Thursday, November 27, 2003

Thankful

Happy Thanksgiving!

The bellies are full. Stacy and I are on a diet so we did not fully enjoy all the foods., but we had our share. We had dinner at Aunt Donna's, Stacy's aunt. We had a good time with family.

The Christmad tree is up and decorated. Mom and Bob came to Chattanooga and brought us their artificial tree with 1,200 lights. It is awesome! Live trees do not work for us. Moe and Boo (our cats) love drinking the water dry and chewing on limbs.

We have so much to be thankful for.

Wednesday, November 19, 2003

Travelin'

We just got back from our 1,000-mile whirlwind tour to see friends and family. We left Friday, November 14 and spent five days on the road.

Our first stop was Augusta, Ga. where Rigby met some of his cousins and is great, great uncle, Lonnie Wilder, the last brother alive of the namesake Rigby was named for. Lonnie is 85 and still goes deer hunting he told us. That was a very special day for me.

Our next stop was Charlotte, NC where Rigby met his Carolina pediatrician and one of Stacy's best friends, Christina. We had a great time with her and met her new boyfriend, who looks like "the one" for her.

We made our 45-mile trek east of Charlotte to spend the night with my grandmother in Peachland NC. My grandmother is doing well and she was very happy to meet her great grandson. Another very special time for me - for Rigby to sleep and stay in the same house I spent some of my childhood days in.

While in Peachland I met a distant relative who took me to a remote cemetery with many of my ancestors. The cemetery was in the middle of a soybean crop under a huge oak tree. I think the power and spirit of the Grays that were buried there made that tree seem larger than life. Jeremiah Gray born in 1797 is buried there - he is Rigby's great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather. How cool is that!!?


We moved on to Asheville, NC where Rigby spent some time with his Aunt Tobi and Uncle Corey. Tobi's house is awesome and we went to dinner at the Bier Garden downtown. Asheville has made some great strides in the past 10 years.

We ended out tour in White Pine, TN to see Mom and Bob (grammy and grandaddy). We had a very good visit.

Rigby is a great traveler. Good thing because we do love to travel.