A little work..... A little play~~

Well it looks like the cold weather is over........at least for a while.  Most of this past week was booking hotels, planning travel routes, and preparing for family gatherings.  Lots of things coming up! February is a family get together in Zephyrhills. Benjamin nieces and nephews from Zephyrhills, Plant City and Hudson along with our cousin Carol and husband visiting from Beaver Dams, NY. 💗 Then later in February a trip to Orlando to meet up with our son Dennis for Rich's Birthday.   And then our monthly get together with the Showalter's and Douglas'

In March, Krystal and I have a girls night out planned with dinner, followed by a an event at the South Florida Performing Arts. 

In May we have 4 days scheduled in Orlando  at the Home 2 Suites, ( this is a FREE stay!) on our way to Cocoa Beach for a week.  Then in June  we are going to the Broadway Palm in Ft. Myers for my birthday and then we will head to Black Lake in upstate NY for six weeks. On our way back from NY we will stop in Elmira for the Benjamin Reunion, and then spend a few days with friends in Columbia Crossroads, PA. 

In the meantime we are finishing up a lot of the comfort food.........Our neighbor, Diane, came over with some Butter Pecan Cake - that was a perfect dessert to follow the left over Chili!

Over the weekend we did a little cleaning in the garage, washed the car and FINALLY put the bench seat back in the car!  It has been covered and sitting on a piece of plywood, on the boat trailer since we removed it last MAY!!!  Not easy with someone as weak as me trying to help Rich maneuver that thing.  It's very heavy!!  It's not coming out again - we'll just need to find a way to make things fit!!

On Sunday, it was such a beautiful day, that we decided to just take the boat out for a ride.  A lot of houses still with blue tarps, waiting to get their new roofs, and so much damage to trees along the canal. Hurricane Irma did a job on all the foliage as well......... trees that were thick and shading, and usually dressed with Florida birds are now nearly barren and broken.  It will take a while to get the beauty of the area back.

But it was beautiful out on the lake.   And this gave Rich a chance to check out how the motor was running.  He'd done a lot of work over the last month, new parts, fixing the gas line, and replacing the lubricant in the lower unit.  But today it was running great!! 

And then on the ride back before we reached the house we spotted a group of turtles sunning themselves on downed tree limbs and along the shoreline. No idea what kind of turtles they all are............but it was really quite a sight!

The backyard looks so strange with the tree gone that used to be down by the boathouse.  Hurricane Irma took that as well.