Thanksgiving Trip to Ohio

the captions on this post are off... hope you can figure it out, cause I can't figure out how to correct it... not sure what I did! :)

We left for Ohio, and headed for Athens. We were going to visit Ohio University for Jordan. We started Tuesday afternoon after I got off from work. We drove until we got to Lexington, and it was pretty late. I had packed up some groceries... so, we stopped at a "fine" hotel (It was really the only one we could find as we drove around late at night not really knowing where we were.) that was being remodeled if that is what they wanted to call it! We finally went to sleep and woke up semi- early and started getting ready for about 5 more hours of driving. The following picture is Jody drying Alex's hair because it was entirely too cold (20 degrees) to go out with a wet head. As we were pulling out of our hotel, the temperature guage started doing weird things... Jody got out and tended to that which wound up being an easy fix, but definitely set the mood for travel on a bad note! The directions were kinda screwy that we got off the internet. Needless to say we passed about 25 NICE hotels, that if we had just driven about 5 more miles, we would have gotten to them. I got us lost once and Jody got us lost once and it was just a very tense and crazy drive on back roads that were not clearly marked!




On those back roads we went in and out of West Virginia into Ohio two or three different times (not because we got lost but because that is actually what you were supposed to do the way went! CRAZY!) Every time we went in and out of W. V. and Ohio we crossed the Ohio River and traveled over some cool bridges like the one below:

We also went past a Nuclear Power Plant and Alex insisted that we take pictures. She thought that the structures were neat and had no idea what it really was.

We finally made it to Ohio University. It was pretty desolate because of the holidays, but it was still a beautiful campus and a good opportunity to just walk around and see what it is. We walked into the city of Athens, which I thought was very cool. We went to the book store... Jordan got a t-shirt, and Alex got a book.

Jordan at the "Main Gate" of Ohio University!


This is Lindley Hall. Where the ROTC is housed and hopefully if Jordan gets to go here, he will be doing the ROTC, also.

Finally... We made it to Scot and Tracey's house. AND... THERE WAS SNOW! The girls played out in it... A LOT!! They really do have so much fun together!

They played with their sweet dog Nicki. And Aunt Tracey was kind enough to pose for pictures, too.


Alex loved it there and Chase loves his Mommy!



Jody caught up with his Dad, who came over for Thanksgiving Dinner.

Alex and I went to the Pittsburgh Zoo and Aquarium, while Uncle Rob and Jody worked at Pap-Pap's house to fix the ceiling in his bathroom. The zoo was pretty cool! But I especially like the aquarium.


Alex petting the sting rays and sand sharks!:


Some really big fish!:



The zoo had two really cute baby elephants that were only about 4 months old! We spent about an hour in the elephant house. They were so intriguing... I just wish I had had my video camera with me!

And the other large animal of our trip!! Hunter, the golden retriever. None of the pictures that I took do justice to the mammoth size of this dog. He is my father-in-law's dog... and he loves him so much. He also feeds him a ton. Now, as Dennis says, he is naturally (or unnaturally) a very large golden to begin with... but the size that he has gotten to is CRAZY! He eats as much as Denny! He is literally the size of a coffee table!

Alex and Pap-pap! LOOK! they have the exact same expression!









Alex helping put the finishing touches on Pap-pap's bathroom ceiling.

And now relaxing with Hunter! the Mammoth Dog!

TAG

On my cousin's blog she did one of these TAG games, anyone who reads the blog should look at their own 4th folder at the 4th picture and post it... This one is mine! Thought it was pretty funny! This is from our trip to Ohio for Thanksgiving (that I never blogged about... I need to do that!) Alex took a shower and would not let me dry it and it was 19 degrees outside. She let her daddy, so I took a picture!

Pawpaw Nolen

As I mentioned in the last post, I lost my other grandfather, "Pawpaw Nolen" earlier this month. I just thought that I would pay a little tribute to him and his life here. His death, for me, was difficult but comforting. You see, he was 94, and had lived a very long and full life. I had a moment the other day, that was very sad. Just the thought of not hearing his silly little laugh (he found himself very funny!) again was very sad. I starting thinking about all of the things about him that makes me who I am. Pawpaw always had very strong family values. He was an only child in a time that it was very uncommon to only have one child. He loved his parents. I never met his dad (he passed away when my dad was 9, and was the only grandfather that my dad knew... Papa Nolen ) His mother, "Mama" or "Granny Haley" (what I called her) lived to be almost 104 years old, and Pawpaw took care of her the last 33 years. My dad has said before that he remembers that it was always his dad who was the nurturer and telling everyone how much he loves them. When Pawpaw and Granny married, they took turns with Granny's sister taking care of Granny's mother, Mama Peek, and having her live alternately with them. She passed away in 1967, and soon after, Granny Haley moved into the one room apartment that Pawpaw had built for her behind their house. And when he had to make the difficult decision to put her in a nursing home, I am not sure he missed a day of visiting her there. When Granny Haley passed away in 1991, he then focused his caregiving on his wife, Granny Mary. Although at that point she was in pretty good health, he was still her caregiver. As Granny Mary's health deteriorated over the next several years (Parkinson's Disease) he continued caring for her, lifting her, feeding her, and loving her. He eventually again had to make the difficult decision to put her in the nursing home... and again, I dont think that there was a day that he was not there to visit with her. I know at this point that he really became lonely. Granny had gotten to the point that she was not communicating very much, and he missed her being at home. After she passed away in 2001, he was very sad... He had spent his life taking care of others before himself, and now he had to take care of himself! He did just that for several years... playing dominoes, going to Church, and going to Jack's to meet with the other ROMEOs (Retired Old Men Eating Out). And although his physical health was relatively good, his mental health began to deteriorate. And this past summer my dad and aunt, then had to make the same difficult decision that my grandfather had made several times before, of putting him in the nursing home. There are so many stories that I could tell about Pawpaw, and his inherent love for all, but I believe that the life he led tells his story best. He and my Granny Mary, were constant givers, and carers. They together raised us all to make wise decisions and try to do to help others to the best of our abilities. I will miss both of them very much for the rest of my life, but I know that they are both some place together Granny fussing at Pawpaw for acting silly about something... and his sweet silly laugh that I hopefully can remember forever.

