A Christmas visit with a friend

The past couple weeks have been just plain crazy! We headed to FL for Christmas with lour family. We departed after half day at work and drove as far as St Augustine. We have friends that live there and it is just about the half way point driving from our house to my parents. It's always great to see friends even if it is only for an over night stay. Emmie loves Mary Ellen and her daughter Christie and has a great time when we stop by for a day or two. Unfortunately I disn't get the camera out this trip so I am posting this picture of Emmie and Mary Ellen from last April.



We left St Augustine and made another stop along the way. We stopped and visited with my friend David and his parents. It's was a bit of a nervous meeting. I have been writing and talking to David for three years. I was finally going to be able to meet him for the first time. I "met" David through his sister (my friend) Carol. I am very grateful to her for this introduction. Carol if you ever read this, Thanks!

Here are some pictures of our visit.
This is me and David taken very late at night which explains the exhaustion on my face (and in my hair). David had a refreshing dip in the pool with Emmie prior to these pictures so he looks fresh as a masculine daisy!

Here is Emmie in the pool with her goggles which seem to always stay on her forehead.

David and Emmie having a great time in the pool.
Emmie convinced David to sport a blonde wig. Here are the two of them in their wigs. David will kill me for posting this. LOL

Then she put me in a wig and had David wear the curlie brown wig.
The next day we went to see David's bee business and what he does. We got a tour of his warehouse and equipment and then went to the middle of an orange grove to see some hives. On the way, we stopped so Emmie couple pick a couple oranges.

Here is David opening one of his bee hives. I must confess I have learned more about the bee keeping business than I thought in such a short amount of time. Here he has the hives stacked in preparation of splitting the hives. Back at his house he had 130 fertilized queens in tiny boxes waiting to have hives of thier own. He brought the flats (I am not sure that is really the right term) to the window of the truck so we could see them up close and personal. He showed us the queen bee in the hive. I can never find the queen in the pictures until Emmie shows me which one is the queen. She can spot the queen easily. Perhaps one day she will be queen bee of her own bee business.

We stopped on our way back home to have lunch and take a little drive around his home town. It was a great visit to say the least.