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Saturday, December 31

I awake to my alarm at 4:05 a.m. after about 2 hours of sleep. Rolling over in bed for a couple more minutes, I give up and decide to get up. A half hour later, Tammy, Tracy and I are all piled into my little car to head to the air port.

We arrive in Fort Lauderdale after a slight wait in Chicago. At about 2 p.m., we got out to the beach for an afternoon in the sun. That night was New Year's Eve! After the church service, we hung out with a bunch of other people who was down in FL, which is practically half of central Illinois! They all came over to the place we were staying and we grilled out by the pool. Then, we had a guitar singing on the beach--so cool!-- and walked to the pier. It was SO cool to sing on the beach! Especially for New Year's Eve. We all got some great pictures by the singing Christmas tree by the pier, and you will see our "Yay!-We're excited it's New Year's Eve!" picture down below in front of the tree.






Sunday, January 1

Church, and then another afternoon on the beach. For supper, we were invited to Eric and Jaron Huber's grandparent's house for pizza. Ryan, Tim, and Will were also staying there. We had some amazing Little Ceasar's Pizza (seriously, that pizza is SO good), played Apples-to-Apples, and Will and I definitely won twice in a row as partners in Euchre. We then had another guitar singing for the Huber's grandparents, and they loved it.




Monday, January 2-- my birthday

I awake at 5:45 a.m. to one of Paul Simon's songs and my 3 favorite T's standing in the doorway of the room I was sleeping in, shouting, "Happy Birhtday!" They had made a sign for me and decorated the place in honor of my birthday. After that, the Huber's grandpa took us sailing! We drove to Miami early in the morning to hop on a sailboat and enjoy a great day of relaxation and rocking on the ocean. I had never been on a sailboat before, and it was great! We got to put up the main sail because it was so calm and perfect out. Some of the riders took some Bonine to brush off seasickness. I was not one of them. I actually welcome the slight rocking sensation as a comfort and an almost lull-to-sleep.

Anyway, it was a fun sun day on the boat with 10 people! What a great way to spend my 20th birthday. I will never forget it!

That night, we all went to California Pizza Kitchen... mmmm, mmmm good.






Tuesday, January 3

A great day on the beach... We girls lounged around the pool all morning. We had fun with the guys on the beach in the afternoon. Got some good skim-boarding in, and even a few great games of volleyball. We also made a great 31 Flavors run. That night, some of the people visiting and/or living in Fort Lauderdale gave us a great picnic supper. It was exactly what we needed after a busy day on the beach. We thanked them with some more singing. :-) Our little group of 9 was quite practiced up by now. There were actually a couple of new faces with us, including Amy and Tara Hohulin.





Wednesday, January 4

Today. Let me just say that the whole day consisted of a bright blue sky and the sun at a beautiful 80 degrees. Same as yesterday- pool, then beach, including some great beach volleyball and video capturing of good skim-board wipes in the ocean... an of course, another 31 Flavors run. :) We had to say a sad good-bye to the guys this afternoon, as they are leaving tonight to drive back home. We had a fun time with them this week, and it was great that our trips overlapped. We girls ARE looking forward to some great girl time tomorrow, though. :)



That catches us up to now. As you can see, it has been a very eventful and fun trip! And I get to stay here until Monday!

Alright, I'm out. I hope you are all enjoying icy Illinois in its cloudiness, and I will try to bring some sunshine home with me.

I love you all.

T