Wingardium Leviosa!

Sometime during December Eric asked me if I could take January 17th and 18th off.  I could.  That's all the info I got, that and that I shouldn't schedule a birthday outing for the Saturday before because we had an "early appointment" on Sunday.  About a week before said Sunday he started telling me the weather was looking good for my days off!  I knew we were going somewhere!  On Saturday he told me to pack for temperatures with highs in the 70s and lows in the 50s, that we'd be walking a lot, and that it might rain.


When we got to the airport I let him check us in.  I didn't look at my ticket when we went through security.  I tried to keep my ears plugged as they were making announcements.  During the last announcement I jumped the gun and unplugged them too early.  That's when I found out where we were going.  Where were we going, you ask?  To Orlando!


OK, so if you aren't a Disney fan and don't have kids, you're thinking ummm, OK.  What are we going to Orlando for?  Then something magical happened.  You remember the newest attraction in Orlando.  It's magical alright.  We were off to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter!!!  You know that commercial where the parents tell the kids they're going to Disney World that day?  That was me.  I was pretty excited.


When we got to Florida we spent some time shopping and took advantage of the sunny warmth and spent some time by the pool.  On Monday we spent a VERY rainy day at Wizarding World and went back for more on Tuesday.  What an awesome birthday present!

 Prepared for the rain.

Entering Hogsmeade on an authentically English weather type day!  Please respect the spell limits! 

 Outside Dumbledore's Office.

Frozen butterbeer is amazing. 

Ollivander's 

 I mean, I was already soaked.  Why not?

My hair after a day of being braided under a hood in the rain.

Butterbeer stach numero dos.  And Buckbeak and I. 

Eric and I at Hagrid's Hut. 

Mmmmm mmmm.  Butterbeer. 

I'm at Hogwarts! 

He is the Champion, my friends... 

Handstands at Hogwarts! 

Eric and I in front of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry1 

Ooops, the Weasly's car crashed. 

Hogsmeade Station.  Please note butterbeer number three. 

Handstand at Hogsmeade Station.

I Swear I'm Not a Pyro

Really, I'm not.  But I do love fire.  We even built a custom huge fire-pit out back this summer.


Last night we had our first indoor fire of the season.  When we moved in I got myself a nice cushy chair with a nice cushy ottoman and put it by the fireplace just to be warm and toasty (I'm also dying for a sheepskin rug so when it's really cold I can lay on it by the fire).

In honor of the first fire of the season I made the first indoor S'mores of the season.  I may have mentioned my love of S'mores in the past.  Last night's were Reese's peanut butter cup and dark chocolate.  I let the S'mores sit for a while with the toasted marshmallows on top and the chocolate got all warm and melty.

Note to self:  Keep graham crackers, marshmallows and various types of chocolate stocked through the winter.


Photos taken with my new Droid X.

Sunday Fall-Funday

We spent yet another lovely fall day up in Maryland at Summers Farm.  It took us a ridiculously long time to get up there.  We got stuck in traffic, we needed a food stop and then we started talking about fresh eggs.  Turns out Meaghan's family up in Frederick has 19 chickens.  That means 19 fresh eggs every day.  That's a lot of eggs.  So of course we had to make an organic, farm fresh egg stop.

Summers Farm has a ton of fun to offer at the low, low entry price of $10.  We didn't take advantage of everything they had to offer, but we did partake in the straw slides, the extra large jumping pillow, the apple cannon and the corn maze.  Oh, and the apple cider donuts of course.  On the jumping pillow we may have been the only adults without children.

Apologies on some of the pictures.  The camera accidentally got switched to ISO 3200.

Eric, Meaghan, Lauren and I the supersized Summers Farm Rocking Chair

 

 

 The slide was actually pretty fast.

 The ginormous jumping pillow!

 

 

This leaning tower of height measurer is way off.  Meaghan is at least 6'1".

 Enter "The Long Maze"

 Handstands are always in order

 Peekaboo

 ____ Be no evil.

Apple Cannon.  Eric hit the target on his second try.  I did not.

Moving to the Country, Gonna Pick Me a A Lotta Apples

OK, so I'm not moving to the country.  But sometimes fall makes me want to.  I can't tell you the number of times we've gone out to the country this fall to do fun fall-y stuff.  A while back we went up to Homestead Farms in Maryland for our yearly apple picking trip.  it was an absolutely beautiful day.  We were late this season so we only had Cameos, Braeburns and Pink Ladies to choose from, but I still came home with 34 pounds of apples.

Homestead farms also has a petting zoo which I still love, even though I'm.... too old to enjoy a petting farm that much.  But, OMG!  Baby farm animals!  *Squeal*!  This year they had baby pigs with wagging tails (awww).  They had heirloom chickens, goats, a baby cow.

After a brunch with my ladies in the morning, gorging on testing apples in the orchard, a delicious, buttery caramel apple to snack on and a late lunch at Chee Burger Chee Burger, Eric and I both thought we might die.  We spent the rest of the night sacked out on the couch.

 

 

 

 

 

Deep Creek Weekend

A few years ago some friends and I went to Deep Creek Lake for the weekend.  It was May, but it was still cold.  We had a good time.

We finally did it again this year.  Except we did it in Fall.  Such a better idea.  the colors were beautiful.

We got there Friday, bought much more food than eight people need for a weekend, got our fishing licenses (and I got a pink fishing rod!), played cards.  Had a grand old time.  JT and Eric put together a definite fall type meal of meatloaf and mac and cheese.  JT also brought three homemade pies.  I was warned many times that samples of all three had better be left in the evening when some other friends arrived.  I somehow held off and we had samplings of homemade apple cheddar pie, apple caremel pie and blueberry pear pie for dessert.

Saturday was a really fun day, but a really full day.  We started with scrambled eggs and bacon thanks to Eric after early morning fishing off the dock.  We went on a freezing cold boat ride and got stranded in the middle of the lake when the engine died.  Went fishing in the boat and had sandwhiches we brought along.  I read (of course).  We went to the Haunted Mansion at Wisp where I basically lost my voice due to screaming.  We came back to the cabin to a Top Chef Quick Challenge dinner of pasta, sausage and salad started by Eric and finished by Rachel and Marti.  Eric and Bryan built a campfire.  I taught everyone the essentials of S'mores making.  We made S'mores.  Whew!  I'm exhausted just typing what we did.

More pie for breakfast Sunday morning.  We were sad to go but we decided to make the Deep Creek Lake weekend yet another yearly event.

View from the cabins wrap around porch.

 

 Kota wishing she was playing in the leaves.

 We put glow sticks on the dogs so we could see them when they went outside at night.

 Dexter.  Always sweet and charming.

 At the table.

Dahlia playing cards.

Fishing off our dock. 

JT has crazy fishing zen.  He is the fishing master. 

 Rach taking pictures.

 Me breaking in my pretty pink fishing rod.

 As much of an action shot as you can get in fishing.

 Our sweet ride....that broke down in the middle of the lake.

 Boatin' crew

 Dahlia rode with me.

 Dex rode with Eric.

 Our fearless captain.

Our crew says goodbye to Deep Creek.  For this year.