May 2012

At the beginning of the month, we left our Winter home in Indio and headed north to Moab Utah for a Jeeping rally.  We spent two weeks in Moab and as usual, the area was gorgeous.  The rally was a huge success with dinners, trails and lots of together time.

This is a view on my favorite trail……this is "Hidden Canyon."  So gorgeous!

On the "Seven Mile Rim" trail, we came across Uranium Arch…….
one of hundreds in the Moab area.

This is Mike climbing up slick rock on the "Fins and Things" trail

The view from another one of my favorites is awesome.  The canyons are thousands 
of feet below this lookout on the "Top of the World" trail.

After we left Moab, we traveled south to St. George Utah.  Some of our very dear friends have set up housekeeping in a retirement community in St. George.  Everything you can imagine is within a few miles of their home.  We really enjoyed spending time with Denny & Kay and getting a taste of their town. 

Next stop was our summer home in Sunriver Oregon.  

Five days after we arrived, we awoke to SNOW!! Now we were in Sunriver last Christmas and there wasn’t a single flake of snow……… But honestly, it’s almost JUNE!  What’s the deal?

Both Mike and I were in desperate need of a grandkid fix!  So 6 days after arriving in Sunriver, we headed to the Portland area to see the kids and grandkids.

Five days with Marc and Maria and we were able to take in five baseball games of Colby’s! 
Colby is just finishing up the third grade.  He has grown so much. 
We really enjoyed watching him play.

Colby’s team took second place in the tournament over the weekend!

Camryn is just finishing the 6^th grade.  She is taller than her Grandma and so very grown up!  Camryn is going to play soccer this year and we were able to see one of her practices.

We also were happy to have a great visit with our friends Ken and Darlene Sutton.  They brought us up to speed on the changes in their lives. No matter how hard we try to stop it – time is marching on.......

Stay tuned – June is shaping up to be an exciting month!

April 2012

Spring is here and it’s incredibly beautiful here in the desert. 

I love this place!!

We had an “End of the year – Going away Jeeping party”  All of the off roading people got together for a potluck dinner before everyone took off for the summer.  
Lots of fun with some great people.

The ducks are loving this warm weather. 
All sorts of little baby ducks in the ponds.  Mama Duck is watching closely.
They are terribly sweet!

Mike rides his bike 4-5 days a week …… but April wasn’t so good to him. 
In a contest between Mike and the pavement ……. The pavement won. 
He got pretty banged up but has healed up beautifully by now.

It’s been pretty warm …….One day our car temperature gauge showed 109 degrees!

Yikes!!
Just a few blocks from us, there are some huge gatherings of people coming to the desert for music festivals.  Cochellafest (2 weekends) and Stagecoach.  They have about 50 thousand people each weekend.  It's something else!! We can hear the music in the evenings!

With this warm weather – the pools are pretty attractive.  Outdoor Resorts remains beautiful!  Did I mention that I love it here?

We will be leaving here very soon and heading up north. 
Stay tuned for an exciting June!

March 2012

March has come and gone …………. Where oh where does all the time go?

2012 was Outdoor Resorts 4^th Annual “Sunshine Event” – A two to three day series of events (everything you can think of) to raise money for the Cancer Society.  This year, we raised $41,300 – Unbelievable!  This is a fella selling Tequila shots!

In the evening, all of the luminaries were lit and placed around the swimming pool.  It was very solemn and gave us all time to reflect on the wonderful people with cancer
who have touched our lives.

The colors in March are fantastic. 
This is a picture of the back of our lot.  

My nephew, Scott married his sweetie this month. 
Don’t they look happy?

We drove over to Lake Havasu for three days to visit friends that spend the winter there.  This is a picture of the famous “London Bridge” – every brick numbered, the bridge taken apart – transported to Havasu and reassembled. 
We had a great time with our friends.

The last week of the month, we took the motorhome over to Apache Junction (about an hour east of Phoenix) for a Jeeping Rally.  100 motorhomes – 100 Jeeps – about 200 people.  The Jeepin’ people are all wonderful ….. we have made so many friends among them. 

