Turning 65 ain't all that bad...

This year was another big birthday...

 

I turned 65!

 

If you've been around for five or so years, you might remember My surprise party! for my 60th birthday.

 

This year, my birthday was a little more sedate, just a quiet day at the river with a few friends and family...

 

BUT

 

Look what Mr.K gave me for the big day:

 

 

Yes!  it's a VW Beetle convertible! 

 

My dream car!  I've been lusting after one forever.  I think I've had 9 VW's since I got my first Beetle in 1974.  Needless to say, I was am thrilled.

 

One of the first things I did was plan a road trip.

 

I headed due north, first to Clayton, NY, on the St. Lawrence River.

 

 

I've been going for more than 30 years. 

I love the Thousand Islands!

 

I got to stay at the new Thousand Island Harbor Hotel,

 

 

Which is a wonderful place to stay!

 

Mark and I spent many summer days (and occasionally winter days too) watching the river.

 

He loved ships.  It was so cool to walk into my room and look out the window to see this...

 

 

 

How ironic...Not only did he love ships, but he loved to sail as well!

 

 

 

In two nights, I became thoroughly spoiled...

 

The weather was so beautiful, I ate dinner on the patio...

 

They had fire pits where everyone seemed to want to hang out...

 

 

My friend, Patricia, came over from Canada for lunch.

 

The food at the hotel is so good, we ate on the patio..

 

.

 

and then we sat in these chairs...

 

 

That were set up along the river. 

 

Since we only see each other once a year, we had a lot of catching up to do.

We had a five hour lunch!

 

My first morning, I woke up just before six.  I heard a strange noise, a humming sound.

 

Then I realized...

It was a ship!

 

I tried to get a photo...

 

 

That was the best I could do.  See the ship in the middle of the photo?

 

The next day I had to try my courage and drive across the Thousand Islands Bridge... 

 

 Photo courtesy of http://pontscanadabridges.ca/en/?page_id=1150

I did not take this photo.   I was hanging on to the steering wheel with both hands!

 

I managed to visit all my favorite places...Cape Vincent, Clayton and Alexander Bay

Complete with lunch at another favorite...Bella's in Clayton!

 

They have wonderful food...a deck overlooking the water and cuddly throws on the back of the chairs in case it's a chilly day or night (and they do have plenty of those!).

Before I knew it, it was time to head south.

 

I was going to Canton, NY to spend time with Mark's family.

 

We had three wild and crazy nights of Pinochle...until someone delt this  

hand to Aunt Anne...

 

Barb, Mark's cousin, it such an amazing cook

but we did manage to go out and have a meal with eyes

with Aunt Anne and her daughter, Jenny...

And we went house hunting.

 

Barb has been house hunting for quite a while. 

 Just before I got there, she had put an offer in on a house.  The realtor called to say that

the owners had countered her offer.

 

Barb was a little bummed and said she needed time to think about it.

 

Barb, Aunt Anne and I jumped in the car and went out to see if there was anything interesting for sale.

 

There really wasn't, but the next day, the realtor called to say

that the owners of this...

 

 

waterfront property that had this...

 

deck...

 

Overlooking this...

 

Brandy Brook

 

 

that empties into the mighty St. Lawrence...

 

We accepting offers and were motivated sellers...

 

Long story short, Barb moves in next month!

 

Guess I'll be making lots and lots of road trips!

 

I had one more stop on the way home;

 

Oneida, NY.

 

That's where my Uncle Frank raised his family.

 

I had three cousins still there but had not seen them for years and years!

 

My cousin, Mark, was gracious enough to invite us for dinner

(and a photo session).

 

Mark and his wife, Laurie, have the most incredible Victorian home...

It's a work of love and art...so lovingly restored!

 

It was so wonderful to sit on the screened in back porch and see

faces that looked like family!

 

Here's beauty and the beasts...

 

 

That's Frankie, Mickey and Mark.

can you tell we're related?

 

We talked, laughed, and had a wonderful time.

I was sorry to see the evening end...

 

But I had a few kids, a grandson, a couple of dogs and a plant-killing husband waiting at home...

 

So I headed south.

 

6 days, 1,287 miles and all but 2 hours total with the top up.

 

It was so good to be home, even if my peace lily did not make it!

 

 

 



Aunt Helen strikes again!

I've said it before...my dad had EIGHT sisters and three brothers. 

