Our internet has been down, but we finally got it fixed this morning so am starting to get caught up on pictures. We celebrated at Lindee & Jackson’s house this year, since Jeff & I didn’t get home from Indiana until the night before. Wonderful time being together. I got this picture of the grand ones – obviously before they were quite ready 🙂
And Jeff and me. Special day.
Our last night in Indiana we had supper at St Michael’s, for their last fish fry for Lent of the year. I haven’t been to a lenten fish fry since we left Indiana, I don’t think, and it was absolutely delicious. Jeff’s dad told me that one of the church members who has a great big farm donates so many acres of corn to the church every year, and they freeze it for the fish fries they hold every Saturday during Lent, and other times. That really is the first fruits of their field, isn’t it?
Friday was a beautiful, not-too-hot day when we were in Indiana, so Jeff & I headed to Charlestown to do a little bit of hiking at the Nature Preserve that has opened there sometime in the recent past – or at least in the 40 years since we moved away from there. Ha. Jeff still has a little bit of trouble walking, so we took it slow, and took lots of rest breaks. I got this picture of him resting on one of the cool benches made out of huge chunks of Indiana limestone that were along the trail. He was working hard on his correct posture 🙂
Anytime we are in Indiana we always love going to watch Jeff’s brother Mark play with the Paul Boggs Band. Unfortunately this past week they weren’t playing until the Saturday night after we left, so we went out to Mark’s house Thursday evening to watch them practice. It wasn’t nearly as polished as a performance, of course – they’d stop in the middle of songs to fix things, and sing the same song more than once, but we loved it. They still sounded so good. Plus they practice in Mark’s garage, and he is a big collector of old things. They are displayed on shelves all around the garage, and this was the first time that I had all the time I wanted just to study the shelves. That was great fun, too.
Mark in action. In this picture he was singing the new song they are working up, Why Me, Lord. For years & years he didn’t sing because, according to him, he couldn’t. He did a fantastic job on this one, as he has on the others we’ve heard him sing in the past couple of years.
Last week when we were vacationing in Indiana, on Tuesday Jeff’s folks came up to spend the morning, & we went over & walked through the West Baden Hotel – just a couple of miles down the road from where we were staying. It is just absolutely breathtaking. I got this picture looking up at the hotel rooms surrounding the enormous Atrium, as well as the dome ceiling. Wow.
We went and got pizza for lunch, and then when we got back to our hotel, Jenny took this picture before the Longs headed back to Charlestown.
Sunday evening several of Jeff’s nieces and their children came to the condo to visit – and I didn’t get a single picture. Sigh. Then Monday morning some came back and others came to visit, and then we went to Legendz, a restaurant here in town for lunch. The bar wasn’t open at that hour, but luckily his niece Arielle is friends with the owner, and he let us into the bar side to see all of the Larry Bird memorailia. This is the gym floor from Springs Valley High School, where he played.
We are on vacation in Indiana this week while the kids are on spring break, & Lindee and the girls came up when we did Saturday. The traffic was absolutely awful on the drive up, so we got checked in the condo, ordered pizza for supper, & crashed for the evening. Then Sunday morning we headed to Henryville, where Jeff’s brother Mark lives, to have breakfast with some of the family. Jeff’s mom & dad were there, as well as Mark, his son Christopher & daughter-in-law Sara, & most importantly, 2-year-old Dakota. She was absolutely precious. I sat next to her during breakfast and we had the best time – and got this picture of her giving me her most sincere smile 🙂
From there we went over to Mark’s house to hang out for a while and spend some more time together. I got this picture of Dakota sharing some of her treasures with her mom, & Clara waiting her turn to play with the baby. Such a special day.
Thursday afternoon Jeff & I headed to Spring Valley High School in Columbia to see Clara in action on the soccer field again. Lindee was with Mallory at the Admitted Students Event at Furman University, and Jackson was there but coaching, so we went down to sit in the stands and cheer her on. They introduced the starting lineups before the game, which I don’t think we’d ever seen done at any other schools. Clara is in the middle of the white line with the orange cleats.
Not many action shots of the game, but I did get this one of her getting her bags off of the bus, after the Clover Lady Eagles JV victory. She was riding home with us since Jackson had to stay and help coach the varsity girls, and she had a lot of homework to get done :-).
On our way to Clara’s soccer game on Tuesday we were checking out our flower bed between the house and the driveway, and I was so excited to see that we are getting some blooms! Most of those flowers are summer bloomers, so it’s always exciting when that starts up.
I didn’t get a picture until after Clara’s game that evening. She had already changed out of her uniform to get ready to head to chorus practice, in preparation for a competition they were attending the next day.
