26 years of marraige and still having fun!

Pat and I were greatly blessed to have our children send us off to the Adirondack Mountains to enjoy some time together and to celebrate our 26th wedding anniversary.

We headed out to Old Forge.

 One of the first things we did was to head up the McCauley Mountain chair lift to get a great view of the mountains.

 The view was a little hazy, but still very impressive.

 I loved these Adirondack chairs made out of old skiis.

 Pointing our important landmarks...and the TowBar Inn.

 heading down the mountain

 We inquired  in town as to where a nice, easy hike could be found, suitable for someone with rhuematoid arthritis....This is the spot immediately pointed out to us...the Moss Lake loop.

 It started out beautifully...at the center of the lake is a little island, and on this island an osprey has nested.

 The trail was flat for the most part, and the serenity of the woods was wonderful.

 I loved this little fungus...I don't know what it is called, but it was beautiful.  At this time in our walk were about 1.25 miles in....halfway....that seems to be my rhuematoid arthritis limit...but I marched on.  I feel that I could now be one of those Olympic commercials....I overcame adversity...powered on...(although I was quite whiny) and made it (uphill) to the trailhead.  Pat was proud of me....and very happy he didn't have to call 911!

 The view from the balconey of our hotel room.

 The amazing room.  The stairs wind up to the bedroom. (The kids would have loved these stairs.)

 When we arrived home preparations for a party had begun.  I love the 26 balloons lining the wall.

Thank you, kids for making these past 26 years so wonderful for your father and me.

"I will love and honor you, all the days of my life"

Happy Anniversary, Pat.

I love you more now than on that day 24 years ago.

Celebrations!

Yesterday was Pat and my 21st anniversary, and we need to thank Mark for planning a wonderful party for us at the Vienna Hotel on Wednesday night.

Here he is as we arrived with about 30 people, and not a seat was to be had. Mark picked the Vienna Hotel because of the $.10 chicken wing night. We didn't anticipate the big crowds.

A half hour later we were still waiting to sit down, but things began to look promising. I believe we were scaring people with the great number of children we brought with us, and some folks did start to clear out.

We finally sat down, spread out over 7 tables and booths.

Becky was in charge of Luke.

Kim was happy with her first trip to a bar(I mean chicken wing palace).

Becky made us this wonderful, lemon filled cake. Delicious!!!! Even our waitress enjoyed some of it. ( We took pity on her because we had 30 people, including about 20 children, spread out across the whole dining room.)
Thank-you Mark for a wonderful evening.

Last night, Pat and I enjoyed an evening out alone. We went to the Outback Steakhouse and enjoyed some great prime rib.

On Sunday night Pat and I are heading to Saranac Lake and Lake Placid.

This will be the first time Pat and I have gone anywhere without children. It will also be the first time in about five years that I will be healthy for our anniversary.
I need to thank my wonderful husband for all he has done for me as he has stuck by me for the past years. He is a living example of the wedding vows "in sickness and in health". Hopefully the sickness part of this is behind us now and there will be nothing but HEALTH for many, many years to come.

21 Years!!

"I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad,

for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health.

I will love and honor you, all the days of my life."

Friday Fun!?!?

Fifty years ago today my parents were married. They have had their share of ups and downs, and with God's mercy they have had many more ups than downs.

Today they renewed their wedding vows.

This is how they looked 50 years ago,

and as you can see in this picture, they share just as much love today as they did then.

All ten children were at church together for this occasion so I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to take a family photo.

Following mass, Grandma and Grandpa treated us all out to brunch. I have to say, I was very proud of all the children. They acted like perfect ladies and gentlemen.

Thank-you Grandma and Grandpa.

When we arrived home, it was such a lovely day we decided to take a trip to the zoo. I went and got the mail and to Laura'a excitement we recieved her "CAT" test results. Now, any homeschooler out there knows the stress these standardized tests put on a student, and Laura is know exception. She has been waiting for two weeks for the results to arrive and today was finally the day. We opened them up and found that she received an overall percentile grade of 81. She was very, very happy. So happy in fact that she ran through the house cheering, and eventually catching her little toe on the refrigerator grate, tearing her skin hard enough that it required 4 stitches to close-up the wide open wound.

So much for the zoo,

but Laura did get a milkshake for her pain. She also received french fries for the tetenus shot that she had to get.

This is where Laura will be sitting for the next 7-10 days-no swmming, no hiking, no flip flops. Basically we will put summer on hold for the next week just for her.