December 2011 Visit North

Our trip north went well, even tho the temp got lower and lower as we headed to CT.  We spent 5 nights with Brian and Lauren, and 5 nights at Becca's in-laws, close to Becca and her Brian.  Had a wonderful time at both places.  It is great to have warm weather here in the south, but miss all of these people immensely!

BJ playing Wii.  BJ's getting so tall, I need to look up at him!

Aiden playing Wii with Uncle Brian.

Lauren with Aunt Nancy's b'day cake.

Al's brother Branch and sis-in-law Nancy.  Nancy has a birthday this time of year, so Lauren put candles in the dessert cake.

Awwww....Uncle and Aiden!

Bubba Chang, one of Brian and Lauren's cats.

One of Joyce, Hank and Jack's 5 cats.  I cannot remember this one's name.  Kind of like kids, loves the boxes things come in LOL

Comfy!!!

This is Smoky....I thoroughly enjoyed all the animals at both places.  Anyone who knows me, knows I want one so much!!!!  This sweetie left us a gift on top of our cloth bags.....a few furr balls!!!LOL

BJ with his big gift from Lauren and his dad!!!

Skye, her dad Dana, and Brian.

Beau, Lauren's Mom and Stu's dog...

Daisy, another member of their family.

Lauren and her mom.

Papa and BJ

Three musketeers....Dana, Lauren and BrianW

Cuddle time...

Dana and Skye....

The Wii was lots of fun....we are leaving it at Brian's as we just don't  have enough room in

the rig to use it comfortably, and Becca and BrianB have one.

Andre and Marly...Lauren's step brother and wife.

Lauren's mom Karen and husband Stu

I had made scrapbooks of the Alaska trip for all the kids....hard to wrap so I had to improvise, yarn and material.  So fun making them; brought back memories, so hopefully in years to come it will for them also.

BJ with his new hat!

At Becca's in-laws, Hank and Al trying to fill a bottle with Waissel  Hank made.  It was delicious!

Two of the feline members of their family...nice and comfy and cozy!

Hank has a big problem with squirrels eating his deer feed, so we re-gifted him with a book of suggestions.  We'll see next Xmas if anything worked LOL

One of Uncle Jack's Christmas gifts....not on yet, but wait, too small.....I don't remember LOL..

A little R and R for Joyce.....or is it close to bed time, maybe!!

Trin and Aiden having breakfast Xmas morning.

Ahhh, my buddy!!!

Trin is gonna be a heartbreaker....she is sooo adorable!

A little cuddle for Xmas morning!

Papa always teases Trin about kisses, etc.  He decided to sit on her lap.....

Card time!

Aiden made this at school for Mommy!

Xmas snuggles near the tree.

Scrapbook time!

Legos

Assembly time!

Two babies, LaLa and Bridgie

Smoky on the mountain LOL....where he left his fur balls!

Trin and Grandma Joyce!   

Stocking time

Santa had a hard time with these!!!

Trin's favorite guy!!!

Princess Tent from Grandma and Grandpa Beschel

Playing with one of Brian's remote cars.....

Our rooms at Quantico VA MC Base on the way home!  3 Room suite, and very reasonable.

Wonderful time that went by all too quickly! 

12-7-2011 Snowing in Celebration, FL

Skating Rink before the snow started.

It was cool to see the kids/grownups in shorts while snowing!

Actually, fake snow LOL.....more like shaving cream or something.  But it still looked cool!

Part of the snow crew, Rolly and Bonnie.

More snow crew, Paul and Linda

And more snow crew, John

Santa's elves, maybe!

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Outside ice cream parlour

It was a beautiful warm night, and reflections on the pond were awesome.

10-22-2011 Guys Fishing Trip

Late in posting this.  Couldn't decide whether to keep posting on this blog or not.  Seeing our friends Bonnie and Rolly's blog continue,  kind of  made the decision for us.  It's great seeing all the pictures, at least for those of us that are into picturesLOL.

Four of the guys in the family went on a fishing trip out of New London, CT.  They had a good, long, cold, day!!
One of our grandson's doesn't like to fish, so he wasn't there.

10-30-2011 Sturbridge Super Storm

So much has happened the past several weeks culminating in an old fashioned nor'easter at Sturbridge, that I thought I'd add a few pictures for those of you who used to come to Sturbridge.

We've spent several weeks getting all our doc appts taken care of and seeing kids and grandkids.  Time went by really fast.  We were due to leave Nov 1st, however mother nature had other plans.  You've all heard the
news by now of the Nor'easter that has hit several states.  We were settled very nicely in Sturbridge with some of the crew that is usually there for Halloween.  Yesterday the snow began and by 4PM the campground had lost power.  By last evening, several trees/branches had come down, and you could hear the moans and groans of the trees due to snow weight.

We were lucky as we had our generator, but several people didn't have one.  As is true of many campers, several people rose to the occasion by starting the fireplace in the Rec Hall, cooking hot dogs in the fireplace, keeping themselves occupied, and even spending the night there.  I wish I had thought to take some pictures up at the Rec Hall, that would have been great.  Al did manage to do his usual trips around the campground visiting, and took these pictures.

Early during the storm

This morning....you can see how the branches are just hanging!

This was the view in many areas of the campground.

A friend of ours, Big John, was driving this truck with plow in front teaching a worker to plow.  A tree landed on the roof the cab.  Very scary for them...but someone was sure looking out for the guys.  After several phone calls trying to get help (phones no longer work well in certain areas of the campground), Al and another guy managed to pull the drivers door open and get them out.   Again, they sure were lucky!!

Close up of truck.

One of the beautiful views of the lake.

This is my favorite!

This and the rest of the pictures show the hanging branches, etc.