Sue's Views

A thunderstorm blew in when we arrived back home after our big day in Key West. Sally and I planned on paddling again this evening, but we had to settle for "Dancing with the Stars" instead. What is Chloris Leachman doing next week? Ya have to say 82 is unbelievable, beating out all those younger dancers. Bill cooked us up some scallops tonight-those yummy gigantic kind that you can only find in Florida. I bought us a scrumptious key lime pie for dessert. I hate to say it but I'm down to two more days before I head back to Michigan. After talking to Ron the other night on the phone, I think he'll be pretty glad to see me. The pups are a real handful by yourself, trying to fight through a migraine headache all at the same time-plus entertain our guests from Ohio while they were celebrating Ron's birthday. I hope I can get my little ASUS to work like this when I get back home. It's so nice being able to tap away to the fam as I sit in bed.
Love, Sue

Sue's Views

Look what Sally & I fond on the shore... moon jellyfish! OOey gooey! She was poking it with a stick, until I hollared at her. Then we observed the picture on T.V. and saw the tenticles laying out the back. This has been some vacation! I sure wish the whole family was here to enjoy all the fun things there is to do in the Keys. More to follow.
Love, Sue

Happy Birthday little brother

This pose reminds me of Steve Martin, "One ca-ra-zy Guy"!! I'm not sure what song you are singing but I'm sure it is one of your top 100! James, you are so much fun to be with. Sure hope your day, and year just keeps getting better. One great family too. I sure enjoyed my short, but sweet time with all of my family in LV. You are the best. When are we going to do it again?

Sue's Views

What a vacation! Sally & Bill have really been treating me to a super time in the Keys. Tonight after dinner at "Sparky's", we took out the kayak for a stroll around the Atlantic. Ya gotta love it! Sally's wearing her Bruce Barton official kayaking cap. Sunny today, cloudy tonight. I've taken some awesome pictures. Sally had 200 pictures developed today from Walgreens. We've been enjoying them, cackling at some, I must say. Happy
birthday James! I regret to tel you that I forgot to send you a car. I'll make it up to you. Later,Sue P.S. I sentthis from my ASUS! Thanks, Bill

Has anyone else (besides Aimee and I) noticed how much Gabe blinks?  We have a LOT of pictures like this!  Sorry Gabe, but I don't think it is me!  I don't think we have a single picture of Lori blinking.  In any case, what a beautiful couple and what a wonderful time we all had!

Going to the chapel...

Before the ceremony

From the wedding ceremony

I had all the wedding photos on my work laptop and finally have started getting them on the home computer!  Here are some goodies from the ceremony.  

In Seattle

Say! I think I figured out how to post from the Asus. We are having a great time in Seattle. We walked underneath the Space Needle today and decided it is way to high for us, remember, we didn't even want to fly to Seattle. Well going up to the top of the space needle would be just about like flying. We enjoyed the train ride from San Diego, yes, 40 hours is a long time, but we have time to waste. Tom and Gina have been showing us all over the city. We take the ferry to Victoria, BC on Tuesday and then home of Thursday. We both miss the sunshine a little, one of us more than the other, but it will be good to get home. Thanks all for all of the wedding pictures you posted, and especially Aimee for putting them on our computer. We have enjoyed looking at them often. Thanks also for being there for the big day. It meant so much to Gabe, Lori, and Bill and I.

happy family

What a great weekend, or at least 36 hours. We sure packed in the fun. Sue and I only missed about 5 hours, when we slept. I had a post of her in the airport on the way home in Atlanta, with coffee stains all over her shirt, no make-up on, no earrings and coffee on her pants too, and hung-over too. . . .but I had to delete it. I didn't want to scare anyone. Thanks Gabe and Lori for a great time, and Sal and Bill are the best in-laws ever!

Happy family, happy girl, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

That smile hasn't changed in 27 years, (well I do remember a little gap between those two front teeth). So happy and why not, when you have happiness all around you like Mike and Dozer! 27!! Just look how happy everyone is. Even Dozer had a birthday bath to celebrate this day. I think I heard there would be a special dinner out too. What a great family. Wish I was there to be with our big girl. Love you guys and miss you bad!! XOXOXOXO

Howdy Pardners!

