HELLO AGAIN - Miss Us?

I stopped posting to our Blog, where and what we were doing, to keep our whereabouts a secret from some of my family!! As we were progressing north through Kentucky and Indiana everyone thought that we were still in Tennessee. Especially my sister from Oregon. So when we walked in where she was staying in Indiana, she was very surprised and excited! I love surprises!!

We are now in Loudonville, OH without any cell reception for our phones or computer. So I found a Library where I can at least get on the Internet. We will be near Salem on Monday and are looking forward to seeing everyone!

We spent a little more than two weeks traveling north through Kentucky and I will do separate Blogs to show you what we saw in Kentucky. We left Louisville, KY via the bridge over the Ohio River into Jeffersonville, IN . It was like old home week for us as we had lived in Louisville for a year in 1970, where our oldest son was born.

This son traveled from Ohio to join us in Indiana for the surprise and visit there. He stayed with us in the motorhome and we had a good visit. We got to visit with other relatives in Muncie and also go to a Friends church in Greentown, IN to worship and say "Hello" to a former Salem pastor's wife who had resettled in Greentown years ago. She had just celebrated her 89th birthday that week!! Sorry that we forgot to take any pictures, but she and her husband both look good and are doing well!

Now I will show you the fun that we had while in Indiana! The event began with a wish of my sister to celebrate with her daughter and son-in-law in Indiana for their monumental birthdays. So the preparations began with plans beginning with these two happy ladies via many long distance phone calls and e-mails. And the surprise extended to bringing in her daughter and son-in-law's children and grandchildren from N. Carolina, Florida, and Texas.

Then the food preparation begins and the tasting of the homemade ice cream by guess who ? Yep, you guessed it, my sister!

In the mean time all of the family is gathering outside with the birthday couple. Everyone sitting around amidst all of the lovely landscaping with a son showing off his loud potato gun . A nephew playing with the yard golf and another nephew up in a tree to get the golf balls down!

Grandma plays with one grandson who was a preemie this year. Can you believe it? Look at those cheeks! And she passes him on for entertainment. Everyone enjoys talking to him while others visit in the yard . We capped off the evening with a picnic! Yum!

Memorial Day is here, now let the party begin!! Though the party did have a slight glitch -- the restaurant lost the order for 120 pieces of chicken, we finally were able to let the birthday couple begin the lunch line after the restaurant fixed their mistake!

The party continues with a lot of visiting and playing with the little children , one of Great Grandma's greatest joys !

On Saturday before the party, we went to Muncie to visit with my youngest brother and his two sons. But the fun did not end there!! Tuesday after the party, we went back to Muncie and met up with my sister and joined our brother and his one son and family at Mac's local restaurant for another long visit. And to our surprise, our nephew brought his new found sister and niece to meet us! We had known of this sister, but had never met her so this was a real joy and we visited for almost three hours. They almost had to boot us out as they were closing. But we really needed to get home to rest to be ready to move on into Ohio the next day. We regretted that our son had left for home and did not get to meet the extended family. But I guarantee there will be a next time! We told them we will be back in Indiana on our way west in the fall!