Mark This Day

First hummingbird siting for 2012:  Today, April 30 at 5:15 p.m.  I was sitting in the downstairs watching the news. I looked out the window and spotted a greenback hummingbird.  It stopped on one of the feeders then flew off.  I went out quickly and changed out the nectar in hopes it will come back and try again.

Introducing...

Bob's new girl!

He's really in love with her. 

The Cheesecake Factory

We stopped at The Cheesecake Factory in Louisville last weekend after Robbie's soccer game.  You know, because a soccer game in the same town as The Cheesecake Factory is a good reason to stop and eat there before heading home on a cold, windy Sunday afternoon.  Robbie's girlfriend had never eaten there so that made it another good reason to go.  I had a salad for my meal so that I wouldn't feel so guilty eating the cheesecake.   ha ha!  That made me want to write this post to document the cheesecakes I've ordered there since my first visit to The Cheesecake Factory in Indy way back in 2003.  Or at least I tried to remember all the types of cheesecake I've had.  I've sampled bites of Robbie and Bob's like the Reeses Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake version in addition to the ones I've ordered for myself. 

I've eaten at the Indy restaurant several times but have also visited the one in Nashville 3x, Louisville 5x, Overland Park, KS 1x and Denver 1x.  Yes, I'm keeping track. 

Cheesecakes I've ordered:
White Chocolate Raspberry Truffle--My favorite so far
Fresh Banana Cream
Chocolate Coconut Cream--My 3rd favorite
Chocolate Tuxedo Cream
Chocolate Raspberry  Truffle
Mango Key Lime--My 2nd favorite
White Chocolate Caramel Macademia Nut

So it's not that this was a slow news day here at this old house, but I was just tallying things up and decided to share. 

Kids Parasailing, Gulf Shores Part 5 of 5

Kaylyn begged Robbie to parasail while we were on vacation.  Robbie is afraid of heights but agreed to try it. This is them before going up.

They got on a raft thing with about 8 other people and were jet skied out to to the boat.  The company they parasailed with stayed right out in front of our condo area so Bob and I went up to our balcony and used binoculars to see them.  The kids were the first ones up on this particular trip. 

Here they are starting out.

We do know for sure this is them since we had binoculars to see up close.

Robbie said they went up 300 feet, per boat dude. 

They were brought them down for a quick dip in the water and then went back up again.

They got a second dip before being pulled back in to the boat.

Being safely reeled in to the boat.

The kids said the actual parasailing was fun but after their turn they had to ride around on the boat while 4 other pairs went up. The water was choppy and the ride rough so they got seasick and what made it worse was that another passenger was actually vomiting over the side of the boat which made them feel worse.  Gross, hearing or seeing someone else vomit makes me feel sick too. 
They were out there for about 2 hours total and were glad to get back on shore.

Gulf Shores, Part 4 of 5

Gulf State Park, Orange Beach, AL

Grumpy teenager heading out into the surf

Beach on a rough surf day

Gulf State Park, Orange Beach, AL

View from the entry side of our condo

View from our table at Cobalt restaurant in Orange Beach on our final night.  We ate there twice during our trip.  It was really good!

Getting the kitchen organized and arranged after our arrival

View from our balcony

Bob checking work email!  His boss managed to call 3 times in 15 minutes one day and then a couple times another day.

Prom 2012

Robbie and his girlfriend, Kaylyn, ready for prom.    (If you click on the photos they do enlarge so you can see them better)

I urged them to do something besides just standing there for one picture...and you can see her cute silver high heels.

Kaylyn didn't want any kind of corsage (it's not modern) but I wanted her to have something so ordered these flower rings for her--which I could have made myself very easily.  ha ha!  They are real flowers (mums?) and were so cute. She loved them!

The kids went to prom after dinner then attended the after prom party that the school organized.  How do I know they actually went?  Because they had to turn in an attendance form in order to attend and if they wouldn't have shown up by 1:15 a.m. the parents would be contacted.  All the kids were locked in at the after prom party until 2:45.  After the party they went out for breakfast and Bob tells me Robbie got home around 4:15. 

