The Party's Over...

"Turn out the lights, the party's over. They say that all good things must end." (Willie Nelson song)

The nest is empty, and very quiet. But, OH, What a blast we had!

My next post will include photos, but I haven't had a chance to go through them so instead, this post will just touch on some things I learned while hanging with the kids for the last 10 days.

• This little house holds 9 people pretty well. 
• We need a bigger table.
• The septic tank (rated for a 2 bedroom house) holds a lot more than I thought it would.
• My daughter takes great pictures.
• The same daughter takes TOO MANY pictures! (That's why I haven't had a chance to go through them to pick out a few really good ones to post.)
• A wrap-around porch apparently exists to be a race track for 4 little ones.
• Warren never stops. (This is not new news. It's just reconfirmed.)
• Samantha never stops giggling. (also reconfirmed.)
• We needed a lap-counter to track the number of laps Nicholas and Warren ran. 
• Zachary, the 2-year old, keeps up pretty well.
• There are 346 steps to climb at the 10 Commandments at Fields of the Woods. We climbed them all and then climbed another 300 to see more stuff.
• Zachary is a great step climber. He climbed all but 75 of the ones at the Fields. He climbed our steps to the loft 14 times a day.
• Bike helmets are a good thing. 
• My grandkids are tough. Not much slowed them down. Not their first trail ride on a big horse. Not a bike crash. Not a super fast ride on a tube with Paberry at the helm of the motorboat.
• Paberry does NOT know the meaning of  a 'gentle ride' when his wife requests that for her first ride on a tube behind the boat.
• You can not NOT laugh when you are riding on a tube. You just can't. Trust us.
• Laughing hysterically is the best stress reliever around. It is head clearing, mind clearing, heart and lung clearing, blood clearing. It's better than a good gin and tonic and head massage combined. I know. I had 9 people at my house for a week and a half, and after that ride, all was calm.
• Zachary loves boats. After the pontoon boat, for the next 3 days his main word was "BOAT!" 
• There is no time to read when the gang is here.
• The Hammock can take a beating. Just ask 4 kids. 

We had a wonderful time with the kids. They got to swim, boat, horseback ride and sight see. We went to Helen and played mini-golf and toured the town.

I think they'll be back.

I can't wait.

Meanwhile, I'm heading to the hammock with a book.

Spring Travels! Part 1

I've been absent from here lately, but it is only because we've been bouncing around this spring! I was in Florida for a month when Jenny had her baby AND had to move at the same time! I was home for 2 weeks before Larry and I left on a road trip to North Carolina, Florida and A CRUISE!! It was wonderful. Getting away together is always great because we spend so much time apart. It is always special to me to see how well we get along when we go on road trips. Spending all that time in a car can be an instant compatibility test. Somehow, we always pass!

We went to North Carolina over Easter to get to know the area we think we want to retire to, a little better. We are looking at Murphy, NC which is 10 miles from Blairsville, GA and 10 miles more or less, from the Tennessee border. It is a beautiful area in the Smoky Mountains. We like both Blairsville and Murphy. One is newer and has a little more to do, while the other has a more quaint, small town atmosphere.  We actually went to Easter services in BOTH towns. One was at 9:00 and Contemporary while the other at 11:00 was more traditional, so we had a chance to see the differences and get a feel for both congregations.

After 5 wonderful days in Murphy, we headed to one of my other favorite places...Jen's... for a couple of days so Larry could meet Zachary. Men are rather funny with babies. While women instantly reach for a newborn baby, most men will gladly wait until the kid can run around before getting down to their level. However, at one point we were all busy and Zach started to fuss. Jen went to get him, and there was Paberry, and a very calm Zachary.

While at Jen's we repacked for the next, very special, part of our trip! (This might be a good place to mention that 1) Larry and I have never been great at packing light, 2) When you have a car, you can just add more stuff, and 3) From the mountains of North Carolina, to suburban Florida, to the Caribbean, it is safe to say, we had plenty of stuff and lots of repacking to do.) Saying goodbye to Jen, Dave, Nicholas and Zachary is always hard, but Nicholas made sure we left prepared. Just as we were getting into the car he said, "Wait!" and ran into the house. He came back with ...

a little box of raisins! (Don't you just love kids?) "In case you get hungry," he told me as he handed it to me. Does he know me or what? I carried that little box everywhere I went, because anyone who knows me knows when I get hungry.... well, let's just say it's not always pretty!

From there we headed to Tampa and had dinner with some old friends before leaving Monday morning on our cruise.

I worked with this group when we were all teachers at McDonald Elementary and it was great seeing them all again. (It would have been even better if SGD, Heather, Abby and Terry were there!)

And then it was time! To celebrate (belatedly) our 40th anniversary, Larry and I booked our first cruise. We embarked from Tampa and cruised to the Grand Caymans and Cozumel, Mexico. We have wanted to do this for awhile but after a previous experience on a day cruise, I was worried that I would feel claustrophobic or sea sick. There are times when my head can play games with my equilibrium and I didn't want to be captive on a ship if that happened. At any rate, I am going to leave the cruise for the next post, but I won't leave you in the suspense. We had a blast!

Details coming!