We are in Laughlin, NV. This is actually a pretty neat location, in the southernmost point of Nevada. We are staying in The Golden Nugget. I see why Gabe and Lori like this place, our room is $22.49 a night, and $1.99 breakfast, $5.99 steak dinner. I haven't tried the blackjack table yet (chicken), but had some fun on the Goldfish 1cent slot machine after losing my free $5. on the 25 cent slots. Today we are off to Oatman, AZ, about 15 miles away for some desert tourist moments. We are also about 5 miles to California, so maybe we will head over there tomorrow. Thank goodness we found the Bullhead City, AZ library because there is no free wifi in the Golden Nugget, what do you want for $22 a night!
Can't wait to see y'all,
Cactus Sal
PS Seems like we are going to be OK with Ike down in the Keys with maybe just a tropical storm out of it. Gosh, it's good to be out of there, and not thinking about it 24/7.

Reeds Lake Triathlon

This morning Jim did the Reed's Lake Triathlon.  Sorry the pictures are out of order.  You can see him in the water just before the swim - he is behind the pole, without his cap on.  After a strong swim, a stronger bike ride and a good run, he cruised to the finish like a pro.  Good job baby!!!

We're Outa Here!

We are in the West Palm Beach Airport waiting for our flight to Atlanta and then on to Vegas. Once they said that the hurricane was headed directly to the 7 Mile Bridge, we figured we made the right decision to get out of town early. Things look better for the Keys this morning, but still, we would have had to evacuate tomorrow anyway... We are just going to drive around the desert for a few days, and stay in Laughlin, NV, one of Gabe and Lori's favorite get away from the excitement of Vegas spots. Can't wait to see everyone!

Sue's Views

Labor Day on the way to the Bridgewalk. I know it doesn't beat Walter's picture, but it sure was pretty.

Sue's Views

Well we've completed our nonth bridgewalk. This was a perfect day. We had a good parking spot, and completed it in one hour and 10 minutes. The Governor ran it in 38 minutes. That's not bad. Breakfast at the Admiral's Table was as good as usual. Ron's brother, Burce went again. This was his second year. My Rathblog page is a little messed up. I tried to respond to the Gabe and Lori Blog, but I need to fix my sign on I guess. I told everyone that Nancy and I have four hours to get our sister act ready for Vegas. Me-me-me-me...just getting the vocals in shape. They'll be buzzing in the streets when they get a taste of the Rathbun girls. I have a surprise for the girls when we get out there. I hope it makes it through security. I'll just have to take a suitcase. I can't wait. Less than a week now. Yikes!

Such troublesome times on the Rathbun iChat tonight!  Aimee kept losing her voice!  Maybe it was the bandwidth being sucked up by streaming video from 3 other computers.  Or the electrons just too tired to go all the way to Michigan from Alaska!

Let the count-down begin!!!

Lori and Gabe's big day is approaching, and Sally spilled the beans on the Wedding blog, so I added it to the list on the side.

Shawn and I just completed yet another "epic" (How many are you allowed??) bike ride, so it's time to move on to our next big thing, a wedding in Vegas! To prep for the trip, I'm going to try to rent "Lost in America" - a great Albert Brooks movie. I highly recommend it before you make the journey!

And then, gather our "nest egg" for the trip out west. All you high rollers can meet me at the slots, trying to par-lay the egg into some early retirement funds....

See ya soon cats!!

Back from the emerald isle

Just got back from another AMAZING trip to isle royale! What a great place. I've heard its the national park with the most return visitors, and I think I could vouch for that. This is sunrise at three mile campground over some of the islands off the coast. School starts tomorrow, I can't even believe it! I'm not sure whether or not I should be disappointed or excited. Its my last semester, but I haven't even thought about school at all for the past 2 weeks. Its been a great summer. Take care all! Love you!

-Walter B.

This is US!  Crossing the Mighty Mac on Sunday morning.  What a ride!  More later!  Love to all!