To Lt. Fetters and Fam

Dear Fetters:

Saw your post today and shouted for joy that you are all together again. If you were a time zone closer (and I wasn't experiencing swine flu symptoms) we'd be out there catching up.
Which made me think ...what would I put in the car and haul up to Logan (or where ever) to show you. (Like that time we drove our tv and wii gaming system up so we could watch Lt. F. box).


First I would introduce this furry face to baby Maren..
Let Lizzy beat up this face :) .... he doesn't care....
Show you these buttons I'm making for the christmas party on wednesday - for the matches that have made it a year. Button making is fun.
My first flower arrangement - I was in charge of center pieces at the Sharples Thanksgiving dinner. You can keep this one. I have others...
Jake's far well is tomorrow and I wanted to make come cool martha cookies. These are peppermint meringues! However, since mom learned I'm 'infected' - these are deemed to be a bio-hazard. poo.
Ben says any 'sickness would have been cooked out.' So - I'd bring them over.
Also these chocolate WHOOPIE pies :) You can keep all of these :) :) :)
Last but not least....Ben and i get these 'game night games' newsletters - that gives the top 5 games....


We have all but one - So we'd bring this Dominion game...

Finally an official welcome home - please excuse my swine face :)


Love you and miss you guys.
(Ben's been saying 'sucker' a lot lately in honor of Lt. F. and I tell him it's just not the same).

Horses Horses Horses

So. I'm way behind on any kind of blog update. I have been all kinds of crafty but for christmas - I can't blog about christmas presents!!

That means December 26th will be the craftiest post of all time :)

These pictures are - once again - from our cruise. Remember how I said that it was a great vacation and exhausting because we did so much! Hence the million blog posts.

Anyways, while in Mexico we rented and rode horses for 3 hours! Which was a high light for me. There were about 30 people in our group and we all tromped up the mountain side.

This is Ben's horse. It's name in spanish is 2X --- meaning LARGE HORSE. :)
This is looking behind me - you can see Shel, Ben, Phyllis, and Rick way back there.
Not sure how to take a picture of my own horse - Guapo (which means good looking --- so obviously we had commonalities :) and bonded quickly )
This is looking in front of me - Big group!

Jordan and Rick - ready to ride.


....and just for fun - in connection of the horse post and the 2 inches of power that came down last night....

Meg Ryan at her best... reminds me most of Jodi :)

"The Fateful Moment"

Another cruise vacation story...and still on Catalina Island.

As we were walking around the botanical gardens and riding on golf carts (see previous posts) - my brother in law, Jordan, really wanted to try a prickly pear. A fruit that grows off a cactus. These items CAN be found at a local grocery store - but Jordan was determined to find and pick a fresh one.

So we're driving around the streets in our golf cart and spot some off the side of the road - and convinces Ben to jump off and help him find and pick a few.
This is a prickly pear that is ben is holding now...




Here they are, wandering up the hill side in.... THROUGH CACTUS BUSHES......


....find a couple.... and Ben makes the oh-so-smart-decision to carry them down in his shirt.


I like to call this picture..... "THE FATEFUL MOMENT" when Benny realizes that cactus needles are very small, very sharp, and very bothersome. Notice the stance he is taking and where the pricklies from the pear would have landed and wormed their way down through his shirt....



*sigh* It was a rough hour or so. I couldn't touch him the rest of the day or I'd have little needles in my hands and arms. And the clothes were condemned from the rest of the suitcase. The best part - for a week we were picking needles out of areas --- that'd I'd rather not say :)

Sharples ride up the hill on Catalina Island in a go cart.

I've lost which day I'm talking about....

So. Still talking about the cruise. I've lost track of what happened which day. :) You'll just have to roll with it.

These pictures are from the botanical garden on Catalina Island - which at the top is the memorial for Mr. William Wrigley (again, the gum guy who bought the island)

Jordan pays tribute to Mr. Wrigley.
I love this picture because it looks like Ben is really working something out in his mind. I also like the colors. "Back in the day" -Catalina island peeps produced beautiful tiles and demonstrated here with the blue and green tiles...
Phyllis and Shelby
Again, the beautiful blue tiles.... and a narnia lion's head.
Candid shots of the fam resting
This is that Wrigley Memorial from a distance - in the building are the pretty tile pieces

Cactus. This is about waist high and was part of the botanical gardens below Mr. Wrigley
More big cactus. Interesting how many different plants there are... and just how many cactuses there are.