My Personal Life
I've been blessed with the best family. My husband Mike and I have two boys, Matthew and Weston. As you can see in this photo, Matthew looks like his mom and Weston looks like his dad.
I am a member of Delta Kappa Gamma. This photo was taken at one of our summer teas.
These are three of my colleagues and best friends. In this photo we were in Gatlinburg, Tennessee attending the Special Education Conference.
It is a tradition each Thanksgiving to get a family photo.
My children are the two oldest boys. Both are out of school and in the working world now.
My dad passed away six years ago. Since then my mom and I have taken a trip each summer. I leave my husband at home and just enjoy spending some time with my mom. We travel with a tour company, so we just have to show up.
This trip was called "Scenic Train and Cruises Of New England." We drove up the Shenandoah Valley up to Pennsylvania. The race horse photo was taken at Saratoga Springs. We spent a day on Lake George in New York, then went on to Vermont. We toured Mount Washington then rode the Lafayette Dinner Train. The framed view of the lakes was taken at Castle in the Clouds in New Hampshire. From there we went to Portland, Maine.
In 2011, we flew to Los Vegas, and then traveled up the Pacific Coast to Seattle. From Los Vegas we drove through the Mojave Desert to Yosemite National Park. I could have spent a month there and not gotten my fill. It was breathtaking. From there we went to San Francisco.
After doing all the typical tourist things in San Francisco, we traveled through Redwood National Park up to Coos Bay where we rode the dune buggy. After a night in Portland, we spent a day visiting Mt. Hood, Bonneville Dam, the Columbia River Gorge, and Multnomah Falls. We returned to Portland for the night. From there we drove on to Seattle. This was a fantastic trip. The Oregon coastline was the prettiest place I have ever seen!
In 2012, we traveled to Mackinac Island. We traveled through Milwaukee where we had a city tour. From there we traveled through Wisconsin. We spent several days in Door County including a day on Washington Island which was beautiful. We even enjoyed a fish boil.
Mackinac Island was incredible. Cars are not allowed on the island, so we traveled by carriage. The island is covered in flowers; beautiful flowers could be found everywhere.
The Grand Hotel, pictured here, was the location for the movie from the 1980's Somewhere in Time starring Christopher Reeves and Jane Seymour. It is reported to have the longest porch in the world. We spent a little time rocking on this famous porch just enjoying the view.
In 2013, our trip was a little different. My mom and I traveled with her three sisters. We flew into London, spent a couple days touring the city, then caught up with a tour group. We traveled to Edinburgh and toured the castle and saw the Military Tattoo which was fabulous. From there we went up to St. Andrews to view the golf course and on to Inverness where the heather was in full bloom. We then came back down the west coast of Scotland through Glasgow and back to London.
Our tour group flew into Phoenix and then traveled by motor coach to Sedona. We continue to the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park and are awed it and the Colorado River . The next day visited Lake Powell where we cruised through canyons. We moved up to Zion National Park where we slowly descended through many switchbacks to reach the park. Next, we headed east to Bryce Canyon. Later that day we visited Capitol Reef National Park to see the ancient petroglyphs. At Arches National Park, we saw giant stone arches, pinnacles, spires, fins, and “windows” that was once the bed of an ancient sea. Mesa Verde was one of the highlights of our tour. From there, we headed south to Santa Fe. Finally, we reached Albuquerque before heading home. It was a wonderful trip!
My two boys went deep sea fishing with my brother. You can see they came home with quite a catch.
In the lower left corner, my nephew and boys are posing for they photo before we headed out for a nice seafood dinner at Crabby Oddwaters.
In 2015, our mother daughter trip was to Nova Scotia.
My favorite part was going to Prince Edward Island to see the Home of Anne of Green Gables. I also got to see the play version of the story.
We saw some scenic countryside and of course several lighthouses.
After visiting Scotland and England, my mom really wished we had visited Ireland. This was on the top of her bucket list. So, off we went to cram as much sightseeing as possible in our 10 day trip.
We traveled in a loop beginning and ending in Dublin. One highlight of this trip included kissing the Blarney Stone. This is no small feat. You must climb to the top of the castle, lay on your back, and then kiss the stone above your head. We were entertained with music, dance, and meals in castles. Another highlight was climbing the Cliffs of Moher. We stopped at the Kylemore Abbey and Victorian Walled Garden. The romantic background of the castle made the visit really special. We even make a quick trip into Northern Ireland to the Belleek Pottery Showroom. We had a river cruise down the River Shannon while listening to a guitarist play and sing. We completed our loop by returning to Dublin.
We had a fantastic time!
My mom and I flew out to Salt Lake City. We spent a little time looking up genealogy which was really interesting. We drove to the incredible Great Salt Lake, then on to Park City to the Olympic Park where the Olympics were held in 2002.
From there we drove to Jackson Hole. Our hotel balcony had a great view of the ski slopes. We traveled through Grand Teton National Park.
Next we drove to Yellowstone National Park where we watched Old Faithful. In Cody, we explored the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. We entered the Badlands the next day and were awed by the gullies, canyons, ridges, and spires. As we walked up to Mount Rushmore, a thick fog covered the mountain. We were lucky that it lifted enough to see the faces of the presidents.
Our final destination was the Fort Laramie National Historic Site where deep wagon wheel tracks can still be seen. We drove into Denver to fly home.
In 2018, our annual trip took us south to New Orleans. One really interesting stop on our trip was the Frogmore Cotton Plantation and Gins. There we saw what a cotton plantation looked like during different times in history from the early 1800’s all the way up to the modern working planation and gin of today.
We stopped for a tour of the Tabasco Sauce Factory on Avery Island before going on a Louisiana Cajun swamp tour. I took many photos of alligators in the swamp. Next we traveled to New Orleans where we visited the French Quarter, ate and the famous Court fo Two Sisters, and took an old-time paddle wheel riverboat cruise. On the way home we traveled along the Gulf Coast through Gulfport. One highlight of the trip was a visit to Bellingrath Gardens. It was a special day there with trick-or-treaters running around collecting goodies.
In 2019, we headed back to Europe. The trip started in London and ended in Rome. We visited many churches including St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. Some highlights of this trip included a caberet show in Paris, a cable car ride in Switerland, riding through the canels of Venice, and walking around the Colesum in Rome.
Covid has halted our mother/daughter trips, so I thought I would share some photos from our family beach trip.
You might have guessed from the photos that I am now a grandmother. My son has two boys. They are a joy like no other.
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