Happy Easter! and Happy Birthday Elaine!

Happy Easter everyone! I woke up to a beautiful sunny day. Easter is such a hopeful holiday!

Today is Easter Sunday but it is also Elaine's birthday. Yesterday, Elaine got a very special birthday present:

WOW! A new VW Jetta!! Its very cool! Elaine drove us to dinner in her new car. It has a sunroof, leather interior, Bluetooth- the works! Here's Rob in the front seat:

And here's Nick and Elaine all dressed up for dinner and ready to take the new car out on the town. Aren't they a cute couple??Happy Bday Lainey!

Fun Weekend: A B-day and The Belgium Party!

We had such a fun and social weekend! On Friday we met some friends at the new location of "The Vig" for our friend Rob's birthday. The restaurant was really cool and we had a great time! Happy Birthday Rob!

Rob, me,and Rob! I obviously came straight from work.

Check out the awesome caramel brownie birthday dessert! It was delish!

That's Rob's sister Kristen and friend Max

There were some trivia cards on the table and we all tried to answer the questions. There were some interesting answers- which were a direct result of the celebratory beverages. :)

this is Brian reading a question- I kinda caught him by surprise!

Now onto Saturday night... First we met up with some cousins for a cocktail. We went to a really cool place called Hula's. Check out cousin Brain with the tiki glass.

Cousin Tammi bites! (But only when you make her mad) That's her drink!

Tammi's friend was nice enough to take this picture. For some reason, cousin Brian's head looks quite large and I look like I have square hair because of the building in the background!, and Rob looks like he was "photo-shopped" in later!

I love my cousins!

And Congratulations to P on the purchase of her new car!! Whoo-hoo!! Its really pretty!

So after Hula's, we hopped on over to Sarah and Eric's for "The 2nd Annual Belgium Party". This party is a tribute to all things Belgian! Check out the chocolate covered waffles:

Mmmm. AND there were delicious Frites served Belgian style with mayonnaise for dipping. (There was ketchup available for the less adventurous.) Check out Shawn and her plate of frites:

And, of course, we had to have something to drink! Here's Eric with a tasty Belgian Beer:

There was also some great music and great company. We ran into our old friends Janice and Charlie:

A little music:

That's Sarah and Rob towards the end of the evening! Sarah is enjoying some Belgian beer. (The hat is not Belgian. It got a little chilly at the end of the evening.)

Thanks to Sarah and Eric for having us! We look forward to the 3rd annual Belgium party!!!

Bahamas: Rose Island

We were able to take a little trip to an "out island", as they call it in the Bahamas, to Rose Island. An out island is one of the smaller, undeveloped islands. There are hundreds of them in the Bahamas. It was a short boat ride from Paradise Island. Our boat captain, Duran, gave us a fast and fun ride to the island:

We arrived at a small wooden dock that lead to some stone stairs. The stairs led us up and over the island to the beautiful beach on the other side:

It was so pretty and peaceful. No resorts, no people except our small group. Rob and I brought our snorkeling gear. The water was a tad chilly, but not bad for February. We saw some awesome fish and coral. The water was pretty shallow- maybe 12ft deep- and it remained shallow for quite a distance from the beach. You can see another small island in the distance:



After snorkeling we had some lunch. The crew brought coolers full of snacks and drinks and we ate on benches underneath this "patio".

I guess its a work in progress. We headed back to Atlantis shortly after lunch. On our way out I noticed this little house on the island. I asked Duran if anyone lived there and he said that the owner comes every weekend. What a life. You can't see it, but there's a satellite dish on the side of the house.

The ride back was fun! Duran really likes to go fast! We passed this cute colorful lighthouse. I don't know if you can see it in this picture- but its accent colors are pink, yellow and blue:

We made it back to the island and then....... Rob had to leave. That's right. He had to fly to Atlanta for some important business. (sniffle) I was a very sad. We were having such a great time! But this trip was technically work for him, so if he was needed elsewhere, he had to go. Did I go with him? Heck no! I chose 2 more nights in paradise! It was lonely without him, but I managed. :) Atlantis has a spa, shopping, and a beach. What more did I need?

Chihuly at Atlantis

In the casino at Atlantis there were some beautiful glass creations by the artist Chihuly. The first two are the Sun and the Moon:

This chandelier looked like luminescent sea shells:



And this sculpture looked like icicles:

Aren't they lovely? I wonder what it would cost to have him make me a sculpture for my house?

