Rain, rain, go away.
We were able to salvage a little bit of the day and spend some time outside. Thankfully.
We are in the Poconos to visit with some old family friends. My mom met her best friend, Susan, in middle school and they have remained close all of their lives. When us kids were growing up, we had annual trips with the “G” family, including long weekends in their mountain house in the Poconos (they live in Jersey normally). Susan and her husband, Vinny, have two kids that are right around the same age as my brothers and me, so we made perfect playmates (when we weren’t all fighting).
As we all got into high school and college, the visits to see each other became more and more infrequent until we weren’t doing them at all. Last year, Susan and my mom decided that we needed to start getting together again. And so the Poconos trips started up again. We had so much fun together last August that we are now aiming to do this every year. So this year was our second annual gathering. :)
We woke up pretty early and spent much of the morning lounging around the house. Finally, we decided that we had to get out for a bit, and the rain had let up enough so that we could.
My brother, Trevor, on his ATV.
Tessa, enjoying her time off of her leash. She doesn’t get to do that at home. She loved it.
Doug (Susan’s son) and Michael down by the lake. The lake is on the G family’s property. You can also see their two standard poodles in this photo, Indy and Sashi. Tessa, too.
The fountain in the middle of the lake.
My other brother, Tyler, on his ATV.
Michael and me (and Tess)
Doug went out in the paddle boat to try to fish in the middle of the lake. Apparently, Indy and Sashi always HAVE to go with him. If he leaves them on the shore, they bark, whine, and cry the entire time he is out there. One of them will actually try to follow him out there, get scared, and then they have to get in the water to rescue her. Ha! Obviously easy to just give in and bring them to begin with.
Michael in the G family’s gazebo next to their lake.
Pretty view of the lake and some of their property.
More property. We took a short hike through some of the trails with the dogs.
We spent some more time around the house, just hanging out and talking together. My brothers, their girlfriends, and Michael took a trip to the grocery store to pick up some more beer and a few things for dinner. We all watched a movie (Shooter), and then we started making a delicious dinner. Susan had some frozen stuffed shells, and we also made additional pasta with meat sauce. I put together some fabulous garlic bread, and we also had salad. Yum. And then Susan busted out an apple crisp that was pretty damn good as well.
Vinny and Nina (Susan and Vinny’s daughter) arrived just in time for the majority of us to sit down and watch the presidential debate with a couple bottles of wine. :)
All in all, a good day, even though the weather has been less than cooperative.
We are on our way to the pocono mountains with my family for a long weekend with some old family friends. Just took a pit stop for frosties. :)
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Last night, we worked on learning and practicing five new flowers. We were again working with royal icing. She also asked us to keep saving our flowers so that we can use them all to decorate our cakes in our final class next week. I’m excited to see how it’s all going to come together.
Daisies
Victorian roses
Pansies, daffodils, and primroses
Close-up of pansy
Close-up of a primrose (Blogger turned it sideways for some reason, but you get the idea)
Daffodil
Final cake next week! We will be working with buttercream again to learn basketweave and rope borders. We’re going to decorate the cakes with all of the royal icing flowers we have already made, and then fill in with buttercream leaves.
I’ve had fun, but I’m ready to be done with this class. Back in the summer, when we didn’t have anything else going on, taking the Wilton course was no problem. Now that I am back into the swing of things with fall, am taking aerobics classes two nights a week, etc. it is just way too much to handle.
McCain suspends campaign, wants to postpone debate.
Now I’ve heard it all.
Believe me, I am concerned about the economy, and think that our politicians should be, too.
I want solutions–both short-term and long-term–just as much as anyone.
But holy hell, this election is important. Really important.
I understand McCain’s reasons for calling for the postponement, but I still don’t think it’s smart. I can understand cutting down on the traveling and spending more time in Washington, but the debate? We need this debate. We need all of the debates.
I think it’s pretty obvious that McCain “suspending” his campaign is just another campaign tactic. He’s not really suspending anything at all. Just trying to make himself look more concerned about the economy than Obama, and apparently trying to weasel his way out of actually having to discuss the issues in a debate.
Yes, the economic crisis is a big deal. Yes, something needs to be done about it. But we are talking about an election that will determine the fate of our country for the NEXT FOUR YEARS (at the very least). This is a big deal, too.
So suck it up, McCain. You can do your job as senator by dealing with the economy, and go to the debate. Figure it out. If you’re as prepared to lead this country as you say you are, you should be able to multitask.
Ugh. I really hope they debate.
On Friday, I received a Facebook message from our friend, Jason. It said that he and a few other friends were planning a trip to Vegas to celebrate his 30th birthday in February. The message was inviting us to come along… inviting EVERYONE to come along.
When Michael and I sat down at the dinner table on Friday night, I brought up the subject. A short time later, we had already decided that yes, we would indeed join everybody in Vegas.
On our honeymoon, we vowed to travel more while we can. We decided that spending the money to travel is worth it, and we should take advantage of the opportunities to travel before kids. We already have a trip booked to Charlotte to visit friends next month, and we’re in the very early stages of planning an anniversary trip to Seattle/San Francisco next summer. So, Vegas… we figured, why the hell not?
So, on Sunday, after we checked with my brother and his fiancee to make sure they’d be able and willing to take care of Tessa for a long weekend, we went ahead and booked our flights. Yeahhh, Vegas!
Now we’re collectively trying to decide where to stay. One of our friends had been working with a travel agent and they suggested New York New York, but we are also looking into Treasure Island since it seems to have a better location on the strip. Another option is possibly a condo rental, and of course we are open to other suggestions at this point. Budget is definitely a factor (nobody wants to spend a lot of money on a room we’re not going to spend a lot of time in), but we also want it to be nice. No nasty Vegas hotel rooms for us. So we’ll see what happens.
In the meantime, we are definitely booked for Vegas in February! The way it works out, we’ll actually be there for Michael’s birthday, so it’ll be extra fun and special for us, too. Can’t wait!
About
I'm Heather. I'm 33 and have been married to Michael for seven years. Together, we have two beautiful little girls we love more than anything, and a miniature dachshund who drives us crazy. I'm a full-time working mom who has very little time for my own "stuff" these days, like home improvement, cooking/baking, cake decorating, and photography. Despite the team not making the playoffs since 1999, I'm STILL a Buffalo Bills fan, which I think speaks to my loyalty AND sense of humor. I can't wait to pick up the pace with travel again some day... you know, when we're done being ruled by tiny fists. Welcome to my blog.
