Wonderful Family

We have skipped a year with this blog, but have decided to get it going again. 2019 was a hard year for us as we both faced major medical issues that we are living with. Now we are in Florida again for the winter and getting off to a new start with the diet and exercise, etc. Looking back we want to highlight Christmas 2019 because our wonderful family made it a Christmas to remember. It was a fun and exciting day thanks to them.

To begin the day Kelly Jo and Andrew arrived with food for breakfast. Not just food but two casseroles, cinnamon rolls,  and a fruit platter. No one was hungry after that! Thank you for the great food and for making it a great morning.

Jessica is enjoying a cinnamon roll!
After breakfast we opened gifts. JoAnna came barefoot, hoping to find new socks under the tree.

There were gifts galore under the tree.

Here is Ryan with the moose hat that his grandmother knit.

Kelly Jo liked her cookie jar!

After the gifts were opened, Matt announced that there was another one in the car. They brought in a great big cooler and you can see in Ryan's hand what was in it. Matt and Jo brought beautiful lobsters, cooked them, and prepared lunch. What a feast it was.

There it is. A feast for kings. It was an absolutely wonderful day and left us all with a warm and thankful feeling for the great people that we call family. Memories were made.

After Christmas we packed up and left for points south. We enjoyed gift exchanges with Jon, Erin and Emily, and then went on to Bob's, where we stayed two nights. We had a great time there and exchanged some great gifts. We really enjoyed having a day to spend with Alex and Bridget.

So here we are at the beginning of a new year, changing our eating habits and hoping to come home in the spring in better shape than when we arrived.

Away We Go - Again!

It's that time of year. The snow starts to pile up. The temperatures drop sharply. Gary is tired of hauling wood upstairs. It is time to go to Florida!

On December 26 we started the packing. This is a picture of the car packed to go. We left on December 27 and made a stop in Cumberland to do Christmas presents with Jon, Erin, and Emily. Here is Emily finding a new sweater.

Next we moved on the Massachusetts where we spend an extra day with Bob, Gina, Bridget, and Alex.

These two munchkins were on Christmas vacation and we had a great time visiting with them and exchanging gifts. We went out to lunch with Bob at our favorite place in Sudbury, the Wayside Inn.

This Inn dates back to colonial days and has a great atmosphere as well as good food.

Our travels included a trip to a very nice yarn store, The Fiber Loft in Harvard, Mass.

We left on December 29 for the trip south. This is a picture of the trip through Hartford, Connecticut.
We stayed in Pennsylvania that night and woke up to snow, which continued into Virginia.

Before the day was over the snow was over and we headed south of it. Finally on December 31 we reached Florida and spent the night at Jacksonville.

We arrived at our destination January 1 and spent the afternoon and evening moving in. Of course we had to go out for supplies, and visited one of our favorite locations, Steak and Shake.

A real milkshake is truly a treat. However, the fat content of that shake probably had something to do with Louise going to the hospital with chest pains. After spending a night there, she returned home with no diagnosis, but with no frightening results either. Since then the diet has been much better.

There is something so enjoyable about being in Florida. Probably someone from a milder climate than northern Maine would not appreciate it so much. It is currently "cold" down here and people are complaining about winter. It has been down in the 30s a couple of nights, and the past few days have been in the 50s. Today we visited one of the beaches and we found people dressed pretty warm for a beach visit,

Despite the cold it is beautiful. The grass and the trees are green. The sun is shining. We are so happy to be here and away from the terrible weather at home.

We spotted a little boy at the beach who was having a great time running on top of the sand dunes.

We are happy here.

Thanksgiving!

The year is passing very quickly. This week we celebrated Thanksgiving with some of the family. Bob and Gina and the kids came up to spend Thanksgiving with us. Even the family that had other plans for Thanksgiving dinner stopped in to visit so it was a festive time at the Cole house.

Here is the dinner all ready for people to sit down and eat.

Bob and Gary stuffed the turkey early in the morning.

We had a pilgrim girl visiting us, little Miss Briget!

And her brother, the elegant Alexander:

Bridget had a knitting lesson and is seen in great concentration:

A good time was had by all!

next we look ahead to Christmas and the trip to Florida. Only Christmas shopping stands in the way.

Summer Fun

Twice this summer we have been visited by our youngest grandchildren and we want to share some of the fun and the photos.

Here they are - Bridget, Emily, and Alex. What a group they are when together. Their summer adventures included a trip to the camp and swimming in the lake.

Here they all are in the water and the sun.

Here we have Alex practicing his swimming skills.

That old paddle boat has given many rides on Portage Lake, going back to Matt and PJ using it as kids themselves. Here Bob is taking Bridget and Alex on tour.

Here we have Grammy getting a hug from the two girls.
The favorite book of the summer was "Where Oh Where is my Underwear", being read by Jessica.

This book was a favorite of Jessica's when she was their age.
The cousins had a good time and here we even have a picture of "kissing" cousins!

Grampy and Bob took Bridget and Alex for a hike up Haystack Mountain one fine summer day.

Here they pose at the top. What a view and what a hike!

Lots of fun was had riding scooters and playing outside.

There were quiet times inside, also. Here we have a very handsome Alex enjoying the iPad.

The summer activity culminated in the August Festival. Gary and Louise were King and Queen and Meghan was the royal driver.

Ryan marched with the Boy Scouts in the parade.

And the King and Queen rode in the parade in a beautiful car provided by Steve Marr.

It has been a wonderful summer and we have enjoyed the grandchildren so much.