A Real-Life Cindy Lou Who

Robby's got himself a real-life "Cindy Lou Who" from Whoville!!  And don't play dumb either, you know who I'm talking about.

Cindy Lou Who, that's who!  Picture snagged from DragoArt.com.

She seems quite captivated by the lad.

Schmitz Thanksgiving 2018

Thanksgiving means a bit more every year as the people who attend get thinner and thinner as life delivers blows as only life can.

A major part of living is dying. We do not like to address this reality but the reality stares us down like a deer in the headlights and will not waver.

God has promised us an eternity that is far greater than anything we could possibly achieve on this wonderful orb, but yet, we strive and do crazy things to stay here!!!

I'm sure that my opinion will change when I stare the final door in the face and there's no other options but right now, I still wonder why we do this as true believers?

No matter, it was another opportunity to share another brief bit of time with my family.  It was short and wonderful!!!

Robby and I had left by this point, which is why we're absent yet Calebber is present!  Lesley had to work which is why she is absent.

Sonny the beast invades future attempts at pics!

Dave with Shadow and Sonny.

Sonny with my brother Steve and his son, Tim.

Sam and Jonah playing RISK with a watchful Caleb on the sidelines.

Another year goes by with a few people missing and other facing serious circumstances.  Thankfulness abounds...  we had another year together, but yet the promise of greater things is still there!  

Thank you, Jesus Christ!!!

Otis Has Left The Building

Otis has gone back home to be closer to his peeps.

 It was hard to have him leave but when my friend Denny came in the house and Otis recognized him and immediately blew a glasket in excitement, I knew it was for the best!

It was awesome to see.

Not only was that great, but I had an excellent conversation with my old buddy and we covered MANY different topics;  politics, religion, beer, metal music and so on.  It was nice to catch up.

Caleb put the neck pillow on Otis prior to the Rams/Seahawks game!  Apparently it's important to protect your neck!

Otis wasn't very much of a lap dog with us.  He liked a good scratching and would love to lay on the couch with someone, but it wasn't until his last night with us, while I was watching the Rams/Chiefs game that he jumped up and actually snuggled on me!  It was nice, I must say.

From that same snuggle session...   I miss you, my stinky-breathed little buddy!

Happy Thanksgiving!

From the Schmitz family to yours, with a mouth full of whipped cream!

Halloween For Caleb, The Shadow!

The only shot we have as The Shadow went out with my sister and her 3 kiddos this year.  The superhero is sans mask here so you can get a good dose of his beautiful smile and all that it adds to lives everywhere he goes!  You can thank me later!

Schmitz 2018 Vaca, Post 3 - Philly, Philly!

On our official day 2 of vacation, we woke up early, but not too early, and got all prettied up for our drive to Philadephia.   

Our plan was to have an late breakfast/early lunch at Geno's and Pat's which was a bucket list item of mine ever since seeing those two restaurants on an episode of Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives.

Our drive was a little over two hours with a coffee/gas/potty-break stop in there.

The boys were MUCH more pleased with this particular drive than the previous two days!  Little did they know about the drive after we chew up Philly and rather quickly spit them out!  LOL!!!

On to some pics!

This is the gas station that we stopped at for the provisions mentioned above!  It was such a beautiful morning!!!

I was warned about this from a co-worker but was still taken aback once we got to the location of Pat's and Geno's.  It's in a very old area of the USA and it just wasn't what I recall/expected from the t.v. show!  The overhead power lines reminded me of some of the stuff we saw in Beijing.  Obviously, this is Pat's King Of Steaks.

And this is obviously Geno's Steaks!  They're literally right across a very wide and angular intersection.

So after our brunch of cheesesteaks, we headed off walking for the downtown area where Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell and so on are located.  It was quite interesting seeing the older neighborhoods and such.  It also made me think of the time when the garbage collectors went on strike and pretty much shut the city down in about two weeks, as I recall.  Once you see the narrow roads and walkways, imagining them with piles of trash everywhere complete with rats, it sort of brings it all home. 

Independence Hall.  It's amazing to see in person and put some perspective on history that, until now for me, only existed in books.

Rob and Caleb by the Liberty Bell.

My peeps!!!

Inside the old courtroom.

This is where it all went down!

Statue of Commodore John Barry.

You'll have to trust me on this one, since you can't read the plaque. This is the Bicentennial Moon Tree.  It reads, and I shall quote, "Sycamore planted on May 6, 1975 from see carried to the moon by astronaut Stuart A. Roosa on Apollo XIV, February 1971.

I have loved walking thru open air markets ever since we visited China.  There were the street vendors in Beijing that we mostly drove by, and then the huge open market in Guangzhou on Shamian Island that we visited.  Since then, we've been to Pike Street Market in Seattle and this one covered here only by a few pictures.

This reminded me a bit of China...

Sadly, while putting together this blogpost,  I realized that we were within about a block of Brauhaus Schmitz!!

So that was our short time in Philly!  So much more to explore, but that can be said about anywhere!

Schmitz 2018 Vaca, Post 2 - Hershey Park, Part 2

So part two of our trip to Hershey starts with a bus tour around the town of various and sundry locations that Hershey has built and maintained thru the years.

They told many stories of how great Milton Hershey was and the many great things he did with his success! I did not realize that the real-life Willy Wonka was such a good man, but that's what he was!

If you're interested in that history there's a very good quick-read of his life here.

I'll give just an example or two.  He was forced to leave school early and as such didn't get the education that he should have.  He created the many opportunities for kids to get great educations and even created the Hershey Industrial School for orphaned boys.  Today, that school accepts boys and girls and serves over 1900 kids per year!

Also, during the 1930's in the depression, he spent his own money to keep the men of the town employed.  He ordered the building of a hotel, a community building and new offices for his company!

This is the Hershey mansion in which Milton and his wife Catherine lived.  He would walk to work from here many days of the year.

On the bus,  the two peeps up front were our entertainment for the tour.  The lady was excellent and the dude kept leaving the interior of the bus, getting in a changing room on the back/exterior of the bus and coming back as a different character.  They told a good story that was often interrupted by a P.I.T.A. little whiny kid behind me. The dude in the costume was staring HOLES thru this kid on the tour!  LOL!

I'm going on a shaky memory here but I believe that's the old factory there.

And, again... old memory, but I believe that's the old offices for Hershey.

This is part or the industrial school.

From up on the hill in front of the industrial school overlooking the Hershey theme park and factories.  It's quite the kingdom on Earth that this fella created!

So back at the tourist trap,  uh...  center,  we're getting ready to go in a make our own candy bars!

MMMMMmmmmmmm...  drinkable chocolate!

Caleb's bar has reached the start of production!

Mom's bar has reached the start of production!

Rob's bar has reached the start of production with an artsy-fartsy slanted/tilted pic!

My bar has reached the start of production...  I should have created one for every chin!

Our bars passing thru the cooling chamber.

Guess who?

What's sweeter than your own candy bars?  My boys!!!

Parents of chaos...

The Fam!!!  The overhead lighting makes me look fat...