 

All that is left of the family are my three aunts.

 

A few weeks ago, my cousins Maria and her husband Jim,  and her brother Anthony drove my Aunt Helen, to visit with us at my cousin Susan's house.

 

Aunt Helen and family live in Maryland.

 

My mom and I went to visit,

 

arriving in style...

 

 

It was such fun to see Susan.  She and I grew up together,

our back yards almost touched!

 

 

Here's Sue with her grandson, Owen, who was such a cutie...

 

 

Sue's husband, John, is such a saint to put up with us...

 

 

Yet he lets us come back time after time!

 

Sue and  John live on the Juniata River (you look it up) and have two homes there...

 

One where they spend summers and the other is Sue's art studio.

 

Sue gave everyone the tour of her studio...

 

 

Sue's granddaughter, Sophia, presented her great aunt with a specially chosen gift...

 

 

You can barely see them here, but they were earrings,

aren't they amazing?

 

After we ate, we all lined up in our chairs...

 

 

 

We were supposed to be watching the show put  on by Sophia and Emma...

but as usual, Mom and Aunt Helen acted up...

 

 

Finally the show began...

 

 

 

 

 

Of course, some of us had to get into the act...

 

 

Before you knew it, all the old people had to try it too...

 

 

 

That's my mom in the middle... she certainly was vertically challenged in this competition!

 

 

Afterwards, Sophia and Emma served snacks...

 

 

 

 

That's when we found out they work for tips :-}

 

Sigh...what a great day!

 

I adore my Aunt Helen!! 

 

 

I hope we have many more times together.

 

A big thanks goes out to Stacy, Sue's daughter, for the photos!

 

Love you guys!

 

 

 

Do you love books as much as I do?

I recently joined an unconventional book club.  We don't read together, we never meet...

We just love books and getting books in the mail!

Here is the Facebook post that got me interested.  


WANTED: Participants for a book-loving social experiment.
 Comment if you want to participate and I’ll send you details.
 What do you have to do? Buy your favorite book and send it to a stranger
 (I’ll send you a name and address.)
 You will only be sending one book to one person.
 The number of books you will receive depends on how many participants there are.
 The books that will show up on your door are the other people’s much loved stories. 

If you're interested, respond on here and I'll get you started! 

#SaveTheCulture #BookExchange

Let's go shopping!

 

Locklan came to spend the day with us

 

(yes, he does that as often as I can steal him away from his mom and dad).

 

Lately, since his mom is still in a cast and cannot put any weight on her leg,

we get him a little more often.

 

Last week, he came and dragged all the toys out...

 

And found his favorite truck, a wooden flat bed tow truck that  I brought home from New York...

 

 

The grass was too wet to play outdoors without rain boots and he had outgrown his...

So Pappy and I decided to go to Rural King to look for new boots.

 

Rural King has two things that makes it appealing to Locklan,

 a popcorn machine and kid sized shopping carts!

 

Before we could get him out the door (they didn't have any boots in his size),

he threw his bag of popcorn in the tiny shopping cart...

 

 

And away he went, through the store, stopping occasionally to squat down and get a closer look at things...

 

Finally, Pappy scooped him up and we headed to Wendy's for lunch.

 

Not just ANY  Wendy's...

The Wendy's across the street from a huge construction site.

 

 

As long as we got a table next to the window, he'd stay there all day if we'd let him!

 

At one point, while we were waiting for Ron to get our lunch,

Locklan found my wallet,

 

 

He unzipped it, pulled out a dollar and started shouting for Ron.

 

"Pap!  Pap!"

 

He wanted to pay for our food!

 

One more stop on the way home...

 

Pappy bought Locklan a plastic pumpkin.

 

As soon as we sprung him from the car seat, he decided he could walk up to the door himself...

 

 

 

 

I can't believe how grown up he acts!

 

Of course, he had to stop and ride the doggy...

 

 

 

This dog statue sat on the front porch of Mark's parents for a long time.

 

When they passed away, Mark brought it home.

 

This is the third house I've lived in that was guarded by this silent dog!

 

We came home without boots...

 

But we had a ball!

 

 

 

 

 

Visiting royalty!

It's no secret that Locklan runs the show.

 

He walks in the front door and heads for the back door.

 

He loves to be in our back yard,

 

where he finds some of his favorite things:

 

the toys, Pappy Ron and Shirley.

