Swingin from Tree to Tree Around the World!

Westward Ho!!!!!

2009-04-21T18:57:00.007-05:00

Albuquerque, New Mexico

It's about time I got to go somewhere instead of Tj!!!!! My person was going to Albuquerque, NM to see her niece, Anna, and I got to tag along. First stop was the hotel to get first dibs on the king size bed!!!! Ahhhhh, this is sweet!

Next we went out site seeing, this place is old! They have some weird old motels!

This was some fierce spirit!

Dude!!!!!!

Getting in touch with my inner Native side!

Welcome to my TP and my sqaws!!!

Like my new boots?
This is my kind of ride!

Dude, eat a sandwich!!!

I am hotter than a chili pepper!!
Time to chill with the chickies!!!! Sweeeeet!

2009-03-06T17:30:00.004-06:00

Happy Birthday to me! I am a new born sock monkey, and I am on my way to Sweden to my new parents, Jonas & Per-Arne. I cant wait to see what it's like in Sweden and to find out what my new name will be. I know my new dads love Disney, and as you see, I am ready to go! Check back to see pics of me in my new home with my new family.

Kissin' Cousins

2008-09-30T18:55:00.009-05:00

Hello out there! Tj told me I need to stop by and introduce myself. My name is Mortie, I'm Tj's cousin from Albequerqe. My human uprights, the Zacks, took me on a camping trip with them. One of their off spring, Anna, drug me around in the heat. I actually had a good time, but dont tell her that. Camping in the desert is a little different than back in the Midwest....lots of sand and no shade!! It did give me a chance to work on my tan though. Here's a few shots of our weekend. I wore those kids out, they cant keep up with me. We did a little hiking, a little swimming....good times!!

First thing was to find a campsite....I picked it out!

A little snack before I get to work.

Dont let anyone say I'm a lazy monkey, i pitched right in and got that tent set up in no time!

Peek A Boo!!! hehehe, just a little monkey buisness! The little kid, Hunter is getting slopped up with sunscreen, I'm not lettin her around me!

Finally, we get to do a little hiking. I'm leading this expedition....Anna is blonde you know, I wouldnt want to get lost out here!

Photo Op!

Dont forget to hydrate....ahhhhh!

Back at camp, time to kickback and relax.

This is what I've been waiting for! yeah baby, swimmin!

Burn baby burn!! Jackie, the mom wont like this! She's hardcore about the sun. Oh crap, i forgot to take my shoes off, what a geek. They could have at least gotten my flip flops! Anna did make me these awesome swim trunks though. She rocks, and I'm hot.

See, I told you these human kids are whimps! I wore them out. That's Jake & Hunter.
This is the little guy, Hunter, we're pretty tight.
Well this trip is over, had a great time. But for my big news, I'm moving!! I'm heading to Florida, back to my people in Boca! I cant wait, finally some palm trees & green. It will be good to be back home. I'll try and visit again soon, you never know where my travels will take me. Bye!!!!

Love ya, Mortie

Vegas Baby!!

2008-09-28T06:18:00.015-05:00

Well here I am in Fabulous Las Vegas awaiting the arrival of my new traveling buddies, Emmy and Matt. We are staying at the lovely MGM Signature, the staff made me very welcome whilst I waited for my friends to arrive.

I got a bit thirsty (and lonely) waiting for them, So decided to head out and get myself a little drink, a foot-long margarita should keep me going!

Finally Emmy and Matt arrived and we went out onto the strip! We played a bit in the casinos, I loved the slots, and the cocktail waitress was very attentive, and kept on bringing me drinks!!

I had a few too many Coors lights and Emmy and Matt decided it was time to go back to the room, it is a long walk back for a little monkey like me (especially after a few drinks) So I decided to sit down on the moving walkway!

I woke up with a really bad headache the next morning so told Emmy and Matt to go on without me, I needed some more sleep!

They came and got me a bit later and we headed to the Rainforest Cafe for lunch, where I had a good chat with a very, very distant relative of mine!

