SUMMER VACATION 2009

Our first stop was Bradenton, Florida for a visit with Annie. She is doing great these days. The first night at Annie's, I took her to one of her favorite resturants, Cody's Original Roadhouse. They had great rib-eye steak.

This truck hangs from the ceiling. It reminded me of an old Purple truck that my Dad had that I use to have to drive to get to school. I was embarrassed back then even.

Annie with her typical made up smile. When she was a little girl, everytime they had school pictures, she had to practice her smile cause she didn't know how. This is what it looked like.

The next night, she and I went out with 2 of her best friends Melissa and Jen, who she works with at the spa.

We went to Rotten Ralphs Resturant and I had the best fried fish...all you can eat for $9.95 It was a great deal It was right on the Bradenton Beach pier. Beautiful view.After eating, Annie, Melissa and myself went goofy golfing.

This is where Annie works...Body and Sol. She gave me the works, massage, facial, manicure and pedicure. It was wonderful. She really is good at what she does.

Annie's nice apartment complex. You can see her little red convertible in the bottom right corner. She has since moved to Sarasota next door to Bradenton.

OUR SECOND VACATION STOP-LONG ISLAND

Here is Ethan with a gorgeous poem that he wrote in school.

Here are Ethan and Jane jumping on the trampoline in the backyard

Grandpa playing chicken foot with the kids. It is so nice that they are old enough to play games with.

One of the highlights of our visit with Carlos' family was that Steve came over to visit us so we could have a mini reunion with at least 2 our children's families. He stayed 3 nights and we had a blast. Of course the highlight of our reunion is Grandma Jackson's traditional Unbirthday Party since all the grandkids get is the traditional phone call with Grandma and Grandpa Jackson singing happy birthday to them on their birthday. This gives me a chance to give them all a gift at the same time. They are getting so they know that when we visit, there will be a party!

Of course no unbirthday party is complete without Birthday Cake and Chandler was there to get the 1st piece

And then of course his Dad got the next piece

We had hot dogs, corn on the cob, watermelon, chips and cake. Everyone had plenty to eat.

Chandler, Hunter, Sierra and Ethan on the left

My sweet little granddaughters, Sierra in pink and Jane in beige.

Carlos and Steve enjoying their I-Phones or something and Kaci. Steve had us all in stitches from the moment he got to Carlos's house till he left.

Gathered for the Grandma Jackson's famous Unbirthday Party at the Beach

After eating, all the kids swam for about 2 hours. Kaci slathered them with lots of sunblock so they were all creamy white when they got out of the water.

Kaci and Jane

Kaci, Maria and Sierra. You can see Tyler's feet!

Maria and Hunter. Hunter found quite a lot of live whatevers and took them back to Carlos house to await their coming out of their shells.

After we got home, Grandma gave all the kids their BD gifts...money and then she got a big kiss from each one.

The next day, we all went down to Target so the kids could buy their own gift. Jane and Sierra enjoyed riding in the electric cart with Grandma. I enjoyed it too.

Later, after a roast beef dinner that Grandma Jackson prepared and the adults got a nap, we played our traditional waterballoon volleyball game. It was the first time Carlos' family had played it.

After a half hour of volleyball, we all crashed and sat around enjoying the coolness of the air sucking on tootsie pops. Long Island has been sooooo cool in the evenings and nights and on many of the days we were there.

One of Ethans favorite games to play was yu-gee-oh? I never could understand how to play it, but Carlos seemed to and Ethan cornered him quite often to play with him.

Great family picture of Carlos family

Grandma Jackson's favorite thing was to play skip bo, rummycube and chickenfoot dominoes with Ethan and Jane. They were the only ones that would play with me...well occasionally Kaci and Carlos would take pity on me and play one game.

This is the project that Steve worked on for Stan. This map he uses for his Physical Evidences of the Book of Mormon lecture. He finished it up when we went to Cobbleskill to visit the following week by lining the back and putting a nice fringe all around it.

Picture of Brother Morales from Guatemala. He has a fantastic conversion story that Stan would love to tell if you ask him. At any rate, while we were at Carlos, he had 1 fireside using the visual aid that Steve made and then 2 other firesides on the 2nd Coming at 3 different houses. As we left church the last Sunday all the Spanish speaking brothers begged us to move to Long Island so he could continue to teach them. Stan had some really nice experiences there. He also got to speak in Sacrament meeting.

One of Grandpa, Jane and Ethan's favorite thing to do, watch Dick Van Dyke DVD's in his bed at night! We brought our own little TV and DVD's. Great memory

Kaci watching Carlos cooking

Carlos cooking fajitas for supper after cranking up some homemade ice Cream! Yum Yum

Grandma and Grandpa with Carlos' munchkins before leaving for Albany

Kaci, Ethan and Jane waving goodbye as we head towards Steve's for a week of fun

OUR THIRD STOP ON OUR 2009 VACATION...STEVE'S RETREAT

After leaving Carlos and Kaci's house, we headed to Ft. Ticonderoga via Albany and visited Steve at his office there. He' a sweetheart.

Fort Ticonderoga

After seeing Steve in his office in Albany, we went to Cobbleskill via Fort Ticonderoga in Northern New York. This is Mt. Defiance, the spot the British took overlooking the Fort that the Americans had captured. The American's discovered it when the sun reflected off the Cannon, discovered that the cannon balls could reach into the fort thereby killing and trapping the Americans and so they escaped during the night avoiding a slaughter of our men.

Hunter and Chandler made these costumes while the women made lunch after Church. They were really quick!

Maria's mother, Joan Sisson, Maria, Sierra and I had a very lovely afternoon eating a gourmet lunch and looking at all the neat craft items in the Grapevine Farms. Beautiful place

Mom and Dad posing with Steve right before we started for Home via Nauvoo, Illinois

Miss Fancy Pants strutin' her stuff and Tyler with the "ask me if I care" look.

Right before we left we had to get a goofy pic of the kids... Sierra in the front, Hunter behind her and Chandler on the left and Tyler on the Right.

Steve with our CRX we loaned him to do his route