Traveling Together - Red-Eye

It's finally here! Our long-awaited trip to Orlando for Baby Doll's volleyball Nationals tournament. We decided to make it a bit easier on Bossy since Gamer had to stay home because of work by taking the the red-eye so her little ones would sleep. There are 7 in her group, 6 in mine, and 7 in the group with Teach and Drama Queen. It's almost like a family reunion with 8 of my 12 kids here. We came in early Saturday morning, but Teach's group is driving and they will be in later today.

Our flight left just before midnight. Thankfully, the airport was pretty quiet at that hour.

We got into Orlando around 6am. Everyone was tired and grumpy, and we still had to get luggage and our rental cars before we could drive the 40 or so minutes to our Hilton suites at Aqua Sol.

Some of us slept the day away. I got about 3 hours before Bossy and I went to the 'required for owners' Hilton presentation. After a couple of hours, I dropped her and Bright Eyes at the complex and then I went grocery shopping at Aldi's.

I can’t really afford restaurants all week and our suites have full kitchens. We ate spaghetti and meatballs for dinner and played games.

The rain shut down the pools and waterslide, so we watched the lightening from our 3rd story deck. 

Afterwards, we all watched Sheep Detectives except for Sport. He hasn't been feeling well.

Tournament starts early tomorrow. Let's GO!!!

Old Time Baseball

Last Saturday, Scout, Baby Doll, Grandpa and I headed out early with our sites set on Nephi. It is Grandpa's hometown and the city was recreating the first baseball game played this side of the Missouri River.

One of my relatives, my 4 greats uncle, played centerfield in that original game. We thought it was his father, who would have been in our direct line, but they used the wrong pic and everybody was confused.

L'il Bro and his family were there.

They left early and Bossy's family showed up late.

The Whitmores were our team and they won!! Bossy stayed until the end, but we had more places to go so we left early. Grandpa was getting tired.

We stopped at Terrel's for donuts; they had doubled in price.

Then we got lunch at the Dairy Freeze before we drove to Fairview for our final stop. My siblings wanted me to donate my mom's rifle to the museum there.

Sorry I have no pics. It was a great and exhausting day. I'm glad Scout did all the driving.

Wordless Wednesday - New Jersey Cuties

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Guest Blog: First Father's Day Without Dad by the Dog Walker

 It seems like deja vu, huh? Mom has asked me to write for her about how our first Father's Day without Dad went.

First, Mom went to church by herself without her younger kids going with her. One of Curly's friends had a mission farewell, and the girls were not feeling up to it. So I went over to spend the time with her during Sacrament Meeting and Sunday School. She was really happy that I was there with her. I even drew a nice portrait of what Dad might possibly look like up in heaven.

After church, we had some groovy with corn flakes for both breakfast and lunch. Then we watched Dad's favorite movie, Eddie and the Cruisers 2: Eddie Lives! And after that, we watched the first Eddie and the Cruisers. From what we've learned while and after watching that one, Mom was right to say that Dad preferred the second movie, because it wasn't fully confusing.

For dinner, I found a bag of Dad's famous chili in the freezer that he made himself back in 2024. It was as tasty as it ever was before. Now it's really rare. Soon those bags will all be gone.

After a little while of relaxing after dinner and Mom making skirts for Crafty to go on trek (she and Craftsman are a ma and pa), we went down to the cemetery to spend some time at Dad's grave. 

Mom and Curly read two new children's books that are based on Father's Day. Like, Chicka Chicka, I Love Dad. Afterwards, we played a few songs on our phoness that reminded us of Dad. For example, I played Not All Heroes Wear Capes by Owl City. That song really reminded me of the time I played it for Dad. He really liked that song because of me.

We miss you, Dad. I hope you're having a good Father's Day up in heaven.