Tag Archives: Friends

Family and Friends, Pictures of the Adventure, RV Life, The Adventure

A Waco Weekend

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Lot’s of fun over the weekend, here in Waco! Saturday we went to the Big Game (well, big here in Baylor-land anyway!).

Baylor Bears vs Oklahoma State Cowboys

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OSU = Orange
Baylor = Yellow and Green
Guess you can tell where most of the “visitors” were sitting!
And it was a great game –
from the first touchdown
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to the final plays of the day!
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We all had our Baylor gear on
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but I think Marcus outdid us all with his Baylor Boots!
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Sic’em Bears!

Final Score – 41-34! Thanks, Lara, for taking us to the game – it was great!

Sunday after church we hosted a Campgound Cookout at our place! It was a fun afternoon enjoying the company of our young friends in Waco. We had a total of 17 guests, and of course the only picture I took was of people’s backs after a fair number of folks had already left.
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Man, I’m really slipping in my picture taking responsibilities!

So today, Monday, Gary is off doing some “Hire Lara’s Dad” assignments and I’m hanging around Lara’s house catching up on some computer work (hence a “hey, it hasn’t been a week” blog post), doing laundry and waiting for UPS and the refrigerator repair guy. See, I can be useful too!

Hope all ya’all (that’s Texas talk) have a good week!

RV Life, The Adventure

A Waco Week

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Well, we’ve had a good week, here in Waco.
We enjoyed some great food and fellowship with friends in town –
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(Thanks again, Steve and Jenna!)
We had a sweet visit with friends Jay and Naomi as we hung out together and went to the Homestead Heritage Fair –
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(Although I took about 30 (quality, I’m sure) pictures of the Fair, my Droid camera failed to save them. Grrrrrrrrr)
Gary got started on a project at Lara’s house
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(The repair was accomplished by some “foundation specialists” (thank-goodness!), and Gary was just tasked with closing up the hole. No pix of that – the room is already put back together!)
Gary also worked on his first “Hire Lara’s Dad” customer – installing some outdoor lighting!
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We’ve had a couple of nice walks around the campground –
walking
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(This was taken Thanksgiving morning. Looks like not everyone was home getting dinner ready for the family!)
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And my pile of completed Christmas projects is coming along nicely, thank-you very much! AND, I think I’ve complete all my on-line shopping for the holidays.

We’ve had some nippy mornings,
a bit frosty here in Waco this morning.....come on sunshine.....
And Gary spotted this beautiful hawk from quite a distance away –
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(sorry it’s a bit blurry. I only had my phone with me! He was stunning – just checking out the shore for a little lunch, I guess!)

Let’s see…what else?
Oh yeah,  we bought a TRUCK!!!!! 🙂
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Yep, after 147K miles and another 60K+ of following us around the country, our well-loved “amber pearl” (ok, so it’s orange) truck is being retired. We were beginning to feel like it made more sense to do the truck change when it wasn’t an emergency, so we started truck shopping once we got to Texas. I mean really – where else is there such HUGE truck inventory. (Check out that first lake picture again!) We discovered that our requirements (4WD so we can tow it,  a quad cab so we can comfortably fit extra folks and low mileage so that it might last a good  9 years like our Dakota) was a bit trickier that we thought it would be. But after looking at the good, the bad, and even some of the ugly, we were delighted to settle on this 2011 Dodge Ram 1500 with just over 14K miles.
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We’ll pick ‘er up next week – after we get all the RV hitch stuff off of the Dakota. And get her emptied out of tools, treasures, and (yes, it’s true) trash. Then of course, we’ll have to get the new kid all ready for life on the road!

It’s been an exciting week for us!  I’d forgotten how stressful it is to consider spending thousands of dollars on a single purchase. But when all was said and done – we felt we had made the right decision.

Now I just have to get up enough nerve to actually drive it.

🙂

Family and Friends, Pictures of the Adventure, The Adventure, The Cabin

A great start!

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It's a beautiful day for a drive.....to Vermont!
It was a great day for a drive! Especially a drive to Vermont!
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We started our Last Vermont Hurrah a little differently this year. Instead of heading straight to the cabin, we stopped for a lovely visit with friends in Ludlow. Lynne and Roger are friends from Way Back – we met when we carpooled our boys to nursery school. Boys who are now 34. So – even though they moved out of the neighborhood (and state) only about a year after we became friends, we’ve somehow managed to stay in touch over the years. That’s the blessing of a kindred spirit kind of friend! And now they live in Vermont, so we usually get to see them at least once a year. A good thing! Since we were going to be there for two nights, it gave us a full day to play :). Guess what the guys did? They built the foundation for a sugar house that L&R are putting in. Sounds like a Gary kind of day, doesn’t it? So, it started out like this –
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and after a hard day’s work it looked like this –
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Thank goodness for that little front loader!
(If you’d like to see more details of the project – check out here!)
While the boys were working, Lynne and I were doing a little power walking and a some quilt-y stuff. And of course, solving the problems of the world as we caught up with each other.
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It was a lovely visit – and a great start to our end of summer R&R!
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But the Cabin called, and Tuesday morning we got on our way!
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We did manage a quick stop at the Long Trail Brewery – we’d driven by time and again, and never had the time to stop for a little tour.
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It was self-guided, and we weren’t there very long, but we were glad we stopped. Check that off the list!
Soon we were back on our way
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and before we knew it, we were pulling into the cabin.
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Ah……
Of course, we were at Home Depot first thing this morning and Gary already has the power tools revved up, so I’m not sure just how much R&R will actually be happening. Let’s just say, this is Gary’s favorite type of R&R.
Now the next two weeks could go a couple of ways for me. Apart from helping Gary, I don’t have heavy agenda. So either I’ll be inspired to blog every couple of days since I’ll so feel so relaxed and creative, OR you won’t hear from me again until we get back to the rig. We’ll see how it goes!

