Cruising along quickly to get to the Baltimore Airport on time

Sneed set up a final Board Meeting for Sunday morning from 8-930. As usually happens, the meeting ran over and we didn't set out until 1045. Our flight was at 2. Fortunately the roads were dry and cleared the entire way.

Ah ha, there is a parking lot out there.

Our neighbor, Nick, watches Clyde while we are away. Before we left, I had baked some sugar cookies and left them laying on the counter in a ziploc bag. When we came home the bag was empty. Nick has a great sense of humor. Actually he and his wife are training for a marathon on the 13th and had run 20 miles. Nick thought the cookies were for them. Then he had second thoughts and had to absolve himself of the Cookie Monster crime.

We got what we came for...some SNOW

The view from our room before breakfast..and later in the afternoon after the snowfall. Some birds were seeking cover under the tree.

While the Board members were meeting, Phil (hubby of Board member Sue), Sue's first cousin Elaine and her husband Phil visiting from the UK, Susan, and I set out for the Pennsylvania Dutch country. As can be seen from the above photos, the snow kept coming and Phil kept driving. He had to stop once to scrape off the accumulated ice on the side of the widescreen from the wipers pushing the snow to the sides. In the last photo a man is trying to clear the snow that fell on his car during the morning.

Our first (and as it turned out, only) stop was in Lancaster, PA, at the Mennonite Information Center. We watched a short movie explaining Amish life in the area and browsed the museum area.

Scenes we would have seen if the snow had not prevailed.

This is a replica of the sandstone house built in 1729 that is the oldest surviving dwelling in the Lancaster area. ~ One block of a beautiful handsewn quilt for which the Amish are well known. ~ Snow on the trees around the building and my footprints sliding in the snow. ~ Cleaning off the Mercedes before turning around to go back to the Ramada Inn.

As one can see, the road has a lot more snow on it during the return trip. All that slush would be thrown up on the windshield whenever another vehicle would pass. The going was slow. 40-45mph. As we went over the bridge for the Susquehanna River, Phil pointed out how lovely it would be if we could only see it. He said we'd have to take his word for it.

Another photograph of the Peace Church. We had dinner at Visaggio's in nearby Enola. Some fine Italian dining all made to order was the fare. John enjoyed an enormous dessert afterwards.

                                                This is what we are missing by living in Texas. Aren't we lucky?

Onward to Pennsylvania

We got up at 430 this morning in order to beat the morning rush hour traffic. We got to Houston Intercontinental airport in plenty of time, passed through security, and had a bit of breakfast before going to our gate. The flight was scheduled to leave at 750 to arrive at 1153 EDT. All were on the plane and we taxied around runway after runway. There was a cold front that came in last night and for some reason the pilot announced he couldn't use the regular North runway. So it was 830 before we took off. There must have been some terrific tail winds as we arrived on time.
A bus took us to the rental car place where we met up with Gil who had flown up from TN and was riding with us to PA.

Fall foliage is somewhat washed out this year. Too much rain in the region.

We passed the historic Peace Church in Camp Hill, outside of Mechanicsburg. The Sanctuary was built in 1798. Confederates located a battery of rifles here. ~ Our first stop, even before going to the hotel, was the RROC Headquarters and Rolls-Royce Foundation. It was our first visit here. The Foundation has several cars on display that have been donated along with other memorabilia. Quite interesting. I picked up a travel log and was reading about an African safari that an RR owner had taken. Imagine my surprise when I realized it was the exact same tour we had taken in 1990 when we went to Africa on an Abercrombie and Kent  expedition from our home base of Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. The other tour had occured some 30-40 years previous.

We had dinner at the Black n Bleu restaurant in Mechanicsburg. Excellent food.

Trick or Treat ~ Candy, Art, and Decorations

Erika called early this morning. The children were being dismissed early because there were parent-teacher conferences in the afternoon. She asked if I could pick up Aedin, Dylin, and Olsin and she would be home around 3. Pick-up time was at 1130.
At their home,  a big bowl of Halloween candy enticed us. I was good - only ate one tiny Snickers and a Five something miniature. Dylin was propped on the counter doing her bit for the 'trick or treat'ers.
Around 245 Erika called and asked if I could take Aedin to piano lessons since the sessions were taking longer than the assigned times and she still had one more.
On the way to the piano teacher's house, we saw lots of decorated homes. After Aedin went inside, Dylin and Olsin wanted to view other streets in the neighborhood. By the time we got back on their street, Erika had just pulled up and it was time for them to hop from my car to hers to pick up Aedin.
A fun afternoon.