Some of my favorite memories and things of Pawpaw:

• breakfast by pawpaw when I would spend the night
• always wash your hands before a meal
• trips to "the country"
• trip to Savannah
• pictures every Easter (cant put on your play clothes until pictures were made)
• naps on the front porch
• naps
• more naps (pawpaw could fall asleep at the drop of a hat)
• clean feet before I went to bed
• stories, stories and more stories (sometimes the same ones over and over :) )
• He always said he loved me and I always knew it.... even if he did not love me as much as Grayben :)

I love and miss you Pawpaw


Pawpaw (right) age 2 or 3

Pawpaw (below) around age 30 as he joined the Navy for WWII

Family Picture ca. 1955 (?)

Lawrence, Mary, Eloise, and Larry

Above: Lawrence, Mary, Larry (1967?)

Below: Lawrence and Mary 1985 (50th Anniversary)

Below: Easter Late 80's early 90's (?)

Below: Pawpaw's 90th Birthday with the four Grandkids

Below: Pawpaw's 90th Birthday with the seven Great-grands

(has two more since this pic... 9 total!)

Lawrence Gay Nolen

Sept. 10, 1914 - Dec. 2, 2008

Christmas at the Old Place

This year for Christmas with my dad's side of the family, we decided to have it in The Country. I was very excited about this! We love to go out there anytime, but when more people come, it is even more fun! We have talked about doing something like this out there for a couple of years. The original talk was to have a pig roast, and have all the men be in charge of that and stay up all night with the pig (I still think that sounds like fun). We have put it off for one reason or another, and for the last couple of years, papaw's health has prevented us to all be out there at the same time. Well, this year, Dad and Eloise decided that it was time for Papaw to go into the nursing home (a very difficult and sad decision but it was time) so because there was help for him the planning went on for going to the Old Place for Christmas. Sadly, right before Thanksgiving, Papaw's health really started to deteriorate... and on December 2nd he passed away in his sleep. He was 94 years old and had a very long, happy, and healthy life.

Our plans were to take place the following weekend. Dad planned lots of fun and games, and I think that everyone had a good time! The following are pictures from the day Saturday!

Early morning, I went out in the sub-freezing weather to help Dad get some things set up and prepared for the day. Dad had set the flag on the property at half mast and there was a beautiful full moon setting behind it.

As everyone arrived, Dad took them for rides out on the property to show property lines and new trails. The new ranger really helps in carting around more than one person.
Here is Dad giving the instructions of the first game of the day... A sort of Scavenger Hunt with a little riddle at the end. Each team had to follow compass directions in search of a skiing canary, and pick up small orange flags along the way, to show that they had taken the correct path.

Grayben did not join in this game, but sure did stay cute in the cold weather all bundled up!


The first team getting the skiing canary (a canary yellow towel tied in a tree with ski rope).


The second team realizing defeat as the come back toward base.


The first team was such good sports about their win!!


Then there was some four wheeler riding... GO ELOISE!!


Cutie Patootie


Warming up by the campfire!


More riding... GO PATTI!!

All of grandkids and greatgrandkids after a game of capture the flag (with flour as ammo).

Parker (3) and Alex (6) I KNOW!!

Some of the Greatgrands about to go on a hayride! Aren't they all cute??

And the night was topped off by another beautiful full moon!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Alex making brownies on Christmas Eve! MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Thanksgiving Parade (Kindergarten Style)

NOTE: I have posted twice in 24 hours!! be sure to check out yesterday's post!

So, one of the perks of teaching at the same school as Alex is that even though parents aren't really invited to a lot of the everyday fun things... I can sneak a peek and take pictures!
This was a Pilgrim and Native American Parade through the school by the 5 kindergarten classes. There were 3 Native American classes and 2 Pilgrim classes. I told one of the teachers I never wanted to be the pilgrim when I was little because the "indian" was so much "cooler" ! But look what they have done for the pilgrims... what an awesome Mayflower! Too Cute!

"A" and Alex doing their best Native American War Dance
"A", Alex, and "J" (Alex loves "J", they have been in the same class for two years now!)

One of the two Mayflowers!