Alicia and Jacob Roop

 Alicia Steele and Jacob Roop are now Mr and Mrs Roop.  They had a beautiful wedding at the Faith United Methodist Church.  Diane did a wonderful job with the ceremony.  Alicia made a beautiful bride.  If I had to have a negative comment it was they looked no darn young!

The reception was at the ag grounds.  I have been to several receptions there and never  never did it look as nice as it did that night.   The decorations were awesome.  Don't know who all helped but they did a wonderful job.  The food was really delicious some of the best I've had at a reception.                            

This is the wedding party.

Cutting the cake.  They had really cute grooms cake.  I guess Jacob is into farming.   Don't they look happy?

Alicia and Kathy.  They both looked so beautiful!  It was fun to see former co-workers. Have a long and blessed life Mr & Mrs Roop!

Thanksgiving 2011

Thanksgiving 2011 is in the books.  We had a good time, good food and fun shopping.  Katlin, with a little help from Kyann, made place cards for us.  They traced every ones hand and colored in  the feathers.  If you click on Katlin's (in red at the left of the picture) you can see she went the extra mile.  Actually this is for you Donnie.  It says at the top  "Wish I was a turkey in a tree"  with a picture of a tree. 

Here we are just starting to eat.  Man that looks good.  Wish I had some now. 

How many Thanksgivings can you be outside and enjoy it in Iowa?  We played games out side to work off some of the lunch.  Dan and Kyann are playing in the sandbox while Katlin and I took on Shane and Cindy in a bean bag toss.

I think Katlin and I won this match.  We had a good time.

Ahhhh Black Friday.  3:15 A.M.  We got some good buys but didn't think the adds were as good as some years.  This was the first year in a long time I didn't have to wear my cuddle duds.  Even Cindy shed her coat a few times. 

Here we are standing in line a Menards at 6:47 A.M..  I was really the only place we had to stand in line but you really don't mind because they have it down to a science.  No line butters here.  Katlin is a really good shopper.  She gets in there and dodges and weaves and gets what she wants. Including a bruise on her hip!  We stopped at IHOP for breakfast and then finished up and was home by 9:30.  Cindy and Katlin took Kyann out in the afternoon  I took a nap.

Cookie Exchange 2011

 Today was the Umpteenth Annual Cookie Exchange and Domino Tournament.  Penny hosted this year and we all had a really good time.   There were ten of us.  I started out at the head table but quickly was relegated to the low table.   We started the morning with juice, coffee, yummy muffins and fruit salad.  After a hard couple of hours playing we broke for lunch. We had corn salad (which everyone said was really good but it had peppers so I didn't participate) A yummy slaw, hash brown casserole, and spicy chicken sandwiches.  For dessert we had banana carmel truffle.  Everything was really good.  Ate way too much but can skip supper.  Katlin was taking some pictures and this one is a self portrait.  Can you tell?   I had to take a picture of her hair feather.  It was new.

Katlin had taken a picture and caught Mary picking her nose (not really just looked like it) so when I took a picture of the head table they gave her some support by picking too.

We had some really good cookies.  Man don't you just want to reach in a grab one?

This is the other end of the table.  Yum yum.

Dropped Katlin off so she could ride for a while.  This is Belle her new horse. 

Fun day!  Good food!  Good company!  Let's do it again next year!

On Fire for Fall

Had to share this beautiful picture of my Glory Maple tree.  It just looked like it was on fire.  Now there are no leafs left on it. 

Flordia Vacation Final Day

No pictures today just story.  We had to have the rental car back to Fort Lauderdale airport by 12 on Friday or pay for another day.  We didn't know exactly how long it would take so we got up early and packed everything up and loaded it in the car then went to breakfast at 7.  We ate pretty quickly and headed out.  It was Connie's turn to drive.  I programed Becky and off we went.  It took us 30 minutes to get out of  Orlando and on the Florida Turnpike.  Our plan was to get off the toll road as soon as we could.  About half way by the map but there wasn't nearly as much traffic and was only a 2 lane road vs. 5 lane so we took it all the way.  There had been an accident closer to Fort Lauderdale and that slowed us down some.  Becky was a god send getting to the car return.  She took us right there.  We arrived at 11:30 not much time to spare.  We got our boarding passes and checked our luggage and  got through security and went to find some lunch.  We ate a some sandwich place.  There were not a lot of choices but the food was good and filling.  We then went to our gate and sat down the arrival and departure board said our plane was coming in at a different place than our tickets said so I finally went up and asked and sure enough we needed to change gates.    No problems it was close.  We had an uneventful trip to St. Paul/ Minneapolis until after we landed then the pilot announced that the co pilot had been serving in the Middle East and that was his first commercial landing in 2 1/2 years.  He did a good job but I'm glad they waited until after to tell us.   Again we had a long hike to make the connection.  We had an hour but stopped to get some supper and it took longer than  we thought.  So again two old fat ladies were running through the airport to make our connection.  We actually had plenty of time after we got there but you never know.  Carol was picking us up at the airport and the plan was to stay at her house and come home Saturday morning but we were both ready to get home to our own beds.  So after Carol picked us up we came on home.  No problems and I really did sleep good in my own bed.   Neither of us are ready to travel again any time soon but we had a good time in spite of everything!

