Sunday

Well it was another hot day with just a little less humidity. At least you could walk outside for a few minutes without breaking out into a sweat. How I will miss those cool dry days at the cabin when we come back here for good this Nov. I can't believe how much hotter and wetter it is here, oh well. There must be some internal alarm clock for me 'cause I can't sleep past 6'ish here in Seminole whereas the outside stillness and elevation allows me to sleep in under the warm covers at the cabin; of course the a/c runs so often during the night that is definitely a sleep interrupter.

Saturday was such a busy day especially for Nancy as she was in the kitchen starting with breakfast for Ava, Sam and myself and then to after midnight. The kiddos spent the night on Friday and did sleep in until 7:30. We were up before daylight as the morning light comes so much later now and we had much of our early morning routine out of the way. Nancy made eggs for us all as we forgot to bring our buckwheat pancake mix with us. The kiddos love pancakes. After that cleanup she started on baking chocolate chip cookies for Sunday's homecoming at Element Church in Tampa as they celebrate 5 years with a cook out and eventually with the Bucs game on the big screen.

Nancy then prepared a rub for the spare ribs which I wanted to get on the smoker by 10 AM. After getting smoker loaded with apple and hickory wood we loaded 2 1/2 racks of ribs in it and plugged it in for it to smoke for 7 hours. Amy came and picked up Sam and Ava after we messed around outside with Ava catching lizards and Sam was in his make believe world of being Farmer John. I piddle around while they caught critters as I tried to spread out some of the rolled up grass and weeds from the gardens so the sun could dry it out and make it easier to mulch with my mower. This makes for great compost for my winter garden.

I then vacuumed the house and washed pots and pans as Nancy made scalloped cheese potatoes and other dishes for the big family dinner. Errol and Arianne drove up from Miami for the occasion as we celebrated GG and Tyler's birthdays. GG will be 85 on the 1st of October and Tyler just turn 35 the day before our anniversary. I managed to get in a little of the Rays game as they once more lost to the Jays and if they lose 1 more game they will be out of post season contention. Their fielding and hitting went south and were beaten by the team with the worst record in their division, oh well. I think they need some divine intervention if they are going to continue into the post season.

Well we had a house full and the eating started with my guacamole which turned out awesome and Errol made some bacon wrapped dates which were rather tasty as well. We then had a taste of some fruit of the vine as we snacked then we all sat down to a meal of smoked ribs, scalloped taters', 1/2 runner beans, salad and Tyler made homemade yeast rolls which I thought were excellent. He was disappointed as they were his grandmothers recipe but lets face it no one can cook as good as your grandmother until you become one yourself. Nancy them made a wine berry(picked from our patch at the cabin) cobbler and topped that with vanilla ice cream. Yeow what a feed and I made myself stay away from the dessert but did lick the dipper before I washed it.

We sat around afterwards and Errol set up his laptop and we watched movies of their wedding in Miami as well as the recent wedding in Michigan of Arianne's sister Alexandria(which we missed). They all stayed late except for Tyler who took the kiddos home around 9:30 until nearly midnight and would probably have stayed longer but GG and I were starting to yawn. It was after midnight before I got in the shower and hit the sack only to hear Nancy still in the kitchen doing some final cleanup chores.

Today it's off to Tampa around 9 'ish to worship with our son Bobby and the rest of the Element Family. It will be a special day as well as we see our other grand kiddos; Annsley and Gabe. We will head back over to the Riverview area which is south of Tampa on Tuesday for supper with them and again next Saturday for a combined birthday celebration at their other grand parents home that has a pool. So that will be a special day as well for the kiddos, LATER  Here are a couple pics of Ava and Sam when they spent the night on Friday.