Saturday - January 3

 Today was lots of fun with a trip to Lakeland... (2+ hours north).    We stopped in Arcadia at The Rose Cafe for coffee (Mark had biscuits and gravy, too and I had a few bites - very good and have leftovers).

Ron and Vicki live in Lakeland full time and Bob and Linda arrived Thursday for the season,   Vicki has some health issues and now dealing with bronchitis, so definitely under the weather.

Ron and Vicki's oldest son, Matt, wife Elisha and kiddos (Jemma, 20 and Theo, 17) are visiting from Australia.    They've been here for 3 weeks and will be leaving Tuesday and skiing in the Canadian Rockies for 2 weeks.   Summer break in Australia now.   Always enjoy visiting and catching up!   

Elisha made a wonderful chicken pot pie with so much good stuff and a big tossed salad with veggie.  I brought dessert - tuxedo cake (Costco).

Theo, Matt, Jemma, Elisha

Matt, Jemma, Bob, Linda, Elisha, Theo

Matt, Jemma, Pat, Elisha, Theo, Mark

Mark, Pat, Elisha, Matt, Linda, Bob, Ron

The siblings

Jemma and Theo

Matt and family come over to the states every other year and 2 years ago in December when they were visiting, they came to Fort Myers to see us (after my shoulder surgery) and brought some delicious home-cooked meals - lasagna, cookies made by Jemma, etc. and much appreciated.    They are a very neat family!

Took pictures and on home for us....made plans with Linda for she and Bob to come to Fort Myers and Mark and I going to Lakeland (all in March).   

David, (Ron and Vicki's middle son) gave them an unbelievable binder of Ron and Vicki's genealogy dating back many generations to the early 1800s     A friend of David's put this together (3 months).  I can't imagine the amount of research that went into this project.   Very impressive and so interesting.

We got home at 5:40 just before dark.    Really enjoyed the day and wishing Vicki the best!

More neighbors arrived at CT today across the street - John and Kathy from Kentucky