Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!! We hope all is well with you and your families. Welcome to our Blog! I (Judy) am going to give you an update on our 2012 year. It has been a good one for all of us and we have been blessed with good health and great friends. Praise the Lord!
We took a month off from the middle of January till the middle of February, traveling to Louisville, KY, Montgomery, AL and ending in Lakeland, FL, where we attended the Premier Jewelry Rally which was held there January 20 and 21. Also in Lakeland were dear friends, Don (formerly Classified Director of The Grand Rapids Press) and his wife, Lois. We had a great time with them in their home and boat from January 22-24.
We drove to Anna Maria Island to spend time with friends of ours (Mark and Miren A.), who were our neighbors from 1970-85. When we arrived at their home, we found a note left by their daughter, letting us know that there had been an unavoidable change of plans due to health issues, and that the family had made arrangements for us to stay in a huge home owned by their close friend who rents out homes on Anna Maria Island. We loved the home and stayed in it from January 25-27; as well as the Nautilus Condos (also on Anna Maria Island) from January 28-30, visiting each day with our friends and their family members. All turned out well in every way, and we were so blessed by their amazing hospitality and care of us, including a delightful time in Sarasota, FL where we spent an afternoon and evening being shown around the Sarasota area and having a wonderful dinner right on the water.
On the 31st of January we drove to Key West to stay at the Almond Tree for five days. We had a wonderful time there. Stan had only been on Key West for three hours on one of our cruises years ago, so I got to show him around. As most of you know, Stan loves cats. Therefore, I made sure we visited the Hemingway House, which is home to multitudes of six toed cats, which he loved. I also wanted to make sure we visited the renown cat show on Mallory Square at sunset, which I had visited a number of times. In fact, the first time I saw the show, I called Stan back home to let him know that cats can be trained and that included our cat, Fang (though she never did learn tricks). The first night, we couldn’t find the show, but learned that it had moved to a hotel nearby, which we visited the second night. Sure enough, we watched two great shows and Stan even has the tee shirt to prove it.
On February 5th, we drove to Key Largo and enjoyed the Super Bowl in our hotel, staying also through the 6th. On February 7th, we drove to Fort Pearce to surprise my dear friend, Gail K., who is the EVP of their Home Builders Association there. However, when we arrived, we found that Gail was on a plane to Las Vegas. We were sorry to have missed her. We liked her town, though and had a great hotel and a great meal there.
On February 8th, we drove to Orlando where we met up with some dear friends and missionaries, Gabe and Emily and their two children – and we took them to dinner. When I asked the concierge where I should take them and their children for dinner, she suggested we take them to the T-Rex Restaurant in Downtown Disney. When we walked in with all the roaring, I thought they’d be scared – but they loved it and the food was good as well. The next day, Stan and I walked around Downtown Disney and took in a movie.
The rest of the trip home was stopping in Tallahassee FL one night, Birmingham, AL one night, Nashville, TN another night and Indianapolis, IN another night – arriving home on February 14th. We had an awesome time and loved visiting everyone –but we were sure glad to get home. This year, we are staying home through the winter.
We have certainly had an awesome year with lots of activities and lots of friends. I’m just going to hit the highlights for you.
On May 23rd, we flew to Mechanicsburg, PA to visit with Kim, Nathan, Joe and Anna for Joe’s high school graduation. We were there till Sunday, flying back to Grand Rapids. We had a wonderful time, and an added bonus. We discovered that my cousin, Kitty, lived only an hour away from Kim and Nate, so we drove our rental car there to visit with her. I hadn’t seen her in over 30 years and we had a wonderful visit together.
Our big news of the year was that Stan and I took our kids on an Eastern Caribbean Cruise from June 2nd until June 10th. There were ten of us all together – four from Harrisburg and six of us from Grand Rapids. The post card you received for Christmas is a photo of all of us together as we boarded the ship. The front row is all of the women from left to right: Amanda Walter (granddaughter-in-law), Kim Winters (daughter), Anna Winters (granddaughter), Judy Barnes (me) and Deb Patton (daughter). The back row is the men from left to right: Seth Walter (grandson), Cameron Walter (great-grandson), Nathan Winters (son-in-law), Joe Winters (grandson), Kirk Patton (son-in-law) and Stan Barnes. To say we had an awesome time would be an understatement. It was awesome.
In July, we had two big events. We stayed at the Grand Hotel on Mackanac Island from July 7th until the 11th. We also stayed with friends Ben and Betty in Montague on White Lake from July 19 to 23rd. We had our annual progressive dinner with Ben, Betty and Jerry and Mary Lee on Saturday, July 21st and it was fun as always.
In August, we flew to Seattle on the 18th and stayed with Stan’s cousin, Jack G. and his wife Carole on Puget Sound in Quilcene for a week. We had a ball and toured a great deal of the area, ate many wonderful meals together, and played Skip-Bo every day we were there. From there, we moved to Bainbridge Island where we had rented a cottage with dear friends John and Karen from New Jersey for a week. Little did we know that the cottage we rented was only a mile from our other dear friends, Alice and John! We thought maybe we’d be traveling long distances to get together. We had a wonderful time together, ate well, and visited Seattle many times. One highlight was the a "Duck Vehicle" we rode in which was on the streets of Seattle and then it could also go in the water. It was wild.
Some added benefits of our trip included visiting with Aaron and Beth K. in Seattle and going on a boat ride with them through the locks in Seattle.
On August 29th, Stan and I met with Sam and his wife, Etta, for a fabulous steak dinner across the lake from Seattle in Bellevue. Sam is the Executive Officer of the King and Snohomish County Home Builders Association and both of them were good friends of ours for a number of years. We flew back to Grand Rapids on September 5th and had an awesome two and a half week trip.
On October 27th, we had a wonderful 70th birthday party for Stan with over 100 of his closest family, friends and neighbors at a nearby country club from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. It was great fun and wonderful food. Stan and I then celebrated his birthday again on the 29th which was his real birthday.
Then, on November 10th, our oldest daughter, Deb, celebrated her 50th birthday. The plan was for me to pick her up at her house in Middleville and take her to the Battle Creek Casino, FireKeepers Casino. Then she thought we were all going to meet for dinner at Logan’s that evening. A contraire! We were planning on a surprise birthday for her and we flew in her sister, Kim, to be part of the surprise, as well as some wonderful friends she hadn't seen in a while. The party was to be 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. I picked up Deb at 8:00 a.m. and drove to Battle Creek. We had a great time and had lunch there. However, I couldn’t talk her into leaving at 1:00 p.m. because she was having a great time winning. We didn’t leave until 2:00 p.m. and got to her house at 3:00 p.m. She was so surprised and it was a wonderful party. She forgave us for the subterfuge.
I’m sorry this letter is so long – but we did have an action packed year for sure. Thank you for reading so far. We pray that you have a wonderfully Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Love, Judy and Stan
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