Theme Park

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What you missed

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Or should I say what I missed.

I’ve been gone over a year and a lot has happened in that time! Where do I start?

Chronologically I suppose. So I started my own business. Quit my job to focus on my business. Got new flooring throughout the house.

Went to universal (again, see my first trip here).

We lost one of our fur babies, The Little made it to the ripe old age of 18.

We then got a new addition to the family, another little black terror named Sabbath. He was only 8weeks old in this picture and already about the size of Little when she was fully grown

I got a new job (still in the beauty industry). Hurricane Irma ran off with our roof so that got replaced. I closed up shop on my business after a year (no one ever tells you working from home means there’s no such thing as time off). Oh and I chopped off all my hair and decided to dye it funky colors… cause when you turn 30 you stop caring what people think

And in between all that I managed to repaint or redo my office, the library, the dining room, and the master bath! So I haven’t really been idol I’ve just neglected posting anything about it. So let’s see if I can get this started back up!!!

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Harty Porter

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As promised in the last blog you get to see some travel adventures. There is a funny little back story to this blog. Several of our friends have recently moved away to finish grad school  and we were trying to figure out how to go see all of them scattered across the country. I suggested instead we all vacation together and go to the Wizarding World of  Harry Potter, which of course auto corrected to Harty Porter. At that point we decided it was destiny. 


Somehow we managed in a matter of just a few months to make real the Harty Porter trip of 2016. This involved coordinating the vacations of  7 adults with all of their adult lives and responsibilities, along with one teen and one child. I am astounded we pulled it off and so glad we did.  

We are absolutely exhausted from 26miles worth of running around theme parks but it was a great way to spend the anniversary of my mother in laws death. She was a big fan of Harry Potter and it gave us an excuse to be with friends. 

I’m not huge on taking pictures when I go places simply because I tend to be to busy making memories but here are a few. The universal parks have never interested me before but they have outdone themselves with Harry Potter. Their attention to detail is absolutely amazing. 


Knockturn alley was one of my favorite spots. It gave us a respite from the 116 degree heat index and had some cool interactive spots, as well as Borgan and Burkes which was probably the best shop in the park. 

There was also a super interesting little tattoo parlor in knockturn. I’ll post the Live Photos on the Tiny Bows Facebook so you can see the animation.

Escape from Gringotts  was by far the best theme park ride I’ve ever ridden. It’s a hybrid roller coaster so it is on rails and has dips and turns like a typical coaster, but the cart is also on a gimble which allows it to move around when the ride is stationary during a cinematic moment. Add to that excellent 3D as well as heat and water effects and it’s absolutely amazing.



Oh and of course we all went to olivanders and we all got wands



I didn’t just go to Harry Potter. There were other parts we enjoyed. And once again universal’s detail was amazing. 

Oh and I was reunited with a childhood friend. I lost my chilly willy stuffed animal when I was 5 and nothing could replace him. Until now. It only took 25 years.
I’ve mentioned that their attention to detail at universal is amazing but they also have amazing quality souviners and we will be redecorating the library thanks to their inspiration. So look outfit that. 

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Zombie Clowns

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Mr. Smith and I have been on a little mini hiatus for the last few days. I had hoped to get a post up before leaving for said break from the real world but I wasn’t really sure what to write about. 

  
At first I was reluctant to pick up blogging and my hobbies again. To be fair I was reluctant to do anything. I couldn’t even eat. Now I’m finding I relish the little things; in particular the hobbies that bring me and especially others joy. So of course I’ll be doing a blog about how my hobbies are helping me through everything. I guess every blog I do is about a hobby or project, I just have a new love for them. 

  
But of course now I have a mini vacation to blog about . For Mr. Smith’s birthday  we spent some time with his aunt and her family down in Florida. As I’ve said my family has been amazingly helpful with getting through this so I’m incredibly grateful Mr. Smith has some family relatively close by.

  
They live in an area that I’m quite familiar with because my grandparents used to live there. We had the opportunity to go to Legoland one day… 

This is going to sound like an

  
Type of thing, but I actually went to Legoland before it was Legoland. On a side note I had been to Legoland once it was Legoland as well, I was just excited to see how Mr. Smith would like it since this was his first trip. 

  
Legoland is built around a place called Cyprus Gardens which I had been to several times in my youth and your admission to the park includes admission to the old gardens. Don’t get me wrong Legoland is cool, (more about it later) but if you don’t bother going to Cyprus Gardens while you’re there you are missing out. 

  
Mr. Smith didn’t really bother taking any pictures in Legoland but his eyes lit up and the camera snapped away when we got to the gardens as you can probably tell by all of these pictures.  If you’ve never seen a Banyan tree it is an amazing sight to behold.  Of course he had to have a creepy tree in this post. 

  
Legoland itself was toy heaven, secretly (or perhaps not so secretly) neither of us have matured in the last 20 years so we are still stuck in the 8-14 age bracket that Legos cater to… our vacation budget was spent accordingly. And that’s pretty much all we did was shop. The weather was terrible thanks to this time of year so a good amount of the rides were closed anyway. I’m extremely happy I wore my bathing suit under my clothes because I never dried out.

  
(Han definitely shot first) 
Our haul from Legoland however was epic…. Oh I mean Awesome!

  
I’m personally of the master builder disposition whereas Mr. Smith tends to follow directions. He has plans involving Kra-Gl but I’ve got a piece of resistance around here to stop him.