The Week in Review....

I had great plans for blogging everyday while at the beach but, like Colin Powell says, when the first shot is fired the plans go out the window. 

I didn't get to my plan but I did get a lot of pictures. I've tried to boil them down to a reasonable mass. Believe me, there are lots more than just the ones I've put in this blog. I was pretty merciless. They are in a sorta random order but this is the Week in Review....

Wow!! We were at the Outer Banks!! Or, as the cool kids say, OBX. I saw this everywhere...

              

The pool was plenty of fun. I think it was even better than the beach.

Cheese, please...

 Love these chairs. Even the large ones built for a couple of teens.

Sunnin' on the beach...

Sisters!!

We generated a lot of trash. A lot!!

Grandma took us to Duck Donuts for some taste treats!!

The kids hit the beach....a lot. The pathway to the beach beyond the dunes.

It took a lot of effort, but we established Team Grove on the beach and prepared for some fun.

Kid style with Frances and Addie...

And Baby Style with Brady, Quinn and Delaney....

These bathing beauties weren't always cooperative in having their pictures taken...

Joseph, with Anthony in the background, telling me which way the water was....

Some kids never grow up.....

Quite a production, eh!?!

Who's the luckiest Grandpa of them all?

Someone was gonna be buried....

Grandma brought T-Shirts for everyone. On the front was the "Team Grove" logo and on the back it said, "We may not have it altogether but together we have it all."

Nailed that one!!

Sara and Brady were a-smilin'

 Caught'em!!

Fun on the Run...Getting There!!

Here we go again...Ripping through the Virginia Countryside. It was smooth sailing for the most part.

And after 4,000 miles, these were welcome sights!!

Oh, you can almost feel the ocean breeze....

We're getting closer!!

And then, just when we thought we were there.....we hit The Mother of all Traffic Jams!! 

And this Mother was LOOOOONG!!

It was a 3-hour ordeal and a quarter-of-a-tank waste of gas. Cheez, Louise!! We hit a traffic jam about ten miles from the bridge onto the island and then it continued....forever!!

Well, not really, but it seemed like it.

Finally we got to the beach house and got to see everyone.

Grandbabies....

And Grandteens....

I was gonna post a blog for everyday of the Reunion. Hah!! Didn't happen. So in the next blog you'll get the whole enchilada with a couple of quips...

Fun on the run...to Utah and beyond!!!

First stop was in Utah to pick up Jeff and Taylor.

And then on to the open road....and keen fun. 

This one was just about the Best Baby Ever riding in the mini, mile after mile, hour after hour, day after day. Seriously, the amount of real fussing was small....absolutely less than Jeff's!!

The road was long...I'd forgotten how long it took to get across the United States. 

Most boring State? Wyoming. Second most boring? Nevada with Nebraska running real close behind it.

Mile after mile of....this!!

By the time we called it quits for the day we were all ready for some rest. This place had the BEST Rollaway that I slept on during the entire trip. 

She was glad to be able to stretch out for a good rest.

Gotta tell you, this is one cute sleepin' baby!!

When we got on the road again, we headed to St. Louis to visit a friend. Teresa was a close friend of Amy's and a good friend to all in our family. She was a good person and taken way too soon.

Amy said she always liked being in the sun, always. She rests just in front of this grove of trees. She's in the sun, a lot.

Back on the road again and now we're heading on out to Vine Grove, Kentucky.

But before we get there, we have to eat....and we ate in a little bit of Heaven on Earth. 

At this one place and all within a stone's throw of each other were a....

And a....

Touched off with a....

Seriously!! How could it get any better? There was a Wal-Mart AND a Dollar Tree store just across the street. Man, if they were renting apartments on that street, I'd have been seriously tempted.

We decided to eat at the White Castle.

Here's my meal...I got the hamburgers. I didn't want to pay .29 cents more for a small slice of ersatz cheese. Besides, you buy them for the meat paste and the bread.

They were good. Given a choice, I'd probably go to the Waffle House first next time. White Castle is a fun change of pace, though.

Jeff and Taylor had their share of Nirvana.

Little Quinn got her first taste of American Fast Food Culture....

We made it to Vine Grove. Here's the first house Mary and I had built. It was 1982 and we'd just arrived for my assignment to Fort Knox. We found a house design that we liked but it was expensive so the agent suggested we build the house we wanted and it'd be cheaper...and it was.

When we had it built, it was a dark blue. There was nothing in the yard except the trees to the right in the back yard.

The covered porch was added as was the gazebo and the paved drive.

This is the house that Jeff was born in and, below, this is the room where Jeff was born. In fact, their bed is in the same place our bed was.

Here Jeff shows off where he was born.

The folks living there are the same people that bought the house from us back in 1984. They've made some nice improvements to the house and done a great job landscaping.

After this short trip, it was off to the beach in Corolla, North Carolina.

Let the fun begin

We finally got on the road heading out from Redwood City to Corolla, NC!! Woo, woo!!

We had a long way to go and a short time to get there so there was no messing round....We put the pedal to the metal and let that massive six-cylinder beast roar!!

It was a lot of driving and we didn't have time to stop and smell the roses. We had miles to go before our day was over.

But we made some good time and made it beyond our first planned stop, all the way to Lovelock, NV, where we found a quaint country inn to spend the night in.

Like I said, it was simple....

Except for the pink bathroom. And the TV where you had to stick your finger in a hole to get it turned on. Man, that bathroom was....PINK!!!

 

 

Still, it fit the bill and I had my first good night of sleep in a while.

Then it was back on the road through the burning sands.

 

Very entertaining.

 

"Hey, Quinn!! You liking riding through the desert ALL day long? Ha, ha. It only gets better!!"

 

We decided we all needed a play break so we visited the first clown we could find.

And after a healthy and satisfying meal, we headed to the playground.

Quinn was fearless!!

 

 

 More!!

And then back on the road. Through a construction zone. A lot of construction zones.

 

And the scenery changed from brown to semi-green as we headed into Utah.

 

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