November started with a fabulous trip to San Francisco!

My two precious daughter-in-laws gave me a 65^th birthday to remember!!

Pat and I flew north from Palm Springs while Maria and Karen flew south
from Portland and we all met at the airport. 

We had a gorgeous limo waiting to take us to
Fisherman’s Wharf – My first limo ride!!  EVER!

San Francisco was beautiful.  The weather couldn’t have been nicer. 
We took several tours……..through downtown ……
across the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito

Isn’t this a quaint little Sausalito building?

Another tour – this time to Chinatown – it was so much fun!!

The TransAmerica Building

The Coit Tower

My two sweetheart daugher-in-laws ….
How on earth did I ever get so lucky to have them?

We took a boat tour over to Alcatraz.  A very interesting self guided tour.

I would recommend it to anyone!!

I wouldn’t have wanted to spend much time here.

Our hotel was right on Fisherman’s Wharf and Wow was it beautiful.

We stayed at the Argonaut.

We all had such a great time.

Our entire trip was just the best ever.  I had a most memorable birthday.  

It was well worth turning 65 for ………..

Back to reality …….. Mike & I drove over to Algodones Mexico to get
our teeth cleaned and checked.  This is the border crossing.

Our lot in Indio is looking very colorful this year. 
We have the most beautiful geraniums.

We had a wonderful surprise visit from one of Mike's best friends
(and the best man in our wedding 45 years ago)
Joe Lewellen was in town for some business and
we were lucky to spend an evening with Joe.

We went out to eat on Thanksgiving with friends.

The food was wonderful…….. but no leftovers!

Finished out this month at a purse party with
Pat and our friend Sharon.

Life in the desert is outstanding.  The weather is fabulous.  Our friends are the best!

I just can’t tell you how much I love it here.

October 2012

October 1^st, we left Sunriver and began our trek south.

We stopped in Reno and enjoyed a great visit with my nephews Scott, Brett,
Brett’s girlfriend Bridget and Brett’s son Troy. 
It was wonderful seeing them all. 
We spent the evening catching up.  Love them all so much.

Arrived in Indio at Outdoor Resorts.  The weather is in the low 90’s –
The sun shines EVERY day!  I love it here!!

We have several Black Swans that have taken up residence in our ponds. 
Black Swans are very rare.  They are huge and slightly aggressive……
but so beautiful to watch.

A spectacular full moon through the palm trees. 
The evenings are wonderful here…… warm, clear and oh so beautiful.

Our friends that we left last spring are all returning to ORI. 
We have so much to catch up on. 

I celebrated my 65^th birthday near the end of this month. 
Wow – I’m really getting old. 
I had the most wonderful day. 
I am so blessed to have the best friends in the world. 

We closed out October with a Halloween potluck …….

Several people came in costume.  Like all of our get togethers – we had a wonderful time catching up with our friends.

September 2012

We started the month with a great Outdoor Resort Indio Potluck (in Bend).  Many of our friends from southern California who spend the summer in the Bend area got together for a wonderful evening.  Many thanks to Bill and Jan Lee for offering their home for us all.

We spent a weekend with Brandon, Karen, Ben & Anna…….took this pic at Buffalo Wings.  We cleaned out our storage items that we keep at Brandons.  It was fun to see just
what we had saved !!

This is our granddaughter, Anna (7) at her soccer game.  What a fun time!

Brandon & Karen have decided it is time to move.  They have sold their house and purchased a new home that is much bigger.  We got to see the inside of their new home (really nice seller let us in)  It’s gorgeous!  I’ll bet they can’t wait!

Cycle Pub in Bend!  It’s fantastic …….. we rented this crazy looking bicycle and drove all over town from Pub to Pub.  You can drink while riding on the “bicycle” because they provide a sober driver.  We had so much fun.  There was Pat, Vanessa (Ron’s cousin), me, Mike and Tom (Vanessa’s husband)  I would recommend it to anyone wanting to have fun!

We drove over to see Marc, Maria, Camryn & Colby and we had a busy weekend.  We went to a Sherwood High School Football game.  What fun and Sherwood won!

Colby had a fantastic time on the gridiron. 
He loves football and is so good at it!

We even had time to take in a Portland Timbers Soccer game.  These guys are so great and they play in a great soccer stadium.  We loved it!

On our way back to Sunriver, we drove through Sisters Oregon. 
The smoke was so bad from nearby forest fires.

Tom & Pat Sims (friends of ours from Southern California) took us out for
a canoe and kayak ride down the Deschutes river. 
We ended at their home located on the river for lunch.

The river was beautiful and the day was wonderful.

Pat, Mike and I enjoying an evening at the Sunriver Brewhouse. 

We end this month with an awesome sunset out the door of
our motorhome on our lot in Sunriver.  Gorgeous!

It was 32 degrees when we got up this morning.... It’s time to head south for the winter.  I’m looking forward to some warm weather.  Indio Here we come!

August 2012

We have promised each of our grandkids that when they turned 10,
we would take them on a trip in the motorhome ……. Wherever they want.  Well, August is taking us on a “Baseball” trip with Ben. 

