Thanksgiving in Ohio

 As many of you know, my sister Hosanna spent Thanksgiving in Ohio with her 'special friend' and I went along as driver, chaperone, semi-map reader, and sidekick.
    Overall, I had a great time, but didn't get pictures of most of my time there. We played a lot of games, ate a LOT of pie, and had a great time being thankful for everything God has blessed us with.

I've made a few pies in my time, but these pies put me to shame! I'll have to work on that. The peanut butter pie was my favorite followed by the pecan.

They took us to this air force museum. It is the worlds largest and oldest air force museum and one day was NOT enough time! We didn't get through the whole thing, and I'm not sure if a week would have been enough! If you're ever in Dayton, OH, make sure to stop in!

I took a LOT of pictures, but many of them were blurry and I wasn't sure which ones would interest you the most, so I just grabbed a few random ones.

It started with a hanger going from the beginning of flight, through WWI. In this picture, you can see a model of one of the Wright brothers first planes, a glass display with one of the bikes from the Wright brothers' bike repair shop, and in the background you can see one of the blimps from the early days.

I enjoyed the paint jobs on some of the planes.

There were several presidential planes that we got to go through. It was neat going through Kennedy's plane, as well as a few other presidents' planes like Eisenhower and FDR.

We did a LOT of walking, went through multiple hangers, and didn't have time to finish going through all of them. It was AWESOME!!!!

It's blurry, I know, but this is the FIRST picture I've ever had with Santa Claus. Okay, so I would NOT go out of my way to get a picture like this, but the reason I got it, was because I was following Hosanna, who was following her 'special friend' through Lowe's Department store, and we come upon poor Mr. Santa Claus, sitting all alone on Black Friday morning, smiling and waving at all of these men who were walking by and ignoring him. I commented about how lonely he looked, and Hosanna was like . . . "You should get a picture with him for the blog!" At first I was like . . . "NO WAY!" But after thinking about it, I was like . . .  "You know, if my friend ---- were here, I'd do it." So, I decided to go have a little chat with him. NO, I did NOT tell him what I wanted for Christmas, and I CERTAINLY DID NOT sit on his lap!!! But I did get the picture, and had a nice chat. :) :) 

The road home was pretty crazy, northern IL had just had a snow storm and we had some really bad roads, but aside from the one time we fishtailed and ended up facing the WRONG direction on the interstate, and the time we had to wait for around a half hour because of a wreck, we made it home with little drama. THANK YOU to everyone who prayed for our safety on the long drive. I believe it was crucial in the safety we had.

Here's a sneak peak at what my table will look like at the book signing this Saturday. That plate in the bottom left hand corner will have fudge samples on it. :)  

And just a quick reminder, if you happen to be in Warroad on Saturday, please stop by! I'd love to see you and the first 25 people to stop in get a $1 off any drink of their choice.

With Thanksgiving, I'm reminded of all the things I've been blessed with in life, and all the many things I often forget to be thankful for. Things like my ability to walk, my ability to taste, smell, hear, speak, and feel. Every breath is a gift!!! I'm ESPECIALLY thankful for the family God's given me, and the friends I've been blessed with.