Chad and Cathy: Family

Showing posts with label Family. Show all posts

6.21.2009

5.12.2009

Chad and I traveled to Destin earlier in May to visit my cousin Michael and his family. They live in Wyoming, and I don't get to see them often. Plus, it was a great excuse to visit Destin (somewhere I'd never been). We had a great time at the beach and seeing local sites. The weekend flew by!

Here is a photo of Chad in the hat I got him for his birthday last year. Although he mocks the hat, it does keep him from getting sunburned.

This is my cousin's daugther Hannah. She's 3 years old.

And, this is her twin sister Paiton. They are such sweet little girls!

Chad had another Florida tourism experience this past weekend. He attend THE PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Verda Beach, near Jacksonville. He saw Tiger Woods and some of the other big names in golf and had a great time (and got some more use out of that hat!).

2.20.2009

Janet's Florida Visit

My sister Janet came to visit us in late January/early February. This was her first visit since we moved to Florida and only our third family member to visit. We really enjoyed having her, especially Gus. I know he enjoyed the company and extra attention.

Chad and I have been trying to check out some of the local tourism attractions. We went to Devil's Millhopper while Janet was here. It was a big sink hole. While interesting, it wasn't nearly as impressive or "cool" as I had hoped. Chad and I will have to go back sometime when more of the plants are alive.

Janet and I went to Walt Disney World's Animal Kingdom while she was in town. We had a great day! It was much less intensive than Chad and my experience at Epcot or the Magic Kingdom. We rode a few rides, watched one of those really cool 3D shows, and got some Mickey Mouse ice cream.
Janet even had her picture taken with Pocahontas while we were there. Check out the princesses:
I really enjoyed her visit and hope she will make plans to return.

1.12.2009

The Great Christmas Road Trip of 2008

One of our favorite perks of working at a University is that thing slow down a little around the holidays. Chad, Gus (the cat) and I took a two week road trip to visit our families in Oklahoma and Tennessee. It turns out that Gus is an excellent passenger (thank goodness!).

We decided to drive the whole way this year. Last year, we drove to Nashville and few from Nashville to Tulsa. I wasn't very impressed with the ticket prices, so we just decided to drive this year. One of the best parts about driving is that we had the opportunity to see a lot of extra people. We stopped on the way to Chad's parents in Tennessee to see friends Jason, Katie and Lowry. On the way to Oklahoma, we stopped in south Missouri to see David and Kristin. And, on the way back to Tennessee, we stopped to see Ian, Erika, Caedman and Ethan in Arkansas.

We spent Christmas day with my family again this year. It was so nice to spend some time with the relatives.

And, the weekend after Christmas, we got to help my aunt ring in her 60th birthday and my sister celebrate her 25th! Here is a picture of Chad, my parents and I at the party.

With two full weeks off, we had plenty of time to spend with both families. We spent the New Year's celebrating Christmas with Chad's family in Tennessee. And, we were able to spend some time with some of his high school friends and their families on New Year's Eve.

Although we know it won't always be this easy to accommodate every one's schedules and our travel requirements, we really enjoyed our trip this year.

10.21.2008

Home for Homecoming

We traveled to Oklahoma this past weekend to see family and friends, soak in a little Oklahoma State Homecoming and go to a friend's wedding. It was such a nice break and we had so much fun! It had been about 3 1/2 months since our last visit.

This is a photo of one of the house decs, giant confetti and chicken wire sculptures which take a tremendous amount of time and money, but are so much fun to look at! Walkaround is one of my favorite parts of OSU Homecoming, and I hadn't been since 2004. Most of the house decs were amazing, just like this one.

I got to catch up with several friends while I was in Stillwater. There is never enough time to see everyone, especially when so many people are in town.

We didn't get to go to the football game on Saturday. I would have really liked to check out the new stadium, but my friend Leigh Ann's brother (also one of Chad's former students) got married early Saturday evening in Sapulpa. We had a great time at Chris and Melissa's wedding and reception. It was so pretty outside of the reception location. The leaves in Oklahoma are just starting to turn, one of my favorite parts of the year.

And, we had such a nice visit with my family on Sunday and Monday. They've been digging up sweet potatoes, as Mom demonstrates below. We had tons of great food, smoked turkey and ham and lots of garden goodies. Food always tastes best at home.

Weather permitting, we'll be back in December for Christmas!

7.09.2008

O-K-L-A-H-O-M-A

In late June, Chad and I traveled to Oklahoma to celebrate my Grandma Dorothy's 90th birthday. We had a great time with all of my cousins (except Heath and his family), aunts and uncles. My Grandma's brother and sister-in-law even made the trip from Missouri to celebrate her birthday. Here she is with one of her cakes. This one had lemon filling and was delicious!

This is a photo of Janet and I with all of our cousins (again, except Heath) and most of their children. I think Hannah might be hiding behind my head in this photo. Two year olds are much more concerned with cake than taking a group photo!

These are the youngest of my cousins' children. Patrick is one and Hannah and Paiton are two. Exciting news! In October, Patrick will become a big brother! Aren't they adorable?

Chad left to return to Florida earlier than I did. So, I had a chance to catch up with friends. I got to visit Leigh Ann and her new house in Tulsa and Katie in Stillwater.

Stillwater is very upscale these days. Someone opened up a new wine bar downtown that Janet, Katie and I checked out. My trip to Stillwater was somewhat of a race. I went from one place to the next meeting up with people the entire time we were there. I did manage to take a break to go to the Beadery and get a new OSU T-shirt (my other plain OSU T-shirt is from 1999 and features the old OSU brand). There are several more people that I wanted to see, but I never have enough time when I'm in Oklahoma!

While I was at home, we discovered baby kittens! So adorable. They just barely had their little eyes open. After this evening of playing with them, the momma cat moved them to a new location. Hopefully someone will track them down so they can be tamed.

When I returned to Florida, my cat Gus was waiting at home for me. He was so excited to have some attention and followed me around the house rubbing on my ankles (which he never does). Here is a new picture of him. He's getting so big!