Home Again after 9 months

What a beautiful site!! The Susquehanna River, so we're almost home. We have traveled far and wide and have decided Pennsylvania is a pretty good place to live. There is a lot of beauty throughout this state and the cost of living is so much less here than in the west.

We've seen a lot of sites that have brought us great joy but nothing compares to seeing the faces of our children and their families. It is good to be home for awhile. Nicky too enjoys being home. He can roam free here on the property and chase squirrels whenever he wants.

Below is the view from our Florida sun room. In a couple more weeks this will be a filled with all the autume colors.

It was so good to see my sister Jill and her fiance. Though we've just met Barry we can already tell he will be a great addition to the family and we look forward to many good times together. I love him dearly already because he has made my sister very happy.

From left to right Barry, my sister Jill, my brother Graham and our youngest of the 5 children Brandon.

Below is a picture of my brother, Graham and his wife, Esmeralda. Graham and wife live right next door to us which is really special having family that close.

Not long after we had arrived back home we got a call from Keith and Marie Richards. They said they were in town having work done on the RV. We were just heading out for breakfast so we went over to the RV place, picked them up and the 4 of us had a lovely breakfast together and time to catch up with one another.

We'd like to introduce to those of you who have traveled with us our family.

You've already met our youngest in the picture above.

Below is our eldest son, David and his wife, Erica.

Below is a picture of Erica with their daughter, Isabella, they are wearing the beads Nana picked up from Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Below is their son , Garrett, and his friend, Kyle.

The two fishermen Kyle and Garrett.

While the boys were fishing Isabella decided to help Papa with the mowing. She did a very good job.

Here we all are at a soccer game. In the first row is our eldest daughter Suzanne her daughter Hollyn and her husband Dave. Her two boys are Keenan and Troy and they are the ones we're watching. On the next row is Lee and our daughter Michelle.

Here are the soccer players on the top row is Keenan and on the bottom row is Troy.

This beautiful young woman is our daughter Michelle.
Below are Steven and Carissa, Michelle's two children.

Here's Carissa with her beads from New Orleans.

This is our eldest daughter, Suzanne, the mother of the two soccer players, Keenan and Troy.
There is a picture of her husband. Dave, in the picture above.

Suzanne's daughter Hollyn is featured below. Don't we have the greatest looking grand kids?

As you can tell Troy and Keenan were pretty tired after the game and Keenan still had to go to work that evening.

Dad's down there catching up with the girls. It was a beautiful day that day and we all went over to Michelle's after the soccer game and had pizza.

Nicky is happy to be back with his friends again. Our neighbor, Davis and Donna, have 4 dogs. Two of their dogs are in the picture below--Peppy and Evie.

Since we've been home we are either with family, entertaining friends, or working on the property. I have been busy painting in the house. I have the living-room and the bathroom done so far.

This is Lee and our neighbor Mark working on scraping the last wall of the barn preparing it for painting. The other three sides are done.

Our trip brought us great joy but nothing compares to the joy of spending time with the family again.

OUR FAMILY

.

1)Our eldest Suzanne and her husband Dave

Children Keenan, Troy and Hollyn

2)Our daughter Michelle

Children Steve and Carissa

3)Our son, David and his wife Erica

Their children Isabella and Garrett

4)Our daughter Karen and her husband Mac

Their children Mike and Lukas

5)Our son Brandon

This is our family.Five beautiful children and 9 great grand children. Karen was featured on the Mill Valley blog post. She is our California girl. Everyone else lives within an hour drive from here.

I HOPE THIS BLOG HAS HELPED ALL WE TRAVEL WITH GET TO KNOW US AND OUR FAMILY BETTER.

I especially hope it has been fun for you Jane and Carol.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

We may not have it all together but together we have it all.

Lake Kenisee, Jefferson, Ohio Sept.7-12 2009

The trip from Lou and Carol Hands to Jefferson was 321 miles. We got in and set up before dark. We were immediately impressed with how well groomed the park was. They have also just recently updated all the electrical system. There is a lake and 2 small ponds. There are 2 pickle ball courts here for you pickle ball enthusiasts.
The sites here are nice and roomy. There are lots of pretty places to walk and bike.

We did a driving tour of the covered bridges of Ashtabula county, home of the longest covered bridge in America. There were 11 bridges on the tour.

The longest covered bridge is the one in the center, bottom row of the collage. It is also all wooden floor.

This is Nicky taking himself for a walk along one of the paths over at Geneva on the Lake.

This is the lodge and conference center at Geneva State Park on Lake Erie.

The facilities are lovely. There is a beautiful indoor and outdoor pool. A nice restaurant and beautiful grounds to amble about.

There is also a large marina there.

Tomorrow we head to Harrisburg, PA. We left home Sept. 26, 2008 and I guess it's about time, don't you?? We miss the children and grandchildren our friends, family and church but we've had one fantastic trip. We have seen so much. In a couple of years we will probably do another trip west. There are many things we did not have time to see.

Continue to follow the blog as I will be updating you as to what we are doing at home and introducing you to our family.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

What we anticipate seldom occurs;

what we least expected generally happens.

Visit with Lou & Carol Hands Sept.2-7 2009

Kelsey on the right who just turned 13 and her friend Alex. Happy Birthday Kelsey.

We left Spring Grove, Minnesota and traveled to Jefferson, Wisconsin. The above collage shows some of the sights along the way. We stayed at Bark River Campground a passport America campground -- I would not recommend it. We left the next morning for Lou and Carol Hands in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Wisconsin looks a lot like Pennsylvania a lot of farms.

Lou and Carol's beautiful new home. These guys did most of the work on the interior of the house. Lou did a beautiful job on the cherry hardwood floors and you should see all the tile work that Carol did. There isn't anything these two can't do. They are the dynamic duo!!


Carol sitting at the counter of her new kitchen.

Above are some pictures of the living room the spare bedroom and Carol's tile work.

Two master minds at work. Fixing a problem with our dolly.

We spent a day touring around a little. We saw the fish hatchery on our way to South Haven.

Two really special people to us. Lou and Carol Hands.

Check out the name on the restaurant down there.

Carol with their daughter, Debbie in Debbie's dinning room.

Their son, Bill, and his wife Deb, their children Conner and Kendall, with her funcky new glasses.

Their daughter, Debbie, her husband Mark their children Logan and Kelsey.
The birdhouse in the background one of the grandchildren made with Grandpa.

The Hands clan.
Aren't they a good looking group?
Not pictured here are their son Curtis who lives in St. Augustine and their son Craig and his wife Kate.

We did have an opportunity to meet and have dinner with Craig but did not have the camera with us at the time.

It was great to meet all the children and grandchildren. What a lovely family they have.

We did get three days of Pickle Ball in. Two days on indoor courts and one day outside. We shared a lot of good meals together, played games and talked a lot.

So now it's back on the road again with my lap dog, Nicky.