2014 ~ Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone ~

Our year has been a whirlwind….as I write this letter we have just arrived at our winter home in what we call “Pebble Beach” California, near Yuma, Arizona.

Below is our year in pictures:

Last winter we were also in this area.  This picture shows our home on Pebble Beach.  The cargo trailer is used for transporting our car and ATV, and then converted to a card room for the season, complete with bulletin boards, paintings, and pictures of past years’ fun.

  

January ~ A hummingbird got inside the motor home.  I thought it was dead….but with a little persuasion, I was able to pick it up.  As soon as I got the hummingbird outside, it flew away, perfectly fine.

It was amazing to get to see the osprey flying overhead.

This was the first year for Patti and John from Oregon to join us as “snowbirds”.  Picture shows John trying to get cacti out of Patti’s shoe.

Tammy managed to get Steve’s pickup stuck in the sand just in front of their camper.

Brother Dick and Cindy rented a house in the Phoenix area.  Tony and I visited for an overnight.  Picture shows Tony and Dick after a visit to the Total Wine and More store.  This is the biggest wine store we have ever seen.   

Mom had given Tony a pistol before we left.  Tony is seen here shooting the gun after safety lessons from all the guys in camp (Vern is looking on).

We had fun lighting luminaires in the desert to see how far they would go.   

February

Snapped a picture of Larry doing some RV repair. 

One of our many trips to Yuma we stopped at the 1907 Baldwin locomotive in Yuma (Vern, Larry, Tony).

Another outing was to watch sky divers.  Caught these Tandem sky divers at the display at the Center of the World, Felicity, California, as they had their unveiling of US history etched in stone. 

We also went to the US Marine Corp Air Station and Army Proving Ground where young soldiers/marines are taught air to ground aviation. 

Tony and I chose to go to an evening called Dining with the Dead at the Yuma cemetery.  Learned a lot of history about the area through people dressed in period costume, sharing stories of the person in the grave where they stood. The advertisement describes this as "The annual walking tour will be at the Yuma Pioneer Cemetery, and will feature dinner with Colorado River Riders re-enactment group portraying early citizens of Yuma. Dinner catered and served by Texas Roadhouse.”

This is a picture of one of our lunches in Los Algodones, Mexico.

One of the reasons we like this area ~ the sunsets.

We toured the Imperial Date farms. 

Cally came down from Phoenix, Arizona for a long week-end.  I didn’t get a snapshot as she rolled the ATV with me as a passenger, but no harm was done to either of us or the ATV, although we didn’t bother telling Tony about the incident until Cally went back home. 

March

Picture shows Judi and I at Yuma Lettuce Days festival.  Judi and Ray came down from Seattle, Washington, for nearly a week.

We also went together to a big car show.

While eating at our favorite outdoor restaurant in Mexico we saw this huge turtle.

I have never done this before ~ given a haircut to Judi at their motel.

I always manage to gamble at the Quechan Casino and Resort once a year on my birthday and eat a “butter burger” at one of their restaurants.  Picture is of Ray and I on my 71^st birthday. 

April

We left Pebble Beach early this year.  Mom was having major health issues.  In mid April, almost all family members came to Idaho to visit Mom.  Within a week everyone returned for Mom’s funeral on May 1^st.

In Mom’s memory, we now have her rhythm clock in our home and now, as we travel, in the motor home.  

May

This picture shows a big smile sported by Casey when he bought Grandpa Ken’s
300M (one I had driven for ten years). 

Larry and Darlene from Oregon visited in Moscow for a few days.  We hosted a Washington State University graduation party for Avery (daughter of Suzy who used to work for me at Daylight Donuts back in the 1970’s).

In late May, we headed towards Colorado for niece Brit and Mark’s wedding to be held in Estes Park.  We spent the first week-end eighty miles away in Cheney, Washington with Bill and Janet and attended the Fairchild Air Base Skyfest.     

June

We managed to run into one of the two poles when trying to go into a yard in Colorado.  Finally after insurance claims and waiting for parts, we got everything repaired in time to leave for our cruise in November. 

There was a lot of "visiting relatives" when back in the Midwest.  Cousin Don and Verlene, brother Paul, and Uncle Leo.  Picture is our visit with Maxine and Jean (both 96 years old in this picture).  

After the wedding, we moved on to Nebraska and parked the motor home on cousin Judy and Larry’s ranch for nearly three weeks and radiated with the car from there to do our visiting.  Cousin Janice cooked dinner for the six of us (picture shows the “three cousins”  Sharon, Janice, and Judy). 

Judy and I went a few times to help friend Pat clean out her parent’s home ~ what a job she had but as you can see from the picture, it wasn’t all work.

