Weekend Jeep Ride....

Kev and I took a leisurely ride up in the woods to spot Elk on Sunday. I think we need more practice spotting, all we spotted were two chipmunks! It was a very relaxing ride with some beautiful country. Had a picnic up on the mountain with a great view of the valley.

I think we need more practice taking our own pics! LOL

Virginia Girls Trip....

Stomping grapes at Bush Gardens
Bush Gardens

Kelly's Birthday Surprise

"What are you doing here?" That was the first words out of Kelly's mouth! After my trip to NYC, I hopped a plane to Norfolk, VA and meet up with My sister-in-law, Lisa, friends, Connie and Gail. We headed to Chesapeake, VA to surprise Kelly on her 45th birthday. With the help of Thom, Kelly's wonderful husband, and family, we arrived on Friday mid morning at Kelly's house to walk in the front door to tell her Happy Birthday! She was truly surprised and after the initial shock started crying and of course we all started crying.

We spent a great week kidnapping her and going up to Williamsburg. Boy we had a lot of laughs.

Went shopping at a great outlet mall, hit the water at the Water Country and then went to Bush Gardens.

Water Country was very refreshing. It had some awesome tube rides, even the black DARK tubes!

Some of our dismounts were hilarious and I was sure glad no one was videoing us! Especially my several attempts at getting on the double tube in the lazy river, lets just say it would have ended with an "X" rating! Not good! I thought Danielle was going to keel over from laughing at me so hard!

What a great group of girlfriends. They are side splitting funny!

But best of all I got to see my Kelly Ann (and of course her family!) Boy I sure miss that women! Many late night talks that I loved. She makes a great bed partner!

With Thom's insistent, I think we are now going to make it an annual girls trip! I am so excited knowing that we will all get together (somewhere warm was the census from the girls) yearly.

It is truly special to have such a wonderful friend that you can spend time apart from then get together and just pick right back up where we left off. Kelly Ann, I am so blessed to have you for a friend. Thank You! and Love You!

NYC trip....

The Lady and I
My BFF, Sister from another Mother, and always the hand! Lunch at Rockefeller Center

6th Ave. Street Fair

Central Park

Central Park

Central Park~ pretty sure I could sell this pic to a jigsaw co.

Central Park

Once again my bestest friend, Vicky, and I got to spend a wonderful week together. I headed over to NYC on Aug. 20th for a week of adventures.

We started off my trip with a good gab session at the lounge of the hotel until 2 a.m. Yes we closed the bar down! On my first full day, we had a great breakfast then off to Central Park. What a magnificently beautiful park and a city treasure. I just could not get over the hills in the park. For some reason, I had it in my head that Central Park was set on flat ground. To my amazement the park has rolling hills and exposed rock all throughout the park. We sat for some really good people watching. (some pretty interesting people watching~NYC has it all!)

We woke to some rain showers the rest of the week but that did not detour my sightseeing.

We took in the King Tut exhibit at the Discovery. A very interesting exhibit. I have always had a fascination with the tombs and the items that were put inside them to get the kings to the afterlife.

We took the dreaded double decker tourist bus for some very interesting sites of the city.

Went on the ferry from Battery Park out to The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. We didn't get to go up inside The Lady but did some strolling around the grounds. She has some mighty big sandals! Very impressive. Ellis Island was probably one of my favorite places. It was just amazing.

And our night going to The Top Of The Rock at Rockefeller Center was truly amazing. What a beautiful city at night with all the lights. The cab lights were flickering off the skyscrapers like Christmas lights. It was a beautiful night.

We took in two Broadway Plays, The Lion King and Wicked. How magnificent! Just breathtaking at times. The imagination and hard work to preform these plays shows from the moment you enter the theater. I just keep thinking how lucky I was to have seen both plays.

And of course, we did some shopping and lots of good eating. Found some great restaurants and had some very memorable meals.

But I would have to say the best part of my NYC trip was the tour guide, Victoria Marie! Just to spend time together I cherish. I would go all the way over to the east coast again to just sit in our spot at the Marriott lounge over looking Time Square. And yes we have dubbed it "Our Spot", some how we ended up there everyday just chatting away. There is nothing in the world like a girlfriend you can tell anything to and just feel the love back.

I am sooo looking forward next year's trip where every that takes us!