Apache Junction is in the Sonoran Desert – the elevation is about 2000 feet. There thousands and thousands of Saguaro Cacti located here. They are everywhere…… most of them are huge – approx. 30 feet tall.  They are beautiful.

The rally has plenty of time to socialize too. 
This was taken at one of our dinners.

The desert here is beautiful. 
This is a Stag Horn Cactus in bloom.

The Gila River  …… water is an unusual sight in the desert.

The Hedge Hog Cactus are all blooming their beautiful magenta blooms. 
There is quite a bit of color in the desert.

February 2012

February 2^nd was Mike’s 65^th Birthday and Marc and Brandon took
Mike to Las Vegas to celebrate.

According to Mike, a good time was had by all!!

We had a great Super Bowl at the resort.  Tailgating on the back of
our golf carts …….. hot dogs and beer ……. And, of course,
we watched the game too!

Mike and some of his buddies went to “The King of the Hammers” off roading race. 
They camped out for 2 nights and spent the days with 75,000 other
enthusiasts watching the races.

Pat and I ride our bikes 10 – 20 miles around 4 days a week …… We decided that we should ride our bikes to Palm Springs (25 miles) and get a ride back home.  We rode the 25 miles and were very proud of ourselves to pose in front of our favorite deli ….. Shermans.  Mike, his brother Chuck and Chuck’s wife, Eva met us.  We all had a fabulous lunch and then Mike drove us home!

We had a great visit from Mike’s cousin Gloria and her fella Len. 
It was fun to have some time to catch up. 
We hadn’t seen Gloria in quite some time.

One day, while off-roading in the middle of nowhere, we came across this wonderful vacation home.  No roof, windows, doors, water, electricity or bathroom but we got a kick out of the “For Sale” sign.  This house was about 15 miles down a trail from the nearest paved road.

The annual “Bethlehem” street party was a great success.  Hundreds of people all
bring potluck dishes …… they have live music and plenty of drinks.  Lots of fun!!

We had a sell out crowd for our Italian Feast.  The food was fabulous and everyone
was stuffed when they left.  We had a great night!

We end February on a good note. 
The month was wonderful. 
Great weather and great friends.

January 2012

We ended 2011 and started off 2012 with a great New Years Eve Party at our clubhouse at Outdoor Resorts.  The theme was Roaring 20’s and it was so much fun!

Mike continues to love off-roading in his Jeep and the crowd of off-roaders continues to increase.  On this trip, there were 24 Jeeps.  Around noon on the trip, we all stop along the trail, get out our chairs and enjoy lunch. 
It’s a great time to meet new folks.

Janet continues to love Tuesday’s ……… We call our sewing day - Thread Therapy – a great time to quilt and talk with all the gals. 
We share ideas, techniques and stories.  So much fun!

January has been a beautiful month….. a little windy but mostly beautiful.

This is the tee box of the 14^th hole …….. just a few feet from our patio.  There is quite a bit of water on our golf course!

Mike flew up to Portland, then rode with our son’s to Bandon Oregon where they met up with other fella’s for their annual golf weekend.  It is hard to imagine that the weather could be so nice on the Oregon coast in January……. But this picture shows it to be true.  He had a great time!!

December 2011

The end of the 2011 is upon us …….

We’ve already been off roading.  This was from a trip to Jullian (east of San Diego) 
Jullian is well known for their homemade cherry and apple pies. 
On this trip we all had lunch and of course …… pie!   YUM!

Outdoor Resorts is beautiful …… even at night!  It’s nice to be at “home”

December is the annual Tamale Festival in Indio. 
We love to sample all of the wonderful tamales!

Brandon and Karen have lost their Jack.  I have made a quilt
so they won’t ever forget him.

It’s been a year since we lost Stoli …. And I still miss him so much.
This is my Stoli quilt…. I know I’ll never forget him ….. ever.

