Visiting the Elders - Naples FL

On Sunday (two weeks ago), we drove back from Destin, FL to Tampa. From there my parents drove down south to Naples to visit my Auntie Pat and Uncle Bill.

I thought I'd share some cute photos of their visit!

Bill, Jere, and Pat outside on the balcony.

Eating dinner!

On the beach drinking wine.
Love this photo!

A Halloween Wedding: Part II

I had a look at all of the other gazillion photos my mother and I have taken from the wedding and decided I needed to definitely share these.

Best picture by far. It speaks for itself.

Can you see the blue eyeshadow?

Our nether-regions.

The other fantastic group costume.

Matthew and Gina's first dance. Sweet.

And though dark, the whole new family:
Luke, Baby D., Jill, Toni, Matthew, Gina, Aunt Carol, and Uncle Sam

And that's that!

McGuires on a Stormy Day

So a couple of years ago for my cousin Carrie's wedding, my Mom and I were down in Seaside (scary scary shiver - it's where the Truman Show was taped) and drove over to Destin to find McGuire's Pub.

And then a couple years later (maybe three years ago?) I met Margie and Bob, maybe KC??, my folks, and Dru (she drove from Orlando with me to Pensacola) at the McGuire's in Pensacola. It was for our last Spring Break in Orange Beach. Sad.

Anyway, it's a tradition to go there when you're near.

So we went!

Mom and Dad

Del and Darin

So this place brewed it's own beer. And it was after noon, so wa-la. We had beer. Good beer. Beer of different types. Boo-berry beer (blueberry). Num.

And the restaurant's thing was to put dollar bills everywhere. On the ceilings. On the doors. On the walls. Everywhere. They have a crazy bar area too with very interesting stuff. Ahem.

And their other thing was the bathroom doors.

Sigh.

Well we ate, drank beer, had 19 cents bean soup, ate some good dessert. And watched it get stormy outside and rain. Or sprinkle. It wasn't too wet, but it was turning cold.

But the beer warmed us up.

A Beach Rehersal

Hopefully you gathered from my previous post that we were not going to be home on Halloween.

Instead we drove about 8 hours (with a time change) to Destin, FL to celebrate the marriage of my cousin Gina and her *new husband, Matthew! We were very excited to be able to attend because we could drive to it - nothing like driving compared to flying. Also, we were happy to be able to see my other cousins, Aunts and Uncles, and good family friends there as well.

And did I mention my parents? They flew down from Seattle to enjoy beautiful Gina and beautiful Florida! They were hoping to come down (migrate, if you will) for a while this winter because the Pacific Northwest's winters were some what undesirable. So why not hit two birds with one stone.

Or flamingos.

We got in Friday afternoon to a beautiful day and a happy Mother. (She will always be a sun-bird beach person. Can't figure out why they moved so far away...).

After seeing the rest of the family, we all went our separate ways to go to the Rehearsal dinner which was being held at Henderson Beach. It was quite beautiful, but very windy.

Water. Ocean. Gulf.

Mom, Dad, and I walking the beach at night.



Del and Darin

After everyone got there, we watched the caterer place the food out and all dived in. So good. Love bbq - and it was good bbq at that!

Those were cheese biscuits people. Cheese biscuits.
I had four. At least.

Then we carved pumpkins. Or at lease Darin and my Dad did. My mom and I were supporting everyone else and drinking beer. What can I say? I did help people get the guts out of the pumpkin though. I'm good at that.

Cousin Jill dumping away. She made a boat design!

Aunt Carol, Arlene, and Aunt Helen.

Dad (with a fake smile) and Darin.

Dad's pirate pumpkin. He was very proud.

Darin's pucker. Yak.

It was a very festive evening, though it got kind of chilly by the end of the night. The ocean breezes wrecked havoc with our hair. Won't say I'll forget this Halloween Eve.

A Halloween Wedding: Part I

Wedding night - Halloween.

