Texas for Thanksgiving

On our way to Houston, we stopped to visit Paula and Steve and little Kenny in Lafette,La. It was so good go see them; it had been a long, long time. They have a cute place. We got to see their horses & the fixed up old barn. Stayed the nite and left in the morning. Steve the gumbo was excellent and Paula I loved the brownies!!

We finally got to Texas. 14 1/2 hours!! I had not seen their new house. It is really nice. Izzie is a little doll. Susan and Rob are great parents. They have lots of patience with her. She has been a bit of a challenge.

We went to the Houston Zoo. It is quite a large zoo. Izzie's favorite thing to do is RUN. So they are forever chasing after her. She was determined she was not riding on the merry go round!!

We also went to a Renaissance Fair. The three of them have costumes. They looked really great. It was really fun. A little difficult to describe. Most people were dressed for the event. They had music, rides and food.

Susan cooked for three days so we could have a gourmet Thanksgiving. We shopped at a really exclusive market where she had ordered a free range turkey. She made mint peas, glazed carrots, special stuffing and gravy BUT the best part was the chocolate lava cakes!! Those were really yummie.

We had a really great visit with them. We had a nightmare trip home. We decided to drive straight thru. When we got to I 75 there were so many accidents you could not count them. We were tied up with stop and go traffic for two hours. We got home at one o clock AM

Breakfast at the Sugar Mill

Why would anyone pay to go to a restaurant and have to cook their own food"??? Thats just what we did. We ordered pancake batter, blueberries and bacon and lots more and cooked our own breakfast on the grill at our tables! and it was soooooooooo HOT But we had a blast.There was Me, Judi, Patrice, Lolita, Lenore and her sister Liz

McCulleys

Every year a few of us Happy Hoofers go camping for about five days with our horses. This year we chose McCulley's Farm up in Jasper FL. I went up with Trice and Judi. We had a fabulous time. Carol and Nicole came up late Friday. Judi's granddaughter, Amanda visited (she lives nearby) We celebrated Judi's birthday while we were there. I had brought brownies but I ate so many, Patrice bought a cheesecake!! We must have played 100 games!! We watched the movie "RV" with Robin Williams and ate popcorn and laughed so hard it hurt.

Baxter State Park & Campobello Island

We had lunch at Schoodic Pt.on the rocks on the way down east.. It is reallybeautiful there. We drove to Lubec and sawEast & West QuoddyLighthouse. It was quite foggy.We stayed over night and the next day we went to Campobello Island and toured FDR's summer home. It is gorgeous. We rode bikes and took a hike thru the bog. We had to go thru customs to get on the island as it belongs to Canada. Ask Bob about FIRE ARMS!! We could of all ended up in the brink!!!

We tented at Baxter State Park at Mt Kahtakin so I could see a Moose. After we set the tent up, one walked right thru the next camp site to ours! Bridgette told us to get up at 6am and take the trail to Sandy Pond so we did. We saw three more! Mother and baby and Auntie??? We slept on these boy scout cots that were about 4inches off the ground. I just could not get comfortable. At five oclock I finally went to the car! Bob had no problems. We opted not to stay another night!

Pat and I spend some time together

First we did lunch and shopping at Stonington at a restaurant over looking the ocean!!The lobster and crab rolls were yummie!



Then we did the horse carriage rides at Acadia Nat. park. Of course We had tea at the Jordan House on the lawn overlooking the lake. We had really yummy homemade popovers and jam. We stopped and took scenery pics along the way. I just love the little coves with the boats tied out.
















Maine Coast is so beautiful. You grow up with it and never appreciate it. This is me with a bunch of lobster traps..

This is my sister's "cottage" at Beech Hill. They stay uptown 4 days and stay at the lake 3 days. We did the kayak thing, they have a new speed boat and a new jet ski. We also went mountain 4-wheeling!! One day we went to the Blue Hill Fair. My favorite was the LumberJILL show; chain sawing,log rolling and ax throwing. On the right is our newest addition to the family. Her name is Ginny and Bridgette and Gary named her after our mom.

Maine Vacation 2008 Family

Liv and Gwen

The Gang at 44 Tibbetts St.

Liv and Gwen and Nora.

