The Drawer

It took some coaxing believe it or not but I finally got Shay to play in the drawer. She'd rather play in the off limits areas but this is another tradition. Every new baby must play in my tupperware lid drawer! She humored me for a few minutes and then abandoned it.

It's always fun to spend time with the grandkids so I loved babysitting Shay for a little while so Ashley & Benjy could take Dane to the movies. The big boys were in Delta for the week.

Sisters Retreat

It's finally here! Sister's Retreat 2017. Nadine scored big this year for us. She traded tickets like nobody's business so we didn't have to pay for much of anything. The extravaganza began with a buddy pass for Beth and I on Southwest. I hadn't flown standby before so I wasn't sure how it worked. Nadine said get to the airport 2 hours before the flight. I was tentatively booked for the 5:45 am flight to we arrived at 4. The gate attendant didn't even arrive until 5 but it all worked out because I was first on the standby list. As you can see the first flight was pretty empty. I tried to catch some sleep. I went through Milwaukee with no problems and arrived in Orlando as planned.

We had our first complimentary dinner at Rocco's Tacos.

We got started with our thank you gift bag to Nadine. We even did our gift exchange. We brought out all our snacks and Nadine had made us Carol Freda Pearl Squares too. It was a glorious spread and we feasted for days.

 After we had our free breakfast in our free hotel we went to the Hilton for our beauty treatments at the Spa. Carolyn, Nadine and I got massages and Beth got a manicure. They had a cool eucalyptus steam room that we absolutely loved. After our treatments and steams etc we laid around in our robes for ages. We noticed no one else was there with us after awhile so we got permission to order lunch delivered by room service in the spa as well. It was pouring outside so we bagged the pool and just hung around the spa for a couple of hours and laughed and visited. We finally left and had to go get ready for our next complimentary meal. The Melting Pot!!

But first some how we managed to squeeze in a quick trip to Charming Charlie's at the mall before dinner. We needed accessories!

Fondue is now mandatory!

Off we went to Universal Studies the next day for Harry Potter! 

We put in lots of hours and had a ball.

 We had lunch there and it was entertaining just watching everyone around us because we were all so very well behaved. As usual.

Nadine had planned a surprise treat for us that night. A Hall & Oates concert at the Amway Center in a suite. It was amazing. There was free food there and everything. It was so fun.

 Tears for Fears was the warm up band and I might have even like them better. It was great fun. It was so loud we just texted each other so we could communicate while we mocked all those around us. Then Nadine took us on a fab tour of the place. We met some of her friends and tried not to embarrass her too bad. We got to go everywhere and it was so awesome.

Saturday we had our free breakfast and rushed to our facials at the Hand and Stone. It was fabulous. I could totally get used to this. We arrived late so we lost out on some time but we did the best we could. After that we showered and prepared for the event we had been dreaming about that day...High Tea at the Grand Floridian. Even though this was not free by any means and actually cost us a small fortune it was worth every dollar. I can't wait to do it all over again someday. (I want to take my girls)

It was so great. We teaed for a long time. We didn't feel rushed at all and just had so much fun. We were just giddy with excitement. Afterwards we walked around the hotel and shopped and just took it all in. It was glorious. That was our last big planned event of the retreat. We had to get up bright and early and be at the airport before the sun came up. If you have a couple of hours ask me about the trip home. I made it but it was touch and go for a minute lol

Father's Day Tradition

Well like everything else we do if we like it once it becomes an instant tradition. This one has lasted a few years now. Ashley & Benjy take us out to a buffet for Father's Day. This year we did it a couple of weeks early because we were all going to be gone. It was perfect because Christina was here. We think we will see her alot this summer.

 Grandpa might have found the way to Shayla's heart...food!

Happy Father's Day!

Memorial Day 2017

We headed up to the cemetery before it got too hot. Grandpa & Grandma Cooper came down and we met Rob, Charlie and Ashley's families up at the cemetery.

 Then the cleaning up of the graves commenced along with much story telling and general visiting.

It was a good morning followed by a great lunch at the Inside Scoop.

Day 6

For our last day we decided to cram in as much of the want to do list as possible. We Got up bright and early and started with the standby line for the Holocaust Museum. That took a couple of hours but we were able to get tickets!

