July 2017

What a great month!

July started with a visit to Central Oregon
by Brandon, Karen and family.

We took a hike up to Paulina Falls.

Brandon, Karen, Anna, Ben and Ben’s friend, Andrew.

Little Miss Anna appears to have an attitude.  :)

Kayaking on the Deschutes….  What a beautiful day.

We went to the annual 4^th of July Pet Parade in Bend.

What fun!

Mike and I traveled to Puerto Vallarta to celebrate our 50^th Anniversary.

50 Years……. We’re not getting old are we?

We stayed at Vallarta Torre. 
A small wonderful resort right on the beach.

On July 8^th (our anniversary) we enjoyed a wonderful dinner on the beach

We took a bus up to Lo De Marcos (a small town about an hour up the
coast from Puerto Vallarta)  The beach was empty and very beautiful. 
A totally Mexican town.  I loved it.

The second week of our stay, Pat and Rollie joined us in Vallarta.

We enjoyed having them there to see the sights with us.

We took a tour up into the mountains to visit a little
Mexican town that time seems to have forgotten. 
This beautiful church was the centerpiece of the town.

Another tour took us to an evening show and dinner
at Las Caletas…  Unfortunately it rained and we were drenched.

We took a Snorkeling trip and had a fabulous day.
Mike tried his hand at paddle boarding.

Dinner at a great Mexican restaurant….  Pepe’s!

I would recommend it to everyone visiting this great city.

This guy was kind of ugly but fascinating to see on the lawn.

Beautiful sunsets. 
We loved Puerto Vallarta and can’t wait to go back again.

We have packed all of our possessions and have moved  off our lot in Sunriver. 
It has been a great summer spot for many years…… but now we are moving
on to new adventures.

Linda Skov (Karen’s mom) treated me to an amazing evening
at the Moda Center in Portland to see Neil Diamond.
He was amazing!

He did look older (he’s 76) but his voice was phenomenal!
He sounded like he was 25 !!!

What a wonderful evening!

June 2017

June – Summer’s here!

They had a tough winter here but my Iris survived just fine!

We went up to Vancouver then to Sherwood….

Anna’s 12^th birthday was fun!  She had three parties. 

One with her gymnastics friends,

one with her school friends and a family dinner too!

While in Vancouver, we went with Brandon, Karen, Ben and Anna

to the “Run Like a Girl” 5K run. 

Brandon even wore a little skirt. 

Isn’t he cute?

Everyone had fun!

Next down to Sherwood where we went to Colby’s baseball game

and had some family time with Marc, Maria, Camryn and Colby.

When we returned to Sunriver, Mike and I talked about how we would like to spend more time traveling and more time with the kids……… but we felt that the Sunriver lot was tying us down.   Now I must say that the lot next door to us took about 8 years to sell…… so knowing that, we put an ad on Craigs List and thought “if it sells great, but if it doesn’t that’s OK too”

The next morning we got a call from a great couple just starting out on their fulltiming adventure….. They drove about 2 ½ hours to see the lot…..and….
they bought it!

Now – we need to make some summer plans.

There are many things about this lot that we will miss…

It’s very quiet… the stars at night are beautiful. 
After owning the lot for 18 years, we feel it is complete.

But we are moving on to another adventure.

Fire pit….. right on the water.

I’m sure we will miss many things.

Mike. Marc and Brandon and both grandsons made their annual
camping trip to Trillium Lake (near Mt. Hood) 
This year, they invited Camryn and Anna too. 
What fun – they had perfect weather and everyone had an awesome time.

Here’s the troop…… don’t they look like

they are having so much fun!

We finished out the month cleaning out our two storage sheds.

Pairing down on many things and getting ready for our move next month.

Stay tuned!

May 2017

May started out with a major windstorm!
At ORI, we lost 4 giant palm trees but

Fortunately we had no damage on our lot.

The next day, the sun came out and life was beautiful again.

For Mother’s Day weekend, we were invited up to Idyllwild
(in the mountains where the weather is so much cooler…. 100 degrees in the desert,

69 in Idyllwild)  We had a great weekend with Stan and Shelley.  So much fun!

May 17^th….our day to leave Indio and head north.  We traveled with friends, Tom
and another Janet.  ( I love her name!)  We spent the first night of our trip
at a County Park in Lone Pine California.  What an incredible view!

We traveled along Highway 395 and the Sierra Nevada
mountain range.  The snow on the mountains was

spectacular.

Second night was in Reno.  We arrived in time for a car show.

We both loved the Marine Corps truck!

Reno has a new baseball stadium…just a few blocks
from the main part of town.  It was built for
Reno’s 3A team, the Reno Aces.

My nephew, Brett Gundle, and his girlfriend Bridget

took us to a great Mexican dinner. 

I really enjoyed spending time with both of them.

Also while in Reno, we drove up to Truckee where we met our friends,

John and Sharon from Rocklin.  We enjoyed lunch and time to
catch up.

Finally back to our Sunriver property.  The deer were
waiting to give us a welcome home.

We ended the month on a great note!  Marc, Maria and family
came to Sunriver for Colby’s baseball tournament.

Two games, Saturday…Two games Sunday…..and two games Monday.
The weather was fabulous and the boys did quite well.

I love baseball and watching Colby play was a treat.

April 2017

April started out on a great note……

On our April Topless Run, We visited the Old Mission Inn
located in Riverside, CA.  It was gorgeous!

What a beautiful place, We took a tour.
It was outstanding.

The architecture at the Old Mission Inn
was very eclectic.

For John Kearsing’s birthday, we drove up in
the mountains to Idyllwild
for a great lunch.

We took a drive in the convertible up to
Pat’s (Mike’s sister) in Golden Valley, AZ.

Mike’s brother Chuck and his wife Eva, Tom and Vanessa
as well as Mike and I, all stayed at Pat’s for 3 nights.

We took a “Razor” trip out in the wild…found this
great lunch spot.

Wild Burro’s.  There must have been 15 – 20 of them
on the Razor trip.

While driving from Pat’s in Golden Valley to Chuck’s in Lake Havasu.
We were rear ended by a big rig truck.

My sweet little mustang – I think it is totaled.

We are sore and stiff but Thank God,
we are alive and kicking.

While spending time with Chuck and Eva,
we visited the London Bridge.

Stopped by the Flying X for a drink.

The crowd – in Havasu – Great group !

We must have been running on adrenaline.

I got a puncture would on my elbow during the accident.
Evidently, air got into my forearm.
I spent the night in the Lake Havasu hospital while
they gave me antibiotics and watched the air in my arm.

Mike is having a sore neck and his arms are stiff.
We are now back in Indio moving a little slower.

Here's hoping May will be a better month.

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?