summer 2011

summer 2011

Paul and I, all 16 kids and Ashley, Benjamin's wife...Christmas 2012

Paul and I, all 16 kids and Ashley, Benjamin's wife...Christmas 2012
family

Saturday, August 19, 2023

gettin' on a plane...

 ...in just a few hours, Paul and I are heading to Florida.  We're trying Breeze Airlines, and no, I am not getting a penny to say so.  Besides, I don't know if I like them yet.  I figure anything is better than Frontier, between cancelling flights at the last minute, measuring backpacks and charging $99 for oversized, and the  non-princess-and-the-pea seats.  We've flown with them because they're cheap, and have direct flights.  Breeze flies to Tampa, and it's a direct flight.  They're known as a No-Frills, but better than Frontier and Allegiant.  We'll see!  

Oh we had a houseful last night!  Here's my day:

Drove Jon and Camille to work, went to the pool, went and picked Jon up, dropped myself off at Wegmans so he could journey on to the department of motor vehicles.  He got his car all registered, picked me up, we went to Starbucks...because he's in Europe, and you know, the coffee's just better here.

He went back to work, and I prepared for the invasion, I mean the kids and grandkids.  (It's a good invasion, truly).  

We had hamburgers, hot sausages, coneys, salt potatoes, chips and dip, celery, carrots, fresh strawberries, and a watermelon Emily picked up from a roadside stand (mmm!).  I made another batch of chocolate chip cookies, since the batch I made Thursday was all gone.  Margaret came in with a carrot cake in a beautiful glass stand, I tasted it:  mmm.

Evelyn grilled everything, fresh tomatoes from the garden, oh it was good.

Kitty...
Grant and Uncle Jonny checking out his car...it's very exciting, it's the car that Aaron and Riley gave him in the fall, Jon paid for it to be delivered here.  It was all covered in the driveway waiting for him to get back from Germany.  It's a 2002 Lexus, with all the bells and all the whistles, buttery leather seats, heated even in the back.
Emily with Jamison, and Grace with her Maeve Louise.
Aunt Camille is a princess, courtesy of Elise.
Cookies.
Little Declan, with Camille in the back ground with Anya (Declan's sister, along with Elise)
Aunt Evelyn is the fun aunt.  Ahem, I did buy these inflatable boxing gloves.

It was mayhem for a while, then we put them away and said it was quiet time.

Sonja worked a 12 hour shift, and came home to a nice quiet house, ha.
Jon, Evelyn, Charlotte Claire...

This fine day went by too fast.  I puttered around, cleaned up, did two loads of laundry, because Paul so nicely got the part and fixed the washer.  I got my suitcase packed, and took a nice cool swim.

Camille got a good book from the library the other day:

She made soft chocolate coffee cookies with a caramel  buttercream filling.

The good thing is you can keep the book for three weeks, and renew it twice.  :)

Anyway, we're going soon, so goodbye for now.  We'll with grandma at this time tomorrow, in the land of Hot.  :)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do you really think coffee here is better than in Europe?? I wouldn't know but it seems like it would be the other way around...those gloves are hilarious! Have a wonderful trip!!
Valerie

Mari said...

Those cookies look so good!
I love a family gathering, even with boxing gloves. :)
Have a gret trip!

Terri D said...

A houseful of love and fun!! Safe travels to and from - and yes, it is HOT!!

16 blessings'mom said...

Valerie, I haven't been to Italy, but the coffee I had in Ireland, Norway, France...not very good. We are spoiled here with our mega cups, too. In France, it was about two ounces of coffee, and once when I asked for cream, it was whipped cream! (Ha, it was really good, but that was the whipped cream). So yes, Jon is glad to be back to good coffee. His espresso pot bit the dust, we are thinking of investing in a nice espresso machine (second hand), for a big Christmas gift...but Jon said, "All of us will be moving on though..."Well, I told him, you'll have good coffee when you visit. Then I cried. Not really.
Mari, the boxing gloves, it was so much fun.
Terri, it is not just hot, it's smothering! I'll take NY any day! Oh dear!