Engagement Party

While everyone was home for Christmas, we celebrated John and Sarah's engagement with a party! We used the new room at the Delaware Township Community Center (I think we were the first event). On the menu was pizza from Mellow Mushroom, Greek Salad which we assembled, breaksticks, cake and ice cream. John spied a huge silver punch bowl when we first looked at the room to rent and we all agreed that LOTS of ice cream was the best use for it!


One of the ideas we had was to set up a camera for people to take their own pictures as a message to Sarah and John.

instructions :)

danny testing the camera remote

ashley and her mom

great kids!

of course!

so sweet!

It was a great evening with lots of friends wishing the happy couple well as they prepared to California early in January for John to be stationed/attend class at Camp Pendleton/Twentynine Palms.

tom, danny, tom

adrianne and elliott


kay, steve, elliott

emily, danny, dan

rhonda with 3 of her daughters, sarah, john, dylan, alynna

cute little family

:)

Christmas 2009

We were so fortunate in 2009 to have everyone at home together at Christmas! Last year Elliott was in Iraq and it was hard for he and Adrianne (and all of us) to be apart. The night we celebrated it was quite a full house, as John and Sarah also brought Dylan and Alyanna! Everyone enjoyed the company, the fire, the decorations, the dinner, the presents, and most importantly, each other!!

Matching pajamas at bedtime!

Dylan

Alynna

Thanksgiving in Birmingham

Bailey and I traveled south for Thanksgiving last year. She's a good traveler and we made it with just 2 stops. We arrived midafternoon on Wednesday and Emily, Bailey and I took a walk around the apartment complex to stretch our legs and then had a picnic under the large tree right outside the front door. Emily and I ate cheese sandwiches and chex mix and Bailey watched squirrels up in the tree.

We slept in on Thanksgiving morning and mid morning, we headed over to Oak Mountain State Park for some hiking. It was a beautiful day; sunny and blue skies with a temperature in the mid 60's. We packed a picnic (peanut butter sandwiches, apples, cookies and water and dog treats!) and hauled it up the mountain on a gorgeous hike to Peavine Falls. Bailey and Emily led the way and once we got to the top of the mountain, the trail was level along the ridge. We didn't see any other people until we got to the falls and we had a nice hour eating our lunch and relaxing. Bailey was so tired she was asleep on her feet in the sunshine!

The weather was great the whole time I was there, much different from when I visited in August (steam bath!). On Friday we took it easy and just visited, watched TV, walked Bailey and hung out. We spent some time that evening working on a budget - Emily loves spreadsheets!

I left on Saturday morning and had a pleasant drive home.