I better go check on Gary – he might need me to hold something!
(Besides, it really is too nice to be inside!)
Ta-ta!

Family and Friends, Pictures of the Adventure, RV Life, The Adventure

The Lower PA Tour

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Anyone still out there?

Man, have we had a busy week! Green Park, Chambersburg, Green Castle, Hanover, Doylestown, Lancaster. We called it our Lower PA Tour! Four bedrooms in 7 nights. Lots and lots of friends and family. Some planned and some delightfully unexpected! It was absolutely wonderful and absolutely exhausting all at the same time! I tried my best to snap a picture of everyone we saw along the way, so here you go- (Don’t worry, they’re all consolidated into one picture!)
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There were a couple of people that I did NOT get pictures of.
Like the Doctor and PA that handled our annual check-ups. (And I’m happy to report that all is good on that front! Gary, since his last check-up -April 2011- has lost 34 lbs.! His blood work numbers very good -“better even than last year” – and the good doctor was very pleased. My check-up also went smoothly – down about 8 lbs., mammogram good and while I’m still waiting on the blood work, we’re not anticipating any problems. Sure feels good to get that clear bill of health!)
I also did not get a good picture of the nice fellow that changed out our truck alternator in Chambersburg. Yeah. Bummer.
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But oh, those babies! One of our stops included meeting 10 month old great-niece Megan
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and great-nephew Joshua –
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Such cuties, and since they are the first set of twins in our immediate family, it was very special to meet them!

2012-07-25_07-35-04_901Early morning with the Chambersburg Fitzpatrick kiddos!

It was grand connecting with friends and family and getting some of those “life chores” taken care of to boot! And of course, it was truly icing on the cake to end it with a sweet visit with our little Weston!
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Contented sigh.
But we’re back to work here at Montrose.
Back to work.....and the attic.....
I’ll catch you up on that next time – but for now it’s just nice to be back in our little home and getting back into some long overdue routine!

And I’m thankful you’ve checked back after such a long quiet spell!

Family and Friends, Pictures of the Adventure, The Adventure, The Cabin

The Vermont Bite

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So, Vermont.

I could have easily done multiple posts about our time in Vermont, but my life is promising to get pretty busy again starting Friday, so I’m putting together a Reader’s Digest Version.

The Preface
We had a quick afternoon at the cabin before we drove to Lancaster, PA to meet our new grandson, Weston.  My nephew and his family were just settling in at the cabin for the week, and we were delighted to be able to join them (along with my sister and hubby) for a quick lunch after church.
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Not seen in the picture is Mike’s wife (she’s behind the camera) who is expecting twins any time now. I think they did their first vacation at the Cabin (since the kids) just in time!

Chapter One – The Projects
No Cabin visit for us would be complete with Gary tackling a variety of projects. Let’s face it, I’m content to sit in front of the fire with my coffee until 10AM, do up the breakfast dishes, make a sandwich for lunch, read a couple of chapters of my book, take a nap, put together a salad for dinner, pull out the book again and then call it a night. On a sunny day, you might find me wandering down by the pond or suggesting a ride into town for ice cream. Gary, on the other hand, starts every day with a list. This year he was concentrating on doing some ground work for the shed rebuild next summer.
Shed view
Since he was replacing some supports, he decided to do some improvement to our outdoor shower.
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First of all, let me say that I LOVE this outdoor shower. I marvel at the miracle of a hot shower at the cabin every time I use it! And now, we can use it without getting our feet muddy coming and going!
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He did a little additional shed organization/cleaning –

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and worked on replacing some rotting supports on the cabin and porch.
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So, it’s safe to say that Gary was having a great time at the cabin. And he even got to pull out a giant rock or two!
(lucky for you, I can’t find that video!).

Chapter Two – The Friends!
We delighted that friends joined us for the last part of our Cabin time.
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Gord and Mar had driven all the way from Western Michigan, so we had a great time showing off the beauty of both Vermont and New Hampshire. From the Trappe Family Lodge (think “Sound of Music”)
Trapp Family Lodge
to the Dwinell Homestead in East Calais
Dwinell Homestead Barn
to covered bridges
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to scenic waterfalls
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to the top of Mount Washington –
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to evenings enjoyed by the fire playing cards, it was a GREAT way to wrap up our time at the cabin!

Chapter Three – The Beauty of it All!
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cabin reflection

Conclusion – A Wonderful Time Was Had by All!

It was a pretty perfect couple of weeks at the Cabin.  I’ve skipped over the chapter about  my quilting day with my buddy Lynne, and the mini family reunion with my brother and his family, my sister & hubby, and my niece and her kids, or the lovely afternoon shared with the ladies’ fellowship from my sister’s church.  All 30+ of them!
Needless to say, there are lot more pictures that pertain to our time at the Cabin and our drives through the countryside. If you’d like, please check them out for the “rest of the story”.

Cabin Projects
Fun with Gord and Mar
Vermont Sky
Mount Washington
ALL the Cabin – Sept. 2011 pictures!

Thanks for hanging in for this (not so very) condensed version of our time at the Cabin! I know it’s been fun for me just to review what a special time those two weeks were!