The Cooleys: Couples Retreat

Why is it so hot? Because we're in the city where the heat is on.

We went down to Miami to visit two of our favorite people, the Eckers, a few weeks ago. It was so amazing to spend the weekend with someone (Tyler) whose favorite thing to do is....nothing. No joke, that is just what we needed a weekend full of nothing!

Who would have thought that the first four hours we spent in Miami would be at the Chili's Take & Go Restaurant in the airport. Sounds awful, huh? But between the margarita's,

the people watching (Tanner said, "Look at that kid," and captured my reaction after I saw one of the ugliest children I had EVER seen in real life),

reading magazines, me nearly falling asleep on the bench (then realizing that I am not a bum so that is so not cool), taking photos, talking and laughing it was really pretty fun. I feel like we hardly see each other these days so it was refreshing to spend some mindless hours together.

We made it outside to the hot, wonderful paradise and as we were shielding the blazing sun from our eyes we couldn't have been happier to see Tyler's classic black truck roll up. We met Becca and went to a restaurant on the bay literally five minutes from their apartment. By the way this is the view from their apartment...uh, can you say amazing? Must be horrible to wake up to this everyday :)

The next day was spent at the gym and a long, lazy day at the pool.

Tanner demonstrated some amazing pool feats, including his underwater breath-holding technique. Becca and I were having a heart attack when he didn't come up for air for two minutes! And he still had the energy to scare his swimming lessonless, water-phobic wife by pretending to dunk me and get water on my face.

This was followed by a night on the town. We went to Lincoln Road, which was a really great strip of restaurants and bars. Everyone there was so happy and beautiful, to paint a picture of what we were seeing...imagine that guy at your gym who groans and yells when lifting weights while staring at himself in the mirror, that was the typical male on Lincoln Road. Although tonight he had showered and was sporting a muscle t, a faux hawk, and a skinny, pretty girl with implants. This along with tall grandpas led to some pretty fascinating people-watching experiences for all of us.

Oh...I almost forgot the best part of the night. We were sitting at dinner outside and a man on his phone and his tiny daughter passed by our table. Something intrigued the tiny girl to stop and say hi. She was so adorable as she explained to us that she was 3 years old and was wearing her favorite dress and minnie mouse sunglasses. She was so tiny that I was surprised by how smart and comfortable she was to be having a conversation with strangers. And to top it off when her dad said it was time to go we all said, "Bye" and she pressed her hands together, nodded her head, and said, "Namaste." What the?! Officially the cutest 3 year old on the face of the earth.

The rest of the weekend was spent binge-ing at greasy sports bars while feeding our football addiction. We went to an official Michigan (University de Tyler and Becca) bar to watch Michigan bring in a win.

And to an amazing little sports bar on Sunday to watch Chris and the Redskins pique our interests in the first half and then unfortunately endure a loss against the Panthers.

There was some unhappy men at our table so I thought it would be good to suggest ice cream to boost the morale. As we were pulling up to DQ, Tanner gave me a puzzled look and asked where we were going. I said, we're getting ice cream! Oh, well I don't want any. He must have been really upset to not want ice cream. Although he won't admit it the cookie dough and lizard hunt really helped him forget why he was so grumpy.