What I'll miss about DC

1) The Amish market: stuffed pretzels, blueberry fritters, cooper cheese, honey sticks, pumpkin rolls, apple cider...Amish market, I will never find another lover better than you. 

(I think Ben should be hired as an Amish market security guard.)

2) The monuments at night: I love my country all the time, but I for some reason it's easiest to remember why I love it when it's night and I'm on the Mall. 

3) Being closer to Iceland

4) Amsterdam Falafel: My mouth has not stopped salivating since I first ate you.

5) Rockcreek Park with its winding paths, fireflies, and secret beaches: You eased the pain just a little of being away from Oregon.  But just a little.  You tried your best and that's all I could ask.

6) The deer and bunnies that surround us daily: Thanks for making me feel like a Disney princess every time I stepped outside.

7) Baked and Wired: After searching far and wide, you were the victor of the best cupcake in DC.

8) The DC Temple Visitor's Center: truly rivals Salt Lake.

Image from Pixdaus

9) Access to a free racquetball court: Why did I not play in you more?  Why?

[No image: the regret is too painful]

10) to 100,000,000 billion) Living with this fantastic foursome: Will we ever be together again? Pretty sure nothing could stop us.

Packing

I don't necessarily enjoy packing.  But I enjoy the memories that come along with it.

For example, I found the ward directory magnets my friends and I stole at the end of our freshmen year.  We used to play card games with them, it was good times.

I also found the book my QTs made for me before I left Oregon.  I miss them so so much.

I also found years and years of hilarious family love.

One year, Maria and Morgan made a count down chain for one of my visits home, and on each chain they had written something they loved about me.  It was literally a chain of love.

One year for Christmas, Morgan wrote me a childrens' book called "The Foreign Dictator."  It's about my one true love, Bjorn from Iceland.  All of the words in the book that start with 'b' are spelled 'bj': bjeautiful, bjy, bjoring, etc.  It makes me cry every time I read it.

One year for my birthday, my family made me a multiple choice test called "All About Ashley."  They had each answered the same list of questions and then they had me match the answer to the person who said it.  Here is just a sample of a question with their responses:

What song reminds you of Ashley?

Dad - "I am Woman, Hear me Roar"

Mom - "Yo ho, yo ho, A Pirate's Life for Me"

Kim & Ben - "The Kitchies"

Lizzy - "Magic" by Selena Gomez

Big Morgan - "The Old Gray Mare (She Ain't What She Used to Be)"

Alison - "Her Name was Echo, She was a Wood Nymph"

Kelly - Anything from High School Musical

Robert - "Kindness Begins with Me"

Belle - "Old McDonald"

Sarah - "Only One" by James Taylor

Maria - "That's Amore"

Morgan - "Home on the Range"

I think that's very telling what my family thinks of me.

I also found boxes full of BYU Travel Office poems and newsletters, diagrams of familial relations from prison interviews, a Magna Carta of Love, the dictionary I once tried to read in entirety(it's last marked word is "arcadian"), drawings from nieces and nephews, a newspaper article entitled "Rampage at Four Corners," a purple accordion, a bag of cassette tapes...it was like a never-ending treasure trove.

I guess packing is not so bad when you find so many things that remind you who you are and the people you love.  There's a kind of wonder to it all.

Dream Come True

Today, my dream came true.  Literally.

Years ago, I had a beautiful dream that ham grew on trees, like apples.

I've craved a ham-apple at least twice a day since I had that dream.

And tonight, I got one.

Thank you Kelly, Adrienne, and Alex for a beautiful birthday celebration full of dreams come true!

HP: Because Alison demands it. (And because she deserves it.)

"Of course it's happening inside your head, Harry,  

but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?"

I know Harry Potter is not real.  But I know Harry Potter World is real.

And when you're walking up to the park through the gate, and steam is coming out of the Hogwarts Express, and you hear the train conductor ring his bell and call, "All aboard!  Last train to Hogwarts!"...that's when you start believing that anything could be real.

It wasn't until my sister, Maria, went to HPW that I actually wanted to go.  She took pictures of all the cool details they had there and not just of the roofs.  Everyone I had ever known that went to HPW would just come back with pictures of rooftops.  It didn't make sense, is that all they had there?

Then I saw the rooftops, and I understood.

They were...magical.

But then again, so was everything there.

The butterbeer...mm.mm.mm.mmmagical.

Just as good as the stuff we make at home (cream soda with butterscotch ice cream syrup).  In order to figure out what the stuff on top was made of, we drank two each (purely for scientific purposes, of course).

The details in this park are...magical.  Hermione's dress sits in the shop window...the sorting hat entertains you while you wait in line for the castle ride...all safety signs are from different departments in the Ministry...all pictures move...all bludgers and quaffles actually bludger and quaffle.

I wore a Gryffindor scarf all day and got quite the attention for it.

Train conductor:  "I see we have a Gryffindor with us today...an old school one judging by the look of that scarf."

Every other park worker: "Thank you for supporting Gryffindor today!"

Castle ride worker: "Hufflepuff is better."

Ironically, Kelly and I decided while we were there that I would be sorted into Hufflepuff if ever given the chance.  

I felt like a traitor all day.

I know I'm showing you a lot of roof pictures, but look at what happens when you try to take a picture of something other than a roof.

So you might as well just turn around and take a picture of the actual roof.

Here are some pictures we took of Kelly, making fun/trying to copy the coolness of other tourists that we saw doing the same things. (We had a lot of time on our hands at the end of the day, it was a small park.)

The performances were...magical.

And yes, we did stand in line to take a picture with them.  And yes, Kelly was embarrassed.

And yes, it was magical.

Kelly, however, gave the most magical performance of the day.

One of my favorite things was the wand demonstration at Ollivander's.  I can't really describe it, you just have to go see it in person, it was...magical.

They also sold wands in a cart on the street.

The wand master filled us in on the wand scoop.  The Harry Potter wand is the biggest seller.  Followed by Dumbledore's Elder Wand.  And coming up third...Voldemort.  What kind of person buys Voldemort's wand?

Personally, I'd get Hermione's, purely based on looks - it's so pretty.

Interesting fact (also told to us by the wand master): In the first two movies, everyones' wands look the like the wand that is now known as Draco Malfoy's wand.  It wasn't until the third movie that everyone got a wand that looked unique and are now the exact replicas sold at the park.

I wanted to get the Triwizard Tournament Cup so that I could use it while watching Harry Potter, sipping butterbeer out of one hand while having my wand at the ready in the other hand.

Kelly convinced me not to get it because it wouldn't hold liquid since it was, afterall, a toy that was battery-powered with blue light and not the actuall Triwizard Tournament Cup.

But just imagine how awesome that would have been.

We ate at the Three Broomsticks...got treats at Honeydukes...and everything tasted magical.

And when I say magical in this particular instance, I mean to say authentic somewhat weird British food.  

Guess what?  In the castle, Hermione says a spell to make it snow...and it really snows!  It's magical.

Even though the details were amazing, they weren't always accurate.  For example, this little guy was shrieking nonstop in a shop window, but anyone who hears his cry with their natural ears either feints or dies.  Everybody knows that, so this baby mandrake is obviously fake.

Around every corner there was one more magical thing that made me never want to leave.

Overall, it was a beautiful day spent in a magical place with beautiful rooftops.

All was well.