Catching Up

I realize I am behind on my posts, but I will catch up. I should be able to get everything caught up in the next few days. Plus, I finally learned that collage trick so I can post more pics at once. We'll see how I do. Hope you are all doing well as summer comes to a close.

Birthday Weekend

OK, for my birthday, Doug wanted to send me away somewhere (to Jamaica actually), but I couldn't find anyone who could go with me. So I changed my plans and was able to get 3 of my friends to go to Amelia Island (just north of Jacksonville) with me. We rented a condo at Amelia Island Plantation and all left kids and husbands behind. It was a fun weekend of laughing, going to the pool and beach, reading books, and watching chick flicks. It was nice for all of us to actually relax at the beach and pool...no kids to watch or tug on us to go do something (not that we all don't love that too).

Here is a pic of the condo from the front door. It had a great couch and sectional that we could all lounge on while we read or watched tv or a movie. It actually backed up to a golf course which made it super quiet. I don't think we actually saw anyone on the course while we were there, but there were several courses people could play.

This is a picture of a frog..one of those tree frog types I think. Somehow it had snuck in and we had to try and catch it. It was the funniest thing ever watching us try and move furniture and catch this frog before it jumped on us or into one of our bags. We finally caught him after chasing him out from behind a credenza and was able to take him back outside where he belonged. We also had a lizard in the condo one day and a palmetto bug. the area all around the condo was trees and stuff so I guess we shouldn't have been surprised.

Lisa, Lori, Emily and Kellie outside Plae

Getting ready to eat dinner...yum!

The girls as we headed out for my birthday dinner. Most of us had gotten too much sun that day while we were relaxing. We didn't plan out outfits, but it made us laugh as we took pictures...this was our reverse oreo design. We went to a neat little restaurant in the shopping area at Amelia Island Plantation called Plae - People Laughing and Eating. The food was good and we laughed tons. Then we ran an errand or two before heading to the Ritz Carlton Hotel for dessert. I decided I wanted a souffle for dessert so we headed there. Lisa and Kellie and never had one and Emily and I kept saying how great they were. We sat in the lounge area of the nice restaurant at the Ritz (called Salt) and ordered our souffles. We had already warned Lisa and Kellie that it would take awhile and the server confirmed that (20 minutes) when she took the order. We're not sure what happened, but it took like an hour. At least they did taste great. Plus, when it came time for our bill, they said they were taken care of. We were all surprised since we hadn't complained or anything, but who is going to turn down free desserts. On our way back toward the entrance of the hotel, we stopped by their game room. This was no arcade like you find in most hotels... it is the Ritz after all. No, this place had x-boxes with games (at least 4 of them), a wii, board games, a small movie theater with cushy seats, a fuse ball table and an air hockey table. I think we saw a sign that said it was for kids under 19, but we didn't care. There weren't any kids in there at the moment (there might have been some watching the movie but they were behind a curtain) so we decided to play. Kelli and I played some Guitar Hero while Lisa and Emily played air hockey and wii bowling. We were all laughing so hard!! Finally someone came by and said that it was time to go.

On my actual birthday (Sunday), the girls had gotten some kind of lemon cake since it was my favorite. Since we didn't have any candles, we decorated the cake with the rest of our peanut m&m's. the cake was yummy and very unexpected! It's great to have such wonderful friends!!

There were so many cool big trees around the property that we decided we had to climb some. So, before we headed home, we did just that. This tree was outside the pool/beach club where we spent Friday. We all thought of our kids and how much fun they would have with those trees!

We also went up to the north end of Amelia Island different times to the town of Fernandina Beach to walk around and go shopping (we took pictures of each of us with a "pirate" but I don't have those. All in all it was a wonderful weekend with friends. It was the best way to spend a 40th birthday!

Thanks friends for celebrating with me!! It was awesome!!

Central FL Zoo

Riley's pics from the zoo

We were invited to go to the zoo with some friends. We've never been to the Central FL Zoo and had heard it was small, but decided to give it a try. The girls had fun walking around. I even let Riley bring a camera so she could take pictures on her own while I took pics with mine. We met Pam, Ben and Jonah there and soon after Kellie, Aubree, Lacie and Peyton joined us. We had fun walking around and checking out the animals. We saw elephants, giant tortoises, kangaroos, tigers, monkeys, an owl, and more. It was small, but the kids didn't seem to care. Afterwards, the kids got to play in a splash park that was there. My girls rode a little train that was out front and they saw a ropes course they want to go back and try. It was a fun day (or morning) with friends!!

Lori's zoo pics