Fun times....

First of all, I have been absent from the internet since late Friday evening....the 'new to me' modem they sent just last weekend totally quit.  They sent a guy out here this morn, he ran a test on the line outside and knew by that that it was the modem.   He did come in and run some tests on it to be sure.  He was so apologetic because he did not have a modem to replace it with....he was from another town and said they used to let them carry extra modems but had stopped.  So he apologized several times, and we are telling him he can only do what he could do.

So, he told me to call the support back and what to tell them and have them ship me a new modem.  He left, only to come back in and tell us he was going to go up to the office here, and see if they had one that would work laying around.  And that he would be back within ten minutes or so.  So he left, but was back in about 3 minutes at the most.  I thought sure that he had not even been able to get in, but instead he had run into one of the local guys and this guy had a modem.  So he came back and hooked it up and we are good to go once more.
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Now to the subject at hand...FYI, this is Jackson, one of Lorelei's cousins.

We had a family picnic yesterday--just us brothers and sisters that could make it.  And our kids and grandkids.

Well, Lorelei's little cousin, Jackson, from Tennessee came with his mom and dad and his Mamaw and Pap--he calls my brother Pap instead of Grandpa or Pappaw.

Talk about having a good time...they really enjoyed playing being together.

 You can just tell from the look at their faces....I bet if they were together all the time that it would be a sight at what they would think of to do.

Here is one last photo of Lo.

It is cropped from a bigger picture...

Lorelei and Jackson....

First of all, I want to thank my niece Allison for giving me permission to use these.  She took these photos of Lorelei and Jackson at the family picnic on September 21!  You are in for a treat cause she sure did a good job of capturing them!

Joy....

Just a little bit of fun rolling around on the ground...

Concentration

Lorelei is trying to blow up a balloon in these two photos I think...

Not sure what they were doing in this last one...

Okay....there is your spot of sunshine for the day! 

A great weekend...

Every year, us brothers and sisters and families try to meet for a family picnic.  This year was no different.  It is the only time that Lorelei and her cousin Jackson see each other.  But they picked up where they left off...they played and played...

I want you to look at their expressions...aren't they priceless!

Then look at this one of Lorelei with her Aunt Patti.

That was Saturday...

Yesterday I decided I best get a move on and finish the binding on this Little Crumbs in the Corner quilt.

Of course the wind was never calm....it is always blowing when I take photos of quilts....so lucky to get one without the wind curling up a corner.  And if they aren't curling, it is still blowing and hard to get in focus.

Scenes from Saturday at McCormick's Creek State Park

Every year our family tries to get together for a little family reunion...yesterday we met at McCormick's Creek State Park. Lorelei's cousin, Jackson was there from Tennessee...
They ran and ran and ran and played and played. They are close to the same age and just play so good together.
I love this one of Lo and her daddy...you can sure tell she feels safe in her daddy's arms.

Early training....

This is my little nephew, Jackson, just a bit over 1 1/2 yrs old. He is reading Field & Stream...we believe in training our children early...he already loves going for rides on the 4-wheeler with his papaw. He will ride with him as long as his papaw will take him. It won't be long until he is fishing and hunting.

I have to tell this cause I thought it was so cute. First I will tell you a little history. Jackson loves Santa Claus. He got all excited over the holidays if he saw him on television...if someone was on television with a white beard, he thought they were Santa Claus. And he would go around all day hollering for Santa Claus. His mom and dad had him out one morn a while back, as they were leaving some place, this guy with a beard got out of his car and went in a restaurant...Jackson looked and said "Santa." Well, here just the other day, he was playing with his little phone, pretending to talk on it, then handed it to his Mamaw and so she ask him who it was, and he said "Santa."
***********This is my juice I made today...I will probably put that pint in the fridge and drink it since it needed just a bit more in it. I didn't notice that when I canned it, but I was sort of hoping to have a reason to sample it.

You might wonder how tomatoes ties in with early training...well, I helped my mom can and freeze stuff as long as I can remember. And she taught me to love putting up food for the family. I think she enjoyed canning and putting stuff in the freezer as much as she enjoyed anything. That is some of my fondest memories from home...

Also, one year my older daughter bought a bunch of sweet corn, and she called me to see if I wanted to help. I forget how many dozen ears she got, but we had a regular assembly line going to get it blanched, cut off the cob, and frozen. I know we stopped sometime during doing it to have big bowls of tomatoes cut up....I cannot remember if we had them salted or with Italian dressing.
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When we took Lo to the creek the other day, it was like going down memory lane for Roger and me. We started taking the girls to the creek when they were young. Not quite as young as Lorelei....but still they were not real old. We would fish while they played...and sometimes they might fish a little bit...but most of the time they looked for crawdads, snakes, or anything else that moved...

I watched Lorelei and I just know she is going to love it every bit as much as they did. I am so glad to have been a part of introducing it to her.