Good afternoon  on this 24th day of June, 2024. It’s a warm one for sure; nothing but sunshine and a generous amount of humidity out there but tomorrow is supposed to be worse before the rain comes in. Ms. Kate and I had to go to to the doctor’s office for her to have her INR blood test done. Then we stopped over at Schnuck’s grocery store so I could pick up a few things that we were out of. From there we decided to drive across the paring lot to Sonic for a quick bite of lunch. Sonic is a good little chain “car-hop” type of drive-in restaurant. 

So —- yes, we are home from vacation. All of the family members have made it safely back to their homes and life begins again. I spent two years planning this vacation and you know the hassles we went through at the last moment with the rental company declaring bankruptcy in January and changing the location we were to stay in. I must say though, —— the place we ended up in was just “over the top” in every way. It was a $2.4 million mansion; 8 bedrooms, nine baths, gigantic pool. I can’t imagine us ever staying in such a place again but it was a great “once in a life time” adventure. 

Most of the family was able to come. Josh and his family were not able to make it because great-grandson Jacob was graduating from High school. Grandson Jon is involved in Real Estate classes to get his license and could not make it and Granddaughter Lauren has a new position in her job and has no vacation time but other than that, the 17 of us had a wonderful time

We are all looking forward to 2026 and our next reunion. We plan to head back to Pigeon Forge, TN next time if I can find a home big enough. I’ve already begun research and while there are places big enough for all of us —- elevators are few and far between. 

So, that’s it for today. I hope you are finding a place in which to stay cool. Peace.