Back on the Road Again!!

      I just have to explain that since we upgraded to Windows 10 the end of July, I  haven't been able to figure out how to do posts on my blog.  We got together with our small group from church tonight and when I mentioned that I didn't care for "Microsoft Edge" as much as "Internet Explorer" one of the guys said he still uses "Internet Explorer" instead of "Microsoft Edge".  When we got back to Harvey John tried it and IT WORKS!!  Yippee...I can get my blog up and running again!!
    A lot has happened since my last post in March.  We had a new addition to the family.  Our daughter, Heather, gave birth to Galen John Alexander Lee on April 6.  She calls him "Jack".  I was present for the rather speedy birth...took about 3 hrs from start to finish...and it was amazing!!!  I stayed with her in the hospital and at her home until April 11.  Cooper was so pleased to have a baby brother! 

Heather, Jack and proud big brother, Cooper

We celebrated my Dad's 92nd birthday, Emma's 11th birthday

Emma blew out all 11 candles!

and Cooper turned 5.  TW and Arlena settled on their new house where we had a baby shower for Heather and Jack. 

Costco makes the best cakes!!

 

Bennett loves to feed his new cousin.

 

My neice, Lanie helping her daughter, Caitlyn hold Jack
for the first time.

 

It's Ellie's first time, too.  Do you think she's loving it?!?

 

Great-grandma is getting into the act, too.

On May 5th I had major foot surgery, a flat foot reconstruction.

I only had the cast on for 2 weeks...that was long enough!!

  I was non-weight bearing, using a scooter for 6 weeks.  Then 2 weeks at 50% weight bearing with a walker and boot and 2 more weeks at 100% weight bearing with a boot.  I started physical therapy the 2nd week of July and got rid of the boot on July 15.  My PT continues and I am seeing some progress in getting back to normal (whatever that is!), but, of course, it's not going as fast as I would like.  The hip I had surgery on a year and a half ago is causing me problems, too, adding to the frustration.  I just have to be more patient and realize that it will probably take about a full year from surgery until everything comes together and I can do some of the things I've been missing out on the last 3 or 4 years.  John took such good care of me during the whole process.  I'm sure he can hardly wait until I'm recovered in full, too!!  It was a lot of work for him, but he NEVER complained and was more than willing to do everything he had to do for me!  Thanks so much, Honey!!  Our granddaughter, Alexandra's boyfriend, Todd left for Texas for Basic Training in the Air Force on May 7th.  She went to his graduation over July 4th weekend.  About a month later she announced that they were going to be married over Labor Day weekend.  Alex will come back home and continue at HACC studying early childhood development on line and work at an adult group home.  Todd will graduate from Tech school where he is training to be an Air Force firefighter the end of October.  They will then go to Langley AF Base in Virginia where Todd will be stationed.  WOW...my first grand baby is getting married!!!!

This is the ring Todd will give to Alex when he proposes.
Alex had a special relationship with my late husband and
I always planned to ask her fiance' if he wanted to use
the ring her Pappy gave to me. Todd was ecstatic
when I asked him!  I was so glad! I sent it to the base
so he could have it to propose to her at the airport when she arrived.

  On July 3rd we had an family picnic at TW and Arlena's house.  Everyone but Dad and Alexandra was able to be there.  It was a fun day!  I had surgery for a "trigger thumb" on July 7th
   We took our first trip in Harvey to Hershey Preserves the middle of July.  It was wonderful to get back to RVing again.  Bonnie and Ken and Chuck and Melissa arrived at the end of the week.  It was so nice to spend some time with them!! 

The "gang" out on the deck at Quentin Tavern.

     Then the last weekend of July we went to the Paradise Stream CG in Blain, PA.  The CG generously lets military veterans and retirees stay for free on this weekend every year.  We went with Terry and Lisa, who just recently bought their first 5th wheel.  John worked with Terry at the Naval Depot in Mechanicsburg.  Unfortunately, it rained late Friday night into Saturday afternoon and the forecast was for more rain, so we left late Saturday morning.  Poor John got soaked getting Harvey ready to go!! 
     We left for Camp LeJeune, NC on August 3rd at 3AM!  After a few stops we arrived at 1PM.  John was exhausted by the end of the day!  We spent most of our time there on the beach...John walking and me looking for sharks teeth. 

Pretty good for one day.  We found this many almost every day!

 

This one was the winner!!!

 

The weather was very changeable each day.  It
would start out like this and then...

 

this would happen...

 

and this...but believe it or not...it never rained!

We did take one day to visit Swansboro about 30 minutes down the road.  It was a quaint little seaside town but didn't really live up to our expectations.  But it was so hot that it would have been hard to enjoy either way!!  We left Camp LeJeune at about 8am on the 10th and after several stops arrived home at about 7pm.  It was a long trip home, but we had a wonderful time in NC! 
     We went to Hershey Preserves again from Friday, Aug 12th to Friday, the 19th.  Our grandson, Bennett stayed overnight with us on Thursday, so he came with us to the CG on Friday.  Just as we were heading to the pool they closed it because of thunder.  He was so disappointed, as were we..it was HOT!!!  I went to Manheim on Saturday for my monthly "Frogette" get together at Susie's pool.  But the heat and a nasty storm kept us inside all afternoon.

These are the "Frogettes" I often talk mention
donning our Christmas aprons and acting silly!

 

Here we are again being silly with kids toys we
found in the garage of the condo we stay in at OCMD.
Can you tell we have a lot of fun!!!

