires lit in it. The wall above it was sooty and smoky just like an old fireplace would be.

The wanted poster for Sirius Black. This was the least authentic of all the things we saw in Potter World. It just looked like any tv, and was so reflective it was hard to see what it was really supposed to be.

Wingardium Leviosa! Expelliarmus! Alohamora! I loved playing with the wands. They had replicas of all the wands from the movies. You could pick them up and try them out before you bought one.



One place that was so awesome, but hard to take pictures of was Honeydukes candy store. --They had so much cool stuff -- sugar quills, pepper imps, lemon drops, ton tongue toffee, Berti Bott's Every Flavor Beans and of course chocolate frogs. They even come with trading cards with famous witches and wizards!

I had a great time and I'm so thankful to have a husband who loves to surprise me with my favorite things. I can't wait to go back with him and Syd and see the Harry Potter World thru their eyes.

And just for a hit of randomness -- a square tree!