A lot has happened in 10 days!

Wow, a lot can happen in 10 days! Since my last post I met up with my bestest girlfriends and celebrated the birthday of our wonderful friend Debs (along with some of her family). Her birthday get-together never seems to go well and this year wasn't any different. :-) We planned on going to the Wine & Cheese Gallery...when we've gone before they've started serving in the restaurant at 11:00am. Their website says that they open at 11:00 and the sign on their door says 11:00am but when we got there they told us that they didn't open the restaurant until noon. Ugh. Whatever, we weren't going to wait there for an hour so we went to another restaurant that was pretty close. There we had a great lunch and time to sit and chat. After lunch was over her parents and grandmother left and we went over to a little coffee/tea place and had some delicious dessert. Instead of coffee or tea, though, we had some drinking chocolates...they were soooo yummy!

Then on the 22nd it was Ryan's birthday!! His birthday was also Take Your Daughter to Work Day so Libby got to go to work with him and she learned how to be a banker. :-) She had a lot of fun at work with him. Thursday night we had sushi (Ryan's favorite), cake and ice cream, and then it was time for the birthday boy to open his presents. :-) He got exactly what he wanted (he always does!).

Today Ryan, Libby, and I met his parents for lunch to celebrate Ryan and his mom's birthdays. His mom's birthday is April 17 and Ryan is the 22nd so we always do a combination birthday get together for the two of them. After lunch and the exchanging of gifts we stopped at PetSmart to look for a seat belt for Denali for when he's in the car because he's way too big to sit in our laps anymore. He needs to sit in his own seat with his own seatbelt. We walked in there and ended up walking out with this:

Our newest addition to our growing family. :-) Bella is an adorable 8 week old labrador mix puppy. She is so stinking cute. She's so sweet and so laid back (hopefully she stays that way!!). We adopted her and got her a pink collar with rhinestones and a pink leash (and had them put pink bows on her ears) :-) and we were on our way home. We were wondering what Denali would think of her and how he'd react because he's been the center of everyone's attention since he came home the last weekend of January. He loved her right away! They started giving each other kisses right away. They became instant best friends!! Whew! He even once helped us in starting to train her...she started nibbling on the carpet (which Denali learned his lesson about!!!) and he walked over and literally gave her a tap on the nose with his paw!!!! If Denali starts walking somewhere she gets up and waddles (hee hee, Karen, that just made me think of you!!) :-) after him. If she gets up and starts wandering off Denali jumps up and runs after her to see what she is getting in to. He's been playing very well with her and he's even sharing his bones and toys with her! He's a great big brother (and she's a seriously cute little sister!!) :-) Ok, two puppies, two cats, and one fish...we are DONE! :-)

Spring Break in Ft. Lauderdale

Friday morning Libby and I headed down to Ft. Lauderdale to spend the end of Libby's Spring Break with her Godmother. We took our time getting down there (which is necessary since Libby gets carsick) and we got there around 2:00pm Friday afternoon. We went with Cindy and her fiance David down to walk on the beach in Hollywood. They have some bikes that you can rent and we rented a four person bike (actually you can fit more than that on there but there are four pedals on the bike.

It looked fun but boy was it a work out! The bike was rented for 30 minutes but we took it back after 15. As soon as we stepped off the bike we realized that our legs were like noodles! That was one heck of a workout for our legs! While there we hate at a Turkish restaurant down on the beach. Libby was very adventurous...she ordered chicken nuggets and macaroni and cheese. Shocker! :-) After dinner we went to an ice cream shop to get dessert.

Saturday morning we woke up and walked down to the canal by Cindy's house hoping to see manatee but they weren't out...we were a little too late to see them. We went home and Libby and Cindy made breakfast.

After we ate we went to a place called Flamingo Gardens. They have all sorts of birds there that you can feed. It was advertised to me and Libby like it was something Libby would love to do...but really I think it was for David's benefit...he loves going there and I really think he could spend all day there! :-) It was a great place and we enjoyed it very much. Libby was pretty hesitant to let the birds eat right out of her hand but she did enjoy "bowling" the food pellets over to the birds. :-) I took lots of pictures...a few of them included Libby and Cindy but most of the pictures were of birds and flowers. :-)

Saturday afternoon we wanted to go for tea..drove 25 minutes to the tea room that Cindy found only to find they were no longer there. Eek! We were famished so we stopped at the next restaurant that we saw which was Sweet Tomatoes. Libby was terrified going in there because she's "allergic" to tomatoes (just like I'm allergic to water and break out in hives any time I have to injest that poision) :-) but we quickly explained to her that it was regular food - not just tomatoes!! :-)

Saturday evening we headed over to "Granny Marge's" house (Cindy's mom). When Libby and I go down to visit Cindy the family always goes over on Saturday night and we have a barbecue either at Cindy's or at her mom's. Cindy's older brother and his family couldn't make it Saturday night but her younger brother and his wife came over and we had a great time chatting, eating, and sitting outside enjoying the beauiful weather.

Sunday morning we slept in a little bit and then got up and had breakfast and then Cindy and I started going through the Sunday sale ads - which is our favorite activity to do together! :-) We headed out for a quick shopping trip because it was noon and we were heading back over to her mom's house for lunch and to see her older brother, his wife, and their two sons since we didn't get to see them the night before. While we were there a bad storm came through that made me easily decide that we needed to push back our departure time. The rain was beating down and the winds were really whipping around. We ate lunch and then headed back to Cindy's to get our stuff and luckily it was a lull in the rain so we got all packed up and headed back home. We had some pretty bad rain for about two hours (at one point we were driving 30mph on the Turnpike!) but once we got past all the rain bands we were able to get back on track and we got home a little after 7:00. It was a wonderful weekend...it was just entirely too short!

While we were at Flamingo Gardens on Saturday we were over at the flamingo feeding area and there was a snack hut and Cindy bought two hot dogs. Libby was eating half of one and after a few bites she asked, "What is this made of?!? Is this what happens to those flamingos when they die???" How funny. :-)

The more I look at my post from yesterday the more I miss this cute little bunny! THIS is a cute Easter bunny and it just proves even more that what we got this year was drunk Uncle Larry.

Happy Easter!!

I know, I know...this looks like Peter Cottontail's crazy drunk Uncle Larry but hey, that's what we had at our mall. :-(

We've had some wonderful weekends recently! Last weekend Ryan and I went on Saturday to Cedar Key and had lunch and walked out on the pier. I saw an old couple taking a picture of the gentleman on the pier and then they switched spots and he was taking a picture of the lady so I went over to them and asked if I could take a picture of them together. They were very grateful - but Ryan was so embarrassed! He just doesn't get that people actually appreciate having someone offer to take a picture for them so that they can both be in the picture. He begged me not to go offer to take their picture but I did it anyway and made them quite happy. After we left Cedar Key we stopped at a diner place and had a decadent chocolate/chocolate chip milkshake and then we came home. It was a wonderful day with my adorable husband!

This weekend we went to his parent's condo in Indian Harbour Beach which is just south of Cocoa Beach. The weather was BEAUTIFUL and we had a great time. There is a shuttle launch in the morning at 6:21am and we REALLY wanted to stay for it but I really have to be at work at 8:00am in the morning and that just wouldn't happen if I stayed for the shuttle launch.
:-( Even without a shuttle launch it was another wonderful weekend!

Next weekend Miss Libs and I are heading on another road trip and we are heading down to Ft. Lauderdale to spend the weekend with Libby's godmother and my very good friend Cindy. We are very excited to get to spend some time with her!! It will be a quick trip :-( but we always have a fabulous time visiting with her!