Special days

Some Special Days

 

Second Son's birthday

I saw this truck and thought...'Wow, and they say Seattle drinks lots of coffee'.

A baptism in our ward!  Such a sweet young man!

What blessings we have enjoyed this year!

New Year's

Wishing all of you a Joyous New Year

 

 

 

 

Mesa Adventures

I guess I never really thought about it but somehow I expected that once retired, we would just automatically go off on adventures all the time.  Well....it seems there is more to it than that. 
Inertia is a real force and is still hard to overcome, even when there aren't a dozen pressing 'things-to-do' preventing some  fun activity.  One of the pair has to choose an activity....deciding was never my strong suit.  Someone has to get any equipment for said activity.  Someone has to be sure bishopy stuff isn't on the schedule.   Both must be ready to go at the same time.  (if he's not ready, I start something, then while he is waiting for me, he starts something. )  I know! so Tough!  We are learning how though....and we are succeeding!

On the mission,  any activities were done on P day.  That made it easier to plan.  Therefore, We have set aside Friday as our activity day..... barring some special event or problem.
You remember the canoeing activity?  That was one of our first!
Three weeks ago we went on a 'hike' with Goldie....part way up to the wind cave at Usery park.  It was so nice, quiet and calm, and the weather has cooled  to  perfection. We even brought a lunch!

I was tickled by the cloud 'caught' on the ocotillo.

Thanks to husband's preplanning (he borrowed a second bicycle from one of the kids)  we got to go cycling!  This was an unexpected delight.  We used Mesa's bicycling trail by the canal....no traffic, we could ride side by side and visit, and again the temperature was perfect.   It was thoroughly delightful.  In addition to the fun of the activity, I was pleasantly surprised that I didn't suffer from sore muscles afterward!

This is the only photo as both my hands were busy!

One week we took the light rail into Phoenix!  We wanted to check how long it takes to get to the airport!  It feels so cosmopolitan to take public transportation to the airport, though we did that in Europe all the time! Then we wandered around down town Phoenix for a while.  I think we needed a better focus for our visit.....next time!

 

Then last week I had a cold so the physical exertion type activity didn't appeal too much.  Instead, we went to an art fair in Fountain Hills.  We enjoyed looking at all the pretties, there is truly some gorgeous art being produced out there.  I am rather glad we own our little home though.  It's not even a temptation to buy anything.  I already have a hard time finding homes for the treasures I produce in ceramics class.

 

This past Friday we took another hike.  This time we went around Pass Mountain in Usery Park.  Rod had guessed it would take us 3 hours....Guess who is slow!  5 hours later we finished the hike.  It was gorgeous and the weather was perfect, but my knee, hip, and ...well the whole body, isn't really in shape for that long of  hike.  Still, I recovered pretty quickly and am glad I did it.  If I did that sort of thing more often, I don't think I would hurt as much.  Rod is trying to get in shape for a rim to rim hike of the Grand  Canyon early next year.  I will be driving   :)

 







Our desert is truly beautiful!

See the moon up there?

 I was very glad for my  hiking sticks!

I loved the many colors of lichen on the rocks.  That yellow kind forms a band around the whole mountain!  Sooo cool

 

I am so grateful for my sweet husband, for our beautiful world, for good health, our marvelous ward and all their love and support, and for my darling family.  I don't know how I have been so blessed but I am and will eternally be profoundly thankful to our Father in Heaven!

Fall Adventures

My cute kids wanted to take the grandkids to one of the farms and invited me to go along! Best of all, youngest daughter and our newest little one were here and got to come along!

I sure do enjoy my family!

Our youngest grandbaby, Penny

My girls!

Can we have one Pleeeese?

He had gone up all alone but couldn't quite get the courage to slide down till Aunt Alicia came to help!

I love how well our grandkids get along with each other.  They love their cousins!  We are soooo Blessed!

Adventures

 I had planned to post these a couple of weeks ago..... that's how it goes I guess.

 

While in Utah, we had a few other adventures...of the good kind.  We met up with various missionaries just to visit and snuck in a few just for fun things too.  After meeting with one missionary at BYU, we went to the art museum there.  I was so impressed with the display in the entry.  It is made of colored thread and is very simple but just beautiful. every angle changed it feel and the sky light above it added to the beauty.  If I had posted sooner, I might have remembered the name.

this view was from an upper floor

This was as we were leaving and I couldn't help notice the rainbow of kids as well as the art!

There were dome etchings by  Albrecht Durer, some Teichert, the paintings that used to be on a roll that depict church history ( another name I can't remember) and delightful modern stuff too.  I  thoroughly enjoyed the visit.

 

Also, we went up Provo canyon, drove up past Sundance, and even walked a little up at the top.



 

 The vistas were Amazing!!!

This water fall had a lovely Indian legend about lost love.

We watched conference at the Deere's on TV.... honestly, I like it better that way.  Rod did go to the Priesthood session with his nephews...the Stones.  I shopped and hung around the town center.

I liked this water feature



I found some nice tops during my shopping.  I had thought to browse in Deseret Book but NOOOO Way!  It was cram packed with women!  Impossible!  We all went to dinner afterwards at a Brazilian barbeque.  We had a good time with them.

 

On the drive home we encountered this beautiful rain storm.  I love the rain!

SLC and the Reunion

Did you know that Salt Lake City has Coool weather right now?  We actually got to experience it too!  We decided to 'go to conference' which is interpreted as ....we drove up to Utah for our 'mission reunion and then watched conference on President's TV.  We had a fabulous time!

A hiking trip to Havasupai had been planned and much anticipated by Rod and several of 'our missionaries' but the trip had to be canceled due to rain and flooding.  As a consolation we decided to indulge in a visit to the cool country!

Our Amazing President and Sister Deere held a reunion at their house and were so kind as to allow us to spend a few days as their guests!  After getting to see them, the highlight was seeing all our dearly beloved missionaries of the Spain Malaga Mission!

PS  The Deeres have a gorgeous home and amazing yard!

Here are photos of a few of our missionaries.  



 

 

 

Including President's first 'grandmissionary' and the Wilsons!

President Deere

Old married folks!



He forgot what standing next to Elder Castillo for a photo means....Wedgie!

The flash was off but I had to keep it even though it was out of focus! 

We loved seeing everyone!  I am of mixed feelings.  I really want to put names on the photos because I will very soon be unable to remember them but I don't want to put more info on the net than people want to have out there.  Anyway, we love you all!  If you want me to forward any photos, let me know!