December 2018

2018 draws to a close…..

The girls out for a luncheon.  This was so fun, we will have to do more of these.

As Christmas gets closer, we drove north to spend the holiday with

our kids and grandkids in Oregon.

Our road of choice is Hwy 395….. it is so beautiful.

Sunriver in Central Oregon just south of Bend was dry when we arrived.
The first night we were blanketed with snow.

Holidays are the best with the kids.

One day we drove up to Mt. Bachelor.

The kids skied for the day.  Grandpa and I

stayed in the lodge….. much warmer.

A beautiful day on the mountain.

Skiers have made beautiful markings in the snow.

We spent another day driving (till the road closed) up to
Paulina Lake (southeast of Sunriver)

The kids and grandkids snow shoed up to the Paulina Lake lodge.

Grandpa went with me in a snow cat….  Fun ride.

At the lodge, we all met up with the Bigej family for a great lunch.

A really fun day – I loved it!

The Pauline Lake area was snowed in…..

Incredibly beautiful.

The Fox crew at Paulina Lake….. So cold!

After a fantastic week, we headed south back to Indio.

Back along the east side of the Sierra Madres.

Now I notice, I didn’t get pictures of the kids beautiful Christmas trees.  

Both families had gorgeous trees. 

We thank them for a wonderful Christmas time.

Their homes in Sunriver are incredible.

Happy New Year to all of our family and friends.

What a great 2018.

November 2018

 What a great November….our Mexico adventure

Following an 11 ½ hour bus ride from Puerto Vallarta to Mazatlan (ugh!)

We had three wonderful weeks in Mazatlan….

“Dia de Los Muertos” (Day of the Dead)
was very interesting

Mazatlan has so many beautiful sites.

The weather was perfect….  A few very humid days

but wonderful the rest of the time.

A tour into the mountains took us to a quaint little town

We had a great lunch – they even had
chickens wandering around

the restaurant.

A great looking little fella hanging out at the pool

The beach was amazing!

I wasn’t sure about Mazatlan at first……

But in retrospect   I LOVED IT!

This picture looks to me like paradise.

It is the north end of Mazatlan’s

13 mile long Malecon.

We walked about 10 miles of the Malecon over two days.

The colorful row houses – so cheerful

At our resort, we released 480 baby turtles into the ocean

A great experience!

After 2 weeks at one resort, we moved down the street

To another resort. 

Beautiful pool area but not nearly as nice resort.

We took the city bus to different parts
of the city every other day.

We enjoy exploring!

Our last day in town, we discovered

La Machada.

A beautiful old town square.
Very relaxing

The buildings around La Machada were so gorgeous.

Back at ORI, we took a “Topless Run”
to the Mission Inn in Riverside.

Their “Festival of Lights” was fantastic!

An amazing month!!

October 2018

Whew, a busy month….

It’s getting cold so we left Oregon and headed south.

We spent several days in St. George with friends.

The weather was gorgeous and we always love

seeing our friends.

South of St. George and Las Vegas, we crossed the bridge over Hoover Dam.

We really couldn’t see anything….. just had to keep moving.

We stopped in Lake Havasu City to visit with Chuck and Eva.

They took us to some of their wonderful friends for a party.

It’s hard to see in this picture, but while sitting out by their pool,

A very strange weather event came up.  The sky turned very

dark and we could see the darkness moving toward us.

When it arrived, it was DUST!

It passed over us and was gone.  Strange

We arrived in Indio, got our lot all set up and the next week,

Alice (our neighbor) and I went to the Coachella Valley Quilt Guild meeting. 

Beautiful quilts on display and a very interesting guest speaker.

ORI was brown when we arrived…..

Brown golf course, no flowers…. Just brown.

Within a week, the golf course was bright green

And the flowers have all been planted.

It’s like they knew we were coming  😊

Today is Brandon’s 44^th birthday!

Where has the time gone?

What a great guy and his wonderful family.

Karen’s birthday is in two days…

Best wishes to both of you  ❤

September 2018

September – I love the fall….

Labor Day weekend, we went up to Mt. Hood RV with

Brandon, Karen, Ben, Anna and Karen’s mom, Linda.

We started the weekend with a great visit with old high school

friends, Don and Vickie Becker. 

What fun to catch up with old friends.

We spent one day up at the fun center – the kids had a blast.

Another day, we hiked up to Mirror lake.

The view was gorgeous

(even if I thought the hike was going to kill me!)

We saw some amazing women athletes at the

“Booties in Action” competition

in Sherwood

Our dear friend, Ron Herinckx, had a wonderful

80^th birthday party.  So glad we were in town to

attend..  Also was able to catch up with

John and Sheri before their big cruise to Alaska!

Fun visiting with old high school buddies, Joe and Lynn.

Joe was the best man at our wedding seems like just a few years ago.  

We headed down to La Pine (Just south of Bend) where

Mike was part of a “boys golf weekend”

Our son Brandon, their buddy Adam, our son Marc and their cousin Matt

were part of the group. 

They had so much fun!

Next we headed to St. George Utah – one of our favorite places.

While there, we took a fall colors viewing off roading trip

up into the mountains.

We met this fella on a mule on the road.

We also saw sheep grazing in the wild

The fall colors were spectacular.

So much beauty around every corner.

We kept going higher and higher.  At one point, we were up at 11,300 feet.

Cedar Breaks National Monument was incredible.

A spectacular day in the Jeep.

Some of our special St. George friends.

Denny and Kay Struss

Kim and Shelly Pollock.

We had a great time while in St. George.

August 2018

The summer marches on……

John & Sheri invited us to an Edsel car show 

and pizza party at their friends home…..

Then later in the week, we drove to Keizer, OR 

to an “Official” Edsel Car show.

This classic car and the matching vintage trailer were so cute.

We spent a week on the Oregon Coast and while we were there,
we drove up to the Tillamook Air Museum. 
This was the home of Oregon’s Blimp force. 
It was very interesting.

We also saw several older fighter jets as well.

After leaving the coast, we came up to Ridgefield….

just north of Vancouver.

Brandon & Karen live just a few miles from here 

so we have been able to

spend time with them, Ben and Anna too!

We had a great dinner with my sister and her husband.  

So good to see them.

Ben drove us (yes – Ben is driving now) 

up to the Mt. St. Helens Visitor center. 

Remarkable visitors center – but – with all of the smoke

there was nothing out the window to see.

One day, we took a short hike up the Lewis river to Lucia Falls.

The river area and falls were beautiful.

We took MAX (Portland’s light rail) into the city.

First stop was Portland’s Saturday Market.  

It was like College of the Desert on steroids.

So many vendors….. so many people.

We took MAX over to our very favorite! 

Lunch at Goose Hollow – best Rueben sandwiches EVER!

Another day we had lunch over at Jantzen Beach with John & Sheri!

The St. John’s bridge over the Willamette River

Is gorgeous! 

The weather in the Portland area has been warm this summer

But the smoke has been terrible.  We are so glad

the fires are getting under control and the smoke is clearing out.