In true tradition, we decided to dress up for Halloween. Dru and my Dad (I think) came up with a fantastic idea for a costume.

Cheerleaders.

I think in our minds, the guys would have worn short skirts and bloomers, but it was too expensive and too scary. Image my father in those. Or Darin even - and he's got some nice legs...

I even put blue eyeshadow and blush on everyone. We looked great!

The wedding took place on the beach across from the resort - easy easy! My cousins and family set up the place (while we took naps, oops) and did a fantastic job. Everything was beautiful!

The 'reception' area. The ceremony was in the back.

On the chairs!

My cousin Jill and baby D. walking up the aisle

Gorgeous sunset.

We were semi-worried that the weather was going to be just plain awful. It was cloudy and rainy all day long. And chilly (like 45 degrees people, this was cold for FL).

When we got there you could tell the sunset was going to make everything worthwhile.

So perfect. Beautiful. Warm. Magical.

More too come - Part II later.

Howl-o-ween

Darin and I will be in Destin, FL for Halloween as my cousin Gina is getting married.

Decided to show you Jake's costume early.

Janice and Tony are watching him for us. I'll let you know whether he is dressed up or not. (They have a new house and are unsure whether there will be kids coming...)

And he tends to not move much with his costume on. (It's because he's a bit chubby and is currently on a diet.)

So he might change into his puffy vest.

Let me introduce, Jacob Tiger - the Squirrel.

:)

Visiting Gators

One of my best friends, Kucku, moved up to Gainesville like over three months ago. And being the bad friend that I am, I haven't yet visited her.

I swear, every weekend we would try to get together, there would be a Florida football game. And I didn't want to deal with it. The traffic. The kids. Yak.

So we decided to get together when Darin was away at the Neuroscience Conference. In Chicago. Eating pizza and Portillos. Sigh. (In actuality, he doesn't eat this food. It's not good for him and he tends to get sick. Kind of funny because that's all I can think about while he's in Chicago - what food would I be eating?)

I'm all excited to being seeing her new apartment and where she works, etc. when she emails me that this particular weekend was Homecoming.

Super.

But I decided to go anyway. I mean, I don't know when I could have gotten up there for the next two months (you should see my calendar...). The plan was to get there on Saturday during the beginning of the game. And it worked out great.

Jake and I headed up and hit basically zero traffic. Hurray!

And then for some reason I took no pictures of her. Or myself. Or Jake. Oops. But I did get some random ones.

Beautiful fall.

But we had a great time. Went to this fantastic German pub in the main area of Gainesville and watched the game with like four other people. We were the first people in this place. Crazy. But we got to watch the game and drink really great beer.

Oh dear. Beer list.

Beer (Kucku's on top and mine on the bottom. My second that was...)

Right about the end of the game (Florida came back in the last minutes to win), we left the bar to make sure we didn't get stuck in traffic. Phew! It was a ball though and I can't wait to go back to ahh try more beer.

The next morning we (and everyone else) went out for a fabulous breakfast at this place called the 43rd Deli or something like that. Should have taken a picture... But we had a great great home cooked breakfast - she had a Greek omelet and I had a breakfast burrito. So good.

Afterward we drove around campus so I could see her building, her to be new building (they were almost finished with it), and all the sights. Pretty snazzy. Florida was a real college campus. UCF doesn't have the college campus feel. Just my opinion, but whatever. It was beautiful! And of course we drove up sorority row... and guess which two houses were right next to each other?

KD House

Tri Delta house

Hahaha. My mother was a Tridelt and I was a Kappa Delta! I didn't find the Alpha Phi house (my sister), but I did see the Delta Upsilon house right across the street from the stadium (my father's frat). We were Greek yo. And so was Darin - he was a TKE.

And that's the trip. Jake and I had to get back home (boo), so we said goodbye.

AND we'll be back. Scratch that. I'll be back for a girls weekend soon!