Party Weekend!!!!!

Boy, did our family have a party weekend!! We have so many things to celebrate in September and Dawn and Sean were able to get to Augusta this weekend so we just celebrated all of them at one time. We missed David, who was in Boston at a Georgia Tech football game

First we celebrated Dawn's birthday (13 Sep) on Thursday night. I cooked some Lasagna and a Dump Cake and Kim, Donald, and Caleb came over. Crystal and Chris came over after Crystal got out of class at Augusta State. We had a great time.

Sean and Caleb wishing Dawn a Happy Birthday

On Friday morning Jimmy and I, along with Dawn and Sean went to Caleb's school for "Grandparents Day". It was so nice. The school had donuts set up out front of the school for the visiting grandparents. Caleb was sure to tell us, "Grandparents are not suppose to stay for lunch" so I guess the donuts were to lure us out the front door before lunch. It must have worked because there was a line at the donut table when we left.

Caleb with Grandpa at Grandparents Day

Friday night the girls took Jimmy and I out to eat at The Chop House for our 40th Anniversary Dinner. The food was great but the company was even better. We had a big table with Dawn, Sean, Kim, Donald, Caleb, Crystal and Chris. We even had Turtle Cheese Cake for dessert!!

Caleb and Sean in front of The Chop House

Jim and Judy after the first 40 years

Then Saturday we had Caleb's 6th Birthday Party at The Wetzone on Wrightsboro Road. Boy, did those kids have a great time. You will see in the pictures that all the kids had big smiles and they all went down the big slide called "The Hippo".....and I mean big!! It is three stories tall and 170 feet long. Even little Sean went down the big slide about four times all by himself. The first time they go down it takes your breath away, even the adults, but they all go back for more. Please notice that Kim had the picture of Caleb's first Bass on the cake. He was so proud.

Happy Birthday Caleb!!!

The fun begins!!!

Sean coming down the slide!!

Caleb coming down the slide!!

Sean kept telling me, "Grandma, I have fun" and I believe he did.

Crystal & Dawn

All the kids had fun!!

Kim keeping everything moving smoothly

After the birthday party we took Sean home for a nap before returning to Kim's house that evening for hamburgers and more birthday cake. We all played "Wii" which Caleb got for his birthday. He is really good at the games and very good at sharing his toys with the adults and little Sean.
We all had a great time this weekend and I am sure we all need a rest.

Ocala Golf Course

I would like everyone to see some pictures of the Ocala Golf Course. Every morning that I can I walk around this course, about three miles. It is located just across the street from the Condo and belongs to the City of Ocala. It isn't the Augusta National but it is a really pretty golf course that is well maintained by the city. The pictures below are things I see when I walk.

Putting Green

One of the holes on the First Nine

One of the holes on the Back Nine

A small pond

A place to rest

Then there is the Tennis Center that I pass in the morning. There is always someone out there playing to taking lessons.

There are a lot of homes around the Golf Course. The pictures below are just a couple. They would be "very unusual" anywhere else but seem to blend into the Florida landscape.

Yes, it is YELLOW, really YELLOW!

Please notice the 'shed' in the back is the exact color of blue as the house.

I hope this showed you some of the things I see when I walk around the Ocala Golf Course in the mornings.

Caleb's fist Bass he caught himself

I just had to add one item to the blog to show off Caleb's first Bass. He caught this fish all by himself, picking out the bait and all. His dad is going to have it mounted for him as his first Bass.

Caleb spends the weekend

Jim and I got to keep Caleb while Kim and Donald attended a Golf Tournament in Myrtle Beach (tough job but somebody has to golf). We had such a great time with him!!

On Friday morning I got to take him to his Kindergarten Open House to meet his new teacher, Mrs. McMillian. He looked like such a big boy going into school. After that I took him to his house so he could fish in his pond for a little while. He told me that he was a good fisherman and he really is!! He caught 5 fish and I caught none. They were not real big fish, only what he calls "bait snatchers", but he had fun catching them.

Jim and I took him to play Putt Putt and he actually got two holes-in-one. Both Caleb and Jimmy did better than I did so I will not publish the scores. Caleb also had a great time playing the games inside and getting all those 'tickets' to redeem for prizes. The prizes were worth less than one game but he had such fun getting the tickets.

On Saturday we took him to "The Wetzone" which is a type of water park with blow-up water slides. Caleb had a ball!!! They have "The Hippo", the largest inflatable water slide, three stories high and 170 feet long!! They also have a smaller water slide for the younger children and a rock wall. Caleb was interested in nothing but "The Hippo". Kim is going to have his 6th birthday party at the Wetzone on the 6th of September. Dawn and Sean will be in Augusta for the party and I can't wait to get pictures Sean on the water slides.

We took Caleb back home on Sunday and he was so glad to see his mom and dad. A weekend with grandma and grandpa is OK but nothing is better than mom and dad.

