Where's The Hot Tub?

Where is the hot tub? That is what about five of the eight people from our recent ski trip was saying the next couple of days. In fact, my brother even sent me a couple of text messages the day after we got back saying it hurt to walk around his house! Getting old is so much fun.

So last weekend, Nellie and I went on a weekend ski trip with our close friends the Stroupes (Mike, Camie, Zach and Nick), Scottie and my brother Todd. It was a trip for all of us to just get away and have some fun, but a chance for me and Nellie to get away from Tiki Tan for a few days after all the time we've put into it. And Nellie loves to ski, so I wanted to take her to the mountains and let her ski.

So here is our trip... in pictures. There are plenty to go around. And I'll do my best in telling the story as we go along.

So we started out by meeting after the boys got off of school on Friday. it took about 2 hours to get to the house we rented. What an awesome place. And it was cheap. And only 1/2 mile to the slopes. It was a newly built house in the mountains... two floors, three bedrooms, plenty of spare room to sleep, two big family rooms... just an awesome place.

So we got to the house on Friday evening, unpacked and in about 2 minutes, the boys had the Wii unpacked and set up. So right away, we were all playing. As Camie and Jennell made some tacos, the rest of us played our hearts out. Nick and Zach played all the time, while Scottie, myself, Mike and Todd all took turns as well.

Camie and Jennell got their chance to play the Wii too. In fact, we played and raced and danced our way through the rest of the night.

After the Wii, Nick wanted to try his had at some cards. So we found some poker chips and taught Nick and Zach the game of Texas Hold Them (NOT Texas Hold 'Em). And we played cards until 2 in the morning.

The next morning, we headed out to the slopes of Ski Beech at Beech Mountain. Jennell and Scottie had their own stuff, so the rest of us had to get fitted for our equipment. Everyone decided to ski except for Todd and me, who were going to snowboard with Scottie. So once we were fitted, we headed out to the slopes.

Nick took to skiing pretty well. Zach (above)... not so much. After a lot of falling between both of them. They got to going up and down the slopes, pairing off with their mom and dad.

Mike spent a lot of time trying to teach Zach. Here, he stands waiting for Zach to get down the hill. After Zach, Jeremy, Todd and Nick... Mike probably wiped out the highest number of times during the day.

Nellie ended up having to pair up with me. So that made it not to much fun for her. She is a old pro on the skis, as you can tell by her picture. She looks totally comfortable on the skis... unlike any of the rest of us. So she only skied a little while she waited for Jeremy to get up off of his ass after falling down time after time after time on the snowboard.

Snowboarding looks so easy. But its not. Like riding a skateboard? Nope. This picture shows the way I spent most of my day... on my ass. It only took me like 45 minutes or more to get down the slope the first time. I'll actually say though, by the end of the day, I could get down the hill pretty well without falling too much.

We have no pictures of Todd or Scottie on the slopes for a couple of reasons. One reason... it was cold. Another reason, it was hard to be on the slope and take the pictures. And finally, it took Scott and Todd (Scottie was Todd's teach) nearly 2 hours to get down the slopes for the first time!!!!

So there is no camera action from the rest of the day, but there was plenty of skiing. We all skied with each other when we could until they closed the slopes for work and we headed back to the cabin for a little dinner (supper for the Southern folks). After some homemade spaghetti, six of the eight of us headed back to the slopes for some night skiing. Zach wasn't feeling well from a cold he was just getting over, and Jennell's legs were bothering her from her non-fitting custom ski boots. So they stayed back and watched the Busch race and played Wii while the rest of us took up three more hours of skiing.

Todd made it one more run down the slope, while Mike, Camie and myself made it only two more runs down before we were all too tired and sore. Nick and Scottie were ready to keep going, so as the rest of us called it a night, they continued making runs.

The next morning, we got up... without too much assistance... had some pancakes, packed up and headed out. A little problem though... it had snowed in the mountains the night before. When we woke up, we woke up to a fresh batch of snow.

So with the cars loaded up, we were ready to head out to our destination of the day... Hawksnest Mountain, where we were going to spend the day tubing before we headed back home.

