Thinking spring!

The weather has been so crazy!  One day warm and the next cold.  I decided to bring some spring into the house anyway!

It will be March in a few days and that's when I really break out "spring."  I add my spring pillows, door decorations and a few bunnies.  Even if the weather isn't warm, I can think spring!

Archery and happy weekend!

Emma Taylor has had some archery meets in the last couple of weeks.  She has improved a lot since last year and her confidence has grown too.

Ready to shoot.  They are lined up so closely...that would bug me but doesn't seem to bother her.

I'm glad she's found something that she really enjoys.  Of course, there's dance which is her real passion!

Morgan and her friend Bailey have been staying with us for the last 8 weeks or so while they do their PT clinical rotation in Tupelo.  Yesterday was their last day here and they are moving on to another clinical rotation, then graduation the first weekend in May.

They have been a delight to have here and we are going to miss them!  We are also going to miss Morgan's dog Captain who has been staying with us too.  He's a Labradoodle and the sweetest dog!  So proud of Morgan and Bailey and look forward to their graduation.  Bailey already has a job in Anniston, AL.  Looking forward to seeing where Morgan ends up.  She's had a couple of job offers already so it will be exciting to hear where she chooses to land!

Our weather has been just beautiful here.  Things are blooming all over the place.  Sure hope we don't get a frost to kill them all!  Hope you all have a great weekend!

Celebrating Sam's birthday

We celebrated Sam's 16th birthday with lunch/dinner at Cheesecake Factory in Memphis on Sunday afternoon.  It was Sam's choice of restaurants and since he turned 16, he picked a special place.  It's a really busy restaurant so it's hard to get in at lunchtime or supper time so we had ate around 4:00. 

The lunch was delicious (eggplant parmesan) as was the cheesecake I split with Harrison (plain cheesecake with a few strawberries).  He ate all the strawberries!

After lunch we had a group picture taken. 

Randy's mom and stepfather are in the back, Bill in the blue shirt, Becky to the right of him, and Randy's sister to the right of his mother.  Sam's other grandparents are all the way on the right. 

He got his license last week so that's a big deal!  With Randy a policeman though, he won't be able to get away with anything!

Biloxi and then home!

Breakfast at the hotel again, then on our way out of town we made a stop at K.C.'s Fruit market to load up on fresh fruit. 

They had samples for us to try which sold us right away!

There was all kinds of produce to choose from.

I bought oranges, tomatoes, tangelos and pummelos.  I had never heard to pummelos but they are a cross between a grapefruit and orange.

We left the fruit market and high-tailed it to Biloxi.  We wanted to have lunch at Harbor View, our favorite place for shrimp poboys.  They closed at 3:00 so we drove like madmen to get there in time.  We arrived at 2:59 but they let us in and we got our poboy fix!

We stayed at the Quality Inn in Biloxi, right on the beach.  We watched a beautiful sunset...just as pretty as the Key West sunset!

We left the following morning and after a brief stop in Petal, MS to visit one of D.W.'s friends, we were on our way home.  We drove 2,913 miles.  Good thing Doug likes to drive!

St. Augustine and Happy Birthday Morgan!

Today is Morgan's 26th birthday.  Karen's baby girl is 26...where did the time go?

She has been staying with us for the last few weeks while she does her physical therapy rotation here in Tupelo.  It's been a delight to have her!  I made the Portillo's chocolate cake to celebrate this evening!

Also bonus grandson Sam turned 16 yesterday.

Watch out...he'll be driving in a few days! 

We will celebrate his birthday this weekend. 

Back to our trip.

After breakfast at the hotel, we took the Red Train tour of St. Augustine.

It was a great tour!  St. Augustine is the oldest city in the United States.  It is full of interesting old houses and churches.

In fact, the oldest house in the United States is here.

We drove past the entrance to the Fountain of Youth, but didn't make a stop.

Drove past this beautiful old oak tree, thought to be over 600 years old.  They call it the Old Senator.

We took a shuttle to the St. Augustine Lighthouse.

None of us felt up to walking up to the top!

We stopped for lunch at Mojo's for a little BBQ for lunch. 

Good choice!

After lunch, we walked down St. George Street which is the main old street. 

Then walked over to the fort.

Bad weather was coming in so we got out of town before it hit.  We drove to Lake City, FL and checked into the Country Inn and Suites.  A storm did come through and the hotel lost power a couple of times.  It passed through quickly though and we were able to drive the short distance to a Steak 'n Shake for dinner.

On to St. Augustine!

It's been a rather quiet weekend, other than Cam's game on Saturday. 

He's been on a rather crummy team this year.  He plays through the park and rec department and it's supposed to be a completely random pick.  It's hard to believe when it seems all the tall, really good kids ended up on one team!  Coincidence?  I think not!  It's good for him to learn to lose too!  Saturday was his last game.  Soon it will be baseball season! 

Back to our trip...

After breakfast at the hotel, we left Marathon Key and headed north.  Lots of driving this day.  We passed fields of cabbages and sugar cane.  Lots of agriculture in this area.

We stopped for lunch at a gas station in South Bay.  Restaurant choices were slim in that area but there was a buffet with meat and vegetables at a gas station and it was fine.  As it turned out, President Trump was inaugurated while we were having lunch and there was a TV mounted on the wall so we could see it.  After he was sworn in, the entire restaurant began clapping.  It's good to know that people are supporting our new president because like it or not, he is our president!

We drove up A1A along the east coast of Florida to Palm Bay where we spent the night at the Comfort Suites.  There was a Texas Roadhouse within walking distance so we walked there for dinner.  I don't know if I've ever been to a Texas Roadhouse but my steak was delicious! 

We had heard that there was supposed to be a rocket launch from Cape Canaveral that evening so after dinner we set up our lawn chairs in the hotel parking lot and waited for it.  We watched the countdown on our phones.

Shortly after blastoff we spotted it in the sky.

We watched it until it went out of site.  We heard on the news that it was a spy satellite.  It was exciting to watch and probably the only time I'll ever see a launch!

Courtney's Baby Shower

Things have been a bit busy around here this week.  It started on Friday when Cameron spent the night.  Ben left the next morning for his snowmobile trip to Yellowstone so Cameron was with us until Tuesday evening.  He had a game on Saturday afternoon, then we went to Red Bay on Sunday for a baby shower for Courtney.  Pat and Dave came down so Pat could attend the shower and they came over Sunday night and stayed until Wednesday.  In addition, we were dog sitting Ben's big Doberman!!  Things have calmed down now though so I can get back to blogging!

Courtney's had another lovely baby shower on Sunday.  It was held in the old Hotel Red Bay which is being renovated and will be opened again as a hotel soon.  The shower was held in the lobby area.  The old building has a lot of character.

Here's the beautiful mother-to-be standing by the guest book table.

Delicious food and decorations.

The tray below held the cutest cookies!  Elephants, hearts, bibs and onesies.

Cam handed out the cookies.  He loves to be a helper.

And a darling cake.  Notice an elephant theme going on here?  Think Alabama football!

Lovely door decoration greeted us.

Lots of wonderful gifts.

And some family pictures.  Paige is still in a boot from the foot surgery she had a while back.

Now all we need is Baby Duncan!!