It's Chilly...

We made it, although the trip was long (which is another post entirely).  It is chilly here right now so we are  bundling up, but we are enjoying food and good company!!  Will post more later...

Two More Days

Only two more days left until a full week and fun and freedom!!!  That is less than one whole hand, or four fingers worth-woohoo!!  I am so excited that Spring Break is next week, can you tell?  Jamie and I are taking off for Chicago first thing Friday morning to visit our dear friend Aimee and her husband Marc and will be there until late Wednesday.  It should be so much fun, I have never been there- cannot wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

H2O Fun!!

Last weekend Jamie and I were able to spend the whole weekend outside- it was FABULOUS!!! We went canoeing on Saturday down the Rock Springs Run and then to Wekiwa Springs on Sunday (a cold water spring swimming area). The weather was beautiful and we had a blast!! On Sunday we were lucky enough to borrow a friend of Jamie's Camera and underwater housing, which allowed for us to take pictures (and video) underwater- so cool!! None of the photos are super great, blow-up and post on your wall but they are really fun! Jamie made a video today while I was editing some photos from a shoot on Saturday (if you want to see that check out my work blog).

Here is the video and if you want click here to see a slideshow of the pictures (if you are looking for something to do).  Happy Monday to you, the count down to Spring Break is on!!!!

Piper at the Mayflower

The Mayflower is a retirement community in Winter Park where Jamie's Great Aunt lives. We visit whenever we get the chance, which is not as often as we would like. However, she is a night owl, like us, so we can drop by at 10pm or sometimes later and it is not a problem. It is actually pretty funny when we go so late; we generally pass the night guard at the desk and there is no one in the halls.

Tonight, we took Piper with us to visit. The Mayflower allows for dogs to visit the residence, actually they encourage it. I felt kind of like we were sneaking in contraband, especially since it was so late when we went. But it was a great trip- Piper was good and it was nice to visit with Aunt Martha! We were able to walk there, it is about 3 miles round trip from the house, which added a mile to our usual nightly walk but it really didn't seem much longer at all. Piper was really well behaved while we were there, other than being really nosy. Aunt Martha has a roommate so the curtain that divided the room was drawn and Piper kept wanting to check out what was on the other side. So she kept poking her head under the curtain to check things out. It was a nice addition to our walk this evening, enjoy the pictures.

Think twice about going commando

I was reading another photography blog that I follow today and she posted a link to this article- it is a must see. A man skiing in Veil at the beginning of January had a mishap while riding the chair lift, which ended up in him going up the mountain- pants free.  Check out the link, especially the photos, it will really make you think twice about going commando.

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2009/0106091vail1.html

Happy Feet

Jamie took a few pictures while I was doing this CRAZY Penguin balance game on the Wii Fit tonight- they made me smile (even after I had woken up from a nap- very hard to do by the way).

Happy Monday/Tuesday to ya...

Guilty Pleasure

Yesterday on our way from the WP Farmers' Market to Hot Dog Heaven, for our usual Saturday lunch, Jamie and I passed an open house sign- but not just any old open house, a luxury home open house. I was sold (sorry for the bad pun) and told Jamie that we needed to go back after lunch. I will let you in on a little secret, I LOVE to go into open houses! I love to look at peoples houses, see where they have things and plainly just to see what they look like inside. If you don't already know, I am a people watcher. I love to watch people and try to "figure out" their lives/ stories. So maybe this unique fascination with homes has something to do with that, maybe it's just another way for me to get to know someone. I don't really know but either way I love it and I had so much fun.

Not only was there one luxury open house, but much to my delight today was a luxury home tour. Yup, there was a whole bunch of fancy houses on display- just open for me to walk through and gape at. It was great!!! We toured a total of 7 houses in Old Winter Park, Windsong, and Baldwin Park (all within a 10 minute drive from our home) I would have loved to tour the ones in Isleworth but you had to call for an appointment and that would have meant serious business, which I wasn't up for. They ranged in size from 6,000 sq feet to 4,800 sq feet and in price from 2.8 million to a meager 1.9 million- you know- definitely in our price range. Needless to say my favorite was not the most expensive; however it was the second most expensive coming in at a whopping 2.4 million. I say it was my favorite because of all of the really cool things that it had in it but there was only really one house that I could have seen myself calling home, the others were too lavish. The one that could have been called home was a traditional colonial style home, simple(in it's own way), clean, and classic- all things well, me.

