Happy 1st Birthday, Baby Nathan!

What a few months of wonderful birthday celebrations! And, how quickly a year goes by! Sweet baby Nathan turned 1 year old this weekend. And, now Cassie is sure that every time she is here, we should have a birthday party.

Epcot Food & Wine Festival

Finally a weekend at home. And, we were ready for Food and Wine festival at Epcot. October brought record-breaking temperatures to Orlando. I'm not talking frost. I'm talking 2 weeks of temps in the 90s with a heat index of over 100. Don't get me wrong. I don't miss cold. But, seriously? Getting in the car at 5pm and the temperature gauge reads 100 in October. Ugh. So, when a cold front moved in for the weekend of the Food and Wine Fest, we were most excited. However, we learned that when the temperature drops 50 degrees in 2 days, the body doesn't adjust so well.

We planned on practicing moderation this year. Last year's Food & Wine fest, we ate and drank our way around the world...twice. This year, we planned on taking our time. We had an amazing afternoon slowly working our way through. Until nightfall and we were too cold to go any further. Yes, too cold to eat when it was in the 50s (and, really windy - does that make a diff?)...we are Floridians, afterall (Mr. Chicago in the hooded sweatshirt proves this point)...

Happy 60th Birthday Mom/Lynda/Admiral/Mimi

Years ago, my Mom put in a request for a 60th birthday party. So, party we did. Rob and I left on Friday evening and drove to West Palm Beach. We picked Cassie up 1st thing Sat AM and hopped a plane to ATL where we arrived just in the nick of time to have a ginormous celebration with friends and family.

HAPPY 60TH BIRTHDAY!

We made it home late late Sunday night...in spite of booking our return tickets for Sunday November 7th rather than Sunday October 4th...an ordeal I would not recommend...

Happy 5th Birthday Cassie!!!

We had a wonderful birthday celebration for Cassie's 5th birthday! In honor of her 5th birthday, we had a "5 Little Monkeys" party. In spite of a terrible cold and fever, the birthday girl partied like the rock star that she is!

The birthday monkey got all kinds of fun new presents! She got a brand new big girl bike which she has quickly mastered (no surprise, the little speed demon!)! And, Wii Resorts is her very favorite new game in the house (the non-violent activities...after one too many boxing games, she was telling people "I'm gonna knock you down!"...oops). And, she has her very own PINK DS for the car! Thank you everyone for making the birthday girl's day so very special!

What an amazing 5 year old she is and how very lucky we are to share the celebration and our lives with her! We love you buddy!

Labor Day in New Orleans

We rounded out our summer vacation tour by spending Labor Day in New Orleans. We planned the trip back in the spring when I was recovering from surgery and we needed a distraction so were weren't thinking entirely clearly; the timing wasn't the greatest because we were still pretty tired from Vegas. But, we had such a good time at Mardi Gras, we wanted to visit the city when it was warmer and when it wasn't so crowded that you couldn't walk down the street. This trip was marked by a slight bout with food poisioning, so, we spent a good part of one day in the room relaxing (the first pic is Rob sick in bed). But, we finished the weekend rested AND with a great New Orleans experience. An excellent way to end the summer!

1st Anniversary in Vegas!

We decided to spend our first anniversary back in Vegas, so, we spent a week doing most everything you are supposed to do in Vegas. We spent time in the casino (I entered a Texas Hold Em tournament and managed to hold my own with a bunch of locals who play these tournaments daily!), went to pool parties, saw shows, toured clubs, got re-married by Elvis and cruised the strip in our convertible. It was an amazing celebration for our amazing first year of marriage!

A South Beach weekend

We started our summer vacation tour in South Beach in July (Yup, I'm a little behind on posting...). We met some friends for an evening on the town in South Beach before heading (a little) north the next day to spend a couple of days with Cassie at her beach.