 Next we headed next door to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. We had grabbed tickets early so it worked out perfectly.  It's really cool go watch them print money. We find it interesting. It's not a super long tour which helps too. Since we were in the neighborhood we went to the Holocaust Museum cafeteria for lunch. It was a good lunch but not cheap. Of course nothing in DC really is. Super convienient. We went from lunch right to our time for the museum.

 The Holocaust Museum took quite a few hours to see. There are always lots of people and students especially but it's still such a good exhibit. After we went through the museum we spent a few more hours at the Smithsonian. I think we managed to fit everything in that everyone was interested in seeing there. Well maybe that's impossible but we made a great dent in it. We decided to head to the GW store for the last hour before our dinner reservation. It was a great way to dodge the  rain too.

 After we got us and Jeff & Rachel some shirts we had a quick rest in the lounge before dinner. We had reservation at Founding Farmers for our last dinner together in DC. We were seated at a table with very little room for all of us and no backs to our chairs. Megan was a trooper and put up with it better than I did lol. It wasn't the best time we've ever had there but it was still fun. After dinner Rachel had scored us some free tickets to the Nationals baseball game if we wanted to go. Most of us were thrilled. It was misting and raining pretty good so it was a little concerning to see people pouring out of the stadium as we pulled up. We arrived rather late but because of the weather that was no problem.

 The seats were close enough to the cover that some of us ran for it but Rachel and Megan & Hayden stayed right out there and embraced it.

It wasn't pouring the whole time and it was easy to get into the game. It wasn't too long though before it was over. We ducked into the team store as fast as we could because we wanted to do a little souvenir shopping. Don't think the employees were too happy with us but we had some shopping to do! So really that was the end of our trip. The next day we headed to the airport and were on our way home before we knew it! We always hate leaving Jeff & Rachel but we know we will return.

And then before we knew it Hayden & Megan were on their way to Nebraska for another summer sales adventure. This time it was only 6 weeks.

 Somebody is having too much fun with the camera!

Day 1

Day 2

Day 5 The Capital and Monuments

Today we had a fabulous Capital tour from Jeff and Rachel's friend Terry. We toured from 8:30-10:30 and it went by super fast. Terry was a fun tour guide and pointed out lots of details and interesting things. I learn something new with every tour I take. We actually arrived early at about 8 so we huddled under the portico at the LOC until they opened to get out of the rain. After they opened we took the tunnel to the Capital and met Terry there.

 The tunnels are always like and adventure and this morning they were deserted.

 Loved the detail of the corn on the column. The Capital has lots of interesting details.

 The old Supreme Court.

 The corridors were often deserted during our behind the scenes tour.

 Our group picture.

 This time the rotunda was uncovered and the restoration had been completed. It was gorgeous.

After our tour Terry gave us some tickets to view the House. We waited in line to get in and just before it was our turn they recessed so we decided to call it quits and just viewed the empty room.

 After our tour we headed over to the Supreme Court to look around. They were seated at the time and just coming down with a judgment so we couldn't get up into the court for awhile. So we took that opportunity to have a snack in their cafeteria while we waited to get in. They finally finished and up we went to peek into the court room.

 I love the ceilings there.

 After we toured the Supreme court we went back across the street to walk around the outsider of the Capital. It was misty and beautiful.

As many times as we've been there we haven't really noticed the beautiful lamp posts.

We next went over to the Ford Theater and were lucky enough to get right in.

 Of course there was a line. But it wasn't as horrible as it appeared once we got in.

 

Since we were pretty close we headed down the street to the Mall and saw some interesting sights along the way.

 We spent the rest of our day touring the monuments at the mall. 

We toured the WW 2 monument which we love.

 We also went to the Vietnam Wall.

It's always so much more fun when we can show someone these wonderful monuments for the first time. We enjoyed taking Megan around to all of it.We also went to the Korea Memorial and that's where we met up with Rachel. We ordered an Uber to take us to Old Alexandria for dinner. That was kind of a disaster since we could see the driver trying to get over to the Lincoln Memorial where we were waiting and he couldn't make it work. Finally he cancelled and we started all over again but this time we got a black Cadillac Escalade full of all the trimmings. It was pretty fun riding in style. We headed to Gadsby's Pub and had a wonderful dinner together.

This time we had dessert there instead of walking for ever. But again we did log alot of steps today!!