Toni's Tribute to All Countries, But Mostly America

Oh my josh, what a day yesterday was. We began at sea off the coast of Florida, berthed by 0530, disembarked, cleared customs and were on a shuttle by 0800, flew to St Louis at 10am, and then flew into New York’s LaGuardia airport by 5pm. From there we Uber’ed to and retrieved Bambi from her storage yard in Queens (where we found her completely intact and unmolested, much to my eternal surprise and joy), inched her out the narrow gate into narrow crowded streets, and drove through NYC traffic at rush hour to Danbury CT where we parked on the property of generous strangers for the night.  Whew! So many hoops to jump through. Only in today’s modern world would travel so insane even be thinkable. This morning saw us at the gorgeous Hartford, CT, LDS Temple for sealings.  This temple’s architecture follows the colonial theme of most of the other buildings in this upscale New England area, and it was just as exquisite on the inside. We shared the sealing ordinance with a woman who ...

Grandson Drennan was struggling in his swim class, so Jaclyn encouraged him by promising a family Disney cruise once he successfully learned to swim. The entire family benefited as we were then invited along. I love that Jaclyn includes us in most of what their family enjoys! Covid forced the delay of the cruise for two years, but time finally came and we all were vaccinated and passed the covid tests, so aboard we went for a week in the sun on the funnest ship to sail the ocean.  Three amazing things:  1- Bryan and I took our first cruise ever with Christian (age 15) and Jaclyn (17) almost 20 years ago aboard The Disney Cruise Lines.  It’s crazy to me that here we are all these years later boarding the same line with Jaclyn’s children. And so the family goes. Will I board again in another 20 years with Jaclyn’s grandchildren? I sure hope so! 2- Our family aboard this cruise included new college graduate Christian, Jaclyn & Lee & their 3 kids, Chelsea & Wayde,...