  Pam and Harry and Lucy, their Boston bull dog, from Harrisburg, who we met this year at Pine Island in Florida arrived on Monday.  That evening we had plans to have dinner at the Quentin Tavern with Paul and Vickie, our friends from Gretna Springs, who we met at Jekyll, so we invited Harry and Pam to go along.  (Lucy stayed home!)  Would you believe that Paul and Harry realized that they had already met at a CG in Georgia!!  Small world, huh?!?   Bonnie and Ken joined us at the CG on Tuesday.  Their 4 granddaughters came and stayed overnight as did our 2 granddaughters.  We all went to Chocolate World and then hung out at the pool.  All the girls had a lot of fun together!

Emma, Ellie, Bria, Samantha, Cali, and Caitlyn
outside Chocolate World.

 

Emma and Ellie inside Chocolate World.

 

Emma, Ellie and Bria, I think, or is it Cali??
on the playground at the Hershey CG.

  Pam and Harry left early Friday morning.  We made plans to get together the Wednesday after next at The Brownstone Restaurant in Middletown for "all you can eat" chicken potpie.  YUM!!!  I took the car and left for PT and John would follow later with Harvey.  Unfortunately, on the way home with Harvey, John had a small encounter with a telephone pole and the pole won.  Nothing major, but Harvey will have to have some minor surgery. 

Oops!!

John felt horrible about it and said he learned that when making a right turn out onto a busy 2 lane road (322), patience is necessary to wait for both lanes to be open in order to make the turn!!  Hey...all we can do is learn from our mistakes, right...we've all been there!!  RVing proves to be an ongoing learning process!!!!!  We kept Cooper overnight and then took him along to a family picnic on Saturday at Masonic Homes in Elizabethtown where my parents are residents.  The WHOLE family was there and we had a wonderful time!!

Mom and Dad arriving on their electric carts.

The whole gang except for Jamie, Dane and the girls.
They had a sick doggie that had to go to the vet first,
but they arrived later.

They look pretty good for 92 and 86, huh?!?!

   We were home for a few days and then left for Corning, NY on Sunday, Aug 21st for a week.  We were meeting a group of 16 other people there, some of whom we knew from Jekyll.  Paul and Vicki were kind enough to invite us!  We stayed at Ferrenbaugh CG and all of us were together in the same area.  We had an absolutely wonderful time.  Everyone was so welcoming and kind.  The area which included Corning, Watkins Glen and the Finger Lakes provided so many wonderful experiences.  Our favorite was the Corning Museum.  We went 2 days (which the pass included) and we could hardly get enough of the glass blowing!  We were even lucky enough to win one of the pieces they made there!  The whole group took a lunch River Cruise on Seneca Lake and every night we had a campfire and all sat around and talked.  It was such a relaxing week.  We all did our own thing, like visiting wineries, walking at Watkins Glen, antiquing downtown, but also had many opportunities to do things together. 

Lynn and I went to an antique shop together.
She graciously agreed to pose in this authentic
ELECTRIC CHAIR!  What a good sport!

 

Jack and Lyn had 2 of their 3 Corgy's with them.

What a nice group of people.  We will be with many of them again in October at Jekyll Island, GA.  Can hardly wait!

Yea!  We added another state!

 

Dockside on Lake Seneca

 

That's our "cruise liner" in the background.

 

A part of our marvelous group.

 

A lakeside bar/restaurant.

 

A waterfall coming from Watkin's Glen.

 

 

Sterling salt company.

 

A beautiful farm overlooking the lake.

 

Hotel, wharf and dock area.

 

A magnificent view from one of the wineries.

 


Vicki, Paul and I  inside the Corning museum.  The
picture was made entirely of glass!

 

This "rope"(which was more like heavy cable) was made of
tiny glass seed beads.  It was 1 mile long!  30 Indian women
worked on it every day for almost a year getting only 4 inches done every day.

 

 

I made a glass pendant at the museum.  I got
to play with a 2400 degree blow torch!!  I'll try
to remember to post a picture later...it's
in my jewelry box at the moment.

 

George was a master glass blower.  He actually blew
the piece we won.  Again, I will post a pic of that...it's at home.
this piece ended up as a bowl with a wide ruffled edge.

 

They actually have cameras in the back of the 1800 degree
ovens, so you can watch what happens inside.  UNBELIEVABLE!!

 


This...

 

became...this!

 

The story of this pitcher is quite unbelievable!
It's from the 900's.  Read about it below.

 

 

A beautiful paperweight!

 

We saw this blimp hovering over the Little League
World Series stadium in Williamsport on our way home.
It was the day of the final game.

   We were home for about a week and a half during which time I got together with my the Praise Team members from Mt Joy Church of God for a "jam" session.  What a good time that was!  John and I got together with Pam and Harry for "potpie", Alex and Todd got married, the "Frogettes" spent a day together in Lititz while John visited his mother in Mt Carmel and went to an annual picnic in Cattawissa at a buddies house, and we had a family picnic at TW and Arlena's house on Labor Day. 

Cooper LOVES the new fireman suit that
his cousin, Bennett got him for his birthday!

 

Bennett liked playing with the hand held siren/megaphone.
Thanks for sharing, Cooper!  See his black eye...he ran
into one his classmates at school.

 

Look how big Jack is getting already!

 

Arlena and the boys before the big corn hole tourney.

 

 Heather lining up her shot.  John, her partner,
sure hopes it's going right in the hole!!

 

Arlena is trying her best to score and dethrone
John.  He and his partner have won every game!!

 My goodness, but we have been busy.  It is ALL GOOD!!!  Next week we are headed to Cape May, NJ for a week.  Stay tuned, now that we figured out how to get this blog going again!!