Flordia Vacation Day 7 Sea World

Wednesday night when were were coming home from Epcot there was a message on the car to check the tire pressure.  That it was low.  Well we were not about to do anything then.  We were tired and just glad to be back to the hotel.  We asked at breakfast were a gas station was that would check our tires and the waitress said there was a Walmart not too far away and they would do it.  So we programed Becky and set off to find Walmart.  This was the only time Becky let us down.  She took us to a mobile home park.  I don't know if there used to be a Walmart there or if she just wasn't awake yet but we stopped at a gas station and got a little gas and asked there.  It was only a couple of miles further down the road so we went and they put air in all the tires for nothing.  He was very nice.   We gave Becky another chance  and programed her for Sea World and this time she didn't let us down.  We got there shortly after 9.

This picture really had nothing to do with any thing but thought it was a cool picture. 

We had learned our lesson at Epcot so we made reservations for lunch on the way in.  Got a schedule and headed off.  We were going to try to see all the shows we could.  We stopped by Discovery Cove on our way to the dolphin show.  You could pet a dolphin but we didn't.  We went and got our seats for the show and it was fantastic. 

Besides the dolphins they had acrobats, high divers birds.  It was just wonderful what they could make the animals do. 

The costumes and scenery were pretty amazing too. As you can see it was a little overcast with a nice breeze.  Perfect weather for me.

We enjoyed this show a lot and it would be hard to beat.

We decided to do the Penguin Encounter before heading to the next show.  It was neat but they had a moving sidewalk and  unless you could run in place (which I can't) you couldn't spend much time there.   The penguins were cute though.

This is a Puffin and they were pretty cute too.

The next show we went to was Clyde and Seamore take Pirate Island.  It was with seals and a walrus.  This guy came out before the show started and he was hilarious!  We would mimic people behind them.  They had no idea he was there and the audience would laugh and they had no idea why.   He would show  people to their seats only take them clear out of the arena.  He even got on a scooter with and old lady and gave her a ride.  He was better than the show.                                                                                                     

Look at the size of that walrus! 

Then we were on to the big show.  Shamu!  No one actually got in the water with the whales but they did have them out on this platform.  This was the smallest and they just kept getting bigger. 

This is Shamu.  He or she ( not sure on that) was the biggest whale. Connie and I chose not to sit in the splash zone but let me tell you those who did got WET!  15 rows of them. 

After that show we went to our lunch reservations.  We only waited a few minutes.  We ate at the Sharks Underwater Grill.  Again very limited menu but the food was really good.  And to sit that close to the fish was unbelievable.  Sharks swam by all the time. 

After lunch we went the shark encounter.  They had lots of really cool fish like this one. 

Then you went through an underwater tunnel. (again with the moving sidewalk).  But it was really neat.

Big sharks, sting rays all kind of fish all around you.  It was cool!

Our last show of the day was Pets Ahoy.  It was funny.  They used rescued animals and trained them for the show.  They had dogs, cats, (how do you train a cat?), ducks, a pig, a rat.  It was a neat show.   One of the funnies things was a hot dog cart on stage and at one point the door opened and out came 4 little wiener dogs. 