We ran into one little problem though... the Stroupe's van couldn't make it up one of the snow covered hills back where our cabin was located. The Denali made it just fine with its four wheel drive, but the van... not so much. So, we had to park. A nice local sheriff came and told us that a snow truck would be through our area soon. So we parked and waited... and waited... and waited.

Nick found a way to pass some time. He got out of the van, found some pavement... and made snow angels.

Finally, the truck came. And after waiting for 45 minutes for the truck to come and drop some salt and sand, we were back on our way to the mountain and to some tubing.

We got to Hawksnest... and it was freaking COLD. At the top of the mountain, the truck said it was only 17 degrees outside. And the winds were easily blowing 30 to 40 mph. So that made tubing a TON of fun. We heard one guy say it was a wind chill of -3. Sounds like perfect tubing weather. Camie was the smart one and decided to pass on the tubing and instead stay in the lodge and stay warm!

Nick was wrapped up trying to stay warm as he waited his turn to go down the mountain.

So we spent two hours freezing our butts off... and doing some tubing in between. Todd was the fastest of us on the tubes. And you can see him holding on in the picture above.

Since we have no pictures of Scottie on the slopes, here is a picture of him having fun while tubing.

Nellie was bundled up as well trying to stay warm... and had some serious tubing skills.

Here is a big part of the group waiting in line for some tubing. Can you tell who is who? No? well, from left to right... its Zach, Mike, Scottie, Todd and Jennell.

So after the tubing, we all got back into our warm cars and headed home. It was time to come back to reality and realize that Monday, it was back to work.

While we didn't have any hot tubs, we had a lot of memories. And we've got a new yearly tradition. Thanks for the good times everyone!!!!

UPDATE

Here are a couple of fun videos from the weekend.

Our Proudest Moment Yet... The Tiki Hut

Are you getting tired of Tiki Tan updates yet? Well, if you are, then it proves how much work we've actually done to the salon. On day, we'll put up some before and after photos so everyone can actually see what the place looked like before and what it looks like now.

So today (Monday), we put the final "major" touch on the salon... the Tiki Hut. It was something that we were wanting to do for some time and finally just decided to get it done. After the counter got finished, the new floor and everything else, it was the final piece of the puzzle.

So we enlisted the help of Tiki Todd, and decided to get the Tiki Hut done. It started on Friday, when we laid out the plans, bought the wood and built the supporting box. On Monday, we started bright and early at 7:30 am, worked hard and got it done by 2pm.

And we couldn't be any more happy with the results. Look at all the pictures below and see what you think. And we can't wait till everyone sees the salon in person. Pictures just don't do it justice. And remember, clicking on the photos make them bigger.

Getting the counter prepped for the new hut. Notice the supporting poles are bamboo poles too!

Todd and JT getting the finished Tiki Hut in place

Ta-da... the finished product. Notice the bamboo poles in the back against the wall supporting it as well.

Notice the new pictures we added too on the side wall... all our salon certificates

We've also decorated more of the front of the salon with cool pictures

More pictures...

Our new clock (it looks like a footprint in the sand) and another cool picture.

Mmmm... Slippers

Hey there. It’s me again. Everyone’s favorite dog from North Carolina. At least, I’d better be. If you know any other dogs from North Carolina, then you’d better think long and hard who’s better.

Anyway, mom and dad told me I had to write again. I know what you are thinking… “what did he do this time?” Well, its not like I only write when I’ve done something bad. I think they just wanted me to write so they could put up this really cool picture of me that you see up top.

But… not so fast. So, yeah, I had to write again because, yes, I did something bad again. I know I’m beginning to sound like a broken record, but what the hell do they expect. They work all the time and lock me up. They’ve finally smartened up and put me back in the bathroom to give me more room to walk. They figured out when I was in the kennel… it was HELL when they got home.

Anyway, this time it was the closet that was my target. When they left for work one day, they forgot to latch the closet door shut. And I’ve been in there many times when they’ve been home. There are clothes everywhere. There are slippers. Shoes. Sweaters. Belts. I mean, it’s a free for all.

So, when they left one day, I walked around, laid down by the door and… pop… it fell open. So I started looking around and saw no mom or dad. But there were plenty of clothes. So I started grabbing them all. It was like a shopping spree. There was stuff on the floor. I pulled shirts off hangers. I grabbed sweaters off the rack.

