December 2009

We had a lot of things going for us in December. There were several birthdays and of course Christmas. Dick and I decided to spend a week at our Lake Home for the Christmas holiday.


My sister-in-law, Bev Wolfe, had her birthday on December 18. Dick and I went to Minneapolis to celebrate her birthday with her. Here is Bev with her birthday cake.


A couple of days before Christmas, we began to get snow, a lot of snow. By Sunday after Christmas, we had received about 16 inches of wet heavy snow. The picture shows the snow after the first day.


On Christmas Day, our eldest son, Rick, and his family drove from Wisconsin to our Lake Home to spend the day with us. Here is Raisa and Brenden, two of our Wisconsin grandchildren in front of the Christmas tree.

On the evening of Christmas Day, Kathy, Mary Lease, and Raisa helped me put a puzzle together. They worked on it until about 2:00 a.m.

Late Autumn in Minnesota

It's late autumn in Minnesota, just five days to Thanksgiving Day. We'll have a total of ten people at our home for Thanksgiving, and none of our children can be here. Anyway, here are a few of the pictures that I've taken recently.


Here is a stand of tamaracks in North Saint Cloud.


And here is a closer view of the tamaracks.


My sister-in-law has two large pots of flowering plants that she keeps on her deck during the warmer months. She agreed to lend them to me for the colder months. I keep them in my lake home to brighten the house.


They surely are beautiful. Thanks Connie for the loan!


My mother-in-law was in a study club, and Rice Hospital in Willmar had a fair recently, honoring several of the clubs. So my two sister-in-laws, Judy and Connie, and I set up a display as part of the fair. Here are the place-cards that I made as part of the display.


Here we experimented with the setup of the display.


I glued sweet gum seed pods on the end of a decorative rope as part of the display.


Dick set up the Christmas Tree at our lake home a week before Thanksgiving since we will be decorating our Saint Cloud home at right after Thanksgiving.

A Trip to Bayfield, Wisconsin

Dick and I took a two-day trip to Bayfield, Wisconsin, with some friends. Here are a few photos of our trip.


One of the things that we did was to take a ferry to Madeline Island. Here is one of the ferries.


The ferries run every half-hour. This ferry is just returning from Madeline Island.


People and vehicles come off the ferry. Note the Sears truck returning.


On the ferry that we took to Madeline Island, there were 14 vehicles, of which one was ours.


Here we are just leaving for the island.


Out of the docking area.


This is the building that has the condominium that we rented. We were on the ground floor on the left side.


Dorie and Dick by one of the sail boats.

Our Trip to Atlanta

During the first week in September, Dick and I flew to Atlanta, Georgia, for my niece's wedding. We would also see my brothers and sisters as well as our son Ben and daughter-in-law Janelle.


But first I wanted to show the flowers that Ben and Janelle gave me for Mothers' Day. They were just little plants when I got them and now they are healthy, flowering plants.


While in Atlanta, many of the wedding attendants stayed at the same place. Ben & Janelle, my brother Benton & Marilyn, and Dick & I would gather at Benton's room in the evening to play cards.


The day of the wedding, the six of us went to Stone Mountain. Here we are on a train tour around the mountain.


After the train tour, we played mini-golf.


Being that we were at Stone Mountain, we had to go to the top of the mountain, so we decided to take the cable car to the top. Here is one of the cars returning people from the top. Once these people got off, we got on and rode it to the top.


Ben & Janelle walked towards the edge of the mountain. Here they are. Also, you can see that Stone Mountain is a huge rock.

Family In Mississippi

Dick and I traveled about while we were in Mississippi, seeing relatives and historic sites.


Here is a general store in Philadelphia, Mississippi, that is still in business. My brother, his wife, Dick, and I visited it and ended up buying several things.


Here I am with my two sisters, Sarah and Iva.


Back in 1957, my siblings and cousins went swimming at a nearby lake. Afterward we had a picnic. Here I am with my cousin, David Sansing, eating watermelon.


Fifty-two years later at our Sansing Family reunion, my cousin David Sansing and I re-inact our side-by-side watermelon eating picture.


Since I've just shown you an old photograph of me, here is another one. It's my senior class portrait that appeared in our high school annual.

Visit with a Transformer

When we were in Philadelphia, Mississippi, we visited a Choctaw Indian Fair. There were cultural displays, food, crafts, and dances. We did not anticipate meeting up with a transformer.


Here I am talking with the transformer. It was nice but had a strange sounding voice.


My sister-in-law, Marilyn, came over to see the transformer, too. When it looked up, it noticed Dick taking our picture. The transformer told Dick that he had better treat us properly or it would teach Dick a lesson!

Our Trip West

Dick and I took a four-week tour from Minnesota to Utah going through South Dakota, and then back going through Montana and North Dakota.


We were in western Wyoming traveling on I-80 when I took this picture. Those are the Uintah Mountains in the background.


On the way back to Minnesota, we traveled through Northwestern Wyoming. As we were approaching Yellowstone National Park we traveled along side the Teton Mountains.


In Yellowstone National Park, we got high up in the Teton mountains where there was snow on the ground. It was early June and we were not ready for winter.


In Yellowstone, we stopped by to see Old Faithful Geyser.


Finally, we got back to Minnesota near our lake home. The sunset was so nice that I snapped this picture.

Rob and Justin Visit

Rob and Justin came to our Lake Home and spent the night with us. They left the next morning to pick up Kristin and Alyssa at the Minneapolis International Airport.


Rob and Justin sit in the kitchen.


Here is Dick with his son Rob and grandson Justin.


Justin has taught himself the guitar. He played and sang a couple of songs for us.


Thirty-three years ago, Dick put up a split rail fence on our Saint Cloud land. But over the years the wood rotted and so he is in the process of replacing the fence.


Dick realized that I was taking pictures of him and quickly looked up.

My siblings and I get together in the early Spring to "hangout" for part of a week. This year we met at the lake home of my youngest brother's home of his daughter Sharon. The home is on Spring Lake near Huntsville, Alabama. We were together from Monday to Friday.


Here are the five Espey siblings: George, Iva, Sarah, Elizabeth, and Benton.


My two sisters, Iva and Sarah.


My two brothers, Benton and George, discuss the bacon frying. George gives instructions while Benton has George sample some of his bacon.


Here is Sharon on my right and Dick on my left. The lake home belongs to Sharon. Sharon was with us for Monday evening only since she had to be at work for NASA in Huntsville.


George, his wife Chris, and Benton were on the way to the boat and wave runners (jet skies).


One evening, Benton, his wife Marilyn, and I used the hot tub. It was great!


We played board games throughout the week. Here we play Aggravation. The game belonged to my mother who loved the game.


We also traveled around the area. This is an old covered bridge. At times we weren't sure where we were. Thankfully we had a Garmin GPS.