Monday, January 20, 2020

Let's Kickoff 2020

Major Fun
Somehow the Vols salvaged a football team and got invited to the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville on January 2nd so we added that trip to our trek southward for the winter. Rob and Julia were all set to meet us there (but Robin's knee went out--they were missed) and then came the tailgaters group of Charley and Elizabeth, Harry and Cathy, and Carol Anne and Carey Smith and a big party came together for the bowl game. On December 29th we headed out of Nashville and we overnighted at Walmart in Forsyth, Ga, next night at Walmart in St. Mary's, Ga, then on New Year's Eve we rolled into our Gator Bowl accommodations.  On January 3rd,  we will make our way to our winter digs at Cross Creek RV in Arcadia, Florida.

The Gator Bowl gang at the Bearded Pig for New Years Eve

Lola, Carol Ann, Cathy, and Elizabeth

Mike Cole (from our Farragut class) and his wife Helen were here from the Czech Republic 

Perfect night and perfect 4 minutes of football

By the hair of our chiny chin chin (Vols 23-Indiana 22)

Prosecco celebration afterwards 

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Fall and Winter 2019

Merry Christmas 2019
Back in Tennessee in August where we enjoyed weekends at Floating Mill State Park where Leeton and Holden joined us and rode their bikes, made friends and ate s'mores.  One little boy and his brother kept coming over for Holden's Gatorade and were full of tales.  The youngest had been banned from electronics for the rest of his life (he was only 7!) because he had stayed up most of the night on YouTube and gotten caught.  Sign of times? We lost our dear friend David Hunsucker to the ravages of Frontal Lobe Dementia --a form of Alzheimer's --so we honored and laid to rest one of our best buddies.
 In September we went to Knoxville for a football game and stayed, along with Robin and Julia,  at the Coliseum.  The game was awful (we lost to BYU in overtime and we were supposed to beat them soundly) but the RV accommodations were really good and we scouted them out for the future. 
We went to downtown Nashville with Steve and Sally for the NASCAR burnout


Craig, Connie, Julia and Robin helped bring in football season

Craig and Robin were in Nashville's Veteran's Day Parade

In Knoxville for the horrible BYU game we went with the crew to Stormin' Crab

My beautiful friends came over for a Christmas cocktail party
The first 2 weeks of October were the kids fall break so we took off for Pensacola Beach for a week (Leeton got 2 darling bikini's and we found that both children have not inherited any golfing skill--Putt Putt was a disaster that may take us a few years to get over).  The second week we stayed in Nashville and shopped, found crawdads, and played with Iris--the Greenlee's cat.  A highlight was a cruise on the Cumberland River with Bruce and Carolyn--the kids still have their sealegs and so do we.  Holden went from training wheels on his bike to riding Leeton's bigger bike. 

The kids love Pensacola Beach 

So did Lolo

Bikini's are a must

Man of the Beach
November we cleaned house and got ready for the holidays --I played some bridge, and Fitz winterized some boats at Commodore.  After a low key Thanksgiving with the kids and  Brooke, time started rolling down hill. Leeton had an awesome piano recital and Holden a great Christmas program. We welcomed the Women's Club dinner group at our home with a holiday Christmas cocktail party, some of the Knoxville UT tailgaters came to our house for a BBQ dinner and the Leetons immersed themselves for a fun Christmas gathering.  With new joints (ankles and hip) for Nancy, Andy and Phil the group was somewhat gimpy but we played cards, talked sports and politics and had a fun time.  The Barksdale's Christmas Party was wonderful and Leeton hit down one of the piƱata's.  Nick got a coffee table from Santa and Fitz got a weight set.  I must have been the best of all because I got a new Fitbit, new Teva's and a box of Godiva (how long will that last?!?) Leeton got real makeup, Katie a new phone and Scott, a Ring doorbell. After the Best Christmas Ever (Holden's words after he opened his metal detector) we had no rest for the weary.
Holden is growing up!
Leeton and her chorus buds


Building the cookie houses were fun

Loving Christmas


Leeton's piano recital