On the Road Again!

Groom, TX

Ashley and Me in front of the cross.

The kids and I had a 5 day weekend for the 4th of July!  We went to Bethany, OK and visited with family.  This will probably be easier to blog in several blogs because 4th July is in and of itself a full blog!
(Kevin arrived on Friday to join the festivities)


The sign claims to be the largest cross in the world, but I was corrected on fb, so I'm just going to say this is a VERY large cross with very nice statues surrounding it.


Dear sweet Ashley, our neighbor, my 'adopted' daughter went with us. Ashley has never been to Oklahoma! We managed to keep her going a secret from Stephanie's 3 girls for over 3 months! Quite an accomplishment when you take into consideration fb and Amelia and AJ knowing!!

A few blocks from Stephanie's house Ashley climbed into the trunk and covered herself in all the blankets. Upon arrival, Amelia and AJ get out of the car and say look what we brought! The girls ran to the trunk, out rolled Ashley! Stephanie has better pictures, as I was still trying to get out of the van! The girls were quite happy to see Ashley.

Cozyflier

Small World

Annemarie, Peggy, and Me :-))))


Who would have thunk? I started this blog 18 months ago, at the urging of Stephanie, my precious niece. I've made many 'cyber' friends because of my blog and I love you all dearly. I think about each of you often and wonder what you are doing when your blogs are absent.

However, I digress, I do that, have you noticed? Anyway, through this miracle of cyber space blogging and facebook, 2 fellow bloggers and myself actually got to meet in real life!!! I was so excited. Especially since, Peggy lives in Australia. What are the chances of me getting to meet a sweet lovely lady that I have grown fond of and developed a friendship with over the internet when she lives on the other side of the world? I mean, really! My fun little airplane isn't going to cross that MUCH water!

Annemarie lives across the great state of Texas. Getting across the state to see college friends is a miracle, so being able to meet these 2 women was such a blessing.

We set up a meeting place, Abilene, TX. About equi-distant for both of us Texans as possible. Amelia, AJ, Ashley (neighbor ~ adopted daughter :-) ), and myself take off and 9:30 and drive to Abilene. Kev got called into work, imagine that! Thank heavens for GPS on the phones, I would have been so lost.

We had a great lunch at Abuelo's and a better time visiting and getting to know each other for 'real'!

Thanks Annemarie for driving to Abilene, and thanks Peggy for taking time out of your holiday to meet little old me! Love ya both bunches. Hugs, xxx

Cozyflier

You Have to Have CHARACTER!

Well, you knew it was coming didn't you?!? Come on, what is a Disney Cruise without Disney Character photos, right? So, here they are!!

Now, the one up above is my favorite. The professional photographer posed Amelia, then they digitally added Tinkerbell, her favorite!








Here is the family, well, not Tyler, with Mickey! I think Mickey is so cute in his shorts and tennies!!!

1,2,3, AWE!!! Look at Daisy, she is precious!






ARGH! Everyone's favorite pirate, Captain Jack! And look in the background, and see what you spy!

This is a picture that Mickey MADE the photographer take! While on the USS Alabama AJ found this Capt. hat and asked if he may have it. Well, what was $2.99? He brought it on the ship and it was an instant hit! When captain Mickey saw it he loved it, and he wanted a picture ALONE with just the Captains! I love this picture!



Surprise! We have camera shy Tyler in a picture! ONLY because Captain Jack threatened to make him walk the plank!

Here is Pluto! Just ignore this picture! I was in mid sentence! Oh, and I must add that on this entire trip my naturally curly hair was wild, no taming was coming to it!

Now, look at the effort that went into this picture! I love this. The photographer got this in 3, count em 3 attempts! I'm impressed. (wish I had removed his socks!)
But to get AJ in mid air with the hat in perfect placement is amazing to me! So I have a special shot of the 2 youngest from this cruise. I love Disney!!

Or could you tell that??

Cozyflier

Seeing Stripes!

I've always wanted to go to a drive through animal safari. I don't count Disney World because I'm not in control of the vehicle! Well, I told Kevin when we were leaving home for the trip and he researched it on the net on his phone. He found one in TX!!! Coming home we detoured, slightly, to get to Cherokee Trace Drive-Thru Safari. This one is outside Tyler, TX and was a lot of fun.



I hand fed this young man!

These guys tried to climb in the car!

Wasn't it sweet of them to pose?

The 2 elan tried to climb into the car too!

This was so much fun. I highly recommend it to families. The kids were oohing and ah-hing at the animals. I have hundreds of pictures, but I won't try to upload all of them!

Lets just say that the animal lover in me and the photographer in me had a terrific time doing this. Oh, I do recommend following the signs and NOT putting in the address into your phone GPS. You end up in the middle of the countryside!

I hand fed deer, llama, bison, elan, zebra, turkeys, and antelopes! I did not hand feed the emu, their beaks looked too sharp!

Have a great weekend!

Cozyflier

Snorkeling at Castaway Cay

Tyler in the water...
While at Castaway Cay, Kevin and Tyler did a little snorkeling. Once again, my water camera did a great job, well, Kev did a good job using it!!



Sunken treasure?



lots of fishies!




When you go to Castaway Cay, you should try this.

Cozyflier

Castaway Cay Playtime!

Disney's private island, Castaway Cay is a lot of fun. Wish we had had 2 days there. Well, like I have stated, this cruise was a learning experience.

So, did you spy the hidden Mickey? We made one out of the floats! It was AJ's idea! What can I say, it runs in the family!

Cozyflier

Vow Renewal on the Beach

Well, as I stated before the trip, I did NOT pay Disney $2,500.00 to renew my vows on the beach! I love Disney, but really! I did NOT want or need my dress pressed, a cake, a cake topper, a cake cutter, a golf cart ride, champagne and strawberries, and the list goes on!!! I can think of better ways of spending $2,500.00, like another cruise!!

Besides, all I really wanted was what the pictures below show! Enjoy :-)












Barefoot on the beach!




I had to do the Mickey's on my nails! They are stickers :-)







Captain AJ performs our ceremony! Kevin and I wrote our own vows and AJ read them for us! Amelia took pictures and Tyler videoed! Tyler greatly dislikes being in pictures!




The big finish! We are re-married!!

Cozyflier