And best of all. I found the slippers. Oh yeah. These were the slippers that mom had taken from me before. They had some sort of animal on the end. And all I wanted to so was play with that animal, bear, panda or whatever it was. But it wasn’t playing back. And in fact, I was tearing it apart. There was white stuff flying everywhere. After a few minutes, they were shredded, and the animal was gone. Oh well

Finally, there was mom’s hair straightener. It was up on the dresser, but the cord was dangling. And I chewed on it for a while. It didn’t taste like anything good. I was hoping the more I did, the more it would taste. But nothing. Oh well.

Then, just like that, dad was home. And he wasn’t happy. He said he’d only been gone for a couple of hours and he couldn’t believe I’d done it. But oh well. It was fun for me while it lasted.
One of these days they’ll figure it out. I’m a people person. I like mom and dad. And without them all day, its no fun. So until they get the point, I guess I’ll keep polishing up on my writing skills.

So until another day… and another adventure…

- Brutus

What mess? Not me!!!!

There once was a slipper in there.

Dad wonders why I'm so wild. We had fun playing with this box that one day.

Wow...someone turned 30!

Yes, it is true I actually turned 30. Man I am starting to feel old. haha I was fine just having a low key pretend like it is happening birthday, but Jeremy had a different idea (I was nice last year when he turned 30, I just kept it kind of quiet). So I was told to just be ready at a certain time and that was all I could know. Well as you can see below Jeremy planned quite the surprise party at BW3's.

The whole gang: The Stroupe's, Scottie, Cheryl and her husband, CJ, Lori, Diane, Johnny, Danielle, Danny, Brittani, Dale, Tiki Todd and of course the Buffalo Princess.

It was a very nice surprise, I mean I didn't really think I would get away with the low key birthday, but never thought so many people would come out to make a big deal out of a simple little 30th birthday!

Zach and Nick were nice enough to get me this great sucker! It was pretty cool. We all had a good night of visiting, catching up, eating some wings and drinking beer.

More Tiki Tan Work

We know we are a little behind on updates....but as you will see below we have been very busy working at Tiki Tan and continuing to make improvements. We can actually see some light at the end of the tunnel now as far as remodel/fixing things up. Please forgive us for not updating too often and then when we do finally find time, we know we give lots of info and pics.

We finally got our counter top done...we were really tired of getting slivers from the raw wood, plus we had all the equipment just set on the counter and really unorganized since we knew it would all have to come off again to finish the counter top.


CJ shows me how much glue you need to put on the formica to make sure that it holds good. We decided that just huffing glue fumes wasn't enough, we needed to drink some beer too!

Tiki Todd precisely measuring and cutting and the formica. He may be wondering where all his help is....haha, we are inside with the glue and beer.

We patiently wait for the glue to dry, and apparently this takes a while....Jeremy misjudged the whole process and we ran out of beer way too early. I think CJ will cut him some slack this time, but he better get it right next time.

The formica turned out really well, especially for a group of rookies. The whole counter looks really nice now and complete.

We finally got the bathroom painted too. Jeremy installed the new sink and cabinet, as well as the matching mirror. Man just a few little things sure made the bathroom look a lot better.

Jeremy finished installing the bamboo that wraps around the new counter and he put down the new flooring. It looks good and matched well with everything.

The rest of the wall covered with the bamboo.

Along with all the big projects, we continue to make small improvements in the rooms too. Just some little things that the customers seem to really appreciate. Jeremy hung mirrors on the back of the doors. He also put small corkboards on the walls so that we can hang specials and ads in each room.

We put pictures in each room that are tropical and warm. They really make the rooms look complete by bringing the paint colors together. It is amazing how such a simple thing like a picture can tie everything together.

Jeremy painted the wicker furniture that the previous owners had. Made them look so much nicer and they fit with our paint scheme much better now.

We had been getting a lot of complaints from people saying that they could not tell we were OPEN. We put some window tint up on the front door to try and keep the entry way cooler (which really does keep it a lot cooler in the front of the salon) and I guess because the front door is tinted that means we aren't open...who knows. So we got a nice and bright neon sign. We really liked this one because it has the business hours lit up as well...and it is easily changeable. So no more complaints, everyone should be able to tell that we are "OPEN"!

So as you can see, we have been very busy continuing to improve things.