Just one more things to make us proud!
Our son  Dennis recently received the  Commanding General Award for Excellence. (US ARMY)

Dennis - top left pictured with his wife/our daughter-in-law) Crystal... and the rest at the award ceremony.

 

We Love You , Dennis.

Two Nights of Happy Hour!!!!

One of the very best things about RV'ing is the people you meet. The next best thing is getting together with all of them for a Happy Hour. On Wednesday evening we were invited over to Dean and Margie's.  A little later than normal - we were not arriving until AFTER the dinner hour.  So at 6:00 pm everyone was to bring finger foods and gather for some conversation and entertainment.

Below is the group gathered around the campfire at site B-12. From top left:
Dee and Rich and Karen, Margie, Rosemary and Garth,  Justin, Dennis and his wife and Art (seated), Margie and Dean cooking hot dogs and Dee taking pictures!  Rene ( hidden) and Mira, Lavern and Bob the Clown and Lee and Judy. Lat picture is Lou and Carol (hidden), Wow! can't remember his name either, but that's his wife Wilma, and there is Rene!

 The food was excellent.  Afterwards we were all entertained.  Garth and Rosemary had brought their guitars with  them and sand a medley of songs including the Pickleball Song, The RV song, and one of our favorites that Garth wrote about him and his father.    The clowns (Bob and Lavern - out of costume tonight) did a skit for us and later did a few jokes along with Dee and Garth and Dennis! 

On Thursday we were invited to John and Rosa's to celebrate Janet and Archie's birthdays.  Another beautiful evening and some new faces tonight.  Pictured below, starting top left and going clockwise:  The ladies: Tonyia, Janet, Donne, Rosa, Hedy, and Pat in the back.   The guys: John, Art, Larry, Nick (standing), Woody and Archie.  Everyone enjoying the food! And the bottom right is Mo(nique) and Judy!

Mostly finger foods again tonight - and three of us brought deviled eggs!!!!  But there were meatballs,  a rice dish, pecan tarts, little smokies, and a delicious liverwurst and cream cheese log with crackers....  After eating we all gathered around the campfire.

 Rosa made a delicious cake for Archie and Janet, and Hedy brought a Caravel Ice Cream Cake........We had missed Rosa's birthday last month. It was great to see her out and about and enjoying the evening after her recent emergency.

Below Archie, Rosa and Janet blow out the candles. 

 

Enjoyed the cake, talked for a LONG time, got a few mosquito bites and headed for home.

Tanglewood Winter Classic

Not been to too many tournaments this year. But last weekend several of the folks from here at Peace River headed over to Sebring for their first ever Winter Classic. Unlike the usual age level Senior Games events, this was a Skill Level Tournment where you played against opponants with equal skill levels. This is really the best kind of tournament. Your matches often last longer - because of the similar levels of play on both sides of the net. Seldom see any 11-0 11-3 matches!

Here are a few shots of some of us prior to the tournament.  Karen, with Jack and Diane and Dakota.

Mark, Rich ( of Rich and Dee), Krystal and Dean --- and Diane looking on. 

John, Diane, Dee and Dean

 I played in the 3.5 Skill Level with a lady from Pennsylvania, and Rich played with her husband in the 4.5 Level.   We just met them that day at the tournament.   Lots of fun - but neither of us finished with a medal.  But some of the folks did!
Below - Nathan and Buddy take Gold in Men's 3.5, Rich on the court in the next two pictures.  Diane and Dee took the Silver in the ladies 3.5.  Rich and Dee took the Gold in the Mixed 4.0

Great Job everyone!!! 

Ringing in the new year with Miss Ava!

This year Santa shared nasty colds and flue with Rich and I. Rich was first, and he got it pretty bad......lots of liquids and lots of rest... and then it was me........and I am so sore from coughing!! Of course - picking strawberries in the rain probably didn't help a lot - but by New Year's Eve  neither I, nor Rich was in the partying mood!

Both of us look forward to New Year's Eve every year, it's the best party night and the only day of the year that you'll find the two of us up at midnight. This year the party was at Jim and Judy's complete with a band, lots of food, party favors and lots of happy campers. They are just a few rows down from us - so we did enjoy the music for a while.......... and Tonyia stopped by and gave us our glow lights, noise makers and party hats.  But by about 9:30 we both called it a night.
 
There was however one thing that did make our Holiday special.  From just after Christmas until the 1st we had the pleasure of babysitting Miss Ava!

Unfortunately, for family reasons, Nate and Krystal had to head for Michigan, so we had Ava stay with us, and stopped in at their place each day to feed the cats.

 

We had such a good time with her.....and she really did bring some laughter and joy to our holiday.