Check out the sign ….. “Welcome Home”

We drove up to Sunriver this year for Christmas.  Marc, Maria, Brandon, Karen, Mike and I rented a house in and all met there for the holiday.  We had so much fun.  

We all went over to our lot (only about 5 miles away) and cut
down our Christmas Tree.  We made decorations and strung popcorn. 
It was a great tree…..sparse but great!

Christmas Eve, we drove up to Mt. Batchelor and all went tubing.  What fun! 
They even had a lift for the tubers ……  It was a great day!

Christmas Day was so much fun.  We loved spending time with the grandkids and
they really love spending time with each other too!
Notice the newest addition to our family ……Lucky (Brandon’s new pup)

The day after Christmas, the crew went ice skating…… that is
everyone except me.  I’m just not an ice skater!  I had fun taking pictures.

Here we are getting ready to enter into 2012 ……. Where is the time going?
We wish everyone a Happy and Blessed New Year.

November 2011

Our trip is winding down but not before a few great stops …..

In Paducah Kentucky, we went to the waterfront where there was a huge sea wall
that had been painted with the history of the town.
 It was a great tribute to Paducah.

Paducah is where the Ohio and Tennessee Rivers meet and at one time it was a
major shipping port.  We drove over the river and visited
Metropolis, Illinois, home of Superman.

The main reason we visited Paducah was to see the National Quilt Museum.  It was wonderful.  So many beautiful quilts, so much talent … makes me realize I have a long, long way to go.

Next stop, Nashville, Tennessee … home of country music.
We visited the Grand Ol’ Opry Hotel, the Grand Ol’ Opry Theater,
The Ryman Theater and we took a tour of the town.  

Part of our city wide tour was a visit to the Country Music Hall of Fame.  It was a
remarkable museum highlighting the history of country music.

One thing I learned ….. I thought the Grand Ol’ Opry was a building ….It’s not, it is a radio show.  We went to a recording of their show.  It’s live every weekend.  The night we were there, they recorded the Grand Ol’ Opry at the Ryman Theater.  

Moving along, we next stopped in Louisville, Kentucky.  We took a great tour of the Louisville Slugger factory.  It was very interesting and a lot of fun!

Churchill Downs was fantastic.  We toured the racetrack and the back side of the racetrack where the horses and their caretakers stay.  The Breeders Cup was happening while we were there and so the stables were full of beautiful horses.  We also went to several races as well as taking time to visit the Churchill Downs Museum.  One interesting point we learned.  Secretariat was an unbelievable horse.  He would run faster and faster the more time he was out on the track.  When he died, they autopsied his body and discovered that although most horses have a heart weighing about 7 pounds …….. Secretariat's heart weighed 20 pounds. 
He was amazing.

Next we traveled to St. Louis Missouri to see the Gateway Arch.  It was gigantic. 
630 Feet high and 630 feet from base to base.  We rode to the top
and also toured the museum underground.  

Branson Missouri – I love that place.  It is located in the Ozark mountains  (they are really hills but to those in the east, they are mountains)  We saw four shows ….. a tribute to John Denver, A tribute to Neil Diamond, Yakov Smirnoff and the Oakridge Boys.  It was so much fun!!

I just had to get this picture.  It was a the most unusual
overpass over the freeway.  Mc Donalds!

Now we are heading south and the scenery is becoming more what we are
used to.  Indio California is getting closer.

Back at Outdoor Resorts, we had a great
Thanksgiving dinner with our friends!

We went to the Palm Springs Follies and had an outstanding time. 
The guest was John Davidson and he had us in stitches!

On our summer trip, I finished hand quilting a motorcycle quilt for my nephew.

I also hand quilted this quilt …… it’s one of my favorites.

We end this month safe and sound – back from a once in a lifetime trip across this great country.  We have so many memories …… we had a fabulous time!
We want to wish a Merry Christmas to all of our dear friends. We hope the holidays
will be a memorable time for all of you.