35 Years and We Are Still Hanging On (To Each Other)

May 30, 1981: Our first day as husband and wife.

The years have brought us joy and tears, happiness and loss, bright days and dark nights.  But by the grace of God, through it all we have had one another!

May 21, 2016: He still rocks my world!

"May the only thing that grows old in our marriage be the two of us!"

15 years to Golden!  Say what???????

Signed, Sealed, McNeilled

Our beautiful niece, Naiz, married the love of her life exactly one week ago in a gorgeous Amelia Island wedding.  Here are a few of the pictures from the weekend.

Mr. & Mrs. Brett McNeill

The view from our room at the Omni Resort

This is how The Goode's spent the day leading up to the wedding.
Don't say that we don't know how to have a good time.
 We even order in room service for lunch.  LOL!

My sexy wedding date. He's still got it!

Naiz and Brett's reception venue had an amazing view of the salt water marsh.

 Monday evening, after all the other guests had left, Jim and I were able to spend a little time with Rosa and Steve catching up.

Rosa and I riding down A1A in the back seat with the top down
and sunshine on our faces.

Sometimes you have to be careful where you take a Camero.  LOL!

Best wishes to Naiz and Brett for a long and happy life together.  You two were picture perfect on your special day. But it is the beauty in your hearts and the love in your eyes for each other that will carry you through the next 50+ years.

Mexico: Part 5 (The Finale)

Today's post is just a few of my favorite pictures taken over the week. No real theme other than 

These Are My People...And I Love Them!

Jim and I at dinner our last night in Mexico...it was the only night we left the house for food!  We were so spoiled by Mairea.

Oh, how I miss this view in the mornings.

Jim and I chilling by the pool.

Me with my Girls!  Love these two so much.

And here we are all together

Robin, Fonda, Stacy and Lonnie at Alux

And I mentioned that Robin and I decided to overcome our fear of heights to para-sail because Stacy and Jim were going to skydive.  Well, here are the pics of their adventure.

Posing at Senor Frog's before heading out to board the plane

Three hours later and they still hadn't taken off due to low cloud cover.
They finally called it just before the four hour mark.
Due to the weather, no more skydivers floated over the pool during our visit.
I guess they will have to save that adventure for next year.

We had so much fun on our Tax Day Escape Adventure that we are already talking about next year's trip.  I, for one, can hardly wait!

Throwback Thursday #7

Mother's Day 2015

Here a few memories from Mother's Day 2015.

Baby Dedication at Wilcrest Baptist Church.

Kelli and Matt had been living out in the Rosenberg area and were going to a church that didn't hold baby dedication services.  When they moved into Sugar Land, they started attending the church where they were married and decided to participate in the semi annual baby dedication.  It turned out that they had THREE since the last time they had attended services at Wilcrest.  Jim and I loved going back to see old friends and to celebrate the Lord's goodness to our family as Maddux, Ellie and Weston were all dedicated to the Lord.  Mr. Al Bailey was their deacon to pray over the children and to encourage Matt and Kelli for the journey ahead.

Back at our home church, Fellowship at Field Store, we hosted a Mother's Day Tea and invited all of the women, young ladies and girls to attend.  Here were my two tables.

The speakers table where my dear friend Cynthia sat with her guests for the day which included her daughter-in-law and granddaughter.  I just loved the garden party feel of this quilt (a gift from Donna) and decided that the table needed to look like a garden.

Cynthia used a beautiful tea cup and a sturdy coffee mug to help illustrate for us the need to be filled with the Holy Spirit and not just worry about what the outside looks like.

This was my table - set for four with Grandma Fulton's magnolia china.  Bri joined me for the celebration and we had a wonderful time with Marla as memories of my grandmother flooded this table of magnolia blossoms.

These were our serving tables -- beautifully decorated by Maudell.  She is a master of setting a beautiful tablescape!

It was our highest attendance since Kyra and I began organizing the monthly get-togethers.  We look forward to many more to come!

Mexico: Part 4

Fishing the Mayan Riviera

Since we were in Playa the week before their big sailfish tournament, Jim and I decided to take advantage of the opportunity to fulfill one of our long talked about bucket list items.  Sailfish fishing.  All but two of our group spent one morning on the water.  This is our adventure!

I can't remember the name of the marina we set out from...but I do remember that it had something about Pelican in it's name!