Our first game was the Oakland A’s playing the Tampa Bay Ray’s.  Ben got a couple of autographs – the day was gorgeous and we had a great time off.  We took the BART (Rapid Transit) to and from the game.  FUN DAY!!

Next Game was the Los Angeles Dodgers versus the Chicago Cubs.  A great evening game at an icon of a stadium.  We took a bus from 

Union Station in LA.to the game.  Another fun game.  

The Dodgers are Mike’s favorite.

We had a down day waiting for the Padre home game so we went to Seaworld.  We had so much fun.  I love Seaworld – it’s my favorite! 
We rode the rides ….. we went to the shows …….
We ate gobs of food …..It was a blast!

Petco Park in San Diego was totally awesome.  We took a tour that showed us the private parts of the stadium.  Unbelievable!  There are seats behind home plate that sell for $53,000 per seat per season.  Yikes!!  The stadium was outstanding, the city was great.  We took a rapid transit train from Chula Vista to the game.  The Padres played the Chicago Cubs.

Next game was the Arizona Diamondbacks vs. the Washington Nationals.  It was really hot in Phoenix…. 114 degrees.  It was brutally hot but when we walked into the covered stadium – it was
instant comfortable.  The roof was closed and the stadium
was air conditioned.   It was another great game!

Another spare day so we took off and spent the day at Knotts Berry Farm.  This was Ben’s favorite day off.  Mike loved the lady of the night
but Ben wasn’t too sure.  :)

The next game was the Anaheim Angels and the Seattle Mariners. 
A really hot day – We roasted but as soon as the sun moved past our seats
and we were in the shade it was fabulous!  A great game! 
The Angels stadium is awesome as well.

Back to the Bay area and another day off baseball.  We took the ferry into San Francisco and then took a bay tour. 
The Golden Gate Bridge was shrouded in fog.

Alcatraz is now a national park – the buildings are old and beginning to decay but the stories of the convicts who lived here still live on. 
Ben loved Alcatraz.

Fisherman’s Warf – San Francisco.  We had a great day sightseeing.

We came in to San Francisco the next day to see our last game.  It was the San Francisco Giants and the Washington Nationals.  The Giants stadium is located right on the waterfront and is beautiful.  Great game!!

We had Ben with us for 3 weeks and loved every minute. 
We sure hope he had as much fun as we did.

We got back to Sunriver to find our lot partially flooded. 
Problems with controlling the water level in the
Deschutes River has the water backed up.

We have so many deer visiting our lot.  These fawns weren’t a bit afraid of us.

I machine quilted this quilt and I was very pleased how nicely it turned out. 
This is one of my favorites.

August has been an exciting month.  We had so much fun with Ben on his Baseball Trip but it’s also good to be back in Sunriver again.  We have been out kayaking twice this month – each time better than the last.  We are loving the kayaks.

Looking forward to a quieter September!

July 2012

July has been a runaway month.  It has just whizzed by and is gone already!

July 4^th Bend hosts a Pet Parade --- It is wonderful!  Dogs, Cats, Lizards, Birds, Steer, Horses, Chickens and many others beloved pets are represented!

I finished hand quilting my favorite quilt.  It is a Kim Diehl pattern and I love it. 
I’m very proud ……. (even if I do say so myself!)

Our friends John and Bonnie Kearsing took Mike and I kayaking
one day and we were hooked!  We immediately left from the lake and bought our own kayaks!   There’s one thing missing ……. Oh yes – It’s the water. 
We’ll take care of that!

Our grandson Colby – He’s so great at baseball and he just loves it!

Speaking of Baseball – We took in a couple of Bend Elk’s baseball games this month.  

Really fun time!

One of Mike’s very good friends, Perry Swanson and his wife met us in Sisters for the annual outdoor Quilt Show.  The quilts were fantastic ……… until a huge thunder storm appeared and it started pouring.  I’ve never seen such organization ….. they had over 1200 quilts down from their displays in about 15 minutes.  

Fox Family Campout 2012

A great time when the family all gets together and has fun!

Brandon, Karen, Ben and Anna at the top of Lava Butte

One hot gorgeous day, we floated kayaks and rafts down the Deschutes.

Such a fun, relaxing time!

We met John and Bonnie at Sparks Lake in the Cascades.

Definitely the most beautiful lake I’ve ever seen.  This kayaking is really fun!

One day while waiting for motorhome service, we drove over to Smith Rock State Park to see what everyone is talking about.  It’s beautiful …… the entire park is in the canyon with a very steep hike down (and back up)   Lots of hiking and rock climbing.

OK – with our new kayaks ……. We now need a new storage shed to keep them in!

John and Bonnie – Just look what you started!  I love it! 
A new places to store “stuff”

Ben (our oldest grandson) is just about “10” and as we promised, we are heading out on a trip with him.  He has chosen to take a Baseball Trip ….. so we are heading south.  Our first stop was at Durango RV park in Red Bluff.  It’s hot (96 degrees) so we headed straight for the pool!

In Vacaville, we took in the Jelly Belly factory.  A tour and $60 worth of Jelly Bellies later …….. we headed back to the motorhome.

Tomorrow is our first Baseball Game.  The Oakland A’s vs Tampa Bay.
Should be a great trip!  Stay tuned ………..