March 2010

March is over!  This glorious month is already over.  I don’t like seeing these days speeding by so fast.

Our resort had a fund raiser for the American Cancer Society with the money going to research.  We raised $18,000 dollars in just one day.  We had luminaries and mine for my brother, David, was among them.

In March, we had a great Italian dinner and yours truly was one of
the servers……..a lot of fun!

Kathy Ross hosted a lovely luncheon for our dear friend Sharon Leonard.  We all had a great time together….a wonderful afternoon.

Mike continues to love his off-roading.  On this trip, they found a lost mine.  The sign says “Keep Out”…..makes it all the more interesting.

The flowers were beautiful when the desert came into bloom.  The blooms don’t last too long but they are gorgeous for a few days.  The desert was alive with purple, white and bright yellow.

Another quilt this month, not exactly my favorite but I was able to practice my machine quilting and I was very proud of the way my machine handled.  It was lots of fun!

February 2010

We’ve had a great month…..great weather and lots of fun!

We had a “Golf Cart Tailgate Party” to celebrate the Super Bowl. Mike was rooting for the New Orleans Saints and I was rooting for the Colts – so we decorated out golf cart half and half! After the tailgate party, we went into the clubhouse and had a really fun Super Bowl Party!

Mike and his buddies road the 55 mile Tour de Palm Springs. The white signs on their water bags said

“In Memory of our Friend Ron Hoffman”

They stopped just long enough for me to snap this picture.

Stoli is really slowing down and he is sweeter than ever. He is almost 14 ½ now.
He loves this warm desert weather – and he loves golf cart rides more than ever!

(He loves his Aunt Patty too!)

We had a Mardi Gras Golf Cart Parade…Lots of fun, candy and beads thrown!

Afterward we had a Mardi Gras Dinner Dance.

I made a quilt for Pat and I was pleased at how it turned out.

She is so happy and that makes it all worthwhile!

I was lucky enough to take a bus trip to Hollywood and spent the day at several tapings

of the Dr. Phil show. The girls had such a fun day and really enjoyed the show.

February has been a great month – the resort is full and we have such
a wonderful Activities Director who keeps us busy.

January 2010

We had an exciting January…hope yours was great too!  We went on a cruise aboard Carnival’s Spirit ship. What a blast!  Mike sister, Pat and his brother and his wife, Chuck and Eva and also great friends from Bend, Tom and Vanessa were all on the ship.  We left San Diego and headed south.

First stop 3 days later was Acapulco. A massive town of over 2 million people.

We couldn’t miss the cliff divers. Amazing. They dive from 185 feet into a very narrow channel of ocean water.

The Acapulco harbor is beautiful.

Next stop was Zihautanejo and Ixtapa.   Zihautanejo is a beautiful small town (about 120,000 people) with a wonderful charm. Ixtapa (only 7 miles away) is a resort town…..beautiful beaches.

We did some shopping in an area with clean streets and friendly people.

Our final port was Manzanillo..(my favorite!)    A beautiful clean town where life seemed to be simple.

We went on a tour out into the banana plantations….a tremendous amount of work. I think of those workers every time I buy a banana! Our cruise was 8 days….the remainder of the cruise we spent on the ship. We had a wonderful time!

I was lucky to be able to go to the “Road to California” Quilt show over in Ontario, California. It was fantastic. I’m still quilting but I don’t have the talent to make the amazing quilts displayed. Wow!

December 2009

Can you believe it? December and 2009 are over already?
We started out the month at the Indio Tamale Festival. We had a great time and ate enough tamales to last for a year.

We set out December 18th for a road trip to the Portland area for Christmas. Pat went with us and we dropped her off in Sacramento at her son’s for Christmas then picked her up on our return trip. Stoli went with us too - I was glad that we didn’t have to leave him at the kennel.

While in Portland we got to see Santa. I’m quite sure that he was pretty busy talking to kids and checking out their lists. Camryn and Colby got to sit on his lap.

