Phoenix GP's

Been a year already??

2010-05-20T21:10:00.000-07:00

Actually it has not been quite a year since we last published. We spent a couple of days on or around Lake Powell this week. Drove to the Colorado River crossing just down from Lee's Ferry, then on to Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell. Pictures attached for your enjoyment; no charge.

Rainbow bridge is the largest natural arch in the world, at about 285 feet high and 250 or so wide, as I recall. We have the exact numbers somewhere, but I'd have to get up, so...

Even a sick man's work is never done

2009-07-30T11:47:00.000-07:00

Had to clean the pool today . . .

Further evidence . . .

2009-06-29T16:12:00.000-07:00

With no posts since April, the rumors may have begun to spread again. So here's an update.

We (Grandmom & I) had a great road-trip with our eldest and his wife (that would be Randy and Kathie). We spent a couple of nights in Ouray, and then did some touring around southwestern Colorado. And I had no significant side effects from the chemo treatments during the entire trip.

We visited a portion of "Canyon of the Ancients" north of Cortez, CO, specifically the Anasazi Heritage Center. Kinda boring, but the small ruins (see pic) and lake overlook were good.

Then on to Ouray for Sunday and Monday nights. See pictures from our balcony at Ouray Chalet.

In looking for a geocache (Guston Church) off the Million Dollar Highway we "discovered" whole new sets of mine ruins, including the well-preserved "Yankee Girl", that we had not seen before. Readily accessible; we'll visit them again. We found the geocache.

Then to Yankee Boy Basin for some downtime. Well, I guess it was all downtime.

Tuesday morning was spent in Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. This was named a NP in 1999, and is well-developed for viewing the canyon. Randy took pictures. He also left his telephoto lens where we were talking with a professional photographer with a $100K photo system. The NP Service has mailed it to him. Whew!

Did a little geocaching on the way to Canon City / Royal Gorge, which has now been developed (?) into a small village with shops, the incline railway, and a sky-tram across the river. We walked the bridge, took both the tram and the incline.

On to Colorado Springs to visit Garden of the Gods and Seven Falls.
A side note: we were the only visitors in southwestern Colorado. Well, not quite, but we had no reservations after Ouray and never encountered a hotel with greater than maybe 20-30% occupancy. All rates were negotiable. Very negotiable.

Going back south into New Mexico, we stopped by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial near Eagle Nest which we had discovered with Rick and Denise a few years ago. This is a surprisingly moving memorial done by a family in honor of a fallen son, but dedicated to all Vietnam veterans. It is so well done that the state of New Mexico has now agreed to take responsibility as a state sponsored memorial.

We drove through Red River and got the picture on Randy's blog of the Gostin cabin; looks much like it did then. Walked the squares in Santa Fe, then old town Albuquerque. Got home Saturday afternoon; resting ever since.

"Reports of my demise . . ."

2009-04-23T10:32:00.000-07:00

There has been a lot of trash talk on the blogosphere, some by the fruit of my loin even to the second generation, concerning the expected or reported demise of my hair. Although I may have inadvertently contributed to the initiation of these rumors, you can observe by the attached photo, taken this very morning, that my hair-retention capability has been greatly underestimated.

Phx Grandad

The Old Folks at Home...

2009-04-14T19:14:00.000-07:00

And glad to be here! Dad has gone through his first bout with chemo. It was not fun, even a little bit!! None of the meds the doctor gave him for nausea worked. After trying 3, he got out his trusty Meclazine and took that! Voila!! It worked. After that he began to feel a little better each day. We are still not "up and around" (so to speak) but improving!!

Let me explain the "we" reference. Sharing everything like old folks do, I developed a healthy (or unhealthy) allergy attack, so I could empathize properly with my patient. Problem is, now he is getting better, and I am still nursing a sinus headache and nasal congestion!! We've got to get our act together!!!

The local family has been very sweet about leaving us to ourselves (because we weren't up to much company.) They did come by Sunday afternoon after church, and brought in Kentucky Fried Chicken for the noon meal. I went to church Sunday morning and taught our class, and they tolerated my teaching and my squeaky voice. Paul & Kari are attending our class while we teach the book of Revelation, and this week they stayed for the worship service with me. At the present time, Dad is planning to teach next Sunday. I hope he does. He's a better teacher than I am. I am happy to be the sub!!