Gulf Shores, Part 3 of 4 (or 5)

View from our balcony...I loved it!  No palm trees or anything obstructing our view.  And, compared to other places we've stayed our condo was a lot closer to the water. 

More photos from Gulf State Park.

These will be our official family pictures for this year so if anyone wants one I will get a print for you. I can get 5x7 or 4x6. Just email me or comment if you'd like one. I might crop the one above just a little bit more.

Bob and I had lunch at Lulu Buffett's (Jimmy's sister) in Gulf Shores one day.  I ordered fried oysters and shrimp and when I was eating one of the oysters I bit into something hard that I thought was probably a piece of shell. When I fished it out of my mouth I saw that it was a pearl!!!!  How cool is that?  Lulu's place is pretty neat. There are lots of things for kids to do and all the walls of the building open up so everyone gets to eat "outdoors".  There is also a little shop and outdoor bar area right in a marina area just off the highway.  It is a pretty popular place as we had to wait an hour just for lunch time---gives patrons time to look around and spend more $$.

The Robbie and Kaylyn Show, Gulf Shores Part 2 of 4

I took lots of pictures of the kids on our trip so this post is dedicated to them and the fact that I still cannot believe I agreed to take a girlfriend on vacation with us!  ha ha   Everything went just fine; if they ever got into a disagreement we never knew about it.  They spent every sunny moment on the beach and in the evenings they swam, used the hot tub and walked on the beach...or so that's what they told me.    The picture below is from our first night in Gulf Shores at a restaurant in Orange Beach.

Kaylyn (far left) and Robbie (far right in the water) playing a game I bought them.

Kaylyn had a different bathing suit on everyday.  LOL!!


Ready to go shopping late one morning.

This was down in Orange Beach at Gulf State Park ( I think that's the name of it). It was beautiful over there.

We did a short photo session (our family photos will be posted later this week) before eating at Cobalt.

The picture below was taken outside of Shipp's Harbour Grill where we met Mom and Tom one night for dinner.  I think this was on Wednesday; it rained and was cool that day.  This is where I ate Royal Reds for the first time (more on that in another post).

These photos were on Friday, our last day before heading home.  Robbie thought he was really out there with his new, neon trunks.  I told him those colors and the length are what boys wore back when I was in high school.  The 80's is back!!

I forgot to mention in my first post about vacation that Robbie and Kaylyn parasailed on the first day at the beach. Bob and I could watch them from our balcony with binoculars and my Nikon was able to get some pretty good pictures of them. I might have to do a 5th vacation post for just that adventure.

Gulf Shores, Part 1 of 4

We left for Gulf Shores on March 31 in the wee hours of the morning. We packed the night before...thank goodness!  If we would have rented a vehicle even an inch smaller than the Tahoe we could not have packed all this crap...

Bob ande I at Bahama Bob's in Gulf Shores.  Mom and Tom took all of us out to eat this evening. 

Bob eating breakfast on our patio.

Our condo building...Crystal Shores. We stayed on the 9th floor.  The condo looked just like the photos I posted a couple months ago.  It was very nice!  I loved having the master bedroom on the front of the unit so we could sleep with the sliding door open and hear the waves all night.

Bob and I on our balcony patio.

Robbie and Kaylyn on our first full day at the beach. She is such a cutie!

Robbie working on his soccer skills.

"Surfing" on a boogie board he found in the pool area one night. No one claimed it so he took it against my better advice.  We did leave it at the condo when we came home so it was just a short term theft.  ha ha!

I have tons more pictures.  I thought I would break the posts down to a few so as not to overload you with so many pictures.  I'll do a post of just Robbie and Kaylyn since I have lots of pics of them and they are so cute.  I'll do another post of our food because you know how I love taking photos when we go out to eat, family picture post and I'll do a final post of some sunrise and sunset pictures I took.