Thanksgiving and Ohio Gun Season

I bet you were expecting to see hunting pictures in this post. Ha - fooled you. 

My niece, Kristen, decided to get married in the Florida Keys on December 2 - which happens to be the Friday of Ohio gun season for deer.  This was especially painful since Kristen is normally my deer hunting buddy.  But we wish her the best and turned her wedding plans into an extended holiday where we enjoyed Thanksgiving in Naples with family, went diving with our kids at Hawk's Cay, and attended the wedding festivities in Islamorada. Here's some photo highlights of what I did instead of deer hunting.

 Joan on the beach in Naples.

Thanksgiving at my big sister Sue's place with Mom and Dad.

Joan and I getting into "island mode".

 Eric's wife, Jeni, completed her diving certification at Hawk's Cay and joined us for some recreational dives.

Doug, Amy, Jeni and Eric

Doug did the dolphin encounter.

Rehearsal dinner with the bride-to-be.

 The wedding day - ceremony on the beach.

The wedding party - barefoot on the beach.

The bride arrived by boat.

The cermony was close to sunset. 

Leo - the groom.

Kristen - the bride.

The bride and her Mom.

Key lime pie for wedding cake - naturally. 

Same couple - different time.

Is this really the same girl as in the wedding dress?

During the trip, we were in search of the perfect family photo for the Christmas card.

Someone decided to shop for tee shirts while others were scuba diving.

Multiple attempts were made at multiple locations.

None of them were "just right".

This is just a small sampling of the poses over multiple days.

Everyone was very cooperative and in the holiday spirit.

But it did drive some to drink.

Others handled the performance anxiety a little differently.

But I think that we all survived...