Dad sees the doctor again tomorrow. Don't know what for...they just always seem to want to see him. Must be nice!

Sorry I took so long getting back to blogging. I sort of got stuck on e-mail. So I hope you find this, and even read it!

We love you all so much. Our next out of town trip will be to Lauri's graduation, but we will have to pass on Disneyland this trip!

We had a nice visit with Rick, Denise and family before all this....in fact, we were there when Mother died. We came home, arranged for the funeral, packed for travel again, and went to Cotton Valley for the graveside service on Saturday.

. We then went to Valwood Park for church, and saw a lot of old friends there.

I'll sign off now, hoping someone will realize, when I didn't e=mail, that I might actually blog this time. Love ya! Ma

October Update

2008-10-11T17:13:00.000-07:00

It is sort of Sunday here. It is actually Saturday, but we got up and dressed for church because we had to go to a midday wedding, then we had the noon meal following the wedding (they served lunch to the guests), then we came home and watched a football game on TV this afternoon. Now, doesn't that sound like a normal Sunday to you? It feels like it.

Thought I would let you know Dad is doing much better. And all because Randy went to the doctor!! His doctor thinks his problem might be acid reflux, so he passed the word along to Dad, who immediately began taking Prilosec once a day, which was Randy's prescription. So far, so good!! In fact, he is singing a special at church tomorrow..the pastor asked him to do "What Sin?" because of the message he will be delivering. So, good news.

We have enjoyed a few weeks at home, especially since the weather is cooler. It is so good to step outside and not have the heat knock you over!! But this coming weekend we will be in Dallas visiting Rick and Denise. We hope to see their kids while we are there, too. Surely they will drop by, or we will drop by.....

I spent all day yesterday working on getting caught up on this year's scrapbook. (I guess when Dad is sick, I can't do anything....???) He prints up the photos that we choose to include, and then I do the "scrapping". I am just finishing up our Cloudcroft trip with Rick & Denise. The fun thing about scrapping is that you can so easily go through past years and see how things and people have changed. I would never compare my books to Brenda's, or to almost any "real" scrapper, but we enjoy them, and so do Don's siblings when we take them to Louisiana with us. And I notice almost all of the local kids look at them when I finish a new one.

Any way. Will update again after we spend a while in Dallas. Love you all....... G-mom

Home...and gone again!

2008-09-26T10:11:00.000-07:00

We've traveled more this summer than any single summer ever! Disneyland, and Pahrump, and Dallas, and Shreveport, and San Diego, and Atlanta, and Ouray, and Cloudcroft... I can't even remember...what else? but it was all fun, and we got to see all our family, which is so cool!! Just not all at the same time.
We just got home from helping Keith's church in Pahrump celebrate their 40th anniversary. It was good. Most of the former pastors were there, and lots of old members who had moved came back, plus the regular attenders. There was a meeting (in a tent) on Saturday evening, then the big celebration on Sunday morning. We drove up on Friday, and when we were eating in Kingman, our phone rang and it was Zachary, Brenda, and Emily, on their way home via Pahrump, from visiting in Dallas and picking up a car. We ate together, then drove the rest of the way to Pahrump. It was so fun, and Emily is a little doll. She entertained us all weekend!
We forgot both our cameras, so I need K& K to send some photos from their computer so I can include this in our scrapbook.
Tonight we are driving up to Payson, AZ, for a Chorale concert. Actually, the concert is not until Sunday afternoon, but after Randy and Kathie get off work, we are driving up together to spend Saturday and Sunday morning in the cool country of that area!
When we got home Wednesday, we went by the kennel and picked up Charly so she could have a few days at home with us. She was so happy. Today we have to take her back, but only until Monday morning! We are so fortunate that she loves to go there. The staff has loved her since I got her 11 years ago, and she loves them back. Our vet said she is the only "patient" he has that actually likes to come see him!!
We love you all. If we have been in your vicinity and didn't see you, we're sorry. We tried to see everyone we could!
Here's a favorite picture from Cloudcroft.