After filling my belly with yummy food and chatting to my new friend, I headed back to the room for another nap, and to give Emmy and Matt time to themselves, this was about 3pm.

I heard them come in at 7am.....they had been playing Blackjack til this early hour, but they came back with some winnings so I was happy!

Obviously, Emmy and Matt were tired the next day, so we all had a lazy day, relaxing and chillin', refreshing ourselves for the next day!

We got up, nicely refreshed, and went out exploring the city! We went to many casinos, and took pictures along the way, but the more we played...the more we drank, and the more we drank....the less pictures we took!

Here I am at the Luxor, I enjoyed climbing the stautes, altough some of the were a bit scary looking or too high for me to climb, Emmy helped me get onto some of them!

We also went to the other end of the strip and played at the Stratosphere, we didn't go up to the top of the tower, Matt and Emmy had done that last year!

The next day, we were booked into the Champagne Brunch at Circus Circus! It was a lovely buffet, with a choice of steak from the grill and lots of yummy desserts...oh and I nearly forgot...as much Champagne as you can handle!

The days all became a blur on this trip, but I do remember going to the Las Vegas Hilton and seeing the Elvis statue.

On the last day I got chatting to this great group of guys, they were such fun and they showed me around the town, but the camera was with Emmy and Matt, so this is the only picture I have with them!

Remember: What happens in Vegas.....Stays in Vegas!!

I met up with Emmy and Matt around 5am when they had finished playing BlackJack for the last time! Emmy then announced that we had to be up at 7am to get the bus to the airport, as you can see, I didn't find this very good news!!

Despite the very late night, we got up and caught the bus to the airport and got on our flight to Detriot, then onto London!

We arrived safely at Emmy and Matts home, and I am settling in nicely, I just have to get used to the strange accent!!

Will post my England adventures soon!

I'm back from my Disney Cruise!!

2008-09-17T15:47:00.002-05:00

Well kids, I'm back from my Disney cruise with the Faulconer family. Boy was that fun! I didn't even get sea sick, although those seas were pretty rough Monday night.

The Faulconer's were nice people and only took me to places where they new I would be safe. Yeah, I would have liked to play with the dolphin's in Nassau and seen Castaway Cay in person. But Traci knew that if she took me to these places there could be a chance that I might dirty my beautiful tropical outfit or get sand in places where I wouldn't really want sand, so that was good thinking on her part.

I was kind of getting tired of being in that plastic bag just waiting to join the Faulconer's on their WDW and Disney cruise. So that first night that Traci had me, she decided to take me outside her nice hotel room at Saratoga Springs to sit and enjoy the night while she smoked. Seems like I got to sit on this bench more than just once. ;-)

That next night, little did I know but the Faulconer's got to go to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween party at the Magic Kingdom and left me home with this T-shirt on. Honestly, I would have liked to go to that party, but at least little Dexter shared some of his Halloween treats with me.

Even that next day when they had their friend Tom come and swim and have drinks by the pool at Saratoga, they didn't have me come with them. Again I was kind of sad, but I knew they were just thinking of me and they didn't want me too sunburned when it was time for the cruise.

So that night, I watched as they packed me into that plastic bag and packed me in their suitcases to get ready to board the Cruise bus the next morning to head over to their ship. I was a little afraid in that suitcase by myself, but soon I was rejoined by them and they even let me pick the schedule of what we would do that first full day at sea.I'll tell you, I have never in my monkey life seen a boat this big!! I just knew I had to check everything out, have drinks in the lounge and I even got to meet the Big Cheese and his gal pal!! I think Minnie may have been a bit jealous that I had a tiara and she didn't.

Traci kind of wanted a family picture with me, Perry, Dexter & Minnie, but Perry wasn't too happy about that, so she didn't end up buying the professional copy of this picture, even though I thought it was cute.

I even got to have dinner with the Faulconer's and boy was that food great!!

On Tuesday night they had a huge pirate party with a show, free pirate bandanas to wear and then fireworks from the boat. Again Traci was afraid I might get dirty or hit on by some drunk pirate, so she kept me in the room. I was there in spirit though.

