Every year Jim and his friends go on a week-long golf trip to North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. This year it was scheduled for October 19-26. Usually he flies, but this time we live only 1.5 hours away! Once the trip was scheduled my wheels started turning…how would I spend this week? We would be going our “separate ways” temporarily–did I want to just spend a week at the beach alone? Did I want to go on a trip with my friends whose husbands would also be on the golf trip? When I looked closer at the dates, it hit me! And so, I made the BEST decision! I would surprise my Dad for his birthday (October 20) and go stay with my parents for a few days. Since Abby had just been visiting us, I convinced her to stick around and go on a road trip with me! We packed up the car and starting the long drive to PA. It ended up taking 11 hours! It was long, but I was grateful to have the precious one on one time with Abby. We decided to choose the GPS route which took us through the mountains of Virginia and West Virginia in order to be immersed in the colorful Fall foliage. We were not disappointed! After about 3 hours of driving the scenery was gorgeous! Every 5 minutes I was saying–wow, look at those trees! Look over here! Look over there! Abby definitely “smiled” at my enthusiasm, but she can’t deny the beauty of nature!

When we finally arrived at my parents’ house, my Dad opened the front door and was completely surprised to see me and Abby standing there! The weekend was wonderful! I attended a ForeignJourney tribute concert with my Mom and Dad (another reason for the “Separate Ways” title for this blog post 🙂 on Thursday night, celebrated my Dad’s 75th Birthday on Friday, baked cookies with my Mom, and watched numerous Hallmark movies with them.

As a bonus this weekend was also our Thanksgiving celebration with my incredible, fun, loud, crazy Italian family at my Uncle’s Cabin on the river. (So now we have celebrated Christmas and Thanksgiving before Halloween is even here!) There were 75 of us there this year–but we missed the several family members who couldn’t make it. I didn’t tell anyone we were coming, so everyone was so surprised to see us!! It’s always a wonderful time when we all get together–we laugh, play, eat too much, and talk A LOT!

We love our family and cherish all of the moments we have together.

Golf trip update: The weather has been perfect and Jim and his friends are living their best lives!