Walker Infirmary Update

2008-09-12T18:09:00.000-07:00

We've done a lot of fun things this summer, mostly trips. And we enjoyed them all. But it was nice to get to be home for a little while. Except for one little thing. G-dad got a killer sinus infection, and has been struggling with it for a couple of months off and on. He is now finishing up his third round of antibiotics, but still doesn't seem able to sleep all night without coughing a lot, so he's been sleeping in the family room...for 2 reasons...he can sleep better sitting up some, so the recliner and sofa are good for that, and he doesn't want to keep me awake. (As if his not being in bed with me doesnt keep me up anyway. He is better now, with this most recent medicine, but it's been a rough time.)

The weather here is beginning to cool down. Oh, it still gets up around 100 degrees in the daytime, but the evenings are pleasant enough to sit out in the back yard and watch our gorgeous Phoenix sunsets. We've had a lot of "monsoon" activity in August and this first week of September, so the clouds make for nice sunsets. The pool is cooling down now, but is still nice to swim in. Charly hates to swim, but in summer, that is her exercise, so I take her in every morning and make her paddle around for about 15 minutes, then when she gets out, she runs and shakes and wallows in the grass and on her towel until she is all fuzzy and almost dry. But we will start our morning walks soon. I can't swim in water as cold as Grandad can.

We still enjoy singing with the community chorale. We practice every Tuesday night for 2 hours. Then we do concerts, mostly on Sunday afternoons or evenings, and usually at Senior Centers or RV parks, and such. In a couple of weeks we will be singing at a church up in Peyson, AZ. It's so pretty up there, with trees and stuff. This week we sing at a Salvation Army place on Sunday afternoon. Hope G-dad is able to teach Sunday morning. Last week I had to teach because of his coughing.

We love you all, and pray for you, your families, your work/school/etc. Grandmom

Back from Atlanta, and Cloudcroft... sigh

2008-08-14T11:34:00.000-07:00

By now most of our dedicated readers probably know that I (Grandad) am mostly over my knee problem that caused us to return early from Ouray... well, that and traveling with Randy. The orthopedic doc showed me the Xrays that show I have osteo-arthritis in the left knee, and it was irritated by impact (jogging and jumping on rocks in this case). He said the news was bad and good (the old doctor joke...ha ha). The bad news: it's arthritis. The good news: it should have minimum effect on normal activities.
No jumping, running or jogging (Denise says that's good news), but walking, climbing, non-impact activities are okay.

We spent 3 days in Atlanta in the second reunion of the year. Poo and Martha were there, having missed the earlier one due to sickness. Had a good, quiet time, mostly talking and playing Mexican Train.

We got home on Thursday and left on Friday for Cloudcroft, to a cabin which Rick and Denise had rented for a week. Nice weather, with a little rain every day. Rick and I golfed and the girls drove golf carts on Monday. Probably the highest course in the U.S. at about 9200 feet. Lots of hills, but only two lakes, so I set a record for fewest balls lost during my golfing career. We did some hiking (led by Atticus, their beagle who came with them), played Mexican Train (not Atticus), ate at every restaurant in Cloudcroft (3), and watched the olympics (no way those Chinese girls are 16 years old). Everybody went home on Wednesday.

Grandmom on the cabin balcony

Atticus and friends

My entry in the "Best Bella Picture" contest. I guess you read Randy's blog announcing a $25 grand prize.

We Were Missing The Heat

2008-07-16T22:01:00.001-07:00

No photos tonight. Sorry. We are a little preoccupied. We mentioned yesterday that GrandDad's knee was acting up. It was serious enough that we came back to Phoenix today. He will look for an Orthopedic surgeon starting tomorrow, with the expectation of arthroscopic surgery soon.

It is supposed to be 110 tomorrow. It was 74 in Ouray yesterday. What a shock. No more hot tubs for us.

Ouray Must-Do Items For Our Last Day

2008-07-15T20:01:00.001-07:00

What a whirlwind trip. It seems we are doing something nonstop. Take this morning for instance. We had a Continental breakfast, hurried over to the laundromat and spent the morning there, then it was time for lunch. Buen Tiempo, the local Mexican food spot we always go to at least once.