My honey watching the shoreline grow smaller on our way out to deep waters.

First fish on!  Jim called Lonnie to man the pole and she fought and struggled until she didn't think she could do anymore.  Thankfully we saw him near the boat and told her it was almost over because she was just about to hand over the pole.

Isn't he gorgeous?  An 8' sailfish!  And yes, her face in this picture is priceless!

But she was all smiles once the battle was over, the fish was landed, the picture taken and the sailfish swam off to give another angler a run for their money!

Me - watching the waters for more sails.

We didn't hook another sailfish.  But I did get to pull up this beautiful barracuda.

The most memorable catch of the day was John's.  His bait lured in a nice one which became the bait for a BIG DADDY 'cuda.  He nearly landed them both.  In the end he pulled out the remains of his Amberjack.

We all caught something for the day. Fonda (barracuda), Lonnie (sailfish - released), Jim (Amberjack), Albert (red snapper) and John (Amberjack head)

We had a great time and I can hardly wait to go again!

Throwback Thursday #6

Most of this blog is made up of family gatherings in which I participate. That makes it heavy on the 'girly' things. But our menfolk began their own tradition a few years back and I wanted to include them and their memories as well. All of these pictures were texted to me by Josh over their weekend adventure. So, this Throwback Thursday will have very little commentary because I wasn't there to witness any of the events.

Fishing Tournament - March 2015

Sargent, TX

The Accommodations:
They picked out their own beach house rental!

The Winning Team
Brian, Thad and Derrick
(Yes!  They have their own trophy!  How fancy!)

The Catch
There is some good eating in that day's catch.

Out on the water

Derrick won a medal for FINALLY landing a fish!
It was an fete that took a few years...and makes for some great stories!

Wade fishing in 'The Hole'.

I am so glad that the guys began their own annual trip and traditions.  We love getting together for a big fish fry when they return and hearing all of the stories from their time away.  Will didn't make the trip last year, and though Matt went, he had to leave early because Kelli got sick and needed help at home with the children.  Eventually the grandsons will be invited to join in the fun.

Their next trip is scheduled for late June this year.  I will see if I can get them to send me more pictures -- and maybe a few stories!

Mexico: Part 3

And speaking of adventures...I marked something off of my bucket list that I didn't even know was on my list.

Jim and Stacy made plans to go sky diving on Thursday.  I wanted to feel adventurous too -- but there was no way I was going to jump out of an airplane.  I would die before I landed on the beach.

So, on the spur of the moment I talked Robin into the two of us facing our fear and having an adventure of our own Wednesday afternoon.

All we had to do was pay these guys $60 each and collect our gear.

This is our before picture.  Can you tell how scared we are?

And off we go!

We were high!
And I was hanging on for dear life!!!

We didn't see them dip anyone else in the water the whole day.
 I think the captain just liked hearing us scream.

Our After picture.
We were so stinking proud of ourselves and filled with adrenaline!

Robin got a two for one in the adventure area since we were carried out to the boat by jet ski and she had never been on one before.

Mexico - Part 2

On Monday we took a day trip out to see the Mayan ruins in Coba.  Robin's bucket list included 'climbing the Mayan ruins,' the rest of us just chose to go along for the adventure.

Stacy, Albert, Lonnie, Robin, Me, Jim & John

Before the Adventure began.

Jim and I before ascending the pyramid.

I made it about halfway up.  I took this picture of Jim as we were climbing and started feeling very nauseous.  I decided that it may be better for me to take myself down than to pass out and roll down.  Jim pressed on to the top.

Stacy, Robin and Jim from the top.

Photo by John...they are the only three that made it up.

It's hard to pick them out, but I snapped this picture as the crew were descending.

Jim's fish spa at the Cantina.  The picture I didn't share here (but that I sent to our employees on Facebook) was of him on the telephone WORKING while getting his fish spa treatment.  I threatened to throw his phone in the spa...but it was in a Lifeproof case so it wouldn't have mattered.

Me and the spicy jalapeno in front of our lunch stop.

We had a wonderful day at Coba.  It is always so humbling to see yourself in comparison with a civilization that existed so long ago.  Their infrastructure was amazing.  We finished the day out with some souvenir shopping on our way back to Playa, then hit the pool to cool off and relax for the evening.