But first...
Our son Joel, his wife Brenda and granddaughter, Phoebe that live in Odessa, TX got to come down to Mission for about 5 days to spend some time with us. They weren't able to get to Florida, so they seized the opportunity to come down to see us when they could. Our granddaughter found out they had a children's home here and wanted to go see what that was like. Then she decided she wanted to get all 18 kids that are there 1 Christmas gift each. So, we spent the next day shopping for presents on the kids lists. Then, she decided she would make a Christmas card for each kid to give them with their present. We delivered them the day they left to head back to Odessa.
Then, to Florida ...
Most of our kids and their families got to the Florida Reunion. We have 7 kids and 7 grandkids. The kids live in Toronto, Canada (1 kid +1 grandkid); Santa Rosa Beach, Florida (1 kid; 1 spouse; 1 grandkid); Durham, North Carolina (1 kid; 1 spouse; 2 grandkids & 1 other kid); Houston, Texas (1 kid; 1 fiancee); Odessa, Texas (1 kid; 1 spouse; 1 grandkid); Tucson, Arizona (1 kid; 1 spouse; 1 grandkid) plus we have one grown grandchild that lives in Denver, Colorado. 3 of them are Radiation Oncology MDs. 1 is an Attorney. My point is, it's a massive undertaking to try to get our whole family together nowadays. So, when we had 5 out of the 7 make the trip to Florida for Christmas that was a BIG DEAL. The last time we had all of them together was for my mother's 80th birthday in August of 2009.
All 7 of our kids are within a 7 year age span. Here's some pictures of them growing up:
The picture above was taken when our oldest was 13 and the youngest was 6. It was taken at Grand Ole Opry Park near Nashville (it's no longer open). From the time we made the decision; through picking "outfits"; through getting the picture taken was about 3 hours. Everyone of us loved the experience and the picture is priceless to all of us.
This one is about 3 years later. The oldest is 15 and the youngest is 8.
Here they are with our oldest at 18 and our youngest is 11.
After Christmas we came back to Mission and Irene went to Hawaii with her 2 sisters on a "Sister's Trip." It's the first time they've had on since their oldest sister passed away in 2009. None of them are getting any younger and they figured they'd better "seize the opportunity." We used points that we had from American Airlines and Capitol One to get the tickets for them. Then, they used Irene's Marriott Points to get their hotels. They had a great time.
In the "when the cat's away the mouse will play"... I took the opportunity of Irene being gone to go visit our sons in Tucson, AZ and Odessa, TX for about 8 days apiece. The visit to Tucson was wonderful. The visit to Odessa was HORRIBLE. I got really sick (bronchitis) and was bed bound most of the time I was there.
Since we both got back to Mission we have been preparing for our 2017 Sojourn season. That begins with our 5 week trip to South Africa and Namibia to do mission work. We are blessed to be going again. We thought our trip 3 years ago was going to be our last. But, once again our American Airlines points came through (we actually scheduled this 3 months before the Sister's Trip came up, so South Africa got "first dibs" on the points).
Through the month of February, I've had the blessing of teaching class at church on Wednesday evening. I did a seminar I've developed called "You Can Do It" that I presented. It consists of 3 lessons that are usually its done in a 3 1/2 hour block on a Saturday. In this case I did one lesson on each of the first 3 Wednesday nights in February.
I'm going to T-R-Y to do some posting while we are in South Africa and Namibia. Lord willing, it will happen!
