April 2007

April has been a quiet and somewhat windy month. The days are in the 80's but we have had a fair amount of evening wind making everything dusty. The RV resort is slowly emptying out, folks are heading home. We have attended numerous "Going Away" parties. We have spent several months in close proximity to so many wonderful people and now we must say goodbye until next winter. Although it's difficult to say goodbye, we are getting itchy to get on the road. There is so much amazing country out there and we want to see it all!

Both of us have been riding our bikes (I ride with the ladies and Mike goes out with men) The weather here is perfect for bike riding. We have spent our Wednesday's "Jeepin" with the off roading group, have seen some old mines and some beautiful cactus blooms. I have finished a quilt and have just finished a quilt class - hope to finish that project this week. Mike went to a remote control Jet exhibition which he said was really neat and is now getting in his last bit of desert golf before we leave. We drove up into the mountains and met friends for lunch in Idyllwild. Idyllwild is a small mountain resort community in the mountains overlooking Palm Springs. It's at about 6000 feet and the weather was cool, brisk and sunny with snow on the ground. It was beautiful!

March 2007

March 2007
Oh, Oh, this “off roading” thing is turning very serious. The Tahoe has been replaced with a 2007 4-door Jeep Wrangler Rubicon. Mike couldn’t be any more proud about the new addition to our family. Note the picture above, now we can go into places where the Tahoe just wasn’t equipped to handle!
We spent a day with friends at the Da Vinci exhibit in Palm Springs. It was an incredible exhibit and we came out with a new appreciation for a very intelligent man who was so far ahead of his times.

February 2007

February 2007
We started off the month with a “60th Birthday Party” on our lot. We had 66 people here and had a wonderful time. Mike is starting a new decade but it certainly isn’t slowing him down!
During the middle of the month, we flew up to Portland to celebrate Camryn and Colby’s birthday’s. Camryn is now 7 and Colby is 4. They are growing up so fast. While in Portland, we stayed at Marc and Maria’s new home in Sherwood, took in a “Hoop-a-thon” (fund raiser for Camryn’s school) attended the super joint birthday party, had a fun night with Brandon, Karen, Ben and Anna, went out to dinner at Benihana’s (Camryn & Colby’s favorite restaurant) and spent an afternoon at a local swimming pool. Great time!

January 2007

January 2007
Looking forward to a great new year full of adventure and travels. We are at Ourdoor Resorts in Indio (We call this home as we spend about 6 months a year here) Weather is wonderful, while the rest of the country is shoveling snow, we are enjoying clear blue skies and about 70-75 degrees) Mike has found a new hobby - He is now interested in “Off roading” By the picture above, you can notice that I’m still not too sure of this new adventure. We are taking the Tahoe out every Wednesday with a group from our resort. We head out into the desert and have seen some interesting canyons, vistas, old mines, beautiful cactus, a lot of rocks and a fair amount of dust.

December 2006

December 9-12, 2006

We flew to Portland to celebrate Ben’s 4th birthday and our family Christmas. Stayed with Brandon & Karen and had a great time. Spent our “Christmas” at Marc and Maria’s along with Brandon & Karen and all the grandkids.

November 2006

October 27-November 5, 2006 Houston, TX

What a great week in Houston. We went to the San Jacinto monument (The battlefield where Texas won their independence from Mexico)
We met up with Tom and Linda West. Mike and Tom played golf everyday for 6 days. Linda and Janet went to the week long Houston Quilt show. Awesome time!

Nov 5, 2006

Thanksgiving Outdoor Resorts, Indio, CAIt feels great to be “home” We just love it here. The resort looks wonderful. So many flowers in bloom, trees are trimmed, streets are clean. This is a true oasis in the desert. We have it all here. The nice warm weather of the desert and the beautiful green manicured surroundings that are everywhere.

Thanksgiving 2006

Marc, Maria, Camryn and Colby are here! Also Chuck and Eva are here. We had a great time with everyone. Maria, Eva, Camryn, Colby and I spent a fun day at the “Living Desert”

October 2006

Visited with Mike’s cousin who owns a 320 acre alfalfa farm in Norton Kansas.

Through county records, we found Janet’s grandparent’s marriage certificate and their first home in Phillipsburg Kansas

October 7th – Dodge City Spent an afternoon touring the Front Street and Boot Hill museums. Great memorabilia from the days of Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp and countless “Wild West” bad guys.

October 8th Oklahoma City

The memorial to those who died, those who survived and the rescuers from the 1995 Federal Building bombing is incredibly moving. It is a beautiful and sacred place. I am so impressed with the spirit of community in Oklahoma City.

10-12, 2006 Fredericksburg, TX

Fredericksburg is located in the “Hill Country” of Texas. While here, we toured the historic town, the Admiral Nimitz museum, the Lyndon Johnson homestead, the Lady Bird Johnson park, a turn of the century working farm and we went to Luckenbach Texas (the tiny, one horse town frequented by Willie Nelson)

October 13-16, 2006 Austin, TX

Austin is a beautiful town. We took a tour of the town, the historic old town, the new awesome beautiful part of town, the inside and the grounds of the State capitol and we spent an entire day at the Bob Bullock Texas History Museum.

October 17-20, 2006 San Antonio, TX

In San Antonio we toured the Alamo, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, 5 of the missions in and around town, a boat tour of the “River Walk” (which we liked so much that we walked the River Walk also.)

October 21-23 Galveston, TX
Galveston is an island south of Houston. The weather is beautiful but very windy. In Galveston, we met Mike’s cousin and his wife for a great seafood lunch and they showed us some neat places in town.
We also toured the Houston Space Center (pretty incredible)

October 24-26 Beaumont, TX

We spent several days is Beaumont. Mike’s cousin lives in Bridge City Texas and was a fabulous host, showing us the sites. We drove over across the border into Louisana to see some of the devestation still left from hurricane Rita (over a year ago). There are still many houses with blue tarps for roofs, many FEMA trailers, an entire beach community washed off it’s foundations.