After the fiasco that it was trying to recoup all of our money from Mark's cancelled wedding, we ended up with several unused plane tickets (and consequent flight credits). We all discussed what we would like to do with the credit, and seeing as we had to use it all within a year, we picked a return trip to Ireland! After all, Mark hasn't been back since he was a child.
Somewhere along the way, we decided to also have a Harry Potter trivia contest which, in true Kennedy fashion, ballooned into something much more. Too, Baby wasn't born yet when we bought the tickets, so as soon as she was born, Ethan and Rebecca got her passport. And for the past few months, we have all spent a good deal of time preparing for this trip.
After much discussion, it was decided that everyone would be split into different Harry Potter houses for the tournament. Most of the peeps stuck with the house that the Pottermore website gave them, but one person refused to be housed with his fellow Hufflepuffs, so he transferred over to Gryffindor, the house that he wanted all along. So the breakdown went this way:
Gryffindor: Mark, Glo and John
Ravenclaw: Ethan
Hufflepuff: Rebecca and Larisa
Slytherin: Hannie
It's obvious that the houses weren't exactly even. So, we made things work the way that they would work. We combined Hufflepuff and Slytherin into one house (SlytherPuff). Too, we worried a bit about Ethan being alone.
Enter Allison, Mark's girlfriend.
Several months ago, when Allison and Mark were still best friends, I told Mark that he should invite Allison. I wasn't actually sure that she would come, considering I had never met her. However, as it turned out, she's been wanting to visit Ireland since she was twelve years old, so she accepted the invitation!
Ravenclaw now housed two members: Ethan and Allison :-)
Everyone spent weeks rereading the seven Harry Potter books, creating trivia questions and boning up on their own knowledge.
I spent weeks creating games, writing newsletters, sending out reminders and planning everything.
Last minute, we were contacted by the BYU Men's Volleyball team, asking if we could house families of the BYU kids who were coming to Penn State for the NCAA Men's Volleyball championships. 15 people in our house? Sure.
Add to everything an open house hosted by our realtor, and cleaning the house for the photographer to take pictures of our house for the newspaper.
Yeah, it was a lot of stuff to take care of!
Finally, the day arrived for us to leave for Ireland. Trying to keep the cost of the tickets down by flying out of JFK seemed like a good idea at the time of booking, but we were all hating our lives in the car, trying to survive the NYC traffic. Two cars, caravanning across Queens at 6 p.m. on a Friday. Goodness!
We got to our flight with only 30 minutes to spare. We thought it would be no problem to connect with Hannah who was meeting up with us after flying from Salt Lake. Unfortunately, her flight had been delayed by over an hour which left her a mere 15 minutes to make the connection.
It's hard to describe the crazy scene of trying to hold the plane for Hannah. The stress, the prayers, the text messages to her, begging every Delta agent to help us. We had already made plans to split up as a family with Hannah and me following the next day. However, Hannah made it with only seconds to spare and got on the plane. She was a sweaty mess, breathing hard and stressed out beyond imagining, but she was on the plane.
(Note to future self: take an Ambien when flying overseas. I slept the entire way, and have hardly a problem with jet lag.)
It took a small miracle to get a rental car, but in the end we hopped aboard the self-titled "Knight Bus". John and I split the drive up north. We stopped at a Tesco to buy groceries for what we thought would be the entire week. When we finally arrived at "Causeway Lodge", we were happy to lay down for short naps after almost 24 hours of traveling.
And for the record, Baby is a CHAMP traveler.
I made chicken pasta casserole for dinner with peas, fruit salad and cheese bread.
And we started the HP tournament with three games of Wheel of Fortune.
Yes indeed, it's GRAND to be a Kennedy!
Somewhere along the way, we decided to also have a Harry Potter trivia contest which, in true Kennedy fashion, ballooned into something much more. Too, Baby wasn't born yet when we bought the tickets, so as soon as she was born, Ethan and Rebecca got her passport. And for the past few months, we have all spent a good deal of time preparing for this trip.
After much discussion, it was decided that everyone would be split into different Harry Potter houses for the tournament. Most of the peeps stuck with the house that the Pottermore website gave them, but one person refused to be housed with his fellow Hufflepuffs, so he transferred over to Gryffindor, the house that he wanted all along. So the breakdown went this way:
Gryffindor: Mark, Glo and John
Ravenclaw: Ethan
Hufflepuff: Rebecca and Larisa
Slytherin: Hannie
It's obvious that the houses weren't exactly even. So, we made things work the way that they would work. We combined Hufflepuff and Slytherin into one house (SlytherPuff). Too, we worried a bit about Ethan being alone.
Enter Allison, Mark's girlfriend.
Several months ago, when Allison and Mark were still best friends, I told Mark that he should invite Allison. I wasn't actually sure that she would come, considering I had never met her. However, as it turned out, she's been wanting to visit Ireland since she was twelve years old, so she accepted the invitation!
Ravenclaw now housed two members: Ethan and Allison :-)
Everyone spent weeks rereading the seven Harry Potter books, creating trivia questions and boning up on their own knowledge.
I spent weeks creating games, writing newsletters, sending out reminders and planning everything.Last minute, we were contacted by the BYU Men's Volleyball team, asking if we could house families of the BYU kids who were coming to Penn State for the NCAA Men's Volleyball championships. 15 people in our house? Sure.
Add to everything an open house hosted by our realtor, and cleaning the house for the photographer to take pictures of our house for the newspaper.
Yeah, it was a lot of stuff to take care of!
Finally, the day arrived for us to leave for Ireland. Trying to keep the cost of the tickets down by flying out of JFK seemed like a good idea at the time of booking, but we were all hating our lives in the car, trying to survive the NYC traffic. Two cars, caravanning across Queens at 6 p.m. on a Friday. Goodness!
We got to our flight with only 30 minutes to spare. We thought it would be no problem to connect with Hannah who was meeting up with us after flying from Salt Lake. Unfortunately, her flight had been delayed by over an hour which left her a mere 15 minutes to make the connection.
It's hard to describe the crazy scene of trying to hold the plane for Hannah. The stress, the prayers, the text messages to her, begging every Delta agent to help us. We had already made plans to split up as a family with Hannah and me following the next day. However, Hannah made it with only seconds to spare and got on the plane. She was a sweaty mess, breathing hard and stressed out beyond imagining, but she was on the plane.
(Note to future self: take an Ambien when flying overseas. I slept the entire way, and have hardly a problem with jet lag.)
It took a small miracle to get a rental car, but in the end we hopped aboard the self-titled "Knight Bus". John and I split the drive up north. We stopped at a Tesco to buy groceries for what we thought would be the entire week. When we finally arrived at "Causeway Lodge", we were happy to lay down for short naps after almost 24 hours of traveling.And for the record, Baby is a CHAMP traveler.
I made chicken pasta casserole for dinner with peas, fruit salad and cheese bread.
And we started the HP tournament with three games of Wheel of Fortune.
Yes indeed, it's GRAND to be a Kennedy!
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