Kids had "cracker'' with hats and toys in them!
our whole town just when we had started preparing our part of the dinner. People actually were in the street talking about the food that was in the oven that needed to get done. Kathy and Grant came over and saved us by taking the ingredients for my sweet potato souffle and made it at their house along with all they were fixing. It took 2 hours before the power was back on. I was glad I was not making the turkey. Also Joe called that he was still stuck in traffic in Iowa and might be late. He got to 
Sarah's just in time to eat. 
This is my favorite Norma Rockwell picture of what Thanksgiving is all about. I am very thankful for family and friends. HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!
The spectacle of the Lion King was fabulous with all the puppetry and African music. The ensemble singers were the best of the music. The individual voices in this road show group were not strong. Still it was a great night of theater. I thought Wicked was a better show all around.
Meredith and Sarah joined the group to have lunch at Houlihan's and help with the shopping on beautiful fall day
Bride and groom's moms enjoyed lunch together, Ellen and Susie.
Laura, Julie and Meredith at lunch at Houlihans.
Diane came from Montana to help in the seach for just the right dress. Susie, Kathy and Di enjoying the great weather and lunch. 
there than in Denver. That night we ate at a great Italian restaurant, Maggiano's Little Italy, which was right across the street from our motel. 
But we had a great trip there on a scenic route and returned through the Big Thompson Canyon. It was a great drive. Ralph and I had dinner at Tres 
Margarita's, a great Mexican restaurant that night and Diane was able to see us later and eat our left-overs after work. Her case pretty much wrapped up now and she will be able to return home this weekend. We are home now. It was a quick trip but we enjoyed our time away. 
This is a quilt that Ann and her group made for a contest and I named it (EWE ATE MY PANTS) for her when she was visiting in July. It won the first prize!!
Joe with his rally cap on for the exhibition game with Truman State.
Joe getting serious with the team and giving important tactics! Drake lost but played all their players because it was their first game and for exhibition only. 
Marcia and Kathy in front of the bus for Truman State, the school they graduated from a few years ago. We had a good visit with Marcia while with her for the weekend.
Susan, Ronda, Sherrie and I went to the American Heartland Theater in Crown Center to see the musical Always, Patsy Cline. It was very nostalgic and fun. The music was very good with a great old time country-western band with a steel guitar. Becky Barta was a great Patsy and the comic relief with Cathy Barnett was great. 
We have seen Cathy Barnett in many productions around KC and she is so good in everything she does. It is playing until Aug. 17 and I would recommend it to any boomer or anyone who remembers real country and western music. 
We were at the Jack Daniels Distillery and took this picture of the girls, Kelly (friend of Ina's) Ina, Sally, Jennifer and I.
Mel getting a demonstration from the re-enactors on how the guns were fired on the battle field of Chickamauga, Ga.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Rocket Center in Huntsville, AL
When Ina's husband, Mel, came home from work, he took us to a new area for shopping in Huntsville called "Bridge Street Mall." It is a beautiful mall in a Mediterranean style with a canal running through it with gondolas and beautifully landscaped with flowers. We ate at a gourmet Mexican cafe, called the Cantina Laredo. It was a very nice contemporary restaurant with great food. We window shopped a little more then went back to their home. We played some games and then went to bed relatively early because we had gotten an early start that morning.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Ina had a great breakfast for us and we left about 9:45 am to travel to Lynchburg, Tennessee, the home of the Jack Daniels Distillery. We were joined in our adventure by Kelly, the "adopted daughter" and neighbor of Ina and super nice young women. It took about an hour and 20 minutes to get to Lynchburg through the green rolling hills of northern Alabama and southern Tennessee. We first visited the Visitors Center at the Jack Daniels Distillery. We didn't do the tour because we had done that once before.
Our next stop was the historic square in Lynchburg and going through some of the shops there.
. We sat in the parlor until the dinner bell was rung for about 90 guest who were assigned certain dining rooms with large tables. With each table of guests there is an official hostess from the staff. Our hostess was Janice who told us about the 100 years of history of Miss BoBo's and Lynchburg. She also made sure that we were good patrons who always passed to the left and she kept the conversation going. We sat with a family of 4 from Columbus Tennessee. Our menu was: fried catfish, stuffed peppers, fried okra, candied apples with Jack Daniels sauce, "stewed" new potatoes, Lima beans seasoned with country ham, 
green chili rice, corn bread and a tomato salad. Everything was absolutely delicious and bowls were refilled as soon as they were emptied. For dessert, Chess Chocolate Squares with whipped cream infused with Jack Daniels was served, which again was superb. After lunch we again shopped on the small square of the town which had small antique and souvenir shops.
Mall to eat a fabulous lunch at PF Changs, sharing lettuce wraps and entrees. We got our tickets to see Mamma Mia on Sunday and went shopping at Barnes and Nobles. We came home to Ina's to watch more of the min-series and have a few cocktails! We watched the movie, Juno, and we all really liked it. Then Ina made us great lasagna and we went to bed early to get up early the next morning to go on a historic train in Chattanooga TN that goes to Chickamauga GA. 
Chickamauga Battlefield in Georgia
We got back to Huntsville about 6 pm and Ina made us a great Mexican dinner and then we played some games and tried to watch a movie but most of us fell asleep during some part of the film. We had had a wonderful but wacky day.