Needless to say, it was probably not a good thing that they left me in the room, because their room attendant (Kerri) thought it would be funny to hang me up along side their silly towel monkey. I mean really...animals made from towels??

At least when the Faulconer's found me in this situation, they took me down immediately and let me sleep in the queen bed that night all by myself.

All in all, it was the best cruise vacation ever! Disney really does everything perfect for their guests. And now I am off to Las Vegas to meet a sweet British couple.

I love my life!!

P.S. Don't tell the Faulconers, but their really nice room attendant felt bad after the hanger thing and gave me tons of those chocolate mints and I ate them all!!

Respect the Monkey!

2008-08-26T09:24:00.004-05:00

Hi Gang!

Sorry it took me so long to write, but Lola and her family have kept me soooo busy!

Today, I want to tell you all about my adventures with the Walden Vikings at their baseball tournament in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.

Rehoboth Beach, for those who don't know is right off the tip of New Jersey and the Cape May ferry. We didn't take the ferry though.

I had heard of the great time that the Flamingo had when he went on the European Vacation with Lola, but no...not me...I don't get those kind of accomodations.

Games started first thing Monday Morning, and well, Lola left me behind at the house...and the boys promptly lost both games.

Tuesday morning, there I was in my place of Honor...and guess what? The boys WON both games!!! RESPECT THE MONKEY was now our battle cryThe other team sent the umpire over to make sure I wasn't some sort of cheating device.

So, I had a great time relaxing and hanging in the sun.

Lola and her family have a few other adventures planned for me, and I will write about them as I travel.

Hope everyone is well. I miss everyone in Illinois

Love <3

TJ the Monkey

This is my friend Tim...He sleeps a lot. We liked that, it meant he wasn't yelling at the umpires :)

It's up to you, New York, New York

2008-07-27T16:36:00.005-05:00

Greetings from NYC...the Big Apple.

TJ stayed home, but Lola and her family took me to Yankee Stadium.

It is the final year for the stadium, so I was happy to visit.

We got a few wierd looks that is for sure...but most of the guys were chill.

I had a great time...will write more soon.

All my love...homies...

TY

2008-07-22T19:07:00.005-05:00

Yo, I thought I better stop by and let you know there's a new sock monkey in the jungle. My name is TyRone....you can call me Ty for short. As you can see I'm one cool bro monkey. I have the coolest grillz and the coolest Bling! I've already hit the road and am going to be hittin some awesome places. You better check back here and see what I'm up to...if you know what's good for you!

I'm down with my bad self...

Around the Campsite

2008-07-19T01:36:00.002-05:00

Most of you are probably aware that I'm a pretty cool monkey. And because I am such a cool monkey, I am a pretty cool friend. And since I'm such a cool friend, when my dear friend L2 (known as Larilyn to those of you who aren't quite hip enough) took a fall and made her ankle go wonky, causing her to have to stick around camp a bit more, I unselfishly told LaRelle and Hillary to go ahead and go back home without me. I was going to stick at camp with Larilyn so she wouldn't be lonely! It actually turned into quite a relaxing time!

I was able to spend some time reading....Larilyn got me hooked on this great series called Twilight, and I was almost through with the third book! I wanted to hurry and finish it since the fourth one comes out August 2nd!!
I got to climb some pretty neat trees. Yosemite has some of the biggest trees I've ever seen!I hung around, just lounging in a camp chair.Then Larilyn decided to take a nap, so she told me to go ahead and go river rafting with the fam.We got a little wet, what, with all the splashing and all, so I had to hang out to dry....hee hee....It was time to get started with dinner, so that means we needed fire! And I really wanted to prove my usefulness....but....try as I might, no matter how much of my energy I exerted, I just couldn't seem to get any logs split!And Larilyn's brother got a little impatient with me....
So I decided that my services might be rendered more helpful by getting out the bug spray since Larilyn couldn't hobble over to the tent.
Then mom asked me to help out with the dutch oven cooking. I was lucky I didn't get ash all over myself!
And of course, I couldn't miss out on my all time favorite part of camping.....SMORES!!!!After we were all through, I did my part around camp! I made sure all the trash got picked up and thrown away,and made sure that the food was all securely stored in the bear locker. We wouldn't want any bears lurking in our campground looking for a late night snack. They might like MONKEY!!!!Then it was time to get into the tent...

