Playtime with Friends an Family

Saturday morning I whipped up some Swiss cheese dip for Girl'sClub (a meeting of my friends in Sarasota), threw it on some ice and drove on down to the Red Barn Flea Market to look for a few things.  Gary needed some stakes and we were looking for a scissors jack to put under our front steps.  If we place a board under the bottom step, and the jack beneath that, they shouldn't squeak too much when we go in and out. We had great luck finding the stakes, but not too much for the jack.  Then I wanted to find a few books, and was partly lucky.

Off to see my friends, drink wine and eat yummy stuff.  The appetizer I made is very simple and really delicious!  Mix 1 1/2 cup of good mayo, 3 c. shredded swiss cheese, two small sweet onions chopped and 1 T. grainy mustard.  Bake at 350 for 30 minutes until golden brown on top.  Wait to eat as it is very hot.  Best with Wheat Thins or Triscuits, but any cracker will work.  Well, we ate almost all of that, and had some chile and home made pumpkin and chocolate loaf for dessert.  Gary picked me up and we drove our hour home.

Sunday was a playday.  We were invited to go to Universal Studios with our son-in-law and six grandchildren.  Oh, boy.  He picked us up in his Explorer Van, and the kids watched a video all the way there.  Here we are getting measured to see who could go on what rides. 

Doctor Seussland entertained the small fry and the bigger kids headed to the large rollercoasters.  Even I went on Woody Woodpecker's rollercoaster three times with Graham.  But perhaps I should have quit at two, because after the third ride, my pearl earring came off and feel below the tracks through a crack on the walkway.  If Gary hadn't have given them to me as an anniversary present, I wouldn't have stopped the whole ride for a few minutes while a tech climbed under the track.  A rider could see it and pointed it out to him, and I apologized for making everyone wait.  At least it was an entertaining wait as he received applause when he found it!

Harry Potter has come to Universal, and we were anxious to see what it was like.  Here is the school, Hogwarts,  exactly like in the movies: 

My favorite intense ride was the The Forbidden Journey.  Wow.  It was described to me as similar to Soarin' at EPCOT which is a simulator (an awesome ride) but this was much more.  Dragons blew fire and smoke, spiders spit at you, Deatheaters chilled you, and you moved around A LOT.  Whew!  I shut my eyes every two seconds, and, according to the girls, screamed like a 'little girl'.  I did, I did.  Can't wait to do it again!

Graham wanted to climb the castle walls:

But it was a long way up.

The bigger kids went on this:

Finally I got a picture of all five in one place: 

Charlie was celebrating his seventh birthday, and we stayed until the park closed at 7.  It was a calm ride home, and we slept really well.

Monday we did some chores and picked up our grandson, Lance, from school then brought him home.  Brian is looking after six kids while mom Michelle is in NY, so he has to depend on all the help he can!   A neighbor cooked dinner for us, so we got to play for a while, ate dinner, then headed home.

Tuesday we had PUVA at Moffit at 9:45, and that wasn't too bad.  On the way home we stopped at Publix for some groceries.  Thursday we will be having a little guest, Graham, for a week, so we will be shopping again to pick up what he likes to eat.  Maybe we'll introduce him to some new tastes, too!

We have had a beautiful January with only one cool evening.  Today it reached 83 degrees! Ya gotta love Florida!