Rainy day

We woke up to a rainy morning Wednesday. This is the view from our porch area.

After breakfast we noticed the resort had some Halloween decorations up. We haven't heard what they have planned for Halloween.

We sat by the pool in between the rain.

Andy enjoying the pool during a sunny portion of the day.

We sat at the martini bar before dinner.

Andy had a dirty martini and I had a chocolate martini with whipped cream.

At dinner, I had the chicken parmesan and Andy had the steak, both with mashed potatoes.

After dinner, we listened to a jazz band for a while and met Miss Sans Souci.

Let’s go to Jamaica

Allison picked us up at 5:45 a.m. yesterday and drive us to O'Hare for our flight to Jamaica. We got to spend enough time in the United Club to have a couple of drinks and a light breakfast.

One of us could be upgraded to first/business class so Andy let me have it. He was in Economy Plus with a row of three seats to himself.

So I got another breakfast.

We landed in Montego Bat around 1:39 and got to our resort at about 4:30. They welcomed us with champagne and almond-scented towels.

We're on the ground floor of the B block of rooms.

The bathroom is huge.

This is the coffee area in our room with water bottles we can refill and take home.

We went to the beach restaurant so Andy could get a late lunch of onion rings and came back to find a cheese plate for our anniversary.

We went to dinner but apparently it was "Jamaican night" so all the food was Jamaican. Not very good. And we're tired. And it's raining.

Halloween decorations

Our neighborhood goes all out decorating for Halloween. We see the usual big spider webs, huge skeltons and lots of skeletons in various positions so I thought I'd go look for new, unusual decorations. These bushes are cute.

Saw this lit up at night and had to go back and get a picture in the daylight. It looks like a huge octopus is living in the second floor.

Even the skeletons in Oak Park are liberal.

Creepy clowns.

And a house with eyes and teeth. I've seen a lot more people decorating the second floors of their houses with huge spiders and skeletons.

Welcomed home with wings

The gift waiting on our tables Sunday morning was an embellishment tray. You can put little die-cuts and sticker sheets in it when you're scrapbooking so they don't get lost among your other supples. Genius.

I didn't get around to working on B's album but I got 15 single pages done in my album and 13 in L's this weekend. My album is now caught up to Steve's wedding in August.

Darla showing off the pages she did. So much detail!

Alice showing Cindy how the new trimmer works. Initially, though, Alice didn't have the blade in. It does work when the blade is in place.

Me and Cindy.

I do like seeing the catsup bottle on the way to and back from Fairview Heights.

I drive through Normal and stopped at Avanti's to pick up two gondolas for dinner but they are now closed on Sunday! I didn't stop for lunch because I was expecting to have a good portion of a gondola for dinner and thought I could wait.

When I got home the "kids" next door had their TV in their back yard and had friends over for the Bears game. They gave us two beers and when we sat down in our back yard they offered us wings they made, saying they made way more than they'll eat. Since I was pretty hungry, I said sure. We ate them in the back yard but Andy got cold and as we were going inside they asked if we wanted to come over and watch the game with them. I said it was too cold out for Andy so we were going inside and they said, "Tell him to put a jacket on." Lol. Those kids are OK.

Cropping on Saturday

Came into the scrapbooking room Saturday morning to find more gifts!

We had a quick breakfast at the hotel then it was time to scrapbook.

My sad Muffles page.

Random cute pumpkin at the hotel. They serve free popcorn every afternoon.

Before lunch Cindy and I went for the group picture. I'm in the back row because I'm tall (as usual). The consultant had asked everyone to wear fall colors but it seems that didn't work out too well. Darla left to go shopping so she'd miss it and Alice just said she didn't want to be in it (boo!) Cindy and I did a little shopping (I found a vintage-looking Easter tablecloth for 99 cents) and had McDonald's for lunch.

For dinner we stayed at the hotel and had their BBQ sliders.

I got Alice and Darla in a picture!

Cindy won an album in a raffle. Again, I didn't win anything,

Darla trying to hide from the camera.

I got L's album up to date. This is her last page - moving to Florida.

Scrapbooking Day 1

I left home about 5:45 a.m. yesterday to drive to Cindy's for our scrapbooking weekend. It was dark and rainy when I started out. This was near Normal.

I got to Cindy's around 10 a.m. and we went to some thrift stores before going to the hotel. At least this Trump shirt was at a Goodwill rather than on a person.

As we were moving our stuff into the hotel I put a paper shopping bag on a hook on the suitcase cart. The bag broke, spilling my pages and some photos all over the parking lot. Cindy, Darla and Alice helped me pick them up and a woman (who also was cropping) saw it happen and offered me a reusuble bag. That was nice. My photo case needs to be replaced.

Welcome to the crop!

Gifts at our seats.

Dinner was tacos ... and wine.

The room full of scrapbookers.

I bought 10 raffle tickets for $5 and entered raffles for paper packs ... and didn't win anything.

I got four pages done. I'm caught up to Christmas 2023 in the family album. Not bad for starting after 4 p.m., taking a break for dinner, and being in my room ready for bed around 9.

We voted

Andy voted early in downtown Chicago and I voted early by mail. A little jealous he got a sticker and I didn't.

L voted and got a cute sticker.