A Wonderful Trip and a Wonderful Mother's Day

Danny and I finally got on the Amtrak and made our way down to Ft. Lauderdale to visit Jason and his family Thursday through Saturday. They met us at the station, and, after lots of huggies, we went straight to the Bucca di Beppo (sp???) Italian Restaurant. I had never been there before, or even heard of it, and it was soooo good! I am not an Italian cuisine fan, but this was wonderful! Of course, the thing that made it so special was the sweet fellowship with our precious family! We miss them so much -- little Savannah used to come into the house every morning for a sweet kiss, and then help her granddaddy collect the "eggies" every night. We were so excited that she warmed up to us right away.

Friday, Granddaddy and I got some Savannah-time while her daddy was at work and her mama got a rare couple of hours to do some needed shopping alone. When Jason got home, we all went to Dania Beach pier, and watched the ocean for a while. It was so refreshing -- Danny loves to walk on the beach, and the breeze was perfect. Then Friday night, Ashley fixed us a wonderful roast beef dinner, with mashed potatoes, green beans, and salad, and of course, chocolate cake for dessert! Oh my! It was delicious!
Savannah and Grandmama "posing" -- when she was a baby, Savannah loved to pose when her daddy said "pose". She isn't quite the camera hog these days.
On the way to the train station Saturday, we stopped at a huge western store (yes, in S. Florida! It was, after all, Davie, which has a huge rodeo every year, believe it or not!) Granddaddy found these flashy cowgirl boots on sale for $5 for Savannah that light up when you click the heels together. She had to put them right on and wear them to the station.
Here are Jason and Savannah waiting with us for our train. It was a fairly pleasant ride home, and Molly and some of her children were waiting to bring us home. Ah, my own little beddie-bye! Thank you, Jason and Ashley, for a wonderful time together. We hope it won't be long before someone goes either north or south on that old Amtrak!

Then today, after a good time in the Lord's house, we went to Molly's house for Mother's Day dinner. Eddie smoked chicken in his smoker, and everyone else pitched in for a yummy cookout. It was unusually windy today (as you can see from little Willie's hair and the palm trees in the background), so it was fairly pleasant outside.

Here are the mothers who were honored, in Molly's kitchen cutting up: My precious mother, Molly, Susan (Chris' mother), me, and Beth.
After dinner, we ladies set up the croquet game on the Stricklen's nice new lawn and had a good time in the wind (Kitty is about to fly away!)
Kitty exhibited dead-eye aim, while poor Grandmother struggled to clobber the ball and get it lined up with the wicket!
Molly and Beth were pretty good at it, too.
Little Emma Jane decided she wanted to play, too!

The refreshing time in the fresh air was invigorating! The other children made a "kite", as in parasailing, had the wind pulling the wagon with real force and speed! Hopefully, one of the girls will send me a picture of it that I can post -- it was strange to see the wagon scurrying across the yard under wind power. What a great science practicum for the children! But the sweet fellowship with precious family was the most wonderful part of the last few days. No deep spiritual profundity in this post -- just simple gratitude to the faithful Heavenly Father for the sweetness of these days.