This was the end of the show when they brought a lot of the animals out on stage together.   The park closed at 6 but we left a little before that.  Too old for two long days.   This was probably my second favorite thing on vacation                                    

Flordia Vacation Day 6 Epcot

We were ready and waiting for the time share presentation.  They picked us up at 10:15 along with an older couple.  The wife said the husband had dementia and the wife could barely walk even with at cane.  The driver of the mini van scared me the whole ride.  He talked on his cell phone the whole time and changed lanes on a whim.  But to his credit he got us there in one piece and on time.  We got out and went to the  door and it was closed.  .  We found out the place was closed for the day so the driver took us back to the welcome center and we went to talk to the people.  The other couple was leaving early Thursday morning and they thought we were too so they couldn't schedule us for another presentation.  Yea!  God is good.  We high tailed it out of there and were on our way to Epcot in minutes.   Our hotel (thanks to the upgrade) was only 1 mile from Epcot so it didn't take us long to get there.  Had to have pictures of the famous silver ball.

A Donald and Daisy topiary greeted us as we came in.

 We started our world tour in Mexico and it was pretty cool. 

We took a ride with the three Amigos and enjoyed the music and sites of Mexico.

After Mexico we went through Norway and come to China.  It was pretty cool.  They had a 360 film that I couldn't watch all of it.   Kind of made me sea sick again.  but what I saw was pretty cool.

The had a model of the Terra Cotta soldiers that was neat to see.  I took a picture with my phone and sent it to Dan.  He texted back and wanted to know what it was.  When I told him he texted back and said he thought it was Connie and I and gotten a sunburn!  LOL

Next on to Germany.  This is a clock where the women chases the man with a pan or rolling pin.  Can't remember which.  We stopped here and had a little sausage on a pretzel roll with mustard.  It was good but the roll was a little dry.  We also split a apple strudel.  Which was yummy!

This is the Trevi fountain in Italy I think.  It doesn't look like the one I remember seeing in Rome.  But I believe that is what it is suppose to be. 

We watched this mime for quite a long time.  He was very funny and involved the audience. 

 This was pretty cool.  They had a drum and fife corps.  They played the anthem of all the branches of the armed forces.  Here they are reenacting the famous pose during WWII.  Then we went inside to listen of an Capella group (the Liberty Singers) sing and then on to watch a  .... I'm not sure what to call it.  I was going to say film but they had mannequins in true Disney style that did some soliloquy's.  I didn't realize they were mannequins until the horse came out.   Very interesting and made me very proud to be an American.  I couldn't help but wonder what the people of other nationality's thought of it.  It talked about all the wars and it wasn't always flattering about the foreign countries.    But I enjoyed it quite a lot.

Next we went through Japan to Morocco where we watched the group  called Mo'Rockin.  The belly dancer was really good.  and thin.

After Morocco we went to France.  We had a yummy crepe.  Mine was chocolate and I think Connie's was apple.  We went from France to the United Kingdom.  This is a replica of Anne Hathaway's house (William Shakespeare's wife)  It does look like the real thing. 

Some people we met at the Mo'Rockin show told us about some guys from Canada who did a really good show.  They are called Off Kilter and played in Kilts as you can see and played a bag pipe.  They  played really good rock and roll.  You can't believe that a bag pipe would make rock sound so cool!

After we finished our whirl wind world tour (say that fast three times) we went to see if we could find Nemo.  As you can see we did find him.     We boarded our very own Clammobile and toured the seas.  It was a cute ride and gave us a change to sit for a while.  The bad part was the little clams never stopped and I am not very good a hopping on a moving ride.  How ever we made it fine.                              

 We were going to eat with Nemo at the Coral Reef restaurant but no one told us we needed to make reservations early in the day and it was a 45 minute wait.  We decided to start walking back and see what we could find that was close.  Mexico turned out to be our nearest neighbor  and the wait wasn't very long so we decided to eat there.  We really didn't have to wait long but the menu was pretty limited and most every dish had peppers (yuck).  I finally decided on chicken with a mole sauce and I now know I don't like mole sauce.  It was a very expensive lesson.  They bought you chips and salsa like they do here but the salsa burned my mouth so didn't eat that.  I made Connie come with me at the hotel and eat their food after we got back. 

Originally we had planned to stay until the park closed to see the fireworks but after 8 hours of mostly walking we were very tired and after a ride around the park on the monorail we headed for the parking lot and home.   We were only 1 mile from the hotel so didn't pull Becky out but some how we got going the wrong way on the highway.  Connie was driving and it was getting dark.  We finally got turned around and started back the right way and we drove and drove and nothing looked familiar  so I told Connie to pull into this gas station and I would program Becky and she would get us home.  When I did she said to go 2tenths of a mile and turn right.  We were half a block away but couldn't see the hotel.  Glad to be back and after I had supper we turned in and got a good nights sleep for our last full day in Florida.