Fishing in Florida

On this trip down to Ocala my cousin, Jimmy Trantham, took us fishing in the Ocklawaha River. Just so you all won't get confused, Jimmy T. is my cousin and Jimmy Z. is my husband. Jimmy T. has a very nice 20 foot John Boat that had plenty of room for all three of us. Jimmy T. has been fishing the Ocklawaha River for 50 years so he knows where the fish hang out. He showed me on his "Fish Finder" he has on the boat all the fish under the boat, and there were a lot!!....and big!! But he said that the "Fish Finder" did not show you how to catch them. First he took us to a place to catch "shiners", which is the "bait" we were to use to catch the bigger fish. But, alas, by the time we got to the real fishing spot the "bait" was not as lively as we would have liked. In fact, they turned into "cut bait" which I think needs no further explanation.

This is my cousin Jimmy T. showing the bait.

But...we did catch some fish. The first to catch a fish was Jimmy Z. who caught a "mud fish" about 18 inches long. Well,.....what do you do with a "mud fish"? I won't go into detail but it involves something called a "billy stick" which reduced the "mud fish" to the bottom of the food chain.

We then moved to another spot where we caught 'Gar'. These are actually prehistoric fish with a long 'snoot' and very sharp teeth. Jimmy T. caught the one pictured below which was about 2 feet in length. He told us that there were "Gar in this river that this fish would run from". That was the only one I got a picture of but I caught one that was even bigger than that but lost it just as it got to the boat. Then Jimmy Z. caught one that was really big. In fact Jimmy T. told him that we could not bring that fish in the boat because it was too big. But the line broke just as it got up to the boat. It was at least twice as big as the one pictured.

This is the small 'Gar'. Take a look at the teeth!!

It got too hot about 1:00pm so we went home. The fishing was fun and the Ocklawaha River is beautiful. It has beautiful Cyprus Trees along the bank and the water reflects the trees just like a mirror.

Jimmy T. also showed us the place where the "Cross Florida Barge Canal" stopped. The Cross Florida Barge Canal was a canal project to connect the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean across Florida for barge traffic. Two sections were built but the project was cancelled, mainly for environmental reasons. It is now a protected green belt corridor, one mile (1.6 km) wide in most places. The work was stopped in January 1971 and officially cancelled in 1991. The picture below is where is stopped.

The Abercrombie's visit

Dawn, David, and Sean came up from Alpharette to visit this weekend. They arrived in the morning and Kim and Caleb joined us for lunch. As you see from the picture above, Caleb and Sean began plotting against the adults right away. After lunch we took the boys to Monkey Joe's to play for a couple of hours. We knew they had plans to run, jump and scream so we took them to a place built for boys to run, jump and scream....and boy did they!! Check out some of the pictures taken at Monkey Joe's.

Caleb and Sean at the bottom of the small slide.

This is Sean climbing up the wall to slide down the other side. Believe it or not Sean (only two) could climb up by himself and was able to hold his own with the big kids.

Caleb is an "old pro" at Monkey Joe's so he was showing Sean all the different things he could climb and jump and slide on. Sean just followed him like he was one of the big kids.

Wait Caleb!!! I think I knocked my tooth loose that time.

Well, look, here is Monkey Joe himself!!!!

After Monkey Joe's we all went out for dinner a O'Charley's. We all had a great dinner but the company was the best thing of all. The boys had a great time together.

After dinner Kim and Caleb went home and Dawn, David, and Sean came back to our house. Poor Sean had not gotten a nap all day except for about 10 minutes in the car on the way to Monkey Joe's. He was pooped. He always goes to bed good and Saturday night was no different except he now sleeps in the big boy bed. He was so tired he slept until after 8:00am. Then he just got up, picked out a couple books and went back to his bed. Dawn opened the door about 9:00am and he was just reading in his bed.

After Kim and Caleb got out of church, they came over for lunch. We all had lunch and let Sean and Caleb play for a while before Dawn and David got on the road back to Alpharette.The boys played with the race cars until they were ready to leave.


We all enjoyed the visit so much but I really think Caleb and Sean got the most out of it. They always have such a great time playing together.

Lightning, Lightning everywhere...and it follows us!!

Just to keep you all up to date we have been having some lightning problems....to say the least. First the lightning hit my computer in Ocala (which they say is the Lightning Capitol of the United States). I could not turn my computer on at all. So we called the City Advantage guys and they were going to send a box for me to send my computer in for repair to the Augusta address. That meant we needed to return early to Augusta. When we got home the box was waiting for us on the front porch. Long story short; I sent it to California and they replaced the entire System Board and returned it to me in about two weeks...and I did not lose any files or pictures!!! Cost Zero Dollars, getting my computer back and working, PRICELESS!! While it was gone I had to go to the library every day because I do everything by computer, banking, pay bills, e-mail, and keep in touch with the rest of the world.

Then....the Saturday before I got my computer back on Monday.....lightning struck again, this time in Augusta. We lost, the big TV (50 inch); the little TV (13 inch), the phone system, the entire alarm system, the coffeemaker, and the socket the coffeemaker was plugged into. Jimmy spent the whole next week getting electricians, the alarm folks, the telephone folks, etc together so they could verify what was lost due to lightning. We had the complete alarm system replaced, and we replaced the coffeemaker. It seems Mr. Coffee does not make the one we had any longer so we had to get another type. We also replaced both TVs, which we upgraded from what we had before.

Well, we are about back to normal again and looking forward to Sean visiting this weekend. Oh yes, he will also bring his parents, Dawn and David.