Dundee Florida -- Grandma and Grandpa Starkey's

It is so fun to see the huge trucks full of juicing oranges
A trip to the citrus factory was a must for the Taylor clan!

Davidson's of Dundee!

This is the best candy in the world! My siblings and I have been addicted to it since childhood and we've now passed it onto the next generation. It's those free samples. One little bite and you're hooked for life!

watching the candy being made. That barrel in the back ground says, "sugar 400lbs." That's never a good sign.

Doing the alligator head chase

These guys gave me nightmares as a child--guess my kids are tougher than I was :)

Picking the sweetest oranges from Grandma's tree

I love Spanish moss!

oh those tushies! Kimball, Cohen, Joey

Peter and Joey sharing their favorite "Grandma Starkey Dessert," blueberry pie!

Grandma's amazing pie creations: peach, blueberry, pecan and apple. Not to mention the cookies, brownies, rice crispy treats, toffee and Mississippi mud she made. She's amazing!

Here's the whole clan eating Grandpa's staple food--Hardies. he goes there everyday and everyone know him by name.

A walk around Lake Menzie is a must for a trip to Grandma's! We all love looking for alligators as we walk!

Everyone loves a new John Deere hat from Grandpa Starkey! Either he is storing mass quanities of those things in a secret underground storage, or they are multiplying. He never seems to run out.

The boys working hard to decorate the driveway

The rest of the crew working a little harder to clean up the house and get things for Grandma and Grandpa.

Since it didn't work out to go fishing with Grandpa Starkey, he took all the boys to feed the fish in his friends pond.

Grandpa Starkey giving the guys a first hand history lesson of WWII. It is amazing to see his maps, swords, guns and other memorabilia!

Grandpa Starkey was a commander of a searchlight team. Their responsibility was to illuminate enemy planes and shoot them down.

Ahh, the back porch swing--loved by every generation
Colin-1, Kimball-2, Nathaniel-3, Joey-4)

Saying goodbye

Wooden Shoes

Grandma Gurr gave the boys a book about a little boy in Germany who puts his wooden shoes out everynight near Christmas time and in the morning he finds a scripture about Christ and some treats/toys. The weeks before Christmas we read that story everyday before nap time and one night before he went to be, Joey snuck and grabbed my slippers, stuffed them with toys, and then set them out on the front steps. It was so cute! He is such a sweet little boy!

Inside was two blocks, two pennies, one Lego and one Shamu water fountain spigot.

Winter Wonderland

I love how involved our neighborhood is. The first week in December they set up a winter wonderland in the common area. There are tons of games, prizes, crafts and lots of goodies and hot chocolate for everyone to eat. We just happen to be having the coldest winter in over 20 years in San Antonio (what??? this is why we're living in the south--to avoid the cold), so we didn't play as long as we intended. But it was so wonderful to see everyone in the community come out and celebrate Christmas together.cake walk

We made two cakes for the cake walk and Joey was so sad he didn't win one. When we got home we took the scraps and he made his own snowman cake.