Christmas Tea

This year I wanted to start a Christmas memory with my sweet grand-daughters and daughter-in-laws. We Had tea with plenty of sugar cubes, cookies, cakes and sandwiches. Not all my girls could make it but we had fun.

We made a Christmas Decoration

Hand made wreaths

And Reagan just couldn't hang!

Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard

Evan and I are in Cape Cod enjoying a few days away. Tomorrow we leave for Martha's Vineyard for a couple of days thanks to a gift certificate we received from his work on retirement. I feel so blessed to be able to visit a place I've never been. The Atlantic always will have my heart since I've lived most of my life within a three hour drive.

The first night away we spent the night in a motel (motels are my least favorite place to stay). They are usually smelly, of disrepair and usually not that nice. I was not surprised, nor was I willing to stay more then I needed. We were up and out at 4:30am. Good thing a close Dunkin donuts was close by and open!
Today has been nice. Last night we spent the night in Provincetown Massachusetts. The streets turn into Mardi gras every single night and it's absolutely crazy. It is the self-proclaimed gay capital of the United States. We stayed in a place that was quite nice but didn't notice the rainbow flag until we checked in. The hosts were both lesbians but very very sweet people. I think we were the only straight couple in the whole place. But they welcomed us graciously and we loved on them as Christ. We were definitely outnumbered as we walked the streets. I felt strangely uncomfortable at the public display of affection between same sexes. Gosh, we live in a confusing world. Evan and I prayed that we would sleep well and actually enjoyed our stay and interacting with our hosts. One was a transvestite and one was just a plain ole' lesbian. Nice as can be. We were in turn were gracious and kind. Didn't at all  look shocked. Haha, we even went up there when they were having a lesbian woman's week. We were surrounded, but God was with us. Tonight we are staying in Falmouth and it is an absolutely lovely town. Evan and I've rode bikes all around and we are getting ready to go out to dinner as I speak. More later.

Testing, testing

Getting ready for the wilderness. 

Haha, someone lives in Lala LAND.  First of all we will most likely be in areas that do not have internet. Second of all, we are seriously thinking of leaving most of this behind as we want to be unhooked from social media and focus on family relationships, doing games together and reading books. Books, the kind that has paper pages and smells like grade school. Risking paper cuts and defacing with ear marks and highlighters. Don't worry, we purchased our books so we could do just that. I will, as promised send pictures and remarks along the way via this blog during our trip.

I was struck the other day that we will be in a place that has not been touched by man and is still the way God created it to be. How awesome is that?

On another note, this child will change so much in two weeks. Louisa absolutely loves little Reagan and couldn't get enough of her last weekend when we were all together. She has such a sweet and rental spirit. I hope this picture comes through as my son Tyler asked me to practice putting pics on this blog before we go. Let me know Tyler!

Two weeks before frontier land

This morning Evan and I made our coffee with the percolator we are taking on our trip. Good idea, bad idea. The good idea is we made a test pot before our trip, the bad idea is taking it on our trip. If colored caramel liquid is your goal then I’m all over taking it, but if a good cup of coffee is the goal then let’s not be fooled. Hot liquid will not due. After a lovely Mother’s Day brunch with Gavin and Liz in Frederick this morning we stopped by Bed Bath and Beyond and bought a coffee press. I believe this will do! Packing has begun in earnest as we try to remember all the creature comfort‘s we could imagine fitting into our suitcases. I’m sure many things will be left home when we weigh these cases as we are only allowed 50 pounds. Bug spray and mosquito netting will not be left home, along with sufficient pairs of cozy socks and warm layers. We will see!

...and we begin again in 2019

It's been awhile. I wanted to revisit blogging because Evan, Taylee and I are going to Alaska next month and I wanted to share pictures and stories about our trip. We plan on visiting an internet cafe from time to time to do that sort of thing.Since my last post in 2012 much has happened. Like almost 7 grandchildren. One is due in a couple of weeks. Two more marriages and my girl in collage. Plus, Evan left his job of 27 years and is taking some, as the younger generation likes to say "GAP" time. We have been blessed way more then we could have imagined that he could actually retire. We are so grateful for this time together to be foot loose and fancy free. We just finished the Whole 30 diet and surprisingly found it useful in tweaking our eating habits moving forward. Since we were kind of surprised about the convictions, we thought of doing the same thing with media. Bringing our 18 year old daughter aboard was challenging. A week into it we needed to tweak that as well. It was way to restrictive and quite honestly it was our conviction not hers. However, she bared under the restrictions rather well, but we knew it needed some adjusting or we would loose her completely. I find it amazing how much more time I have to do other things. Hence, this blog. As we prepare for our trip to Alaska, we are trying to think of all the little things we may need to take with us or purchase in Anchorage upon our arrival. Little things like face netting, fly swatter, insect repellent and the like. We are renting a fairly new Winnebago in Anchorage and traveling south around the Kenai Peninsula. But first we will travel the Denali Highway, a 136 mile of mostly gravel road. No towns, but perhaps 1 or at best 2 gas stations. In Alaska you can park along side of the road and call it home for the night. Of course this is called boon-dogging for there is no hook-up, electricity or water. We had better plan well my friends. Traveling about 15 MPH it will probably take us 4 days. We will be in the wilderness baby!!! But think of the sky, the stars, moose and bear oh my!!! First thing on our shopping list is bear spray. Just in case one wants to get to friendly. We will hopefully not need it, but since it's a remote possibility it will be bought and given away once the trip is completed. More to follow on that.