San Diego

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

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!!!

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!

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

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...

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...

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!!