It has been quite a while since I published a new post. In fact, it has been a little over three months.
As many of you know, my mom passed away August 23rd, (see previous post). We hurried back to the STL area for the services and to be with family. We stayed there a little over two months to help my dad get through all the things that needed to be done after a spouse passes. It was a difficult time for all of us, but I was glad we were able to spend that amount of time with him.
When we left STL, we went to Springfield, MO, to spend time with Jack’s mom, Lill. Any time you visit with her, you KNOW there will be a lot of Skip Bo playing. There was. I even won a few games (it’s VERY rare that I ever win!). We also celebrated Lill’s 92nd birthday. Most all of the family was able to attend. Here are some pictures of the whole crew:
Lill and her three children (L-R: Jack, Lill, Carol, Carl)
Silly granddaughters!
Next, we went to Edmond, OK, to visit with our youngest son and his family for the month of November. Mike and Jennifer had to work and the grandkids had to keep up with their homeschooling work, however, we still got to spend a lot of time with them.
Each grandchild (Jade, Kylee, and Jackson) got to spend two nights with us in the RV. They enjoyed that immensely, and we did, too. Plus it gave us some special “one-on-one” time with each of them.
We taught them how to play a card game called Three Thirteen and a dice game called Dice 10,000. They taught us how to play a card game called Trash. We had a lot of fun playing games the whole time we were there.
We were there for Thanksgiving, and Jennifer prepared her usual feast. Believe me … it was delicious! We stuffed ourselves, watched football, played games, and some of us took naps. In the evening we watched Christmas movies which is traditional for Mike’s family. We are SO thankful for the many ways the good Lord has blessed us and our families.
We left Edmond today and are heading south for the winter. I’ll give you a clue:
We are staying northeast of Dallas until after the Christmas holidays. Then we will head further south in Texas for the rest of the winter.
We made plans a long time ago (some time last fall) to fly our grandchildren to visit us in the RV in Florida for a week. Since our grandkids are all homeschooled, they can take their Spring Break when they choose. Our RV park is about an hour and fifteen minutes or so from the Orlando airport.
Along with their parents, we decided the oldest, Jade, would come visit first. Then, the day she flew home, the other two, Kylee and Jackson, would fly in for their week with us. As Christmas approached, our oldest son, Jeff, decided to give his nieces and nephew a “once-in-a-lifetime” Christmas gift: an all expenses paid day at Disney World with Uncle Jeff! Our three grandchildren were SO excited on Christmas Day when they opened that special gift.
We videoed their reactions but the video is somewhat blurry. I took some screen shots of the video, but the quality isn’t that great. However, I think you can see their sheer joy and excitement.
It all started with a gift box with a stuffed Disney figurine (Mickey for Jackson and Minnie for the girls) and a $25 gift card for a souvenir. However, at this time, they still did not understand the gift.
Then they were told to go get their iPhones and read the text message Uncle Jeff sent them.
It was at this point that we discovered that they could not access the link for the message because of the security restrictions set on their phones by their parents (good parents restrict their minor kids’ access to the internet on their phones!)
We all got the same text, so their dad read the message from his phone as they all looked on.
And NOW they realize what the gift is and the excited reactions begin!
They are all VERY excited! However, Jade was SO excited she shed “tears of joy!!”
The funniest part was when the parents admitted to them that they HAD ACTUALLY kept that secret from them for DAYS!!!
Then Uncle Jeff got big hugs from all three.
Jade arrived first on Tuesday, February 26th (just three days after we moved into our new RV (see previous post). The plan was for her to go to Disney with Uncle Jeff the next day. However, Uncle Jeff, the weatherman, had been in touch with Jade and her mom for a couple of days because it looked liked that Wednesday was going to be stormy enough to shut down rides and have the potential to make their day quite miserable. Through a series of phone calls, the decision was made to postpone the Disney adventure until Sunday. I could tell Jade was disappointed (as ANYONE would have been!), but she handled it VERY well. I was so proud of her maturity in this situation.
The day finally arrived for Jade’s Disney adventure. We drove north to Kissimmee to a spot to meet Jeff that was close to Animal Kingdom. When Jeff arrived, Jade went with him and we returned to the RV (we didn’t have a day planned that was as fun as Jade’s day; we had housecleaning, laundry, and grocery shopping chores to attend to). Here are some photos of the fun and sheer joy Jade had with Uncle Jeff.
Jade used her gift card to buy her first pair of Mickey ears.
Jade and Uncle Jeff are in the very back row.
Waiting in line for the Avatar/Pandora ride.
Waiting on Fantasmic nighttime show to start.
While Jade was with us, she decided she wanted to go visit Bok Tower Gardens in Lake Wales, FL, which was only about a 20 minute drive from us. This is a contemplative garden and bird sanctuary consisting of a 250 acre garden and a 205 foot tall tower with its carillon bells. It is located on top of Iron Mountain, one of the highest point of peninsular Florida (approx. 295 feet above sea level. It is a National Historic Landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Here are some pictures of our visit to Bok Tower Gardens.
As I said earlier, Jade came the first week and the day she left, we picked up Kylee and Jackson for their week with us. We were staying at Rainbow RV Resort, Frostproof, FL. This RV park was really nice! It had a lot of things to do with the grandkids and many activities planned. We spent a lot of time both weeks swimming (and sitting in the hot tub!) as well as playing bocce ball, shuffleboard, pickleball, and horseshoes. We played numerous games of Skip Bo and taught the grandkids to play Gin Rummy. They had never played that game before, and they caught on quickly. They became really good at it, and we played it nearly every night. All in all, everyone of us had a wonderful time both weeks.
The week Kylee and Jackson were with us, the weather was great. They were anxiously waiting for the day to “cash in” on their Christmas gift from Uncle Jeff. Finally the day arrived to go to Disney World! Jeff wanted me to go along this time because their was only one of him and two of them! He even offered to pay my way, so I got to enjoy the day with them, too. The weather was PERFECT; it was a little cool in the morning then warmed to the low 70s in the afternoon! Even though it was a spring break week and there were a lot of groups of kids there causing the lines to be somewhat long, we had so much fun! The pictures tell it all.
Silly grandkids! They’ve learned that from Papa Jack. 😂
Waiting in line for the new Avatar/Pandora ride. The wait was THREE HOURS! The ride was: FANTASTIC!!!
This view NEVER ceases to excite me … and EVERYONE ELSE!
Mickey shaped food was EVERYWHERE!
Uncle Jeff, Kylee, and Jackson rode this ride. I did NOT! They are on the back row on the left side.
Waiting for FANTASMIC nighttime show to start. It was FANTABULOUS!
We really had a great time while the grandkids were visiting us. We were sad to see them go. After they left, we had a couple of naps to rest up from all the fun!
Retirement......LOVE IT! 