Then June brought us a beautiful new grand baby girl named Anniston "Annie" Marie. She was born June 1st with a head of hair that resembled the nutmeg colored hair of her daddy, Eric, at birth. But while his turned into blond, Annie's has maintained that reddish hue. It is so perfect that Eric and Melissa had picked the name "Annie" for her ahead of time! Reuben and I made a trip out to Cali for a shower or two and then I circled back to get my hands on her for the first time when she was 10 days old. 
The summer months found us home in Florida spending as many weekends as we could arrange at our condo in Sand Key Beach. The highlights of our time at the beach was taking a journey on the Pirate Ship with our Grandsons Christian (10) and Trever (6) and then .....
...enjoying our annual 4th of July at the Grande with a day at the beach and fireworks extraordinaire...This year Deb and Craig Altman were away but Bob and Sally were there to keep up the tradition and Sally's daughter Amanda along with her new fiance Ross put some spunk and youth in our day at the beach. And then..........
...celebrating our twin granddaughters, Micah and Skylar's, 5th birthday with their brother Christian.
Now we are gearing up for a busy Fall Season with lots of Football and Travel! We start with a trip to Columbus Ohio to watch my godson, Scotty Stephens #47, play in the USC vs. Ohio State Game on Sept. 12. Then I head back to California on Sept. 22 to see my mom and Eleanor (The Original Nona), babysit my precious Annie, and watch Scotty play again for USC against Washington State in the Coliseum. But being the football fanatics we are...we won't be done yet...In October we climb back on the plane to travel to Chicago. From there we will go to the USC vs. Notre Dame Game on OCT. 17. With only a few days at home I will then head back to California making my usual rounds for a couple of days before Reuben flies out to meet me. Together we will go to the USC vs. Oregon State Game Saturday, Oct.24, and finish the weekend with Anniston's Baptism on Sunday. Are you tired yet!!! I am tired just thinking about all the packing and unpacking, but it will be fun. Scotty only has 2 more seasons (this one and next) and the first year babies grow and change sooooo fast I have to get my "Annie Fix!"
And Let's not forget Reuben's Team, The Miami Hurricanes! The Canes are coming to Tampa to play The University of South Florida at Raymond James on Saturday Nov. 28, following Thanksgiving. A dear friend, (Thank you Gerry and Mary!) loaded Reuben up with tickets so we will host about 30 people for that game. We also hope to travel to Miami for at least one of The Hurricanes homegames, but we aren't sure which one yet.
As for The Tampa Bay Buc's, of course we hope to be back in Raymond James for a couple of their games this year too. We will really miss our tailgating buddies as we chase after football all over the U.S.A. Reuben gave up his Buc's tickets after 34 years so we could travel around and see all of our favorite teams play some games. I'm not sure if we will be able to squeeze in a Bengals game, but maybe next year...So here we go!!! We will keep you posted on how we are doing with this wild and crazy Fall Season!
As for The Tampa Bay Buc's, of course we hope to be back in Raymond James for a couple of their games this year too. We will really miss our tailgating buddies as we chase after football all over the U.S.A. Reuben gave up his Buc's tickets after 34 years so we could travel around and see all of our favorite teams play some games. I'm not sure if we will be able to squeeze in a Bengals game, but maybe next year...So here we go!!! We will keep you posted on how we are doing with this wild and crazy Fall Season!