A 1961 class mate lunch was scheduled in Scottsbluff, Nebraska (not everyone shown in picture that was there)

Every Friday afternoon Judy goes to “Wine (Whine) Therapy” at the Newberry’s.   Picture is of Pat and I at one of the wine therapy sessions.  

We were fed extremely well (mostly steaks) while in Nebraska.  There was a BBQ at Cory and Sherry’s, father’s day BBQ at Jared and Melanie’s; trip to Torrington, Wyoming with Judy and Larry to see Brit and Mark (the newlyweds), and learn about Mark’s sod farm business (Judy, Larry, Mark, and Tony).

….as well as dinner in Alliance with Cheryl and Todd.

On our way home, we went back to Torrington.  Jim and Kathie were there also.  We all took a day trip to Fort Laramie, Wyoming.  

July

Scott stopped by for an overnight stay with his huge moving truck.  I drove to Seattle to see Kenny and pick up Kierra to spend a couple of weeks with us in Moscow.  We went to Orofino in the motor  home (Caily, Kierra and Cody) to watch Cody play in a baseball tournament.  We gave the kids an educational tour by visiting Dworshak Dam.

Caily and I drove Kierra back home to Seattle and spent the night at Ray and Judi’s.  Picture is of Caily and Kierra at a wedding in Seattle.

Dennis and Jeanna at the same wedding.

Cally flew home from Phoenix for her 25^th birthday  the end of July.

August

We went up to Bill and Janet’s for a week-end, to attend Tom’s (nephew) open house, Fenwyr Cellars.

Later in the month, I had a garage sale at Mom’s house.  Paul stopped by on his way back to Denver from Portland.  Caily and her friend, Ellie, helped with the garage sale.  We took a few days to go to LaGrande to visit Darlene and Larry. Vern was there also.

September

Over Labor Day week-end we went to Dick and Cindy’s in Riverton, Wyoming for the long week-end.  Jim and Kathie were also there.  Then we went down to spend one night with Jim and Kathie in Green River, Wyoming.

We saw lots of games that the kids played in (Cody, baseball and football), (Caily, volleyball).  Unfortunately, Cody didn’t play much football after he broke his arm early in the season. 

October

We went again to Bill and Janet’s for a week-end to look at mini motorhomes.  We finally found what we wanted in Portland, Oregon, and drove there to pick it up (we named the small motorhome Minnie Winnie). 

We attended the University of Idaho’s Homecoming parade. 

More fun at the annual carving of the pumpkins and eating chili at Dennis and Jeanna’s home.

In between all the activities, Tony managed to finish his steam engine ~ pretty impressive.

November

We took care of Caily and Cody for a week while Jeanna and Dennis went to St. Thomas. 

Next we took off in Minnie Winnie to Potlatch, Harvard, Coeur d’Alene, and again to Cheney.

Picture is of Tony and Janet enjoying some unusual ginger wine given to Tony by Jayne, a UK girl we met in Coeur d'Alene.  (transplanted to USA).

In mid November we left for Willits, California to meet Dan and Jeanne for our Hawaii cruise with Princess Cruise lines.  This was our first cruise and we loved it.  Below are a few pictures of just a little bit of the fun we had.

One of the “dress for dinner” evenings on the ship

By the Banyon tree on Maui island

Touring the Mighty Missouri in Honolulu 

We also went to the USS Arizona Memorial which was very impressive.  A copy of the infamous statute at the end of WW11 located at the USS Missouri 

Huge fish in a pond at a motel by the beach on island of Kaua’i

A little fun on the roulette table on the ship

Comedian Derrick Cameron, on ship, one of the many nightly entertainment shows we attended

December

As soon as we got off the cruise we were notified that Uncle Jean passed away.  We took our car and drove 22 hours straight to get back to Alliance, Nebraska for the funeral (we were lucky ~ the weather was kind to us).  It was good to see every one of the relatives and friends that attended Jean’s funeral.  Picture shows three bricks on top of Jean’s casket (Jean spent his life as an independent brick layer).

On our return trip the weather wasn’t quite so good on Interstate 80 on our way to Green River, Wyoming, but at least the road hadn’t been closed as it so often is.  Jim and Kathie put us up for the night, and then we made it back to our motor home in California.  

After spending a couple of days in California we headed to our winter home at Pebble Beach, California in the motor home.  As Christmas is approaching, we find ourselves in a very relaxed mood after our rather difficult year.  

We are extremely grateful for all our friends and family in the USA and UK.  Our hope is that we will be able to travel to UK in 2015 and attend a nephew’s wedding in Iowa.  We welcome anyone who would like to visit in Moscow or in our “snowbird” location during the winter months.

We hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.