December 2016

Happy New Year to all!

Our Topless (Convertible) club took a run up to Joshua Tree National Park.
This picture is in Box Canyon. It is so beautiful.

This is a Joshua Tree.  Not the traditional tree – but a tree none the less.

We took another Topless run – Just John & Bonnie and us.
We drove around the Salton Sea (an all day drive)

In Nyland, we stopped to see Salvation Mountain.

Amazing the work that went into this place.

We stopped for lunch in Brawley for Mexican food!
It was great – so close to the Mexican border – it had to be good!

Christmas Tree Lighting at the clubhouse was very nice.
The carolers from La Quinta High School were awesome.

We are having some protective coating on the front
of the motorhome replaced.  It is pretty ugly while the work is going on.

Christmas lights get us in the Holiday mood.
These were timed to a radio station
and were beautiful.

We spent Christmas in the Portland area with our two sons and their families.
This is with our oldest granddaughter, Camryn.
She always makes me smile  

For New Years Eve, 5 couples of us went to dinner and
to a movie.  Great evening with good friends!

My New Year’s resolution is to make a special effort to
get better and more pictures for my blog.

I am terrible……. I spent Christmas week with my kids and grandkids
and didn’t take a single picture!

I promise to do better next year!

November 2016

Our California home….Outdoor Resort Indio
The weather is great!

The little hummingbirds must be glad
that we are back to feed them.

We hosted the first “Topless” run of the season.
We drove up to Palomar Observatory
and it was beautiful and very educational.
I was impressed.

The O’Conners and Mike and I are hosting the “Overnighter”
for February’s Topless event.
This month, 3 couples of us did a dry run to map out our upcoming
trip.  The Kearsings, the O’Connors, and Mike and I drove up to Laughlin, NV
where we met Pat and Rollie and Chuck and Eva.

What fun we had!

One night in Laughlin, then on to Oatman, AZ to see
the donkeys that come to town to visit the tourists.

They are very used to people, sometimes, too comfortable with them.

Mike (hamming it up) in Oatman.
We went thru Lake Havasu City and stopped to see Pat and Rollie
 then to Chuck and Eva’s to see their new house.
We spent our second night on the road in Parker AZ then back to Indio.

Just a week later, we took another official Topless run to
Oceanside (a beautiful resort town on the Pacific coast.)
We ate lunch out on the pier.

The day was wonderful, even the Pelicans loved the weather.

Thanksgiving was approaching so we headed to the
Palm Springs Airport.  

The weather in Portland wasn’t quite as nice as Palm Ssprings

but we had a wonderful Thanksgiving.
Thirteen of us participated in the “Give n’ Gobble”
Thanksgiving morning.  It poured, we were drenched
and we all had a great time!

Papa and his granddaughters….

What a wonderful family Thanksgiving.

October 2016

Colby is really in to his golf and he is really good.
Just look at his form!

October 3^rd, we took off and headed south.
We traveled down Highway 395…what a beautiful highway.

It’s great to be back in the sunshine.

My ORI neighbor Alice and I went to the Palm Springs Quilt Show
This was one of my favorite quilts…… a tribute to the old time
hand embroidered dish towels.  I need to make a quilt like this. 
I have some old embroidered towels my mother made.

This was also one of my favorite quilts,
The quilting on this was outstanding.

At ORI we have the Topless Club (Convertibles)
Mike and I are hosting the first trip of the season and our neighbors
Dan and Shirley are hosting the second.
Dan and Shirley’s pre-run was to Oceanside, California. 
A beautiful town on the Southern California coast. 
What a fun day!

After only 2 weeks in Indio, we took off for 10 days in
St. George Utah for a Jeep Rally.
We saw so much beauty in that area.

I love the St. George area and many of our friends
have moved into the retirement area there.

This is Touquerville Falls…. Mike and the Jeep are
traveling over the falls.

Back to Indio just in time for my birthday celebration
with dear friends.

We had our first party of the season…..  Halloween!

The costumes were outstanding!

Having so much fun!

September 2016

                                     

This month we had a visit from our ORI friends, the O’Connors and Don Lippert.
We had a great day in Bend with them.

I caught this little furry creature on a plant hanger about 6 feet
up the tree.  He was just enjoying the sun!

One of Mike’s favorites….. Jury Duty (in Vancouver, Washington.)
One of the kinks in full timing…… but we are so fortunate that our son and his family live in Vancouver, so we stayed with them for 10 days while Mike called in every day…… but was never required to show up for a trial.

While we were visiting, Ben and Anna started school.  First day – Ben is in the 8^th grade, Anna is in the 6^th grade and Karen teaches math in the 6^th grade.

In Bend, near the Old Mill District, we found some rapids
(I think they are man made) for the kayakers.
 A little too rough for us old folks, but they sure look like fun!

We are smooth water kayakers  :)

John and Bonnie came to Sunriver for a visit….. and they surprised us
with their new purchase.  A beautiful bright red convertible mustang.  It’s gorgeous!
This picture is taken on top of Pilot Butte with the entire town of
Bend stretched out below us.

When we first arrived in Sunriver, there were so few deer
and even fewer fawns, but as the summer has moved on, they are coming out more.

Back to the Portland area to see the kids one last time before we head south.  Ben and Anna went to “I Fly” where they floated on air in a wind tank.  They both LOVED the experience.  You can tell by the smiles on their faces!

Fall is definitely here.  The leaves are beautiful.

We have been fortunate to go to two of Camryn’s soccer games
(they won both of them!) and watch Camryn score two goals.

A wonderful visit with Ken and Darlene Sutton.  Friends for many years.  Ken just had a knee replacement and is doing wonderful.  So good to spend time with both of them!

This month, we also had  dinner with Tom and Vanessa from Bend. 

Always good to see them both!

We also had a wonderful lunch with Mike’s sister, Sheri and her husband, John 
Always good to catch up with family!

We are leaving soon to head south to our winter location..
 I hear the sun and the warmth calling me.

August 2016

August is history…..the summer is speeding by

The Deschutes County Fair was a lot of fun……

This was so sweet.  A little girl reading with her pig.
So relaxed and comfortable.

I loved this horse.  He was gigantic. 
I barely came up to the tip of his nose!

John & Sheri (Mike’s youngest sister) came up for 10 days. 

We had so much fun.  One afternoon, Sheri and I made swim bags

One day we headed into town, took in some pickleball games
and saw several ORI friends.

After that, we went to a car show. 
There were so many cars of all types

I thought this was cute…… and Mike loved it!

We also took a day and went kayaking up at Sparks Lake.
It was a beautiful day… but the lake was really low on water.

What a scary sight when you are living in the woods.
A forest fire just a few miles from our place.
The Forest Service was really on this fire and thank goodness
the wind was blowing into the woods in our favor.
It was contained at around 300 acres.

We had a great day on the river with Marc & Maria,
Brandon & Karen and the kids!

They skied, knee boarded, wake boarded and tubed….
the weather was perfect…..a good time was had by all.

Then we headed up to Brandon’s.  Mike was called in for Jury Duty
in Clark County, WA (our residence)  He calls in every day
but so far, they haven’t called his group number.  Maybe tomorrow.

Ben and Anna started back to school today (8^th and 6^th grades)
Camryn (high school junior) and Colby (8^th grade) (in Oregon) start back next week.

So fun to watch them on their special days.