I got to celebrate my birthday with this great group of family and friends. Michelle and Angelo hosted us for dinner and an amazingly delicious pumpkin layered cake.
Gift opening (on the 24th) was full of fun surprises from Jake, the kids, my in-laws, and my aunt Deb, who made a cathedral pane lap quilt using pieces that my Grandma Fran had intended to use for quilting, but was unable to due to her failing eyesight.
We hosted two families for Thanksgiving dinner this evening – 6 adults and 10 kids! Once again, I didn’t get pictures of everyone – next time!
Good food + great company = fantastic holiday!
The Shecklets are blessed to not only have grandparents who they know and love but also great grandparents. Their great grandpa, Papa Dale, died this morning after 91 well-lived years in this earth. We pray Jesus welcomes him to heaven with loving arms. We will miss him, but have great hope that we will see him again.
Doing life as husband and wife since 10/18/02!
Our good friend, Michelle, made us an amazingly delicious mocha cake!
We made our annual trip to the orchard where Grandma Patti works every fall. We went through the corn maze, washed apples, ate apples, picked apples, and selected pumpkins. It was a great day!
Today Shecklet #3 turned 8! She requested a Texas sized donut like her big brother had. Since you only turn 8 once, I surprised her with two donuts that made an “8.” 🍩🍩
✅ Paddle boarding!!
We spent the day celebrating 50 years at Nissedalen today. The weather was absolutely perfect and the lake water was warm enough for me to enjoy being in it. If you know me at all, that’s a pretty big deal! With summer (sort of) winding down, today was a great day to attempt the next major item on my recovery checklist – paddle boarding. Jake rented a couple of boards from a local shop and his cousins let us use their trucks to transport them to the lake. When the little kids weren’t using them, a few of the adults gave them a try. I was thrilled to not only get up without falling off the board, but keep my balance while paddling down the shoreline and back! Hooray for another recovery item checked off!
Group shot – 4 generations!
Grandma Lois & Papa Dale with many of their grandkids (and spouses) and great-grandkids!
One note about the coloring of the pictures. The smoke in the air from the fires out west was intense. These have been tweaked a bit just to tone down the yellow tones a bit – and they still look hazy!
Shecklet #2 also got up on skis today! Unfortunately, I don’t have a picture of him, but he wants to go again, so I’ll try to capture one next time.
The rest of the day’s photos can be found here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/kT3NcQ9JhhWmu5878
My SIL got married today!
I didn’t take many pictures – just enjoyed the evening.
The picture of Jake above was taken by his aunt 🙂 I love his zest for life!
ETA: We didn’t get a picture of just the two of us looking spiffy last night, so we took a “day after the wedding” photo instead. We did get a couple of family pictures that I’m hoping turned out well. Fingers crossed!
ETA 12/21/18 – Here’s a family photo from the day. Don’t we clean up well??
