Thanks for "Thanks"giving!

What a wonderful time of year--a time for all of us to remember even more all the blessings we have been given! I am so thankful for a wonderful husband, fourteen dear children (the seven in-law children feel like our own), and twenty--soon to be twenty-one grandchildren. They are all such wonderful people who work so hard in their daily lives--but even more, they try to live the gospel as the Lord would have them live. I am also so greatful to be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints--where or what would I be without it? I certainly would never want to know. I am also so blessed to have a dear father who is 85 years old--has never retired--he goes to the law office every day, and a mother who I hope I am living enough like her to be where she is someday. I love my seven brothers and sisters and their spouses, and George's brother and sister and their spouses. So you can see, I am surrounded by wonderful people. How great is that!

This year, we were given a whole week off from work, so George got a condo in Orlando. George, Jeff, Craig, and Cassie had to work Monday through Wednesday, but Amy, the boys, and I stayed down the whole week and did so many fun things. It was slightly cool for the pool even though it was warmed to 85 degrees, but with a breeze, it wasn't exactly swimming weather. That didn't stop us from doing so many other fun things.Disney Village is always great fun. They have a new Dinosaur Cafe which is like the Rain Forest Cafe. The kids loved the moving dinosaurs and searching for dinosaur bones. Jeff (with his 6" 5" body) could barely fit in the little train! It was hysterical!
We visited the Orlando Temple. What a beautiful sacred place it is.

We found wonderful parks to play in.
Amy and I took the boys by ourselves to Disney World. Whew! Keeping track of a two-year-old all day kept us both busy and made us very tired at the end of the day. But we made it home with him! This was the boys' first visit there, and they absolutely loved it! Garrett in front of his favorite ride of all: Peter Pan.

Amy made arrangements to meet one of her best friends she met while we lived in Gainesville-- Eva Poirer Snider--she is now married, lives in Orlando, and has three children. We had a great day with them. They have annual tickets to Disney World and go about once a week. How she does it with three kids I will never know. They all love it! Bye-bye, Disney World!

We celebrated Garrett's six-year-old birthday. It hardly seems possible George and I were in Dallas six years ago on Thanksgiving Day when Garrett was born. Although we ended up eating a Burger King hamburger because everything else was closed on Thanksgiving Eve by the time we got out of the hospital--it was so worth it to be there for the birth of a grandchild.We saw some fun Thanksgiving movies including: Bolt, Madagascar 2, Twilight, and Four Christmases. (The last two we saw when Craig and Cassie, Jeff, and George got there.) Of course, the girls had to hit the outlets and mall. Jeff took Amy at Midnight to The Childrens' Place and Craig took Cassie to get a new laptop at 3:00 a.m. at the Office Max. What good sports!

Thanksgiving Day in the condo was great! And we even got to call Taylor, our oldest grandchild, to wish him a happy 17th birthday. Happy Birthday, Taylor!

Even though we did a lot of this--it was just the greatest week!

That was for the Birds!

This past week we had a very unusual experience! I was putting the Thanksgiving wreath on the front door and had it open while I was doing it. Suddenly something flew past me. Garrett called out, "Grandma, a bird flew in!" "No, no," I said. "It was only a little butterfly." I kept on working and when I was done, I came in to the family room to indeed find a bird flying around in the room. "Yikes!!!"

Then when I got excited about trying to get it cornered, there were lots of shouts and screams by the kids as well as their mother, while the poor little bird was much more scared than we were! But finally, we got him to fly into the laundry room where Papa George saved the day! He got a net and caught the little bird and released him outside--much to both the little bird and all of our happiness!

Work made Fun!

On Saturday, we all went to Gainesville to help Craig and Cassie with some projects around their house. Seriously, we ended up having such a good time working together! The little boys thought it was great fun to burn all the old leaves and sticks lying around.

And watching Craig climbing a tree was very exciting!

Oh, yes, Cassie and I planted some flowers. Why didn't I get a picture of that?

The guys put up new boards on the back porch which had become a little water damaged. Now Craig and Cassie will just have to paint them.

But the most interesting part of all was watching George, Craig, and Jeff move the one ton tree stump to the big pile off the yard. It even flattened the tire on the wheelbarrow!




And where was Isaac most of the time? Why, finding dirt to eat! Crazy kid!

Craig and Cassie fixed us a wonderful cook-out dinner before we left for home. When you can make work fun, it just doesn't get any better than that!

All Treats--No Tricks!

What a great weekend we've had! Halloween night, Craig and Cassie came to stay. We hardly had any trick-or-treaters, but the cutest ones we had were these:
On Saturday, we were invited to a most fantastic Gator-Dawg tailgating/birthday party for little Georgia Grace, who is the daughter of Brad & Wimberly Brackett--Wimberly works at the district with George. As you can tell by the invitation, they are Georgia Bulldog fans through and through!

But Wimberly was kind enough to have blue plates along with the red, and put one or two blue and orange balloons outside so that we would know where to go.

Lots of friends came by who certainly showed their true colors--one guy didn't want to look for or against either team--although I think he was truly a Gator beneath it all.

Even the little kids got into the big game spirit! Here is Isaac with a little Bulldog fan.

The guys enjoyed a little football out on the lawn and were joined by Wimberly and Cassie.

Then Jeff and Amy and Craig and Cassie went downtown Jacksonville to the bigggggg game! Yes, like I said, no tricks--just a great treat when the score was Gators - 49 Dawgs - 10!!!!

We also heard that BYU won. What a great day!

After going to a wedding reception, George and I and the kids met Jeff and Amy and Craig and Cassie at a barbecue place and had a little pre-birthday dinner for George--his ?????? birthday. Craig and Cassie gave George a new Gator shirt. He certainly needed one!

Sunday, November 2nd, is actually George's birthday. After church, Amy and I fixed a big birthday dinner for George--his favorite, a roast beef dinner. Then we had the birthday cake. Believe it or not--this is only a third of the candles that should have been on the cake! But he's not getting older, he's just getting better! What a great weekend!