Oh the places we go...

So as promised I’m posting some pictures from the busy lives we’ve been living lately.

My trip to Ft. Myers with Milly, Gilly and Bud was wonderful. The weather was picture perfect (in the 80’s every day and sunny) and we kept ourselves busy sight seeing, shopping and going to the beaches. Perfection! We also had the pleasure of getting down to Everglades City and taking an air boat ride. For those of you who don’t know what that is, it’s a boat w/ a big fan on the back of it which propels it and skims it over the water. Because of this the water does not have to be deep for the boat and it can even go over mud as long as it is wet. There were times we were in water that was just a few inches deep. This boat can fly! And we zoomed through the everglades and even got to do some 360’s! It was a blast. Unfortunately the only alligator we got to see was a little stuffed dead one (the season was dry and the water turned too salty so they swam out and away), but we did get to see a swamp raccoon. And yes, they look almost exactly like the Midwest raccoons. But it was still neat b/c our captain fed it right out of his hands and it grabbed the “People” crackers from him w/ her little paws. Very cute! Here are some of the highlights of the trip. I definitely think we should make this an annual vacation! :)
Bud, Milly and Gilly ready to watch the sunset

They have some great sunsets in Florida

Our air boat ride!

The captain manuevered us through these narrow passageways

The friendly little swamp raccoon we saw

I got to pretend to be captain! Aye matey!

Milly got to steer it for real!

They are everywhere! This was in a drainage on the side of the highway.

Gilly and Bo enjoy the Seafood Festival that we just happened to get to go to in Everglades City

Our next trip was up to Bessemer, MI (the U.P.) We had a group of 14 join us this year. Smaller than normal, but no less fun! This group wasn’t afraid of drinking hard, partying, UFC, unicycling (haha), handstands (haha, again), snow tossing and staying up late. Well, late as in 1:30 am. But when you start drinking before noon, that IS late! A lot of people skied and snowboarded and sledded. I did not. Do I regret that? Not in the least. I stayed warm, drank early and stayed out of the blizzard that the afternoon turned into! The 2nd night up there it turned freaking ridiculous on us and the wind-chill was around 20 below! Our walk home from the Booby Hatch (which is only 2 blocks!) was HORRID! My thighs froze by the time we walked back into the Abbey! I never knew my thighs could freeze, but yes, in fact, they can! There were so many good moments captured on film, I’ll try to get the best ones on here. Definitely good times! And I got to try my first pickled egg. Did I like it, you ask? Well, I'll let the pictures tell the story. :)
Travis was the pimp for the weekend (and he pretty much didn't change out of this the whole time!
The group playing tippy cup

I told you there were handstands... and they weren't very good!

I decided I would test out the "fire escape", I need to lift weights, I'm a wimp.
Thank God John helped me or I would have fallen on my ass! :)
Ahh... the Booby Hatch, what a GREAT place!
And I told you there was unicycling!
And UFC, I won. :)
I love Kara's face in this one. Priceless.
My 1st pickled egg... And my last pickled egg. Freakin nasty.
And now it's time for the "Toss Wade in the Snow" game... he wasn't being cooperative.
But we eventually got him, and bonus, we got Travis too! :)

And finally, E’s 2nd Bachelorette Bash! This one unfortunately didn’t turn out all that much better than the first. Although this time when she got sick it WAS due to the alcohol. We never made it out of Gretchen’s apartment, but we still managed to have a good time and take care of poor E. She knows how to drink them down, unfortunately couldn’t keep them down though! We’ll do a 3rd times the charm party for her in Mexico, which is in exactly one week! Yippeeeee!!!! I can’t wait! I’ve been a shopaholic lately finding all these cute tee’s and tanks for the trip. I’ve spent way over my budget for clothing this month. Oops. I guess I will just make it up next month and not buy anything. It’s so hard to say no though when you see something cute that is on sale and you just KNOW it will be perfect for Mexico! Si, me gusta mucho! Vamos a Mexico!

The first try, Jana filled in as our bride so we could still get in free everywhere even though we lost E. :(
Yay, E came back out!

Sisters, so happy together! :)

Seriously, minutes before we lost her the 2nd time!

We decided to continue the party anyway. E would have wanted us to... :)

So there is my full length update. I hope you are all happy now! This weekend we have friends coming to visit us! Bartels, Drew and maybe Tanya, assuming she is feeling better. I can’t wait. We never get people to visit us, we always have to visit them! So this will be great! We plan on skiing one day. We’ll see how that goes…

Until next time… Cheerio my peeps!