Late Christmas Post.

While Caden was on Christmas break, we went down to my parents for a couple of days. I got to visit with my aunt's the night that we got there. We had a lot of food, laughter, and fellowship.

I wanted to share some photos with you of all the fun that was had by all.

All the aunts and my mom. The only photo taken with me and my aunts didn't turn out:(

My cousin was taking pictures while I was:)

The grandparents.

Caden is now as tall as my dad.

She forgets that he is almost 17;-)

I enjoyed getting to visit with my aunt's. Each one is very different and has brought something different to my life. They are getting older and I don't get to see them very much. Their ages range from 69 yrs. old to 87 yrs. old. I can't even believe that as I type it.

My mother and I went shopping one day and then had a pedicure the next day. We then celebrated Christmas on Tuesday before we headed back.

It was a nice visit.

How did y'all celebrate your Christmas?

Melanie

(since none of the photos turned out, they all have PW's actions applied to them.)

Saturday Fun Day.

A couple of Saturdays ago, CSX had a family fun day. It was held at the rail yard and all the workers were invited. This is something that they do occasionally for the employees.

This get together came at a time where Gary had been working about 30 days straight and Caden and I hadn't seen him much. I decided that the only way to get Gary out of the office and be able to see him for a couple of hours was to take Caden and go.

They had a bouncy thing, a cotton candy machine, a face painter, and a climbing wall. It was really geared toward small children but it was nice.

They had hot dogs, hamburgers, bbq chicken, and sides.

After we ate, they were playing bingo and I wanted to play. Of course Caden didn't but after a round or two, he came on board:)

Then we toured an old caboose and headed home.

It was a nice day that we had as a family.

Hope y'all are having a good week.

Melanie

I Fly.

The hubby is a daredevil. He will bungy jump, free fall, and now he did a simulation of jumping out of a plane.

Caden did it too.

Just for the record, I told Gary that he could sky dive (the real kind) but Caden could not:)

We found a place outside of San Francisco and off we went.

Here they are getting ready to go in the tunnel. They are both very excited.

In the tunnel waiting for their turn. I think Caden might be getting a little nervous at this point.

Here's Caden fixing to 'jump' in.

He's very happy at this point.

He's going on his own at this point.

This is right before the instructor takes him up really high in the tunnel. They add much more air in the tunnel at over a hundred miles an hour and it takes them up and drops them.

There he is going up in the tunnel.

Here is Gary's turn. He had just 'jumped' in.

Gary didn't get to go as high up as Caden did but they both loved it and said that they would do it again. Of course Gary would jump out of a real plane if he could find one.

Maybe that would be a really good birthday present for him:)

Have a great Monday.

Melanie

10-10-10

I know that a lot of people are talking about this date but I am remembering it for another reason.

My grandmother.

I called her Meme. She was everything to me. She died when I was 10 years old and today, had she have lived, she would be turning 90.

90.

Just saying it sounds unbelievable.

She died at the age of 58 from a brain tumor. I remember my dad coming home from the hospital and I just knew. I knew even at the age of 10 that something was really wrong. I knew that she had died and I knew that that was what my dad was going to tell me. I cried for hours after he told me.

It would be 12 years before I could even speak about her and not cry.

Gary and I were on vacation with our friends when I found out I was pregnant. We were in the mountains and we were close to where she was buried, so we went to the cemetery.

I cried there because I knew that I was pregnant and I knew that she would never know my child.

She was a very special person and I miss her every.single.day.

But now I don't cry when I think about her or speak of her.

I just smile.

Happy Birthday Meme.

Melanie

Scrabble.

We love scrabble. When we built our first home in Florida, Gary and I would play it at the kitchen island all the time.

I could never win.

Fast forward about 7 years and I find out that the reason that I could never win against him is that he was counting words over if he added to existing word. All the triple words, double letters….you get the picture. (he didn’t know that that was not the correct way to play…he wasn’t cheating;-)

Anyway, this week we got out the old scrabble game again.

This is how Caden and I felt the whole time.

Because we live with this railroader whose whole entire job is planning things out.

Let me just say, he takes a long time. I can see his mind working in this photo. He plots and strategizes the whole time.

This is what WE do the whole time!

My other winning hand. NOT!

In the end, the railroader came in first, Caden came in second, and since I had such winning hands, I came in last:(

It was still fun and it went faster than I thought it would.

I am just thankful that it wasn’t Chutes & Ladders:)

Melanie

Finally...vacation will begin:)

Okay, so maybe vacation was a month ago but a lot has happened since we got back on July 26th. First, my Dell PC decided that it wanted to quit working on me and then we found out we were moving.

So between those two things, there hasn't been a whole lot of time to blog. I have been wanting to tell y'all about our vacation but I am going to have to do it in stages. I haven't even looked at all of the vacation photos yet and they still have to be edited too.

That leads me to start with our flight to San Francisco. We left out of the Indianapolis Airport as I talked about here. The first thing that Caden did was look to see what there was to eat.

They then decided what we were going to eat and off they went.

We were flying out at 3:30 so we had some time to kill after we ate, so Caden broke out the IPod and played poker of all things:)

We had a short layover in Phoenix Arizona and flying over the mountains was beautiful.

Those are different looking mountains than what we see on the east coast and so beautiful. But for those who have never been to San Francisco, the flight into the city is very cool. It looks at though you are going to land on the water.

It was a bumpy flight at times but all in all, it went by fast. We stayed at the Marriott at Union Square which was a nice hotel. I don't think I would stay in Union Square again because it is downtown and we have always stayed closer to the bridge.

As you can see, I didn't get a picture before we messed the bed up but it was a great room. It had great beds which, besides being clean, is top priority for us. I have so much to share with y'all about our vacation that it is going to take me a while to get it all down.

It was a wonderful trip and we loved everything that we did. Hopefully I can do a post or two a week so that I can show you all the great places we went.

Have any of y'all gone on a great vacation this summer?

Melanie