Happy Birthday Dad!!!

Sorry I'm a day late Vinny, had to get back to school to my computer to get to my file of pix.  But there is no excuse for your number #1 son not calling yesterday.  He remembered as we were headed to bed and of course, in Florida time, you guys were fast asleep.  Hope your day was wonderful, and that you, Bette and Rocco are doing well.  With much love, your favorite :)  Deb 

Florida Honeymoon - Part III

So even though the weather was wet, the kids still wanted to try one more day at the beach...

but as you can see it was pretty overcast.

And then it started to rain, then pour, then lightening and thunder.  A full-on crazy storm.  It was so bad we couldn't even get to our car.  So we sat it out for about an hour under an awning we found.

Jim embraced the storm and let himself get completely drenched.  He's so much fun, ya just never know what he's gonna do next.

When we got back to Bette and Vinny's, the weather let up so after dinner we climbed aboard The Sposa's golf cart and played a couple of holes...

with Bette and pup Rocco cheering us on.  Rocco's favorite part about golfing is riding in the cart and picking up balls along the way.

But then it started to rain again, big huge drops.

Dani, Bette, Rocco and me stayed in the cart, cuz you know us girls don't like to get our hair wet, but Zach and Jim just kept on playing, and boy oh boy, did they have a ball!

After 5 days it was time for Zach and Dan to fly back home early, Zach had to be at work the next day.  And man oh man, was it hard for me to let them fly by themselves.  Of course they were excited but I was a nervous wreak.  I watched them walk down that corridor and Dani got stopped by security and they did one of those full body searches on her.  I was freaking out but she was fine with it.  They flew out of Fort Lauderdale in one of the worse thunder storms that we had seen all week.  But they had no trouble and arrived at L.A.X. on time.

Jim and I had 3 more days to ourselves so of course what do we do, I drag him all over the state trying to find fiber shops.  My favorite was the one above called Great Balls of Yarn in a town above Hobe Sound called Stewart.  And he dragged me to every thrift store in the state cuz that's his thing.  We actually found a couple of pretty cool things to bring home.

But the best part of the trip was getting to relax and spend time with Bette and Vinny.

And to play and feed Rocco his favorite treat...

ice cream!

Thank you Bette and Vinny for another wonderful time in your lovely home, for all the delicious foods you treated us to, and for being so generous with my children and treating them like your own grand babies.  We miss you so much already and can't wait to get back there next year. 

We Love You so much!

The flight home was a beautiful site because we flew into the setting sun, and then when we got home we had the most gorgeous skyline on our hill.

Florida Honeymoon - Part II

Because of all the thunderstorms we had to find other things to do besides beach stuff.  So we went on line to find other amusements we could visit.  Zach found Lion Country Safari about an hour from where we were staying.  We were able to stay in our car and get very close to the animals which was way cool.

It was the hottest part of the day so many of the animals were relaxing and not moving around too much.  I'm going to try my best to identify the animals from the brochure they gave us.  The park was divided into separate sections cuz some of the animals don't mix well with each other.  In the Ruaha National Park we saw the Greater Kudu, an antelope.  These babies above don't have their horns yet, and below we have the big daddy watching over his charges. 

In the Serengeti Plains we saw a grouping of Ostrich, and in the Kalahari Bushveldt, the Gensbok below. This guy was missing one of his horns.

I loved this shot of the Wildebeest  (or he might have been a Water Buffalo) with his bird buddy on his back.  We also saw quite a few camels. 

The Impalas above were so graceful, and below the Wildebeest below had such beautiful markings on their sides.

Loved the striped horns on the Waterblicks, and their behinds made for a great shot!

The Southern White Rhino was impressive, but the Zebras where our favorites.

They were right next to our car, and so playful...

as were the Chimpanzee's in the Hwange National Park.

And our ride ended with the elegant giraffes.  The whole car sight seeing tour took about an hour and a half, and was a great way to spend our day, inside the air-conditioning of our rental car. 

Our Florida Honeymoon - Part 1

Even though Jim and I were married on April 27th, we didn't get to go on our honeymoon till I was out of school.  Hobe Sound, Florida was our destination to celebrate our marriage with our children and Jim's dad and stepmother.  We wanted all our children with us, but Jim's two couldn't get away.  So off we flew with my two to meet their new grandparents, Bette and Vinny. 

Zach conked out immediately, Dani stopped napping when she was 18 months old.

Jimmy can fall asleep anytime, anywhere...

and I vacillate between the two with my crochet hook in hand, but not getting much done.

We arrived in Fort Lauderdale, rented our car and drove as the sun was setting, an hour and a half north to Hobe Sound.

The next day it was off to the beach.  Vinny and Bette live in a beautiful resort community less than a mile from the beach and Jupiter Island.  It was one of our only days of sun.  The weather most of the rest of the week was thunderstorms.

Because of the rainy weather, Day 2 we drove to West Palm Beach and walked Worth Avenue, it's like Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, very expensive shopping.  We just walked and peeked in the windows.

We found an amazing courtyard amongst the shops along with a sculpture garden, and glorious orchids growing in the tree limbs.

 

Jim also drove us by Donald Trump's Mar-A-Lago home.  Above is the back side where he docks his boat.  The grounds are huge with several out buildings along with the main house.

The next day off we went to a Botanical Garden right outside Palm Beach.  We were able to see so many different kinds of vegetation.  It was right up mine and Zach's alley, so many tropical flowers in bloom, except it was hotter than all get out, in the 90's with almost 100% humidity.

What was so cool were all the butterflies around us.  They weren't scared so we were able to take their pix.

There were several ponds with blooming waterlilies...

stag horn ferns growing from trees, and lots of wild mushrooms.

Here Jim and Dan are looking as if they might wilt and melt away, it's soooo hot!

The trees are really cool in Florida, sending down roots from above, then attaching themselves to the main tree trunk

.

And then of course here is my silly new husband getting his arm stuck in one of the tree truck openings.  We had so much fun as you can see, stay tuned for part two tomorrow.