Where The Orange Blossoms Grow....

Hello! Welcome to the Stricklen's blog. We hope to keep our family and friends up to date with what is going on with our family. You will find a variety of experiences posted here -- you may find pictures of the never ending project of building our house, Callie helping William with his first steps, Mary studying a rare insect species, or perhaps you may be terribly bored with Molly's numerous fruit trees, berries, vegetables and rare plant pictures! Who knows what we may find Chris and CJ doing -- probably something having to do with a tractor or machine of sorts. Abby and Margaret will keep us entertained with costumes from other lands or a fairy story. Whatever we post, we trust it will lift your spirits and bring honor and glory to our Lord!

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Aunt Mary Lee's 90th!

Recently  my sisters, Callie, Abby and Margaret, and myself along with cousins, Kitty and Markie, were privileged to join Grandmama, Granddaddy, and Great-Grandma Harris on a trip to North Carolina. The purpose of our trip was to attend Grandmama's Great Aunt (Grandpa Harris' sister) Mary Lee's 90th birthday party in Charlotte. We had a good trip up and back and stopped at a few places to sightsee a little bit. Aunt Mary Lee's birthday party went well. We talked with lots of relatives and learned lots of interesting stuff we never knew :) Afterwards, most of us stayed at Grandmama's Uncle Bob's (Grandpa Harris' brother) house for the night. While we were there, Uncle Bob told us lots of stories--some funny,which he's very good at, and some serious, mostly about him and Grandpa Harris during WWII. He and Grandma told us stories about Grandpa on Iwo Jima, and other times and places. Thank the Lord for their bravery and unwavering love for the Lord and their country. We are blessed to have such a Godly heritage--and such good storytellers to tell us about it!
Here are some pictures of the trip, the party, and some of the places we stopped. Y'all enjoy!!!
BTW--I just realized that both Grandmama and the Dischers posted about this trip, and have some duplicate pictures, so........sorry:) I started this post the 1st of this month, but haven't had time to finish it until now:):):)

Three chipmunks in the "chipmunk nest"

Some lovely scenery is always appreciated by me:):):)
Oh, please don't take our picture!
Oh, well--I guess there's no getting out of it:):)
A lovely Matriarch
We stayed at campgrounds a few of the nights, and Granddaddy always made sure we had a good, fresh breakfast in the morning--Mmmm....Fresh oranges:):):)
A stop at Cracker Barrel???? How did you guess???
There's nothing like a good book on a long trip:)
Lots of good conversation, and plenty of laughs:)

Our chauffeur taking a rest:)

Later that day, we decided to stop at Grandma Harris' brother, Uncle Charles and Aunt Polly's house.
Enjoying time together
Abby played "Come Thou Fount" and "Amazing Grace" on her pennywhistle, which everyone enjoyed!
Margaret blessed everyone with her strong little voice singing
"O Susannah!"
 Aunt Polly's lovely roses!!!

Ready for supper, anyone????
Thank you, Lord for good food!
All ready to go, sweet tea in hand!
Next day, at Uncle Bob's favorite BBQ restaraunt where every one knows him by name:)
Cal and Kit.....Kit and Cal.....Cal and KitKat...Ok--Callie and Kitty:)
My lovely Grandmother and handsome Granddaddy:)
Obviously, Deeda and I:)
On our way to the party!
Our next stop-- the whole reason for our trip.
Happy 90th Birthday, Aunt Mary Lee!
Aunt Mary Lee requested that Grandmama play Indian Love Call, a song that she's always loved.
Abby played the pennywhistle while the others Ooooed:)
Callie, Me, Abby and Deeda with our Great, great Aunt Mary Lee.
"Will you please sing for us?"
Everybody always loves it when Margaret sings. They all remember her singing "I saw the Li-hi-hight" (I Saw the Light) when she was about two or three, so she sang it once again:):)
Aunt Mary Lee's brother, sister, and sister-in-laws.
Aunt Mary Lee with her brother, Uncle Bob, and sister, Aunt Bonita.

Grandmother and her Aunt
Sister-In-Laws
Good conversation
Us with our Great, great Aunt Bonita
Callie and Uncle Bob
Aunt Mary Lee and her late husband
Telling stories, and listening intently:)
Aunt Mary Lee
 Our crew with Uncle Bob
Sweet Grandmama and Sweet Deeda:)

Saying good-bye to Uncle Bob

Uncle Bob is always joking around;):)
Grandma has always been such a gracious lady!
Of course we must not forget the Great-Grandbabies-the Liberty dolls!
                           A lovely Southern home in Charleston where we stopped for a short time
And another one!
We visited the Charleston Museum
Mother and Daughter
The sun goes down on the Georgia lowlands. Lovely!
Well, may the Lord bless y'all! Hope you enjoyed!
Mary Noelle

7 comments:

The Miller Family said...

Mary, it doesn't mattter if the trip was already posted by others or that some of the pictures might be duplicated, we're enjoying the fresh commentary by YOU!

Looks like y'all had a great time. The picture of Grandmother and Grandma Harris is beautiful.

Love,
Aunt Katie

Bonnie said...

Mary, what a wonderful post! We did have a good time, didn't we? And you know what, without those "duplicate" pictures, I wouldn't have any! I forgot my camera, and y'all graciously shared with me!

I am considering, though, just directing blog readers to yours and Kitty's posts -- you have done a great job of covering the second part of the trip.

Thanks again, Mary, for a great post and for coming along and making our trip memorable.

Love,
Grandmother
who is wondering
when we are going to
hit the road again!

Whiddon Family said...

I agree with Mrs. Katie, it doesn't how many times y'all's trip is posted- the more posts the better, then we get to see the trip from everybody's view. ;-)

We really enjoyed the post, y'all got some really good pictures.

I'm sure y'all had alot of fun. It's always so much fun to me to listen to our great-Aunts, or Uncles, and grandparents- they've always got such interesting stories to tell. That must be especially interesting to hear stories of WWII, our grandaddy's died before we were really old enough to ask for thier stories.
Thank you for posting!

Laney

Grandma Harris said...

Oh, Mary! What a sweetheart of you to do such a wonderful job at telling the story of our NC trip. We DID have a great time, didn't we? Every time Uncle Bob calls he still talks about the night we spent at his house and how much he loved the songs you girls sang for him the next morning. What a blessing you all were to him. Thanks! You have done such a good job with the tale, that I just have to say "that's right." I'm looking forward to another one some time.

Love, Grandma Harris

The Dischers said...

I agree with the others, Mary, it's always nice to see your fun perpective in a post :)

Enjoyed it.

Love,
A. Beth

A Still Small Voice said...

Hi, you all! I was just checking out your website this morning. I enjoy reading the articles and looking at the pictures. It looks like you had a great time on your latest trip! Just wanted to bring your attention to a slight error, though. On your side-bar, you have a section for web links. It seems like you have switched mine and Samantha's. You click on her name and you get my site (and vice-versa). Just thought I'd let you know.
Blessings,
Erica

The Stricklen Family said...

Thank you Erica for your comment and your observation! We will fix it. :)

Callie