And crawl into bed. We were having a big day in the morning!After a good nights rest, it was up early to pack up our stuff and the car, get moving, and head out on the drive home. And no matter how restful and relaxing your vacation is, by the end, lets face it: you are just EXHAUSTED!!!Overall, Yosemite was a blast!

Yosemite or bust!

2008-07-05T21:48:00.005-05:00

Here are the first few pictures from my fantastic trip to Yosemite. I got to tag along with the Irvine family, who are all quite fantastic, if I do say so myself. =)

Here I am at the viewpoint when you first arrive in Yosemite Valley. Quite the spectacular view.

Here I am on one of the shuttle buses. A nice young man gave up his seat for me. The buses were always very crowded. I was drinking lots of water in anticipation of all the hiking we would do that day.

Here I am walking up to Lower Yosemite Falls.

And then up at the falls. It was very cold up there.....even with my fur coat!

That's it for now....I know there are more pictures around here somewhere.....

Disneyland and Disney Cruise

2008-06-13T17:56:00.006-05:00

Well, now that I left Jo's house, I can finally get on the 'puter. She's a monopolizer. We did have fun on vacation though. What was great is she let me relax cause she knows when I'm on vacation I'd rather do that sort of thing. Jo is more of a "on the go" gal.

When we got to the Grand Californian I wanted to try out the bed right away.

I hung out in the room and turn down service was fabulous!

The bed was so comfy I didn't want to leave:

Once on the ship, I hung out and enjoyed:

Jo went into port and all I got was this lousy sombrero from the gift shop.

I look pretty cute here I think.

In the beginning...there were sock monkeys!

2008-05-19T09:23:00.002-05:00

Hi, I'm TJ, I'm one traveling sock monkey and I like to party!!! From the get go, I started across the United States. First stop is Rockford Airport, where I am headed off to Colorado Springs, CO.

Wow, the mother of all sock monkeys!!!!

Denver Airport...what a ride!After a long flight, it's time for lunch at Famous Daves

Oh boy, sight seeing....how about a ride on the Cog Train to Pikes Peak.

Time to PARTY!!!!!

Well, this wasnt exactly a party type weekend, my humans brought me along with them on a scrapping weekend....and they dressed us alike!?!!? OMG, the humiliation! I was the cutest though, they cannot deny!! Had to hit the bottle a little , just to keep this outfit on. My next trip better be more fun, that's all I got to say! where's my shot glass????

Well my time in Colorado is done....off too sunny California.

Time to kick back in San Clemente and chill out a bit watching the tube. Just catching up on those lost episodes of Magilla Gorilla.....oh man is he a hunk!Ok, what's the idea of sticking me with this bird babysitting! Do I want a cracker? Hell no! pass the banana's please! Well that was fun in California, now it's time to head to New Mexico!

Ahh, this is more like it! Feels like home. What the? This aint no banana tree....duped again. I always try to stop and smell the roses.Oh crap, no one told me about a make over!!!!
Finally a decent hair do....Damn, I'm hot!!!!

A seafood resturant? Hmm...who picked this place?Man am I getting good at flying! Perfect skys today. Heading out of Albequerqe.

I can see my house from here!!!!!
On the bus, headed for home to IL., it's getting kind of lonesome on the road. I need to get home and see my man....bet he's missin me!

Ahhhhhh, Monkey love!!!

It's my man, Dewey. If the tree is rockin, dont come a knockin!!!
Well no sitting around for me! I went back to Chicago to do the Walk for Autism.
Well I guess it's time to hit the road, a quick change of clothes

and it's off to my Mexican cruise!!!!

Ole'

Like my new outfit?...like I said...I am hot!!!!

Dont go too far away, I will be back soon with new photos.