It was too early to check in the hotel room, so we headed out to Yankee Boy Basin. Actually, as we mentioned in yesterday's blog, that was always the plan. We spent quite a while there, maybe 2-3 hours. We didn't work on the Walker dam, and did not even go over there.
We ended up staying at the twin falls the entire time. We have never seen that much water. It is a result of over 21 feet of snow this winter. In fact, there was still a lot of snow up there. There was evidence of a number of avalanches all over the trail.

Here is a path from one of the avalanches.

Before we left, GrandDad and Kathie and Randy hiked all around both of the falls. Randy took a bunch of pictures, but it was GrandDad who had the defining moment.
"The Hills are Alive..."

On the way back to town, we started up the trail to Imogene Pass, but made it less than a mile. It was just too rough. So, we headed back into town and passed through a nice pleasant summer rain. In keeping with our breakneck speed, we only rested an hour before going to dinner at a sandwich shop at the north end of Ouray. Yes, we did get ice cream after dinner.

GrandDad's knee is acting up a bit, so please be praying for that.

Tomorrow, we leave Ouray and head north towards Gunnison.

Over Ophir On Our Own

2008-07-14T17:33:00.000-07:00

We have not been hurrying out in the mornings. Today we drove over Ophir pass, and for some 20 minutes, we were the only people there. It's true. Look here.
Here is a photo Randy took using his remote control that shows the four of us, standing in the empty road at Ophir.

It was amazingly quiet up there. There was much less snow than the family reunion. With only four of us there, and all seniors, no snowballs were thrown. The marmot fussed at us...as usual. We drove past the little lake below Ophir and avoided the mosqitos. We drove over to Telluride and drove up to the base of Bridal Veil Falls. It was running strongly after an exceptionally high snowfall during the winter. In fact, the small number of four-wheelers we saw may have to do with how many trails are still closed. Here is a photo taken at the base of the falls in the mist and rain.

We visited Telluride for lunch. We wanted to drive Last Dollar Road, but it started raining. So, since Keith wasn't here to help with a new song, we avoided the muddy road.

Tonight, just as we have the last two nights, we will end with a soak in the hot tub. We start in the 105 degree pool and then cool off in the 102 degree one.

Tomorrow, maybe Imogene and then Yankee Boy Basin. We are not sure if we can pass the rocks in Imogene this year, but we will try.

An Easy(?) Day

2008-07-13T21:09:00.001-07:00

Hey, this was supposed to be a lazy day. We ended up walking/hiking all day. I think Randy's new camera is pacing our trip. We started out downtown and did a little shopping. Randy had to buy a new tripod because he forgot his. While we were there, we hiked up to Cascade Falls. Here is GrandDad taking a photo of the water. It was flowing very nicely, it wasn't very crowded, and so we stayed quite a while.

After lunch, we went up to Box Canyon Falls. It was a little warm in the afternoon, but quite cool in near the waterfall. GrandDad, Kathie and Randy hiked on up to the High Bridge to look down on the falls. This is a shot Randy took as we entered the falls area.

The town reopened the San Juan Odyssey and so we saw it after dinner. It was fun to see, but we miss the old version. This one was on a screen and they are thinking of making a DVD of it. The old show had 5 different screens and so included a lot more images.

It looks like we will drive over Ophir tomorrow morning, lunch in Telluride, and end up on Last Dollar Road. Many of the passes remain closed due to snow, so we are having to adjust our schedule.

Getting There Is Half The Fun

2008-07-12T21:31:00.001-07:00

We made it from PHX to Ouray in one easy trip. We made just a few stops for obvious reasons. We are staying at the Hot Tub Hotel (it's name is actually Box Canyon Lodge), but needed to stretch our legs before hot tubbing. We still don't know what we will do tomorrow, but we are OK with that. It's a vacation! It's pretty and cool here. We can hear the river outside our room.

Here is a shot along the road between Telluride and Ouray. The sunset colors caught our eyes and we had to capture it while we could.

Check back for updates later.