Dylin posed and then had a good laugh

Aedin's art work for Halloween

Dylin's painting has twinkly lights

Aedin, ever the bookworm, and a girl after my own heart. She finished the book too!

Some of the RIPs - Astros, DeLay, Bin Laden, GOP????

Olsin wanted to make the scene 'official'

The top is one more home in Greatwood. The bottom is in Cinco Ranch.

Clyde in the Cabbage Patch.............Kids

Quilt and Lunch

Last night, I finished sewing the binding on by hand on the second baby quilt. Today I stopped at Subway and picked up a sandwich and some cookies and headed down to Fort Settlement  Middle School to have lunch with my favorite teacher. I brought the quilt along as well sinceTaylor will be going to the baby shower next week.

I really like the way it turned out. Annemarie had used Miss Penny's special formula to make the binding before she left.

Drought Strikes Brazos Bend Park

We took a picnic lunch to Brazos Bend Park today. Then realized that our park pass had expired in October and had to buy a new one. We didn't use it as much as we should have this past year.

Right before the entrance there was this idyllic field of flowers. The yellow and pink were so pretty together I had Sneed stop so I could get a photo.

Some Whistling Ducks. The water is so low they are standing. They would fly up and land further out only to find it wasn't any deeper than where they had been.

Houston British Motor Expo at La Centerra

A fine 1949-50 Riley. One of 50/300 left in the world. Current owner brought it from England in 1975. The white vehicle is an Allard.

The featured motorcar was the MG. Here are 2 examples. The one on the top is has a turbo charged engine. The bottom one is a 1980 MGB bought in Houghton, England. The owner, standing directly behind the car, has maintained the car in its original condition sans any restoration since he bought it. A one owner car.

Our two fine vehicles

Dylin's Early Morning Soccer Game

Dylin is #7 with the lime green soccer shoes

                                        Dylin takes a throw in and gets it halfway to the goal with her toss

Wildflowers and a Praying Mantis

On the way home from the ball game, I stopped to take a photo of the wildflowers. When I got home, Sneed was outside and came in to tell me that there was a Praying Mantis on the left front fender of my car. It does look as if it is praying.

Olsin's Afternoon Mechanical Pitch Game

Nice swing, eh?

Aedin's up to bat

Aedin's games are at night...it's daylight saving time and the field is lit so it's a nice time to play. Their team is doing well, haven't lost a game yet, and tonight they won 5-4.

Not bad for her first time playing softball. Great form.

What an angelic face.

So Long, Farewell, Auf Weidersehen, Good Bye...sniff, sniff, sniff

Check out the punk hair do. What concentration as he examines the quilt.

Love those baby blues. Belly prop sitting. Happy baby.

Trying so hard to roll over. Super smiles. Oh no, baby's gone. = (

    One last video before Annemarie, Brett, and Burke drive away

A Nice Surprise

This morning when I left for the Y, there were pink placemats on the table. While I was gone, Annemarie whipped these up and had them on the table by the time I got back. What a nice surprise and perfect in blue.

Burke Burrito

Burke has been swaddled since birth. Don't think he will be in swaddling blankets much longer though.

See, the swaddling's coming undone, and now he's examining it to see what it was.



A perfect model for the latest baby quilt. One down and one quilt to go.

                                                                                        One giggly baby!


Burke and the Ladies

Burke and Erika...Burke and Miss Penny

Great photo taken by Miss Penny. Annemarie and Burke centered perfectly around the two photos on the mantle.

                        Burke attempting his crawl once again, later on in the evening. There is sound.

A Babe of a Thousand Faces

You'll be glad to know that I didn't take a thousand photos, but I bet if I did they'd all be different. Just like those games in the paper in which you see what's different from one drawing to the next and list the differences.
Annemarie has been taking photos of Burke every week since he was born. Since he was born on a Sunday, the photos are taken then. This is Burke's 22 weeks photo session and I snapped along with Annemarie.

QT's Treasure Island

Last night was opening night for Treasure Island at the Sugar Land Auditorium. We are here one day later. I have to thank Brett and Annemarie for the following photos save the first collage as they got photos I didn't with my camera. This was going to be the only time the three sisters would be together where we could get a photo of them together so we took advantage of the nice evening and had a family photograph session.

One was greeted at the gate by the Pirate flag. The Playbill was well done and informative.

Our three daughters
L>R Taylor, Erika, Annemarie

Sneed and I with Burke. Burke with Daddy and Mommy. Burke looks as if he's seen some of the scary parts from the play and it hadn't even begun yet.

A scene from the play