Category: Family

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First Grandchild!

As I type this, we are celebrating the 1/2-year birthday (6 months) for our little Oliver! He was born on December 17 and is our first grandchild! His parents of course are our daughter Audrey and son-in-law Brandon. What a joy and a blessing.

After our being married for over 50 years, we were not absolutely sure that being a grandma/grandpa would actually come into being, but in this stage of life we are thrilled.

I had forgotten how quick they change from day to day. It has been awesome to watch his development to barely focusing his vision to now having two bottom teeth and beginning to sit up on his own. He is also a very happy and outgoing child, never missing an opportunity to smile and laugh.

Audrey and Brandon are both incredible and caring parents. It is very sweet to see our little girl become a caring and nurturing mother. Raising a child is not always and easy road but there are so many rewards as you help them celebrate their successes in life.

We are looking forward to many more years of spoiling this child!

Thank you, Lord, for this little blessing!

God Bless and take care y’all.

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I’m Back – Blog Update

It has been a minute or two since the last update! Life has been either very busy or else we have been in the full retirement relaxing mode. And too many hobbies keeping me scrambling! One of my hobbies is to document our travels for family and friends and particularly for us to look back on the “active” phase of retirement. And I do really enjoy writing. Not sure what the next phase will be but probably less travel.

I plan to do a few brief updates of the last six months. It has been a brisk timeline. Including International travel, two cruises, birth of our first grandchild, a wintering as snowbirds in Florida, and a return to our home in the Blue Ridge mountains of southwest Virginia.

Back at our Virginia home, we have many projects and quite a bit of maintenance to keep the place up. So along with some summer fun trips we have a plateful to complete a few home projects. But we are very excited about some incredible travel plans coming up that we will share with you in the near future. Hopefully, I’ll keep this train on the track.

That’s all for now! Thanks for following along! Leave a comment, we love to hear from our readers. God Bless.

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Appalachian Trail – “Creek”

I had planned to continue writing about our winter in Florida, but have a new real time event that I wanted to share. I enjoy many of the local Virginia hiking opportunities either on the Appalachian Trail (AT) or any of the hundred other mountain wilderness trails. My idea of a good hike is three-four hours on the trail followed immediately by a good restaurant meal somewhere, then back home to shower and rest. We are blessed in this area to have a plethora of hikes available! This week, I joined an AT Through Hiker for a few hikes, including one that was very challenging!

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Three Weeks in Virginia

In this post we have returned back to our home in the Virginia Blue Ridge Mountains from our fall trip to Europe. We have so many things planned in the next three weeks including a family get together at Christmas. This will be our first Christmas at our home in eight years. Since before I retired and we sold the prior house, bought an RV, and took to the road. Let’s see what we accomplished in three weeks!

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Steak Florentine & Central Market

Before our son Ross left for his sailing adventure, the three of us tried an upscale restaurant and the food specialty the city of Florence is known for: Steak Florentine. We also checked out the huge city market, a place to either buy fresh meat, vegetables, baked goods, candy, and you name it! Then upstairs is one of the largest food courts I have seen with everything. And I mean everything.

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Tuscany and Winery Tour

We booked a local tour that left Florence on a small 18 passenger bus headed to two of the most picturesque small towns in Tuscany. The tour also included a stop for lunch at a small family run winery. This was a couple of weeks into our European adventure and the weather has made some significant changes. From upper 70’s and humid to highs at barely 60 and nights down into the 30’s. The short pants and t-shirts are now exchanged for warmer wear. We are continuing to enjoy the fall in Italy!

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Pat’s Mother

It saddens me to write this post. We have lost a dear lady, Pat’s mom and my mother-in-law died yesterday at the age of 96. She has been in some declining health since this spring when she had to leave her home and go into a care facility. Within 10 months, I have lost both my own mother and now a lady who I always considered to be a second mom. In this post, I will share a few memories and photos. A small celebration of her life, if you will.

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Florence Museums and off to Cinque Terre Region of Italy

Pat and I are continuing our European adventures along with our son Ross. In this post we spend the weekend with some more museum exploring in Florence and then catch the train to the west coast of Italy for three days exploring Cinque Terre. This is five small and very scenic towns that hug the rugged, rocky coastline and are connected by a very popular hiking trail.

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