balls, gelati, and eola

i woke up saturday morning and headed straight over to my grandpa's house for a family gathering. it was nice seeing everyone but wish it was under better circumstances. there's a lot going on and it's better kept private. i spent half the day over there until coming home and preparing a lovely spinach dip for later that afternoon. dustin made his mom's famous meatballs (secret ingredient - grape jelly!). so damn good.

we all four sat around eating balls and spinach dip while enjoying a viewing of 'closer'. pat hadn't seen it and it was sam's pick of movies. it's definitely a good one. we moved straight from 'closer' to 'super 8'. that movie is so mint! plus it was filmed in the small town dustin grew up in so he gave everyone a tour as we watched. we saw the church his cousin got married in and the cemetery his grandmother is buried in. kind of bizarre but still pretty neat - even if it was the third time i had seen it.

we stopped by target on our way to get dessert.
the boys pumped some iron. i rode a bike. sam bought some blank CDs. no big deal.

we finally made it to get gelati (italian ice AND soft serve ice cream SWIRLED together). i got the strawberry lemon italian ice with vanilla ice cream. heaven! dustin got java italian ice and vanilla ice cream - i might just have to copy him next time. that shit was delish! we enjoyed it on the busy street corner and watched the people, met a puppy, and watched a car pull over because a giant piece of plastic had clung to it. kind of funny.

then we headed to lake eola. dustin's been by it plenty of times but i'm fairly certain he's never actually walked around the lake which was why he was kind of apprehensive about it. he thought we would be attacked or homeless people would bother us. he didn't realize there was a cool show the fountain put on in the center of the lake, or the swans, or that there was a restaurant connected, or that it was very well lit and there was security. once all that stuff sunk in he loosened up and actually enjoyed himself. we even went and played on the playground. they have some cool stuff - way cooler than when we were kids. but who says you have to still be a kid to enjoy it? you most certainly do not.