March 2017

 Spring is definitely here!

Baseball – the spring flowers
and beautiful weather….

We took 5 days and went over to Spring Baseball Training
in Phoenix….. the Cactus League.

Four great games at three different fields.

These are very professional fields – just on a smaller scale.
Professional baseball teams up close.

These are the three couples that went with us.

We had so much fun.

We took a drive down to Borrego Springs
just to see the wild flowers. 
This field is normally totally brown.  This year is a Super Bloom!

Mike’s cousin from Colorado just happened to be in town
and went with us on our day trip.

The ocotillos are all green but no blooms at this time.

Our Topless (convertible) group drove to
Whitewater Preserve.  What a neat place.
This is Desert X – individual art projects located
throughout the desert.

At Whitewater Preserve, the flowers were also in bloom,
like sunshine all over the hills.

Later in the month, we went on the most beautiful
Jeep run.  There was a small amount of hill climbing.
Mike leads these trails and we were on the top waiting for the rest to come up.

Now later in the month, the flowers were over the top…
and the ocotillos were all in bloom.

The flowers were lining our trail.

An incredible sight!
Right along the Jeep trail Mike spotted two
Desert Tortoises.  It is very rare to see any of these beautiful
fellas- they are rare.

We finished the month with our “End of the Year Party”
Great food, wonderful friends, outstanding entertainment -
an awesome evening!

Here in Outdoor Resorts, the cactus are in bloom
and the weather is fantastic.

Or we could be on our lot in Sunriver.

Let me think, should we stay here or head north?

February 2017

 We’ve had a busy month!

Cooler weather shows up in snow on the hills
surrounding the Coachella Valley

Mike’s 70^th birthday!

We celebrated with friends Mike & Carol Dutra

Mike Dutra’s 70 birthday was just a day before my Mikes.

We drove over to Temecula and went on a “Beer Tasting Tour”

It was really fun – party bus and all!

We spent the night in Temecula – then back home.

Our “Topless Club” took a very interesting trip
over to March Air Force Base near Riverside. 
Our docent was in his 90’s and just as sharp as a tack. 
Great tour!

We took five days and traveled over to Las Vegas.
Mike’s brother and his wife met us there.
This picture is of the Fremont Experience. 
A beautiful light show.

While in Las Vegas, we met up with Brandon, Karen, Ben & Anna.
They were in Las Vegas for a gymnastics tournament.

3,500 girls all competing….each girl competes with others in her
gymnastics level and also in her age group.

Anna is a level 7 and she is 11 years old.

Of course the guys had to check out this NASCAR.

Pat & Rollie took  time from their home remodel
to come over to Las Vegas to watch Anna’s competition.

Anna was amazing.  This is one of her jumps while
on the beam .....she does flips on the beam too!

What a champ!  Anna got second with her floor exercise,
fourth on the beam and fifth overall.
Her team from Vancouver also got first!

Check out all those medals Anna has!

The Bellagio fountains were beautiful!

It was so great seeing the kids!

Mike had some surgery on his hand. 
He had two trigger fingers and a trigger thumb repaired. 
Everything is working great now.  

Later in the month, we had our “Topless Overnighter”
This year, Mike & I along with John & Sharon O’Connor

were the hosts.  We all had so much fun!
We spent our first night in Laughlin, Nevada.

We drove over to Oatman, AZ… a little western town.

In Oatman, the wild burro’s walk the streets
looking for food.  They aren’t afraid at all of the people.

We spent our second night at the Blue Water Casino in Parker.

We had a ladies luncheon at Desert Willow.

It was so much fun.  We had a total of 15 gals and a great lunch!

January 2017

We started out with a rainy January – Ugh!

We rarely see rainbows in the desert.
On a “Topless” trip up toward Anza we
ran into this beautiful Rainbow.

In Borrego Springs we saw some of the
unusual sculptures.

It was a beautiful day on one of our Jeep runs.

Red Canyon – One of my favorite off roading runs.

This beautiful Egret was enjoying the sun
right near our backyard.

Wow ! – what a gorgeous day.

The pickleball group’s January party
was a sports theme. 
A great party!

Marc, Brandon and their buddies came to Palm Springs
this year instead of Bandon for their yearly golf trip

They rented a gorgeous house and I enjoyed the hot tub
while they were out on the links one day 

The fellas enjoyed great weather for their
golf adventures.  So great to see the boys!

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.