San Diego

2008-06-14T09:57:00.000-07:00

We took a trip to San Diego with Carey and Leigh this week (Monday thru Thursday; came home Friday). Jay had the opportunity to join us, but chose to work instead. He's working at Kyrene schools with the group where Carey works. Paul has had a similar job in past summers.
Back to San Diego. We stayed at a hotel on the beach, but the water is too dang cold for swimming. I did get my feet wet, twice. Went to Sea World,

Wild Animal Park,

And, my (Grandad) favorite, visited the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Midway.

The last picture is sunset from our balcony on Thursday night.

disneyland and graduation stuff

2008-05-30T15:17:00.000-07:00

Caleb graduated from high school this month. We drove up to Pahrump to help celebrate. We had never been to a home-school graduation before. It was a good time for us all. Katie and Justin drove down from Redding for the occasion, too. Caleb wore a blue cap and gown, and got lots of presents and cards. They also invited special friends from the church. There were speeches from family and friends. The ceremony was wrapped up with a Chinese dinner from a local Chinese restaurant. We took photos, a few anyway.
Sunday we all went to church. Keith, Lauri, Caleb, Dad, and I sang a cool arrangement of "Jesus Loves Me", and Kim accompanied us on the piano. We had Sunday lunch at a local country club. Katie and Justin had to leave soon after to head back for Redding. The rest of us napped. There were some activities at church that Keith and Kim had to attend later.
Monday we all packed up our cars and headed out for Disneyland! Laurie drove until we stopped for lunch, trying to get in enough hours driving to qualify for her license. We got to LA and spent the evening at the Disney Village looking and browsing in shops, then played a domino game before we went to sleep.
Tuesday we literally spent the whole day in Disneyland. Got lots of pix, and had lots of fun! But when G-dad rode Space Mountain he got "beat up" pretty bad. He was sick the whole next day, but the rest of us, being the kind of people we are, went to the California Adventure for most of the day, with a quick run over to the other park later. Thursday G-dad felt some better, and joined us for part of the day. After a good breakfast at Denny's, we all headed out for our respective homes.
We have more trips planned this summer...stay tuned for further reports!

My, How The Time Goes By!!!

2008-04-17T16:37:00.000-07:00

Gosh, people, I didn't realize it had been so long since we updated! We are still around, although we had a rough few weeks fighting that flu stuff that everyone had. We are fine, now, and busy. Grandad and I have only made one trip.. We went to Tombstone and Wickenburg and Karshner Caverns in January before we got that flu. The caverns were beautiful, and it was fun seeing the actual street on which the famous shootout took place in Tombstone. The museum there was in the old courthouse. It has been well kept, and in great condition, and the exhibits were interesting.
Then we came home and started the 'fight the flu bug" deal, which hung on for about 3 weeks, off and on. We were never sick enough to stay in bed, but just lay around and stared at all the junk on TV, and griped about feeling bad. No one came to see us because they all had some form of it, too.
Keith, Kim, Caleb, and Lauri came for a brief visit the week of Keith's and Carey's birthdays. We ate at Fuddruckers, and laughed and visited, and went on a geocache. That was the greatest, because we hid a special geocache for Keith's birthday with little gag gifts and cards (thanks, guys, for your participation!). We totally surprised him. He started going through the cache, and you could tell he didn't suspect a thing. Then he exclaimed, "Wait a minute! Hey, how did you guys do this?" or something like that. Then he read and reread all the cards and exclaimed over the little geocache gifts we'd all included. If you catch Randy's blogs lately, you saw some of the photos we took. Oh, the ones who were here were: G-dad, G-mom, Carey, Leigh, Paul, Jay, Randy, Kathie, Alison, Keith, Kim, Caleb, Lauri,
Since then, things have been pretty boring. Everyone went back to their homes and jobs, and nothing else exciting had happened, to speak of. Just normal everyday stuff.
We are busy planning our summer trips. We will go to Parumph and California for Caleb's graduation and celebration. We have the Walker family reunion in Shreveport in June, and also our annual early summer visit to Dallas for some time with Rick, Denise, Ben on that same trip. We are still working on the rest of the summer. Carey and Leigh want us to go on a trip with them, but we have not got that set up yet. If you have a date we need to get on our calendar, be sure to let us know!
There is no change in Neen. She just lays there on her bed or in her wheelchair. She is pretty much unresponsive to my visits, and only occasionally acknowledges that she knows I am there. Please pray for her and for us in that matter.
We put out some new plants in our yard after we got healthy again, to replace those that were killed in the late frost. It all looks so pretty. If you are looking for a nice place to visit, we offer excellent accommodations!
We love you all so much, and pray for you always. The Great-Grandparents

Sorry about that!

