Extremely Thankful Thanksgiving

The Saturday before Thanksgiving is not the day we usually celebrate the holiday . . .. . . but this one is very special. Please meet Tommy C. here with his daughter, Shelley.Several weeks ago, Tommy went in for a fairly straightforward surgical procedure, and then - long story short - no one (except God, of course) thought Tommy would ever see another Thanksgiving. So Shelley and Tommy's sister Bev hosted a wonderful afternoon full of friends and family. Here is Tommy with Bryan.And, being who I am; I got some grandchildren shots for Bev, and we just kept rolling for awhile.

We needed shots of each family group

as well as Bev's entire gang. To keep the kids attention, we promised goofy shots at the end. . . .. . .they were all very impressive!Thanks so much Bev and Shelley, for including us in this most wonderful Thanksgiving celebration!

Autumn Beauty - not far from home

I have a wonderful friend in Tampa, Florida. Over the past few weeks, she has been lamenting the fact that the temperature has been in the upper 80's there. As a transplanted Kansan, she has been longing for a taste of home.

So, I went out to my yard yesterday to capture a few images.

I didn't have to go any farther to get a wonderful variety of color and texture. The last of the yellow roses, with their beautiful orange rose hips, to the fabulous deep veined red leaves of my new viburnums, everywhere I turned, there was something beautiful!

We have had an unusually cool and wet year.

I'm sure that must have helped the trees and shrubs give us such a wonderful, colorful fall.

I love the sunlight pouring through the leaves.

Angie - this post is for you, kid. Miss you tons - and I hope you're enjoying these images of home. . . with the breath of autumn you just can't get at the beach!

The beautiful blue sky was an extra treat yesterday. We have had so much rain, I thought I was in Seattle.

I love this one - so simple, yet so beautiful. These are the little crabapples from our three-year-old pink flowering crab that I love so much. It is a beautiful little tree, and was featured in my blog when we got a dreadful late snow. Fortunately, it didn't ruin the tree.