The birthday dinner and cake

We went to Aqua Grill for Holly's Birthday Dinner, and it was a wonderful evening. We ate outside right by the water. It was a beautiful evening, and our whole family was together. Boy that is getting harder and harder to do, so it was extra special!!! Lincoln, Paige and little Austin were the best little people...Steve and I are so blessed to have the best happy and healthy grandchildren!! You guys are doing a great job!!!
Sweet pictures!!!

Happy Birthday Holly

Heidi and her sweet family got in midnight or 1 am or maybe even later, but Heidi got up early to make sure Holly had balloons for her birthday! The birthday fairy did come to her during the night. Heidi's friend Joy helped to start that in our family.
THE BIRTHDAY KISSES!!

GREAT WEEK/QUICK WEEKEND

Holly got a week of vacation and enjoyed every minute of it. Very pregnant Heidi, Matt, Lincoln, Paige and Roxy (their puppy) drove in for the weekend.
Holly and Austin became buddies from the second they met---can't you tell!!
Holly came to Jacksonville, along with which ever "tropical storm" it was. There was NO beach, but we did find a little spot on an incline up close to the sea grass. Our chairs were so sloped down we kept sliding off. Good laughs, good fun, and good memories! The sun kept peeking out, and it didn't rain, it was great!

Orlando

Kyrsten and Mike Hicks, Steve and I went to the Temple in Orlando. We left very early in the morning! I am so glad we went, it is always such an uplifting experience. It was a great day! Thanks Kyrsten and Mike for asking us---Lets do it again soon!

The Test

This was a very exciting day for Hilary. She has been attending classes to get her real estate license. The classes were 2 evenings a week from 6 till 10, for 6 weeks. On Labor Day she took the test and did very well! Austin stayed with Steve and I. We sure are happy for her and her sweet little family! Way to go Hilary!!! Now she has to take the state exam. She has taken some practice tests and has done pretty well. More studying! Hang in there Chris!

More of Fay

The rain and wind just hung over Jacksonville for quite a while. Fay would just not move.
I tried to catch the trees when they were blowing, but you really can't tell in these.
Thank goodness we had a shop vac--there for a while Steve had to go out about every 15 minutes and vac up the water. The back door to the borch was blocked by the dirt bags, so he had to empty the vac with a bucket, walk it through the house, out the front door and empty the bucket in the front yard. By late Friday afternoon the rain and wind really calmed down, and we were even able to go out and get most of the yard cleaned up.

Hurricane Fay

When we heard, on Tuesday, there was a pretty good chance that Fay was heading our way Steve went to Home Depot and bought several pieces of plywood. Wednesday morning Steve met Chris at Home Depot at 6 am, and Chris bought several pieces of plywood also. They measured and cut most of the morning, and had plywood ready to go up on all the windows of our home and Chris and Hilary's home if we needed it. Thanks for all the help Chris, Steve enjoys working with you. He says your are really a hard worker---but I already knew that!
This was Thursday morning.....The wind was kicking up and the rain was coming down, but it still wasn't that bad. Steve is usually always up and out before I even open one eye in the morning---BUT---I got up before he did this morning and made him breakfast in bed. Schools were closed, the post office was closed and many other places. We had a nice day, I sewed and Steve read to me. I had just checked 2 books out from the library, written by my favorite authors, Nicholas Sparks and Beverly Lewis, whom have become some of Steve's favorite authors also. When we travel we listen to their books on tapes. Was a really fun day for us, we never just sit around when we are home!
These pictures are a little out of order--oh well-- This was Friday and Hilary had to go to work-power was still out in many places and branches and trees were down all over, but she still had to go in:<( Austin and I watched the water and hoped it didn't come in again!!
This was Thursday. I had to run out and take a few pictures, this was by our down spout in the front of our house, it was a little scary at times, the wind gusts were up to 45 and 50 miles per hour at times. I sure don't ever want to see it any more than that!!!
Our back porch flooded, it is hard to tell here, but we filled up bags with dirt and packed them all along the back porch, and it did help a little.