2008-02-04T20:00:00.000-08:00

After we finally got past the wedding and Christmas, I thought things would slow down a bit. But we still seem pretty busy. With church and family and chorale and choir and housework and laundry..... Need I go on? Anyway, we are doing just fine. Things have settled down at church, which is good. The pastor is preaching good sermons, and our choir minister is choosing some pretty good songs. (Not at good as Chorale, but better than he used to!)
I am not teaching the women's Bible study this winter. So many of my ladies have either had to quit because of health, or other reasons that I decided to wait until nicer weather. We have had lots of rain and cold, and there are all those flu bugs and stuff going around. At our age, we seem to pick that stuff up pretty easy. But G-dad is still teaching our Sunday School class, and our attendance there is pretty consistent at 35 to 40 almost every Sunday. And we still sing in choir and Chorale.
We haven't been off on a trip since our trip to Dallas last November. So, to rectify that oversight, we are going to drive down to southeastern AZ to tour the Kartchner Caverns and maybe Tombstone. We will only be away a day or two, but winter is a better time to tour in AZ than the rest of the year which is hot! We go down there Wednesday, and come back either Thursday night or Friday, depending on what we find to do. Charly is excited to get to go back to the kennel and her friends there.
By the way, I am not complaining about being busy, just surprised. When I was a youngster, the old folks didn't do much visitiing and traveling...
We thought the Super Bowl (which was here, in case you didn't know) was a pretty good game, considering there were no Cowboys in it! We stayed home out of the cold and drizzle, and watched the whole thing on TV with Paul and Kari, eating popcorn and rice krispie treats. It was fun, but we didn't take any pictures.
To those of you who still take time to blog....thank you so much. We love reading them, and the comments, too. To those of you who don't...shame!!
We love you all, and pray for you daily. Which brings up a new topic...Kendall (now 2 months old) is having some digestive problems. The doctor is working with Kyle and Lyndsay on it, but she needs us to be praying for her.

To settle a Family Blog misunderstanding

2008-01-09T14:38:00.000-08:00

I ran across this picture from our Ouray reunion which seems to contradict both Randy's and Kara's comments re Lindsay's blog. Hope this helps.
G'dad

Busy Christmas times...

2007-12-21T14:46:00.000-08:00

Hi! As I write this post, Keith, Kim, Caleb, and Lauri are here for a brief visit. Keith is the presiding minister at Paul and Kari's wedding tomorrow night, and will go to the rehearsal in an hour or so. Kim is not feeling well...a cold or such, I think, but we are having a nice visit. Lots of eating, playing pool, talking, with various family members in and out. The rehearsal dinner will be here. It was raining when we woke up this morning, but the day is not sunny and cool. Thank You, Lord! Hoping it stays this way through the wedding tomorrow evening.
The wedding is being held outdoors at the home of someone the Moorings know. It is way out in the east valley, probably about a half-hour drive from our house.
Keith and Kim and kids will have to drive back to Pahrump immediately following the wedding to be back there for church Sunday morning, so pray for them as they make that drive, as well as for the wedding and wedding party tonight and tomorrow evening.
I guess Christmas will seem like an afterthought, sort of, after all this wedding hustle! But it will be nice, and we are looking forward to that, too. I have not talked to the local girls about what we are having for dinner that day, or who will bring what. I think I'll give Carey a break...she will be "recovering" from Paul's wedding! But Kathie and Lyndsay usually call to ask what to bring. Since they haven't called yet, I hope that doesn't mean they are not coming...
Merry Christmas to you all, filled with joy and love, and may our Lord bless your new year richly! Grandmom

holiday madness...

