Starting fresh.....

Yep - we are starting 2013 off with a new blog.  Why you ask?  Check out this link....

http://keepingupwithtanddontheroad.blogspot.com/

I've also had a bit of blogger burnout when we were in SC and NC.  Hopefully I will do a better job keeping up with this but know that  "living in the moment" is important to me.  I don't want to be so tied to this blog that when we go places and do things I am always thinking "got to blog about this!".

We were in NC for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.  We really enjoyed catching up with family and friends......

Ashleigh, Brandon, and Amanda

 "The kids" came over on Christmas Eve day and we had a grand time.  In addition to opening presents....

Live, Love, Laugh 

God watches over every nest

we had a variety of hor dourves and played games.  Ashleigh gave Brandon and Amanda a new game for Christmas...Bananagrams.  It is fun to play!

On Christmas morning, we went over to my friend Linda's house for a breakfast feast.  After eating way too much, I was able to get a few pictures....

Great friends

Linda and her "boys"  

The weekend after Christmas has always been when my parents and siblings celebrate.  This year was no exception.  We headed down to the coast and got settled into one of our "home bases"...Cedar Point campground.  We spent the next few days hanging out with the family and enjoying some good times.  An added bonus (and a great one at that!) was that my brother and his family were able to come.  He came home from his deployment a few days before Christmas (surprising his wife and kids as well as us!).

Mom, me, Elaine, Patrick
Barbara, Dad, Cathy

I'm not sure when the tradition started but Mom seemed to always liked getting a picture of her 5 kids with the girls "holding" their brother.  Of course, this was much easier when he was a scrawny little kid.  Now he always makes sure that he pokes us with knees and elbow to make us as uncomfortable as possible!   I think it's revenge!

And of course, we always have to act up....

Acting silly

Me and my "little" brother!

It was then time for pictures of the grandkids.  Ashleigh was not able to join us this year as she was in Atlanta for a Christian youth conference.

Brandon, Nick, Sammie, Amanda
Dad, Mom, Ciara

 And yes, they had a crazy picture too!

Not sure how I missed it (could have been all of the craziness!) but I didn't get one picture of my great sister-in-law Jen.

Sunday morning (the 30th), we headed south bright and early.  Our goal was to get to Cedar Key to spend New Year's Eve with friends.  Traffic on the 30th was thick but we made it to our overnight stopover (Walkabout Campground) safe and sound.  After a short drive the morning of the 31st we arrived at our destination....our lot in Cedar Key!  It was so nice to be back and the sun and warm weather were very much welcomed.  Dan was in shorts and flip-flops within hours! I was in flip-flops too but had not yet dug out my shorts.  Ahhhhhh!

Our good friends Nancy and Bill popped over to see us as well as Gin and Syl and we had a nice afternoon getting caught up.  Nancy and Bill left early to get back to their campground before dark.  Cedar Key is a bit off the beaten path and some of the roads around here can be a bit creepy at night!  New Year's Eve we went up to the clubhouse to celebrate.  Friends, food and drink...doesn't get much better than that!  We had a great time celebrating with Gin, Syl, Mac, Mo, Connie, Cliff, Dot, Charlie, Vel, Maggie, and Ken.   One of the campers here brought his karoake set-up and we had a blast singing and dancing.  We made it to midnight by the skin of our teeth and the party broke up shortly after we rang in the new year.

New Year's Day was sunny and bright and our Cedar Key "bike gang" pedaled in the afternoon. We were also able to find a geocache at the cemetary (thanks Charlie!).  It was a great day to start the new year!!