Time Away

Had a great 2 day outing with Pat, Amber & Griff in Columbus, Ohio. The original plan was for Pat & Amber to get a session or two in the temple while we played with Griff. Unfortunately, after plans were in place we learned that the temple was closed this week for maintenance. We then went with Plan B and enjoyed an overnight in Columbus with some interesting dining - Schmidt's Sausage Haus, a German restaurant in The German Village (a restored German community near downtown Columbus). In the evening, we braved 30 degree, windy weather and walked about 10 blocks from our hotel to Buca di Beppo.

Pat, Amber, and Griff took in COSI, a great science, hands-on museum about 3 blocks from our hotel. Gramps & I got in our afternoon snooze. On Friday, Pat's toured the Ohio State campus and Harry & I returned to The German Village. We visited a stained glass shop (Franklin Art Glass), a 32 room bookstore (The Book Loft), and returned to Schmidts for another great German lunch.

Out With the Old - In With the New

Harry's Ranger pickup has served him well for the past 17 years. Finally - an upgrade and he is very happy to be in something a little newer, a little bigger. Getting old seems to make you take up more space than you used to -- why is that?

Field Trips

One of Grandpa's new activities is taking grandkids to some of their Home School Group's field trips. Last week he took Levi & Natalie to Fox Island. Guess what they learned about?

A Sammy Day

We had a one-on-one date with Sam yesterday and it was a good time. It started with a trip to Hobby Lobby to get paint supplies for gourd birdhouse painting. That turned into a "look at all the cool things" trip. Next stop - the grocery where Sam picked out his lunch - watermelon, mac & cheese, and a giant cupcake. Back at the farm, Sam wasn't too excited about helping paint the birdhouse, so Grandpa did the painting. First coats were still wet, so the dolphin stencils Sam picked out at Hobby Lobby will be a project for another day.

Trumpet playing and chess games (according to Sam's rules) were the other big activities for the day.

Heading Back to Frozen Indiana

Polynesian Cultural Center

Flowering Tree Near Where We are Staying

Waialua Botanical Garden

It will be hard to say goodbye to perfect weather - 65-80 every day (and night) but Harry has had enough of paradise and wants to get back to "real life". Can't say I feel that way. I hate winter and cold. We have 2 more days to enjoy before the flight home.

Funny story - last Sunday we planned for church in Laie and I didn't have a pair of nylons so we went shopping for some at the local grocery. NONE. I went to church in my sandals without nylons and as I was looking around I saw not one single woman wearing them. They just don't wear them here.

We are on the island of Kauai this week and it is simply beautiful and not the hustle bustle of Honolulu. A couple towns on the southern coast have some traffic but they are not "big city" kinds of places at all. Haven't seen a Walmart anywhere here. The movie South Pacific was filmed here and we've seen "Bali Hai". They also filmed several other movies here including parts of Jurassic Park.

Retirement is Good

Harry at the Luau - Polynesian Cultural Center.

Byodo In Temple (Buddhist Temple)

Ala Moana Beach near our first hotel

Harry retired the end of the year and our celebration is a trip to Hawaii. Here are a couple photos from the past week. The best part - it is WARM here!

Grandma Simpson Birthday Celebration

Uncle Roy Playing Grandpa to Seth

We enjoyed a wonderful day yesterday celebrating Grandma Simpson's 95th birthday. There were 29 of us there for the big event. Not just one beautiful cake, but 4 to choose from thanks to Roy! Fortunately the cold weather didn't set in yesterday as they predicted and only rain throughout the day and for the trip home.

Natalie Loved the "Big Glasses"

A Festive Buffet

Yup! Good Cake!

Figuring out how electronic scrabble works

Thanksgiving on Saturday

Grandpa teaching Natalie & Levi how to do Soduko

The traditional euchre game

As has been a tradition for a few years, our family gets together on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. This year we had hors doevre type foods for the entire meal - lots of finger foods and plenty of it. Teresa brought "brownie surprise" - a brownie made from a brownie mix, smashed black beans and water. You couldn't tell at all that it had beans in it. We had the missionaries for lunch and it turned out to be Elder Udy's birthday. A fun time was had by all.

George & Anna doing dishes after the festivities

Thanksgiving in Frankfort

We spent a wonderful Thanksgiving Day with Grandma Simpson. Wesley Manor puts on a Thanksgiving feast that rivals any home cookin'. Marleta & Larry, Anita & Mike and family were on hand for the festivities. On the way out of the dining room, the pianist providing music for the day was playing "Send in the Clowns", a song that Rachel sings and does beautifully. We encouraged her to sing and had the pianist start over. You could hear a hush from the dining room and the lobby as she got into the song and many gathered around to listen and then to join in some Christmas carols.

We got Grandma's apartment in Christmas mode, bringing all her decorations up from her storage room and filling the place with all her favorite Christmas things.

Counting the Days

Harry is just days away from retirement - 22 work days to be exact. So much is changing at his work that he knows this really is the best time to be retiring. Many employees are wondering about their future situations with some office closings likely and positions being eliminated. He worries about his colleagues and particularly his team. His guys gave him a couple retirement gifts at his team meeting this week, and he got a picture of his team at their Warsaw meeting. When he returned to work, he got his picture with his two Estimatics Coordinators.

I have been sorting/weeding things out in preparation for the holidays. Family will be in next Saturday and we will have our annual Thanksgiving "Saturday after" get-together. This year is "Finger Food" - we'll have things you can either eat with your hands or a toothpick. We'll see how that goes over. Next year I'll let someone else come up with the lunch plan, but I thought this would be fun one year. I plan to have many, many fruits and vegetables and found several heat in the oven things at "My Menu". Still looking for more ideas. Haven't decided if we will do the chocolate fountain - that is really a mess!! Sure is fun, though.

Logan Visit

Grandson Logan has been here for a short visit. Since he is being home schooled, he has some flexibility in his schedule and was able to be here for the honey harvest on Saturday and helped Grandpa with some garden cleanup today. He and Grandpa found some sweatbees or some sort of bees other than honey bees digging a nest in the ground near our porch.