2007-12-15T16:36:00.000-08:00

At this exact moment as I write this,next week, Paul and Kari will be married, and the family will join them in celebration. But before that, I must say I am in a panic. I have not bought a Christmas or birthday gift (Don's or Randy's) for next week, and am not finished with any other Christmas shopping. But the house is decorated, and looks nice, and we have already hosted our Sunday School Class Christmas dinner here.
But on a lighter note...since we got back from Great Britain, we have been to Pahrump and Dallas for visits with the families there, and that was fun. We got to hear Aaron preach his first sermon in "big church", which was a blessing. We have been really busy practicing for the church Christmas music program, and for concerts for the holidays in Chorale, and tomorrow night we present the Christmas program. Because the next Chorale presentation is at the same time, we will have to miss that, but we did get to sing in it last weekend. Christmas music is the greatest! I like both the old favorites, and the new mustic too!
In Pahrump we got to meet little Emily and play with her, then in Dallas we met Sophie June. Then yesterday Kyle and Lyndsay brought Kendall Noel to meet us, and I got to hold her and rock her for her afternoon nap while we visited. Now, don't you think all that warrants a new blog!? I do.
Wish you could have seen Grandad entertaining Isabella while I rocked the little one! They talked and talked, and looked at the tangerines and oranges hanging in our fruit trees. They also picked up rocks...why do little kids like to pick up rocks, anyway? We could hear the rumble of Grandad's voice, then the little childish chatter of Bella, and it was so sweet. They both came back in with big smiles on their faces. And handsful of rocks!
We are so sorry Randy hasn't found a job yet, but I must confess that we enjoy having him turn up for lunch with us now and then, and his more frequent visits and blogs. I know you are praying with us that God will lead him to gainful employment before long. Meanwhile, we will love having him hang out with us. We probably won't see as much of him for a couple of weeks, since Kathie and Ali are out of school on Christmas break.
Did you know Keith is going to perform the wedding for Paul and Kari? And I think Randy will do the pix, so we should have some good ones. It will be a "family affair" I suppose with all of us there. We will host the rehearsal dinner at our house on Friday night, and they have requested pizza!! Good thing we have the pizza delivery phone number memorized!!

Roadie Grandparents

2007-10-28T20:16:00.000-07:00

We have really been on the road a lot this year. Of course, the Great Britain triip was the longest, but I blogged about it already. And the Ouray trip a real highlight, but that's been blogged, too. But we had a special treat...Keith and Kim had their own family reunion in Pahrump last week, and invited us to join them, so we drove up on Saturday afternoon to be with them a few days, and to meet our California Great-granddaughter, Emily. Hence the title I chose.

Don had long ago promised to build an entertainment/desk unit for the new house up there. So while he was doing the radiation treatments and we couldn't travel, he worked on it, then finished it up after the Britain trip. So we took it up there, and he and the guys put it together and installed it. (The guys were Keith, Zachary, Dad, and Caleb.)

The rest of us (Kim, Christine, Brenda, Katie, Lauri, Emily, and myself) made up the cheering squad and meal duties. It really was a lot of fun. We missed Justin so much, but he'd just started his new job and couldn't get time off yet. He called a few times, which helped.
We went to church on Sunday morning, of course, which was good. The church was "packed out", and I guess they will soon go to 3 services a Sunday instead of just 2. Then we had lunch, and the guys got all the electronic stuff hooked up and in place on the wall unit. Keith, Kim, Caleb, and Lauri had choir practice and stuff that evening. The rest of us either played WII or watched the others play. Lots of laughter.

Monday we took a four-wheeling trip to Red Rock Canyon Park, located between (more or less) Pahrump and Las Vegas. We had a picnic lunch, toured the visitor center, walked a bit, and then hit the dirt road to find a geocache and have a bumpy ride. It was all fun. The rest of the time was visiting, playing with Emily, and just enjoying being family.
Since I haven't mentioned it in a while, my Mother, Neen, is about the same. She is very frail and weak, and cannot see at all now. They take her to the activity room for her meals to get her out of bed, but it is just by wheelchair. But they take wonderful care of her, and we are so thankful for that facility. About half the time, she recognizes my voice, and tries to respond to me. That is always a high point when it happens.
We love all of you, and avidly check the blogs to see who has posted. We miss you when you don't...(you know who you are!)
Here are a few photos from the Pahrump visit. The next great granddaughter we get to meet face to face is Sophie June, in Dallas in November. Look for more photos then.

weary world travelers...

