Christmas 2022

 We had a great Christmas week at the cabin.  Christmas day was the usual fun with the whole family, and then Katie and family stayed the rest of the week.  Mike and I really needed that time, and it was so wonderful.  

Christmas Day:

The usual pictures on the stairs, poker, and of course Catch Phrase!!

Mila is in Russia, and no paper plate this year!

The boys golfed two days, and one of the days us girls went to a winery and had a picnic.

The day Katie and Mike left, we had lunch at our favorite spot - Brats all around!!

November 2022

We've had a great month!  Hanging around, Thanksgiving.

We hadn't seen Nate and Mila yet since we've been back, so they and Angie and Scott came over for dinner.  Mike fixed up a table in the man cave.  It was a little crowded, but we all got to eat together!

We stayed at Katie's for a couple of days while she and Mike enjoyed a week at Playa del Carmen - they went for Allysun's wedding.  The dogs are so cute, and we got to go to Grandparent's Day at Livie's school.

 

Livie's class did a little performance

We got to have lunch.  MawMaw was there too.

Lola and Archie

Neil smoked a turkey for Thanksgiving, it was deslish!  After dinner, Pam started to break out the Christmas decorations and Egg Nog!

We've had some nice weather, so we could have happy hour on the veranda!

Cheers!

September and October

We got back home on August 30th. It was great to be home and see everyone. We went up to Helen to see Betty and reserve a cabin for Christmas week. (We missed it too much last year!) Of course, we had to go downtown and have a brat and beer!

We also FINALLY ordered a real refrigerator! So Mike put some nice looking paneling in the compartment, and we put some shelves in. It looks so nice. 

 We've had a VERY BUSY October.

Ella's Powder Puff game.

 

Sally and Lyle drove out, and stayed for a week in Dillard.  We got a motel close by for a few nights, and had a wonderful time showing them around North Georgia!

We hiked to Minehaha Falls

Cowboys and Angels for an Erdinger!

Of course we had to have a brat at the International Cafe!

Our picnic lunch at their condo

After they left, we camped for a long weekend at Margaritaville with Katie.

Then, on the way to take the Flair in to Apalachee RV for service, one of the awning arms came loose on the side of 400!!  Luckily, it was close enough to home to get Mike's tools, and there was lots of room to park on the side of the road.

On the 23rd we met Marita and Kevin in Memphis for total Elvis immersion.  We had such a great time.  Marita is the Elvis expert, and knew what to see at Graceland.  We showed them the Peabody, the Rendezvous, and Tupelo.  Such Fun!!

Graceland:

Sun Records:

The Million Dollar Quartet

The microphone that Elvis used!

The front door!

The Peabody ducks, Lansky's and the Rendezvous:

Tupelo:

The church that Elvis attended as a child

Elvis' house

The memorial chapel, playing Elvis gospel music

The "Becoming" statue.  Beautiful!

A remnant from Covid!!!

End of August, last leg of the trip

We'll be home on Sunday the 28th, for a total of 7200 miles, 18 states, and 6 1/2 months.  What a great trip!!

After the Alpaca farm we headed toward Branson, through Kansas.  We happened to hit 100 degree weather....thankfully we weren't at a HH and had A/C!!

We saw a couple of shows in Branson - the Dolly Stampede which was fun - a lot like the show at Excalibur.  We did the Branson Belle dinner show again, but they've changed it completely.  Now it's mostly rock and roll, some show tunes, and a little bit of gospel.  Mike didn't really like it, but the dinner was good.

Then we headed down to Biloxi - after a beautiful drive through the Ozarks.  That really is a pretty area, and we had been in the same area by Clinton (stayed in Shirley) in 2019.  I thought it looked familiar as we were driving through.

Tomorrow we leave and will be back home on Sunday the 28th.  It's been a great trip - I'm so glad we did it and am so thankful for the time we got to spend with friends.

A Belgian horse from the Dolly Stampede - 20 Hands!!! He's a big boy!

The Branson Belle

The showroom from our table

 

Hard to get a satellite signal when you're in the trees!

Fun at the Hard Rock Casino after dinner at McElroy's.  We put $20 in, I accidentally hit bet $5, and bells were ringing, things were spinning, and we walked out with $328!!!  Very fun, and it paid for dinner all week!!!

Shrimp Boats

McElroy's - wine, oysters and a view of the Gulf!