Weekend of Socializing

I had such busy weekend...and pretty social for me!! It started out with a get together after school on Friday. We were celebrating Ruthanne's adoption. She leaves for Ethiopia on February 6 (this coming Saturday!!!!) to pick up her new son, Daniel aka "Bear". So exciting. Daniel is 17 months old and his big brother, Andrew, just turned 3. Here is a picture of Andrew and Ruthanne at our celebration:


Here are a few of my Friday friends. From left to right, Kellie, hiding next to her is Julie, Jane, Nancy, Andrew, Ruthanne and in the back, Jess.



On Saturday morning, I left for Grand Beach for the annual girls sleep over at Carol's lakehouse.
Carol has been inviting a group of us up to her place in Grand Beach for over 15 years and we always have a great time. Our routine is to start out the trip with lunch in New Buffalo, usually Casey's, though last year it was the Stray Dog. This year we went back to Casey's and they gave us a private room. We were only missing Sheila this year. Here is the rest of the group: top row, Mary B, Sue, Christy, Trish, Pam, Carol, bottom row, Mary K, Kathy, Teri, me, Jean.

After lunch, we usually shop around New Buffalo for awhile. This year, Christy suggested we go to a casino that had just opened a few minutes away and so we did!! We stayed for an hour. I lost $5. That was all I played. It was fun. We were back at the house by 5 pm. This is the beautiful view of Lake Michigan from Carol's front yard.


Some of us took a walk. It was a beautiful evening and not so cold. As soon as we got back, we cracked open some bubbly...thanks to Steve for sending two bottles of Dom for us!!! what a treat! Then we proceeded to do what we do best...sit around and talk and eat...for 6 or 7 hours.



We also read all kinds of magazines and solved the world's problems. It was fun to catch up on what is going on in everyone's lives.
In the morning, we took another walk and a few of us stragglers got a bit lost on the twisting roads of Grand Beach. Luckily I had my phone with GPS on it and we found our way back. Pretty handy.





My socializing continued when Jack and I had his brother, Mike and his wife, Sue over for some chili. We had not seen Mike for ages, since before his big surgery in early December. It was good to spend some time with them. Mike is looking pretty darn good, don't you think? Sue, too, of course!


Time to get ready for another week. I am glad that tomorrow is February as that means spring is just that much closer.