2007-10-15T19:15:00.000-07:00

Greetings, all! We really did have a wonderful trip to Great Britain and Ireland. We found we really enjoyed the bus travel, and made friends with our fellow travelers. I cannot say I enjoyed any one part of the trip more than the others. It was all so fun, and interesting, and amazing to be there where I have dreamed of going! We spent the most time in London, since we went over early just to do that. We walked, and looked, and took photos, and it was so great! To answer your questions, yes, I did ride the London Eye, and no, I did not climb up to kiss the Blarney Stone! Grandad did, the latter, though, except for the kissing part. When he saw they did not wipe it after people kissed it, he passed on that! He got a new camera for the trip, and actually outdid our sons with this trip, I think. He took over 500 photos in the 17 or so days we were gone.
The #1 word that comes to mind....green! The whole place is green, except for the houses and flowers! And then, sheep. There were so many...I actually got a little sheep thing instead of a teddy bear!!
We will not put all the pix on this blog. Just a representative few. After all, I think most of you had already been there, at least to London. But at the drop of a hat, I will talk your ears off when you say what did I like best!!
One different thing, though, is that the last night before our flight we went to see the London stage production of Mary Poppins, and it was so fun! That way we were hearing all the songs in our heads all the way home!
We took a ferry from Wales to Ireland, and it carried our bus, too! Then another ferry back to Wales after the Ireland tour. We walked and walked as much as we could. Stonehenge, castles, monuments, really old villages and cities dating back to the times the Romans invaded Britain, ate way too much, thatch roof cottages, and the birthplaces of oodles of people we have studied in history all our lives! Needless to say, I could go on and on....and probably will when I see you. Love you all bunches!

Notes on a slow summer...

2007-08-25T17:08:00.000-07:00

Late spring and early summer were busy and fun, with family visits here and there. But now, as fall approaches, I thought I'd catch you up on our later summer activities. G-dad has only two more days of the radiation treatments. Then we will not know anything more until January. But at least he'll only have 2 more days of driving all the way to Scottsdale and Mayo Clinic and back. That's what he's done M-F for the past 7 weeks. We are glad to have the end in sight. As for me, I used those weeks to prepare my Bible studies for the fall session of Genesis, and did some work on the 2007 scrapbook project. We got to spend time with our local family, and that was fun.

Today is actually cool...the temperature never got above 90 degrees! That is unheard of this time of year. And a blessing! We have had really blistering hot days the past few weeks, averaging over 105 every day.
There is no change in Neen, but now and then, she responds to my when I visit with her. So when she does, it is a blessing. Last week, she actually spoke to me and knew who I was! That seldom happens.

Carey and Paul took Jay up to Flagstaff, where he will study Criminal Justice at Northern Arizona University. Classes start Monday. Leigh is doing well with her first teaching job, teaching 5th grade at an elementary school in Chandler. She seems to be doing well, and plans to move into her new apartment in early October. Paul and Kari are busy planning their December wedding, while she works at Starbucks, and he attends classes at ASU in computer engineering. So Carey will soon have an "empty nest", just her and the cat and dogs. Seems strange.

We are getting ready for our trip to Great Britain. We leave in 3 weeks, and will be gone about that long. We are excited about the trip, and seeing all the places we've read about and watched on the Travel Channel. He has been there a number of times on business trips, but I never have. We have signed on for one of those tours, so we won't have to drive or figure out where to drive and how to get there. We just pays our money and pack and go! Planning to take a lot of pictures.

This is a re-write of this blog update. When we tried to post it earlier, our entire blog apparently had disappeared. When we tried to open the blog to read the new post, we got the feared "Page not found". Gdad did a lot of work to find the problem, but it looks like to no avail. We had to start a new blog, but using our old URL which the site said was unused! That's weird. So if you're reading this, all the old blogs are gone but the old URL is usable.