More snow pictures, sunny pictures, funny pictures, and old pictures

I have almost a week of catching up to do here again.  

On Saturday I decided to make banana nut cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.  Not that we even eat things like that anymore, but I like to have things to give our family.  It's one thing I can do while we can't be together.  I did eat two of them and Dick ate one, but I forgot to take a picture of them.  

I noticed a beautiful sunset that evening, but I didn't feel like going out in the cold, so I just took a picture through the slider.  

The next morning I took another picture through the slider!  I'm assuming this was a male house finch.  So beautiful!  Maybe the other one is his wife.

After church we packed up some things and headed to Lancaster County.  It was a beautiful, sunny day, and the trees with ice on them as we crossed Seven Mountains were spectacularly beautiful!

Our first stop was at Alex's dad's place where Destiny, Alex, and Elizer are living now.  I had gotten some cute baby boy clothes at Goodwill, so we dropped those off as well as some cupcakes.  Actually Destiny wasn't there because she had just left with her mom and cousin.  They were driving straight through to Ocala, Florida to get Destiny and Alex's things moved out of their mobile home, which had to be done before the end of the month.  I asked Alex if he felt ok about taking care of Elizer till she gets back, and he said, "Oh sure, no problem."  On Monday he sent me this video.  How absolutely adorable is this???  I just love the bond between them.

When we stopped at a gas station on Sunday we were amused by this.

I texted it to Destiny and told her that if they couldn't fit her futon inside the van they could always tie it on top, haha!!

We also visited Grandma Arlene that afternoon.  This time we went up to her apartment to visit.  Both she and us have had our first vaccine, but we did all have masks on.  Not interested in taking any chances when we're this close to getting our second vaccine!  We had a great time together, but no picture this time. 

WE also made several stops to pick up pictures.  We met my sister Mary Ellen, who gave me some old pictures from our childhood that she has had in her basement.  We also stopped at my stepbrother Gary's place to pick up my flash drive which contains the slide show that was shown before Grandma Mary's funeral. And last we went to our nephew Josh's house, which used to be Grandpa and Arlene's house.  There were still boxes of photo albums and framed pictures there that no one has done anything with since the auction a year ago.  It was fun to see the renovations Josh and Jill have done to the house.  I didn't take any pictures inside, but I did get some at the front of the house outside.  I made this collage of before and after.  They've added shutters and a black front door.

  

On our way back home we stopped to drop some cupcakes off for Sammy and Bianca and then also for Austin and Hunter.   When we got home we had SO MANY things to carry in.

We've been having so much fun looking through old pictures this week.  I've scanned some, but have many, many more to do.  I'll just share these two here for now.  Both of Dick's grandparents's wedding photos!   

Henry and Emma (Snyder) Stauffer, July 6, 1919.

Paris and Maria (Brumbach) Brubaker, October 28, 1921.   No question that the strongest genes passed onto the Stauffer "boys" and grandchildren were from Grandpa Brubaker!  

On Monday we had snow again!  And on Tuesday morning.  I'm tired of snow pictures, but I took more of them anyway.  

I was delighted to wake up Tuesday morning to a text, "Grandma, I'm home," sent at 5:22 am.  What a whirlwind trip Destiny had been on!  They left around noon on Sunday, got to Ocala around 4:30 Monday morning, slept a little while, then packed up, cleaned and were on the road by mid afternoon.   A huge push to get back home was the fact that her other grandpa (her mom's dad) had to be taken to the hospital because of COVID and he was not doing well at all.  His 76th birthday is today.  He's still in the hospital.  Destiny's grandma was also in the hospital yesterday because of COVID, but she went home today.  She was allowed to see her husband before she left, since it's his birthday.  That made him so happy.  Destiny's uncle Steven (age 34) is also in the hospital.  He has very bad pneumonia in both lungs.  This is a really hard time for the family.  Please pray for them when they come to mind.  Destiny's mom tested positive for COVID yesterday, but so far she's not feeling too bad.  

Yesterday (Wednesday) was an absolutely beautiful day with temps in the low 50's!!  It was windy, but I finally went for a walk for the first time in weeks.  And when I got back I sat on the porch for a while and soaked in the sun.  Ahhhhh!!  

First a picture of yesterday's sunrise. 

There's actually some grass showing!!

Here's something to give you a laugh!  Along with the boxes of old photo albums were these wigs that had been Dick's mom's from her chemo days.  Of course I had to try them on!

I'll end with these cute pics that I took last evening while Destiny and I were Face-timing.   Elizer is becoming a little ham with a very definite personality.  He is very interested in whatever others are eating.  Last evening Destiny was eating chicken nuggets and he kept watching her like he wanted some.  She put one to his lips and he LOVED that taste!  After that he just kept watching her like, "Come on, Mom, more please!"  We were just cracking up!

Have a great weekend!