Checking things out...

Our temperatures hit just about 80 deg. F. here today, real pleasant! We took life a bit easy today, starting off by doing a whole bunch of walking around our Park. Judy did 5 miles, while I carried on and did about 7 1/2 miles today... gotta stay in shape!

There has been quite a bit of rain here over the past month or so, so all of our grass is real green and looking nice in the park. The Park workers had just finished cutting our grass for us yesterday, so we are looking good. Last year at this time, our grass was brown and dormant. Oh, and it was a real good thing that it did not rain last night, as I guess I forgot to close the sunroof on the Cruze...oooppppssss, first time that I have done that. At least it sure gets lots of use around here!

Judy was showing me her form around the pool table this afternoon, beating me in the first game, but I came back for victory in the second game... did not have time for the rubber match, will have to be another day.

While we were in the pool room, we were right beside the fitness centre. We had to check it out, to make sure it is ready for Tom and Cheryl. They are going to be arriving in Frostproof soon, and Tom loves to come down here just about every day and pump the iron!

I have been lost in a good book for the past week and a half, "In a Time of War" written by Bill Murphy Jr.

This is a great storey about life at West Point, and how the graduates view life in a time of war. Specifically the Class of 2002, which President George Bush addressed at commencement, and then abruptly sent most of them over to fight in Iraq and Afganistan. The book gives you great insight into life inside the U.S. Military, and how people were treated. I am about 3/4 the way through, and have trouble putting this one down.

Till tomorrow...

 

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Hey... I have a guest Photographer tonight!

Judy and I took life very easy today in Frostproof. I think we were just recovering from our Thanksgiving Weekend #2. We put in some walking this morning, but got rained out, but then the sun came out so I went back to walking, and then it rained again...get the picture? It was nice an warm though, so no complaints here.

I was drinking my coffee this morning and splitting my gut laughing at a blog post our Daughter Kristina posted. She had recently given Gwenny an old digital camera that she no longer used. Gwenny had been showing a lot of interest in taking pictures using some of her toys...lol. No longer necessary, as she has a camera now!

So, here is Gwenny going over all the finer points of her (new to her...) digital camera. As you can see, she takes this job of picture taking very serious. Now, as you can imagine, a 3 year old may not take the same kind of picture that you or I might take. For one thing, she is a few feet shorter than the rest of us, so that is going to come into play! Lets take a look at some of her handy work with the camera!

The first one is a great shot of her brother Charlie and her Mom! The focus is perfect!!! The colors are great! I think she has a great future ahead of her!

I am not sure if she was trying to capture her toys or someone's socks above, but well framed!

Now you may think she cut her Mom's head off in this picture, your wrong! Look at what Mom is doing...making Home made bread!!!!

Now I remember Gwenny taking these pictures of Judy and I, just before we left for Florida. However, I also remember kind of moving myself in the center of the picture frame I think.

Kristina reports that Gweny has taken about 250 pictures... good thing you don't have to send them out for developing is what I say!

So, for the first time in over 5 years of blogging, one of my Grandkids is my guest photographer tonight, although she may not know it yet! Not to worry, Kristina will read the blog and show it to her!

Keep on shooting with that Camera Gwenny! You are a future Blogger in the making!

Till tomorrow...

 

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No... I didn't forget how to Blog...

Judy and I are back in Frostproof tonight at the RV. What a great American Thanksgiving we had in Tennessee!

Last Friday we spent the day at Dollywood, which is located in Pigeon Forge... what a great spot Dolly has there! After we left, we headed over to our Hotel for the next couple of days... Wilderness at the Smokies!

I took the picture above of our lodge we stayed in. We had a fantastic room that easily accomodated the kids and us.

The Resort was packed for the Weekend, and it was good that Jenn was able to make the reservations for us to be able to stay. The big draw for this Hotel, obviously, is the huge water park! They have a big one outside, but it was closed due to winter being upon us, however the inside park under the dome roof was open and ready for business! That bucket of water you see above, drops 750 gallons of water ever 6 minutes (yes, I timed it...) on the kids below that could just not get enough of it!

I took a bunch of videos and all of them are no longer than 30 seconds I think, and they are the only true way of showing you what goes on in here...

There are all kinds of water activities from a huge wave pool, to monster waterslides, to a really neat water surfing machine for the big and small kids to enjoy... yes, we all joined in on the fun.

The wave pool is just crazy, as it goes from really calm to this rocking water party in about 3 seconds! The kids spent all kinds of time in this pool. We ended up spending most of Saturday and Sunday morning at the water park.

Below you can see Shawn, Jenn, and even Emmie showing off their skills on the surfing machine... This thing could give you a real flip if you are not careful. They lined up big time for this adventure. (No, Judy and I did not try this event...)

 

After meeting up with Santa at Dollywood, Paige and Emmie got to go swimming with Santa at the Lodge on Saturday Evening... Santa went swimming with all the kids, and posed for pictures with them.

However good things do come to an end, and about 11:00 a.m. on Sunday morning, the kids headed back to Johnson City, while Judy and I started our Cruze back to Frostproof. I knew right away we might be in a bit of trouble, as it took us an hour to go five miles to get out of Pigeon Forge, to Highway 40. The I-75 south looked more like a parking lot than anything else, and after 11 hours on the road yesterday, we stopped just south of Atlanta and took a motel room for the night, with the GPS still showing over 4 1/2 hours of driving time left. It was a lot easier this morning in the good weather, and no traffic. Live and learn I guess.

Time spent on the highway was minor, compared to the great time we had with the Hollinger Clan in Tennessee! Judy and I enjoyed, and it will take us a couple days to recover, as Emmie and Paige sure have WAY more energy than we do...lol

Till tomorrow...

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