 

The other day, he managed to combine all three:

 

 

 

Some people might say he's spoiled...

 

But the truth is...

 

We're spoiled!

 

How strange is this?

Yesterday, Andy and Locklan came to cut the grass, eat lunch and play.

 

When Locklan came in...

 

I chuckled...

 

But suddenly, when I became aware of the date, I thought of this man...

 

 

It must be genetic?

 

 

 

and realized that today it was five years ago that we said good bye...

 

Five years?  I wish I could say it flew by, that we are fine...

 

But sometimes it dragged by, there were days when just a heart beat seemed like a chore...

 

 

 

Well always miss you, but we know we'll see you again.

 

Love you!

 

 

TACOOOOOOOOOOOO!

 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=49930236

A taco is a traditional Mexican dish composed of a corn or wheat tortilla folded or rolled around a filling. A taco can be made with a variety of fillings, including beef, pork, chicken, seafood, vegetables and cheese, allowing for great versatility and variety. A taco is generally eaten without utensils and is often accompanied by garnishes such as salsa or chili pepper, avocado or guacamole, cilantro (coriander), tomatoes, onions and lettuce.

Tomorrow afternoon, we're hosting 30+ people for a taco party at the river.

 

Lots of people means lots of tacos.

 

Lots of tacos means lots of chopping, slicing and dicing...

 

Sooooo, I'm outta here! 

It's Erie, dearie!

A few weeks ago, Andy, Tony and Mindy and their friends, TJ and Emily, drove to Erie, PA to ride bikes on Presque Isle, on Lake Erie.  They invited me to come along for some beach time.  Of course, I said yes!

 

I got there while they were still out bike riding, so I settled in with my trusty old

 

KINDLE! 

 

I love books, but in the"older days' , I would travel with a bag of books.  This sure is easier on my back.

 

Soon enough, the tranquility of reading on the beach was interrupted...

 

 

by this handsome guy!

 

Most families on the beach had tons of toys. 

Andy brought out on thing...a shovel!

 

In a minute, Locklan figured out he was in the midst of the world's biggest sandbox!

 

 

He quickly got to work...

 

 

 

 

 

Covering his dad in sand...

 

Andy turned the tables and covered Locklan!

 

 

 

After a dip in the unbelievably warm water...

 

He was exhausted!

 

 

 

 

The plan was to leave the beach and stop for ice cream.

It was such a beautiful day and the lines were long...

 

We all headed for home.

 

That was two weeks ago. 

 

I'm still cleaning sand out of my car!

 

Oh my!

 

 

Oh say can you see (our tree)?

A few weeks ago, Andy got a call...

A tree had come down on our dock!

 

It was late but he went out to check on things (like the boat)!

 

All he had with him was his cell phone, but he took this picture:

 

 

The next day, we went out to check on things.  Ron took this photo:

 

It doesn't look all that big from here, but it was huge and went over to the neighbor's dock.

 

Andy, Tony and friends worked one full day, but all they accomplished was bring the brush up the hill

(and getting a whopping case of poison ivy).

 

They decided that since the diameter at the base was about 36" they needed to bring in the MAN TOYS!

 

Did they finish?  You bet, and before noon.

 

Did they have fun?

 

I'm sure they did, but look who had the most fun...

 

 

 

 

 

Page 3 of the story:

 

Two sections of the dock were smashed; the boat, the platform and the trailer escaped unscathed!

 

~sigh~

 

It's always something...

 

 

It's been a while...

I know I haven't posted in forever and sixteen days...

 

Life has gotten in the way.

 

What have I been doing? 

 

I wasn't sure how to answer that, so I looked in my phone to find pictures of my summer.

 

That's when I realized that almost every single day this summer, I took at least one photo.

 

One photo and a few words...how hard can that be?

 

Let's start with yesterday and work on it, shall we?

 

On Sunday, Ashley (my daughter in law), fell at the community park and broke her leg just above the ankle.  Yesterday, she went to the hospital for this...

 

 

While they were there, Locklan came to spend some time with Pappy and me...

He went next door to check out the girl's neat toys. 

 

He found this neat rock hauler...

 

He simply did not believe that it was to carry baby dolls!

 

He's motor-minded, so when he took some time to sit down with Pappy, he taught him all he knows about trucks...

 

 

 

It was a pretty good day for we three...

 

Sadly, it was at Ashley's expense!