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A rocking horse sits in front of a Christmas tree at our house, one of our Christmas 2023 decorations. Christmas decorations have started to spring up all over our house. We have lots of decorations everywhere, and Laura takes care to make sure everything looks just right. Every now and then, new things get added into the mix. This rocking horse was added a couple of years ago, and it goes well in front of a tree full of horse-related ornaments.

Christmas inflatables of Mickey Mouse and Olaf from Frozen are highlighted by a spotlight on a foggy evening in our front yard. We have had our Mickey and Olaf inflatables for some years now, and they add a bit of joy and happiness to our front yard each Christmas season. However, over time their internal lights have died, which makes it difficult to see them at night out here in the wilderness.

Thanksgiving 2023 has come and gone, but it will live on in photos! We had our traditional Thanksgiving meal with my parents, complete with turkey, dressing, vinegar green beans, strawberry pretzel salad, cranberry sauce, and much more! And after dinner and a bit of a rest, we decided to take a family photo, as we often do. But if you know us, you know that just one photo will not do.

Recently, the trees in our yard were changing to their autumn colors for the fall season, and so on a nice, sunny day I went out to get a few photos. Take a look! This pear tree still had some green leaves left toward the inside, but the outer leaves were bright red. Add in a perfect blue sky and you have quite a colorful photo! Speaking of colorful, these trees behind the horse pasture fence were putting on a colorful show, too.

Kayakers paddle down the Silver River at Silver Springs State Park in Florida, as seen during our October 2023 Florida Trip. We saw lots of kayakers while we were at Silver Springs. But we also saw signs warning of alligators and snakes in the area, and there is not much in a kayak to protect you from either of those. So maybe kayaking is not for us. There were also lots of stand-up paddleboarders, and that looked like fun, too.

A statue of King Kamehameha I stands in front of Aliʻiōlani Hale in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, as seen during our June 2023 Hawaiʻi trip I told about our visit to Aliʻiōlani Hale in Part 9 of the trip report. However, I had taken lots of photos during our visit, and I did not want to clog up the trip report with photos. So I chose to save most of them for a separate post.

Waves crash upon the shore at Lori Wilson Park in Cocoa Beach, Florida. And yes, that is Laura out in the waves. During our October 2023 Florida trip, Laura and I spent a day at Cocoa Beach, one of our favorite places to spend a day. For most of the day it was cloudy and slightly cool, but that did not keep us from getting in the water, and it did not keep us from enjoying our day.

Looking down at the coastline of the island of Oʻahu from the top of Makapuʻu Point during our 2023 Hawaiʻi trip. Yes, if you are keeping score at home, I have posted another photo from this location in addition to the photos in Part 6 of the trip report. But to a guy who has spent most al of his life in flat, dry West Tennessee, I could never get enough of views like this one.

A glass-bottom boat glides over the clear spring water at Silver Springs State Park in Florida, as seen during our October 2023 visit. Silver Springs was for many years a popular roadside attraction park, but its fame declined when the big theme parks moved into the state. Fortunately, some years ago the state of Florida took over the park and turned it into a state park, preserving its natural beauty for years to come.

Continuing in the great tradition of Laura’s Trunk or Treat ideas (see past ideas here), Laura dressed as a pirate complete with a pirate ship this year for our church’s fall festival. It was a great success! But this was no ordinary pirate or pirate ship. As the sign near the bottom of the ship said, “Treasure ahoy, mates!” Whenever a Trunk or Treater walked up (which was almost constantly since we had well over 200 children there), Pirate Laura would say, “Fire the cannon!