We Are ACTUALLY Back “On the Road Again!”

May 1st was my last post. It has been a strange time in the history of the world. COVID-19 has changed so much about our lives.

We left Texas in early April and worked our way back to Missouri. We arrived in Springfield, Missouri around the middle of April. My husband’s mom lives in Springfield. The first 2-3 weeks we only visited her on nice days and sat outside her apartment complex while social distancing. After we were sure we hadn’t picked up any illnesses while traveling, we started visiting inside her apartment. We always play a lot of Skip Bo when we are together which wasn’t any different this time. What WAS different is that I won several games! It shocked me as well as my husband and his mom!! 😂

After about six weeks in Springfield, we headed northeast to the St. Louis area to visit my dad. Dad lives south of STL in Arnold, MO. We planned our visit back to Missouri a little later this spring because on June 1st my dad turned 90 years young. We were going to have a big 90th birthday party, but COVID-19 kind of put a stop to that. 😥 We did celebrate by having his yard decorated. He was certainly surprised when he woke up on his birthday and saw the yard!

We also celebrated dad’s birthday with my sister and her husband (they live a couple of houses up from dad) and their son and his wife. It is tradition in our family that the birthday person gets to choose what is on the menu for their birthday dinner. Dad chose steak, baked potatoes, corn on the cob, salad, and cake, of course. It was a great dinner which included a zoom call with all the rest of the family wishing dad a “Happy Birthday.”

The zoom call was chaotic but SO fun. Dad REALLY enjoyed it!

After spending a month in the STL area, we finally left on May 23rd for our summer destination – Colorado! It will take us several days of traveling before we get to our first Colorado stop. Hopefully we will be able to visit the parks and do some other sight-seeing things in the area without COVID interfering with our plans. We will see when we arrive. I’ll be in touch.

So, for now ….. “On the Road Again!”

Betty

Summer Fun: July Edition

A little over a week ago our second week of having the grandkids at our house began.  We met our daughter-in-law and grand kids in Springfield which is about the halfway point between our two homes.  We arrived home after eating supper “on the road” and got the kids settled in their rooms.  We went to church Sunday morning and out to eat lunch at Tios, a local Mexican restaurant, with our good friends Pam and Perry.  Then we headed home to — swim, of course!

Monday was my husband’s birthday.  As soon as he left for work that morning, we got busy making him some birthday cupcakes.  They were to be “Minion” cupcakes.  The grand kids and I had lot of fun decorating them.

Icing the cupcakes.

Icing the cupcakes.

Putting on the Twinkies to make the Minion.

Putting on the Twinkies to make the Minion.

Next we used icing to put on the eyes.

Next we used icing to put on the eyes.

Working on the details.

Working on the details.

Now the brown candy sprinkles for the hair.

Now the brown candy sprinkles for the hair.

Minion cupcakes!  I had to help with the black eyes, goggles, and mouth.

Minion cupcakes! I had to help with the black eyes, goggles, and mouth, however, they told me EXACTLY how to decorate them!

Originality abounded when decorating the faces.

Originality abounded when decorating the faces.

Each Minion had it's own individual character!

Each Minion had it’s own individual character!

Their Minion cupcakes turned out pretty cute.

Their Minion cupcakes turned out pretty cute.  Ooops!  Open your eyes, Jackson!  🙂

After we finished making the cupcakes, we had to hurry and change into our swim suits.  I had scheduled a former student of mine (Brooks), who is now a Junior in high school and a life guard and swim instructor, to come over and give a private swimming lesson to the two little ones.  They “swim,” so to speak, and do quite well in the pool, however, they have gotten to the point where they think they know how to swim and won’t listen to our instructions when we’re trying to help them improve their strokes.  I thought a young man like Brooks might be able to get them to listen and work on their strokes a little better than we could.  I was right.  He worked with each grandchild individually for 30 minutes while Jade, the oldest (who is a great swimmer!) and the other younger one and I swam on the other side of the pool.  He said the kids did great and I could tell an improvement.  It was well worth the money.  Now we had to hurry to get ready for our birthday lunch surprise because their Papa Jack would be home for lunch very soon.

My husband finally came home for lunch – LATE – and I was sure glad for once that he was late!  After we all ate, we brought in the Minions and had the celebration.  We sang “Happy Birthday” and ate our Minion cupcakes.  Then we gave Papa our birthday gifts.

"Happy Birthday to you!"

“Happy Birthday to you!”

I new Keurig coffee maker.

I gave him a  new Keurig coffee maker.

The GIANT birthday card from the grandkids.

The GIANT birthday card from the grandkids.

The grandkids got all the coffee accessories.

The grandkids got Papa all the coffee accessories.

After a stormy Monday night, we awoke to a very stormy Tuesday.  Without the option of swimming, I had to resort to The Nana Files (aka:  Pinterest!) for ideas of things to do to keep the grandkids busy.  Look for The Nana Files coming soon!

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