Crazy Gary

Bridgette's crazy husband, Gary


The family at 44 Tibbetts

Brewer, Maine

O'leno State Park Camping/Ichneetucknee tubing

Judi and I went camping at Oleno State Park for three days. Judi brought her generator so we could have air conditioning. We had some fabulous rides. We saw tons of deer; they were even playing in the camp ground. One mother had two little spotted fawns. We saw an armadillo with four babies and a racoon with three babies that scooted up a tree to watch us. They have some new trails made....but the ticks were pretty bad. Trice, Ronda,her husband, and Noah came up on Sunday and we went tubing down the Ichneetucknee River. I bought a little raft with me because my bum arm cant handle one of the big tubes. Well, the raft deflated so here I am in the water waiting for them to blow it up and everyone starts yelling SNAKE. They gave me the raft but I was so panicked I could not get on the stupid thing. I re injured my arm. Patice is trying to say pam watchout without freaking me out. I turn my head, I am still in the water up to my eyes, I am almost eyeball to eyeball with this huge snake. I started screaming and flailing the thing finally slithered away. Now I am not usually too afraid but when you are in the water you are a captive audience so to speak. That was NOT FUN. Then it got real dark and just as we are catching the tram the storm breaks. We cancelled our picnic and ate at Floyd's Dinner. It was pretty good.We want to return some time. So they all hit the road. It was just me and Judi. I think we put on a movie, took a quick ride in the morning and headed home.

North Carolina Vacation

I love North Carolina!! Bob and I traded our time-share for a condo in Sapphire Valley/Cashiers area. We chased after waterfalls for the first 3 or 4 days. They have lots and lots of them.

We also took a train ride thru the Smoky Mountains. The weather was fantastic. It was difficult to come back to Florida and the heat and the humidity...



These are our dear friends, Steve and Jeannie Adler. They live in Waynesville, near Maggie Valley. We stayed with them the first night in their mountain top retreat. They live on top of Utah Mountain. From their place you can see almost 360 degrees. Fabulous home! They took us mountain hiking up Whiteside Mountain, outside of Highlands.It is one of the oldest mountains and one side forms the Eastern Continental Divide. Bob and I struggled to breathe....the air is quite thin way up there!! We went to church with them Sunday. Steve is the Bishop there. It was great to see Jeannie's Mom, Ruth too. We were excited to see the Marty and Merle Share (our Bishop's in laws,who have relocated there).

It was a 9 1/2 hour drive but we got 36 to 38 mpg. Bob said we only used one tank of gas to get there. Our condo was very large...two floors with the master bedroom downstairs. It overlooked the golf course. The clubhouse had two pools, one inside and one outside. It had a free miniature golf course....ask Bob who the champ is???

Mr. Incognito

When I don't feel like being ridden, I put on my disguise so Pam can't find me!

Dollar

This is Bob and Dollar. He is our new GAITED horse. He is a 13 year old Missouri FoxTrotter. As you get older and everything starts to ache a gaited horse can help you ride for longer periods of time. They move front to back instead of up and down.......which means your fanny dont bounce up and down in the saddle. Bob owns half and I own half. When Bob and I ride, he gets Dollar. When I ride with my friends, I ride Dollar. Dollar is King of the pasture. He rules. Next comes SugarBabe and last is poor Logan.

This is Bob riding SugarBabe and me on Logan. SugarBAbe is an Appaloosa/Quarter Horse. She and I have a love/hate relationship. She and Bob get along really good. She is about 20 years old and has some arthritis in her leg joints. She only gets ridden now and then. She is a very sneaky horse. Too smart!!!

Logan

I got Logan when he was 4 years old and I was 40 years old. He is a bay Arabian. The first year he dumped me on the ground and ran away every time I rode him!! He was afraid of everything....I guess or he just thought it was funny to send me to the ground. I almost sold him several times. Bob took out extra life insurance on me. I have now had him almost 19 years. He has calmed down quite a bit.... I still dont trust him 100%

My crazy horse friends

Lisa was my first horse friend. Her horse was Journey, a crazy adopted mustang. She use to feed him peanutbutter and Jelly sandwiches. Now she has Jazz .Lisa knows how to magically produce lemonade in the middle of the night on John's Lane!!

Judi was my second crazy horse friend. Her horse was Fancy. Fancy has this way with her feet to mess up every jump she comes to in the woods!! Now she has Chico. Judi is very smart and can do almost everything a man can do; she said they are messed up because of the "Y" chromosome.

Patrice came along a little later. Her horse was/is Iben. Iben can drink soda from a can. Patrice is so crazy.....she is crazier than Crazy Pam. She rode a picnic table we were dragging with our truck. she even whipped it!! Patrice is the game queen. She would rather play games than ride her horse. She always says she dont care who wins as long as Pam loses!!



We all started a riding club called the Happy Hoofers about 18 years ago!! There is Leyna, Joyce, Patti, Danielle,Wendy, Eileen,Lavelle, Mary, Theresa, Brandy and Coleen is our honorary member living in Tenn.
We meet, eat, ride and shop. Life is good.

I'm Blogging

Mary Gronlund just helped me set up my blog...............so now I am blogging. This is kinda fun. What do you think?