The Lewis Edition: November!

One Saturday we met Dan, Deb and Caitlyn at the zoo!

Sadly, Russell couldn't go due to work responsibilities,

so I took Lydia and Anna along!

I always enjoy spending time with this little one!

This Crowned Crane was just beautiful!

His colors were so vibrant!

My favorite: giraffes!

The kids enjoyed feeding them lettuce

Giraffes are Anna's favorite, too!

This baby giraffe was so, so cute!  I wanted to take him home!!

❤

The Hale family

It was neat how many different kinds of animals they had

together in this area ...

made you feel almost as though you were seeing them in the wild!

Giant turtles!

The lioness looked right at me!

Caitlyn and Anna enjoyed each other

Lydia with her favorite, the flamingos!

We had a wonderful time!

Russell and I got to spend Thanksgiving week in Tennessee.
We had a wonderful time ... in fact, things were so busy and fun
that I forgot to snap a single picture! 😂

Some of the highlights were:

*Spending time with Mama Flo
* Long walks/talks with Rebekah
* Our traditional family Thanksgiving dishes!
* Hearing Daddy and our young cousin play euphonium/ trombone duets
* Being with family, particularly our nieces and nephew! ;)

The Lewis Edition: September and October

September found us looking quite diligently for a home and land ...

and we found it!!!

After searching for several months it was pretty exciting

to finally find a place and feel like, "This is IT!"

We are so thankful to the Lord for His provision!

View of our property from the road. It's 2 beautiful acres!

There are two giant, gnarly old oaks on the property...

...and a tiny "pond"!

One thing we're particularly excited about is that we'll

be almost next-door to our dear friends, the Dietz!

Our home was a model (manufactured) home.

We fell in love with it the first time we saw it!

 Pretty fun that it came with the furniture and everything in it! 😀

Just a few pictures now since there will be plenty more. ;)

SO looking forward to painting and decorating our own little home!

It looks as though we'll be able to move in January ...

quite a bit to do between now and then to get

the land cleared and ready for our home!

We enjoyed a visit from Ross, Mel, Hugh and Katherine in October!

We went on an outing to see the trains in Mineola.

Even got to see a passenger train!

Anticipation!

:)

While waiting for the next "real" train, Hugh (and Aunt Amanda!)

enjoyed the model train inside the train station.

It is set up like the town of Mineola in the early 1900's...

and there is a button to push to make it run!

Afterwards we had lunch at the East Texas Burger Company.

Morning snuggles and a book with Uncle Russell!

It was wonderful spending time with our family;

can't wait until next time!

The Lewis Edition: August

August was a great mix of catching up after being away

and relaxing before Russell's busy season started.

Here are a few highlights from our month!

Caitlyn's 1st birthday;

the big one-year-old front-facing in her car seat for the first time!

She thought it was pretty neat!

First ice cream cone (with frozen yogurt)!

:)

Time to open gifts!

Her expression when she pulled off the blanket and saw

the doll underneath was priceless!

Thrilled with her baby and cradle!

😍😍😍

We laughed at how she constantly held her

arm up to keep her new purse from dragging!

This summer Becky, Lydia, Anna and I decided to go in

together to do some Operation Christmas Child boxes.

I got some cute skirts and other items for less than $1/each,

and the girls made some cute crocheted animals.

We had a blast shopping the back-to-school sales

and ended up getting everything else we needed!

The girls did a great job packing a LOT of stuff into each box!

Our boxes, all finished!

Anna :)

At the end of August we went up to help with a

multi-family yard sale at Deborah and Daniel's.

The cutest little helper ever!

We love you, Caitlyn!

Mama came down for the sale, and spent a day

with Russell and me afterward, which was so fun!

We also had dinner with a dear friend in Dallas one day,

but we were having so much fun that I forgot to snap a picture!

Until next month!! :)

The Lewis Edition: July Vacation!

Before going out of town for the month of July,

we went up and spent a day with this cutie

and her parents!

Love that she smiles when she sees a camera!

Deb let us take Caitlyn with us to a coffee shop!

No, she didn't get coffee, but she did get Cheerios! :)

She charmed everyone there with her sweet personality!

Russell and Caitlyn enjoying her kittens

:)

A birthday gift from dear friends!

I love it!!!

I found some great deals at a dollar store that was

going out of business and got our first 2018

Operation Christmas Child items!

The second day of July we headed off for our month-long vacation

to visit family and go camping!

The first week we spent with my family, celebrating Mama Flo's 94th

birthday, picking gallons of blueberries, getting caught outdoors in a

thunderstorm at Pickwick Lake on the 4th, playing with our nieces

and nephew, and enjoying time with extended family members.

It was a busy, (hectic!) fun-packed week!

These two were given skates and enjoyed

trying them out around the house!

 :)

Something on Uncle Russell's computer is interesting!

Next, we spent a couple days with Mel, Ross, Katherine and Hugh!

The "mad scientist" playing with slime! 😂 

(Slime that completely failed because her mother and aunt

were so busy talking that they goofed on the recipe! ;))

Uncle Russell bought donuts for an after-nap snack!

Next we headed up to Michigan and spent a few nights

at the same spot where we have camped each summer

since we got married. :)

Ely Lake

While camping at Ely Lake we spent some time with

Russell's cousins who live nearby.

It is always a pleasure to visit with them!

We drove around town to see the houses where various

family members lived and visited several cemeteries.

Keith and Russell

Russell's grandparents:

Francis C. Lewis 1895-1977

Gladys (Rouse) Lewis 1896-1965 

Russell's great-grandparents:

Clara (Birdsell) Lewis 1865-1957

Chancy E. Lewis 1863-1963

We traveled for another day and

made it all the way to Michigan's Upper Peninsula!

The Mackinac Bridge is pretty impressive!

So cool to see it in person!

The bluest, most beautiful water I've ever seen!

Here you can see Mackinac Island

While we were in Sault Ste. Marie we camped at

beautiful Monocle Lake

The temperatures were so lovely; lows in the 50's and highs in the 70's!

We were grateful for jackets in the mornings!

 View from our campsite

"Home" for a few days!

 We enjoyed watching this ferry take cars across

the Saint Mary River

The flowers in front of this house were so lovely!

Watching the boats pass through the Soo Locks

between Lake Superior and Lake Huron

was a first-time experience for me, and so interesting!

Here you can see the water beginning to pour through

as the doors slowly open.

We watched a couple giant freighters get locked through ...

... as well as this cute sailboat!

Now the doors on the other end are opened!

On our last day in Sault Ste. Marie we went up into

the Tower of History

 The bridge to Canada, as well as the Saint Mary's Falls

and the locks

Back in Ohio, we spent a wonderful week with Russell's siblings,

taking Muppet on long walks, enjoying wonderful meals, doing

some shopping, and visiting friends.

Muppet on our bed :)

All in all it was a wonderful vacation,

and we made many fun memories!