Holy Cow I'm an Adult! WHEN DID THAT HAPPEN????

For exercise I've taken to bike riding around the Wekiva sidewalk network.  I'm not up to Dany or AJ biking standards by any stretch of the imagination, but it's a decent way to stay in some kind of shape (other than "couch potatoe" which Elizabeth assures me is NOT a shape).

As I was riding today, feeling the cool breeze (yes, cool, it rained) on my face, I started to think back to when Pete, Jason, Kevin, Coker, Dave, and me would ride those same sidewalks to get where we needed to go.  We could cut over to Kevin's, to Larissa's (which was, as I recall, a favorite stop), even out to Todd and Daniel's.  Seeing the pieces of sidewalk that ran toward's Jennifer Estates, that cut out towards Bent Oak, I enjoying the fond memories.  Back then I was much more fearless.  You eat it on a bike then, you brush off the grass stains (maybe blood) and keep going.

And then suddenly it hit me.  Those fun, fond memories of riding the sidewalks as a young (pre car) teenager...are 20 years old!!!!  Reality hit like a brick wall: I am an adult.  The people I rode with are adults too.  We're married, some of have kids, we all have careers (not jobs, careers), we own houses, cars...

I enjoyed the rest of the ride, but it just wasn't the same.  I was cruising the same hills, same sidewalks, but now I was thinking about it.  Applying the brakes at times because I don't heal in five minutes any more.  My wife does NOT think it's cool that I jump some crazy sidewalk hump and wipe out in the grass (grass stains BAD).

So today is the day that I realized, fully and truly, that I am an adult.  And I guess I'm okay with that.  Dagnabbit!

Karen's Gatorland Birthday Adventure

Our friend Karen is about to have a birthday. And, Karen being Karen, she wanted to get a bunch of friends together and spend time with them. Of course, being Karen, that means quite the adventure! So, using all the birthday favors she had, Karen got all her friends together at...Gatorland!

As you can see, Karen even made a new friend!

Of course, Elizabeth likes neither gators or snakes...which are in abundance at Gatorland, but, being a trooper, she decided that it was worth putting up with all the crazy reptiles if she could hang out with her friends. And, not to be outdone, Elizabeth even mustered the courage to pet a gator herself!

As you can tell from the name (and the pictures) Gatorland had quite a few gators around. But they've also got quite a few other critters, too. Snakes (even poisonous ones, but you can't pet those), turtles, birds, bullfrogs, deer, goats, iguanas, and both gopher and Galapagos tortoises. And we got to see them all!

On of the more fascinating things, to me, was walking along the boardwalk and seeing all the gators just swimming around and then, suddenly, there's a big ol' crocodile sunning itself in the middle of them. Everyone was just minding their own business, doing their own thing. It was pretty cool!

The other great thing about the day was that we got to spend it with some friends we haven't gotten to hang out with much in awhile. Hopefully this Gatorland adventure will change that, but even if it doesn't, it was so much fun being able to spend time with Karen, Chad, Susan, Shae, Debbie, and Becky, and then even more friends later at Habeneros for dinner!

And, as the day went by, Elizabeth was able to make a new friend from the animal kingdom (although it wasn't a gator!)

Elizabeth found an aviary nestled in with all those reptilian creatures and got to play with a Lorikeet. These were some of the more beautiful birds I've ever seen, and, if it weren't for the cat, I think Elizabeth just might be wanting a new pet!

So that's what we've done so far on our Labor Day weekend. And tomorrow the big plans are to do nothing, nothing at all.

The First Month

It's been one month since our wedding day. Our wedding day was just what I had dreamed. I never wanted anything big and fancy, what we had was intimate and beautiful... if I do say so myself.

The day began a little hectic since I had decided to do all the flowers myself, but all things aside, everything still ran on schedule. By 10:00, I was standing in the house, watching my bridesmaids precede me to the ceremony side of the yard.

For six months, I had planned our wedding down to the details. That weekend though, I had things to do that did not include making sure those details were followed through. Thankfully, we had some incredible friends to take care of everything. Linda and Sue had taken the menu off my hands a few months earlier and enlisted friends to help make the food and make it look beautiful on the buffet table. These ladies made it possible for us to have an incredible menu that was still affordable.

On the other side, there was our friend Gina, keeping things moving and making sure everyone knew where they should be, keeping everything running on time. Because of Gina, I was able to relax instead of worrying about what was going on.

After months of planning, there's not much I can say about our wedding except that it was perfect. The pictures tell the story.

Talking about pictures, the one oops from our wedding is that our photographer didn't take pictures of just Todd and I (except for the pictures when we were in the tree). Even though its a pain in the butt and is costing us another $80 to get a tux again for Todd, we're meeting again this Sunday to take the traditional wedding pictures of us. I guess the biggest annoyance is that those pictures were the first on my must have list. It was a crazy day and I didn't realize we didn't have those pictures until we were on our way to our honeymoon location, but I really don't think it should be my responsibility to remember that... hello... I'm not the professional photographer. It irks me, but it's hard to be upset when they're so nice.

So, I titled this as "the first month." I guess to sum it up, its just been nice knowing that at the end of the day, I know Todd's going to be there... no matter what. It's nice to be together and laugh about everything. I think that's what we do most... laugh. I look forward to doing that forever.

4th of July WOW!

Each year for the last 10 or 12 years, the city of Altamonte Springs, with help from local radio station XL 106.7 puts on a 4th of July spectacular known as Red Hot & Boom at the downtown Crane's Roost Park. The radio station gets quite a few bands and music artists, and the city gets enough fireworks to last 30 minutes.

Crane's Roost Park

This year, in honor of Todd T's 30th birthday, Jeff and his roommate Ryan decided to have a party at their place, which is the penthouse overlooking Crane's Roost Park. Okay, maybe the timing and location had more to do with it than Todd's birthday, but it was a good added bonus.

So, this year, we got about the best view of fireworks you can get, from the 12th floor! Sure, our ears are still ringing a little bit, and we had to do a fair bit of walking (but found be best parking place!)

Our New Website

Well, we went and got married a few days back (June 15, for those keeping track) and after the dust settled we decided that we should probably try and keep in touch with all the friends and family who were able to share in our wedding. Also, as a wonderful added bonus, we can also keep in touch with those who weren't able make it too.

That's right, I'm talking about our website: www.GableFamily.us and yes, it really does exist now. What we'll be putting up there (other than these nice random blog entries) are photos, our calendar, some websites we think are cool and/or useful, even a guestbook (for anyone so inclined). Basically where to find us and what we're up to.

Some people are probably wonder why we're requiring people to register at our site in order to get to...just about everything, really. The reason (which is really quite simple) is that it will help us keep in touch with you. You can put in your e-mail at the very least, and your phone number, address, and some other information to help us keep in touch. And, if you move or get a new phone or whatever, you can update your info with us! I mean, if you're so inclined. Plus, the other reason we want people to register is that we don't necessarily want everything just hanging out there in the public domain (which isn't to say some of it isn't already, but...).

So that's pretty much it! I would encourage everyone to play around on our site. And yes, as soon as we get pictures back from the wedding they'll go up. I swear!