Let's get back to the favorite home, because it is the one that I have pictures of. We spoke to, and got chummy with the lady that was showing it and to the VP of the building company (or some type of big wig, I cannot exactly remember) and after chatting for quite some time we asked if I could take some pictures of it. She said absolutely as long as I didn't publish them (shh- don't tell). Here are the highlights:

1st Highlight:

This is probably the coolest thing that Jamie or I had ever seen in a house. 2 out of the 4 walls in the family room folded back, they were sliding glass walls (sliding glass doors- if you are a normal person and live in a normal home), so that the family room essentially became part of the outside porch. Then the screened-in porch was somewhat removable. You were able to roll the screens up like a shade so your family room could be open completely or screened in. You had both options, it was very cool. You could have beautiful big windows, a family room that had no walls but a screen or a family room with 2 out of the 3 walls missing.

Half Family Room/ Half Porch

Roll Away Screened-in Porch

2nd Highlight:

The bathrooms were huge in all of the houses but this one had an outdoor shower. Not just some pool shower, but a private garden shower off of the master bath- one that could be used after swimming in the beautiful pool or used if you wanted to shower under the stars, sigh... AMAZING!!!

3rd Highlight:

Last but not least the closets in all of the houses were huge. But, just so you have an idea how big they were, our kitchen could have fit in this one and it had an island in it- so jealous, don't even have one in our kitchen! I am sure that the people who said i was okay to take the photos would be too impressed with the last photo but I just couldn't resist- this place was huge.

To give you some size perspective :)

The Outside- not really impressive looking in my opinion

Racquetball

Jamie loves to play racquetball and is quite competitive while he is playing, shocker I know! I don't know what side of the family he gets that from- hmm, Vickers. Two days ago I drove out to near his office (off of Kirkman) to see him and Mickey play and to take some pictures. I thought that it might be fun to watch them and to see if I could get some cool "action" shots. Well, as it turns out the lighting stinks there, actually that is an understatement; it was a mixture of florescent and mercury lighting, which makes you either green or purple in pictures- neither of which is all too flattering. Needless to say, I didn't get many good shots because of the lighting but it was fun. I even stood on the court while they were playing so I could get some shots that weren't through the glass. I only got hit by the ball 2 or 3 times, although Mickey told me that they would be careful and every time I did he laughed and laughed!

This is my favorite picture of the day, even though it is through the glass, with a reflection and bad lighting- it shows my hubby at his best, laughing and having a great time.

The Big 3-0!!

My bro and his lovely wife Frannie- how do you do it, girl?

My dear big brother turns the big 3-0 today.  I know, WOW, he's old!  Oddly, I am having a difficult time grasping the concept that he is 30; if he is 30 than it means I am getting pretty close to 30 too and I am not sure that I am ready for that (look out Jamie in a couple of years). 

I know what you may be thinking, "Are you sure you didn't mean 3? Not 30?"  As you can tell from the pics (a few that were taken in St. Augustine when we were celebrating my mom's 50th birthday) his speciality is silly not serious.  I must say that we drove each other CRAZY as children, he is 3 1/2 years older than I am, and he loved to torment me and I loved to tattle on him.  He would push all of my buttons, he had it down to an art, until I would scream (literally) and then we would both get in trouble.  The punishment: sitting on either end of the sofa until we apologized to each other.  Scott would say he was sorry immediately but I could wait for hours, partially because I don't think you should say it unless you mean it (and I didn't) but mostly because it drove him NUTS to sit still and I knew it.  We have grown up a little since then and have had many great and amusing memories, my life would be dull without him.  Scott is always good for a giggle and some comic relief.

I hope you have a wonderful birthday dear brother, enjoy your trip to Canada.  I have also changed my blog header in his honor, he is Irish through and through and well St. Paddy's day is almost better than Christmas for him.  So the count down to St. Paddy's day is on- Scott, I hope you don't get yourself into too much trouble this year.