We also got to spend time with Ben and Anna….The kids are growing so much!

Ben is really in to Lego’s and he is quite amazing how well he can put them together.

The time with the grandkids was fantastic. They always have so much fun together.
We all went to a Portland Trailblazer Basketball game on Christmas day. They won! What a fun evening.

The Fox girls at Christmas!

We love our sons and we love our daughters-in-law. We are so proud of all of them and the wonderful lives they have created. What a great Christmas!

We end December back in our home on wheels in Indio. We love it here! A New Years Eve Party will help us send off 2009 and usher in 2010. Our best wishes to you all in the coming year….
HAPPY NEW YEAR!

November 2009

November is already over and Christmas 2009 is almost on us. Where does the time go?

Mike and his off-roading buddies have already spent the night out camping somewhere in the desert twice! They take their tents, stoves, food and of course their jeeps.

Mid-November, we took the motorhome to Kingman, Arizona for a Jeep rally. There were 160 people, lots of off-roading trails and great fun. We all spent Thanksgiving together and had a wonderful dinner.

The off-roading trails took us to many areas in Kingman. We explored several old abandoned mines with some interesting equipment in them.

One trail took us to a little town named Chloride, we found some amazing paintings on the nearby rocks. These paintings were about 40 feet high. They were painted in the 1960’s by a fella living in a nearby cave. Local people brought him paint and he created beauty on the rocks.

Mike led two trails at the rally. The final trail was called Moss Wash. It was a difficult trail but it had some by passes so it was a good trail for everyone. The Gold King Mansion built in 1929 was very close to the Gold King Mine. We try to take in the history on the trails.

As November closes, we are back in Indio California.
We wish all of our family and friends a peaceful, happy and joyous Merry Christmas

October 2009

October finds us in the midst of the beautiful palm trees gently swaying in the breezes……Yes – We are back at Outdoor Resort in Indio, California. Mike, Pat and I left Sunriver September 29th, made an overnight stop in Susanville, CA and spent two nights in Reno, NV. Mike’s brother and sister-in-law (Chuck and Eva) and Pat’s son and his wife (Rob and Serena) drove over from Sacramento for a brief visit. One more stop in Lone Pine, CA and the next day we were here!!

The sunrises are gorgeous and the days have been in the high 80’s and the low 90’s each day.

Just out our back door are beautiful palm trees………and sun. Lots of SUN!

Mike has jumped into his off roading already. Just a few fellas here this early but they love every minute of checking out the trails.

Mike and two of his buddies went out for an overnight trip. One day of “Jeepin” and one day of hiking. He was in 7th heaven.

We ended October with my 62nd birthday! A wonderful day, a
great birthday and a yummy dinner out!! What more can an old gal ask for?

September 2009

Early in September, we took the motorhome up to Portland. We spent Labor Day weekend with Marc, Maria, Camryn and Colby. What a great time. We went to an Oregon State Football game in Corvallis. Oregon State creamed Portland State and we had a wonderful time.

The stadium was filled with Orange and Black and the crowd was rev’d to the max!

This was my first college football game and I LOVED IT!! (Besides – OSU won!)

Following the Labor Day weekend, we traveled up to Vancouver, WA where we spent a few weeks with Brandon, Karen, Ben & Anna. We watched the kids while Brandon and Karen worked……….we had so much fun!

We took Pat for a weekend and drove up to Tacoma to spend time with our dear friends, Joe and Lynn Lewellen. We ate, visited, ate, had a massage, went out to dinner and had so much fun playing with their 4 week old springer spaniels…….adorable little balls of fur!

Back in Sunriver again….with a visit from Pat’s sister-in-law, her niece, Ron’s cousin and darling little Madison.

OK – now I’m ready to hit the road. I got my "short" haircut and

I’m looking forward to spending time in Indio. We leave tomorrow!