Bahamas Day 2

On Monday Rob and I woke up to overcast skies. But that didn't really stop us from enjoying our day together. We decided to explore the resort (and that alone could have taken up our whole day!). Atlantis has some truly awesome aquariums and lagoons. Here's Rob in the predator tunnel. (He looks so happy!)

Here is one of the many waterfalls. This one was right by the sea turtles and I love sea turtles!It started to sprinkle a little, but it was still very warm outside. We decided to make the best of the weather and try the Lazy River. We grabbed a tube for two and hit the 1.25 mile long journey.

After a few sections of "rapids", we decided to try the water slides. They were super fun! We were the oldest people on the slides by about 20 years, but we didn't care. I had to draw the line when Rob started shoving 8 year olds around to get to the front of the line! (just kidding- those kids were at least 10!) There's a reason kids love this stuff- because its really fun! I felt like such a dork shivering in line with the 8 year olds, but not dorky enough to get in the way of having fun. The first slide was on the inner tube, but the next one looked like this:

That one was so much fun, we decided to try the "mac-daddy" of them all. This next slide has a huge drop and then shoots you through a glass tube that runs through a shark tank. I screamed bloody murder the whole way.

See the sharks in the water?? After our fun afternoon we went back to our room to get ready for dinner. Dinner was 'work' for Rob, but I just ate and chatted with really nice flooring people! After dinner we walked around "The Dig", which is another aquarium, but it was built to look like the Lost City of Atlantis. Here's me with some colorful fish:

And I loved the jellyfish tank. They are so cool!:

After The Dig, I gambled $10 in the casino and won $27.50. Whoo- hoo! My winnings almost covered the drinks we had the night before! (but not quite)

The Bahamas!

That's right folks! Rob and I went to the Bahamas! Rob had a work thing and I somehow convinced him to let me tag along. Sunny got to stay with Cousin Paulie- Thanks P! We left early last Sunday and began our long journey to Nassau. 9 hours later (with the time change) we saw this out the airplane window:

Gorgeous from the air! (Rob was embarrassed that I took pictures on the plane.)We got off the plane in Nassau and rode a shuttle to Paradise Island. We stayed at a resort called Atlantis. http://www.atlantis.com/ Its probably the largest resort I've ever been to. I mean this place is downright HUGE. There are 6 different towers you can stay in. The resort pretty much takes up the entire island. We stayed in The Reef tower. We walked in and the lobby was really pretty. We got our room keys and took the elevator up, walked down the hallway to the room on the end. We stepped into our room and this was the view from our balcony:



OMG! It was so beautiful! The great part was we had a wrap around balcony that gave us a view of the entire resort- the beach, the Royal Towers, The Dolphin Cay, and the Lazy River. The Dolphin Cay is where you can pay to swim with Dolphins, so everyday we got to watch them frolic in the water.

The Royal Towers

The Dolphin Cay

After settling in we had an awesome dinner at Nobu. It was absolutely delicious. The black cod with miso glaze melted in my mouth. Mmmmm. Rob actually had a little cold Saki. That was enough alcohol to get him to take a picture with me in this chair after dinner:


Don't we look cute? We stopped and had a drink on our walk back to our room. Its a big resort and we got thirsty on the long journey back! We had 2 drinks- a martini and a rum and coke. With gratuity, our bill was $25. Atlantis is beautiful, but it is equally expensive!!!

I'll post more tomorrow about our Bahamian Adventure! Stay tuned!

Gates are up!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! I'd like to wish my parents a Happy 51st Anniversary!! That's right- 51! And thank you to my hubby for being my Valentine.

And Thank You to everyone who had warm wishes for Sunny. He is pretty much back to his old self, with the exception of some "cha-cha-cha's".

Remember the Christmas present I got from Nick? The Gate? Well, this week the gates went up on the new fence! They are not painted yet, but they look good:

I think we're going to paint them the same color as the fence.

We also had the fascia board on the house replaced in a few areas and its looks much better than before. The house looks clean and refreshed.

Rob is putting up new curtain rods and curtains today. Here's a sneak peak:

I'll post some pictures when its all done. I'm very lucky that my Valentine is handy around the house!