Spring Break 2010

Dick and I decided to take a Spring Break and flew to Jacksonville, Florida, where our youngest son and his wife, Ben & Janelle, live. From there we met my two brothers and their wives and then boarded the cruise ship, Carnival Fascination, and went to Nassau in the Bahama Islands.


Our flight to Jacksonville was non-stop. While in flight, I took this shot of Dick.


We spent a couple of days with Ben and Janelle. Here is a picture of Dick riding Ben's motor scooter.


The four of us decided to eat at a restaurant near where our cruise ship would be docked. Here is Ben & Janelle.

And here is Dick and I.

We said our goodbyes to Ben and Janelle, met up with my brothers and their wives and boarded the cruise ship. This is a picture of Jacksonville taken from the ship. The ship travelled on the St. John River to the Atlantic Ocean, a distance of at most ten miles.

This is Dick and I aboard the ship. We are on deck at the rear of the ship. You can see the Atlantic in the background.

Here are the six of us at the evening meal. What a wonderful experience being with family on a luxury ocean liner.

Valentine Day

Here it is, Valentine Day. We are having a number of our friends over for dinner and conversation this Saturday evening, the day before Valentine Day.


Above is a box that I decorated. I filled it up with treats for my Salt Lake City grandchildren and sent it to them.


My table is decorated and ready for our guests.


Here is another view of the table.

The center decoration is in part some of the flowers that Dick gave to me.

A January Winter

It's already January 2010! Time goes by so fast for me. We began by having a late Christmas with Sue and Jon. They couldn't be with us on Christmas since Sue had to work.


Here is Jon and Sue at our get-together for the late Christmas.


I always like to have Christmas tea so I used my Christmas tea set when Sue and Jon came to be with us.


A few days later, Dick and I had some friends over. Here are two of my good friends, Pat and Mary.


For a couple of days, the weather was warm and moist, although it was below freezing, so the trees and bushes got a pretty coating of frost. I had to take some pictures before the frost disappeared.

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!