Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts

Saturday, December 8, 2018

December 1st or so...

We drove over the hill to San Diego. We spent a few days at Nana's.  Had a rousing game night at John's.  Saturday, we had the family Thanksgiving dinner.  Too much food, but it was all great. 

That night, after everybody else went home, Seth and Gabriel stayed around and we played Magic with them.   Great kids.

On the third, my sister had yet another birthday, so Happy Birthday to her. 

The weather was bad this weekend.  San Diego got a lot of rain.  None fell in the desert.  After all was done, we drove home and got settled in.  Laurie had work and then we got our rain.  Everything became a mess out here.

I walked around the park the day before and took pictures mostly in areas I hadn't gone to before..  Then I took some in between the two big showers we had. The golf course was really green and the lighting due to the rain clouds was great.


Canyon between the park and the New River. I-8 in the distance.


Helicopters

The pond from the west end


Historic farm equipment on display

The New River








Quack

There used to be a bridge here.




Storm clouds




Morning rainbow






Thursday, August 9, 2018

July 2018 - How I Spent My Summer Vacation

When we last saw our stalwart heroe, they had landed in Moorhead, MN and welcomed a new family member.  Then they seem to fall off the face of the Earth.  Yeah.

, While we were gone for the winter, our house suffered significant weather related damage.  Once we got home, we both started our local jobs and started to work towards opening the house and trying to get a handle on the future.

A lot has happened, and there is little photo record of most of it.  I was torn between a number of posts without pictures and then just being busy all the time.  I finally broke my blog inaction by deciding to just talk about all that has happened and what all we've been doing.

Just after we got home, Eliza and her family came to stay for a few weeks. They were moving into a new house, but the timing left them without a residence for a bit.  It was really nice to have them here and we put both sets of bunk beds into Eliza's old room.  The kids had a small pool in the yard to play in, Brett had the four-wheeler running and there are lots and lots of LEGOs.  Alexander even came up from Texas for a bit.  "Uncle Alex!!, Uncle Alex!!"  Part of all that was us helping them move out of their old place and then into their new one.

Devils Lake High School had it's graduation and we attended the graduation party for Micah Cox whose parents helped us raise our kids as well.

There were a few events that we participated in this summer.  We participated in a Flag Day ceremony at Roosevelt Park in Devils Lake put on by the local VFW.  We both became honorary lifetime members.  You don't have to be and old guy to be in the VFW....

Memorial Day found us home instead of in Arlington, VA for a change, and we attended a program at the Memorial building in Devils Lake and helped laying wreaths at the cemetery in honor of the fallen.

A third event we participated in, was the Independence Day Parade as we often do.  We had work looming over us so we were unable to stay for the night at the Lake that we normally get to do. 

Family in June, including Laurie's birthday.  Patriotic and personal events in July, including my birthday and Eliza and Brett's anniversary.

Now it's August.  we've been working on the house and watching and following the Boston Red Sox who are having one of their best years ever.  More work on the house hangs over us and there is still the possibility Laurie will take a short travel assignment between now and when we leave for our October assignment back in Imperial County, CA.

For me, I always define The end of a blog season as when we hook up the fifth-wheel and hit the road.  Hopefully, between now and then, i'll be a little more attentive here.


Sunday, June 10, 2018

04-26 - 05-whenever. - End of Fargo Days


Actually Moorhead.  We stayed at Eliza and Brett's for a few days to help with the kids while Eliza popped her final one out.  Then it was home to Petersburg to get settled and start working.  We had afew things in April and I will be posting about them.  Meanwhile, a new baby, Dashiell Charles, and many pretty sunsets.While we were in Moorhead, Gypsy found all manner of places to lounge.



Mimi and the new one

South Fargo from Eliza's room.







Thursday, June 7, 2018

April 24th - The Grandkids at Awanas


Okay, let's get started again Getting settled in and all takes time and it's been hard to get back on the laptop.

Many years ago, because of the ages of our kids, the wife and I were "leaders" in our local Awanas program. Awanas is a program that teaches kids the bible and how faith applies to their lives.  The kids get badges and awards through memorization of key biblical verses.  The leaders are like teachers who discuss the verses and listen to the kids as they prove they have memorized the verses.  At the end of each awana year, there is a ceremony program where the kids show the parents what they've learned and receive their awards.  We went to Eliza's family's church in Fargo and attended the program.  The kids are so cute and I'm very proud of them.

They had ice cream afterwards.









Thursday, May 3, 2018

April 15th - The trip begins



We start the first leg of the trip home.  The first thing we need to do is get through all the SoCal areas we know.  Santee to 52 to 15 to 76 to 5. Then the 405 up through LA back to I-5 whick we took into the San Joaquin Valley.  We stopped at a diner for dinner and took hwy 46 which we took back over the hills west towards 101 and stopped for the night at an RV park in Paso Robles.  We stayed the night at The Vines RV Park.  it was pretty nice, we parked, got situated and slept.

The only significant stop through all of this, besides dinner,  is to visit a rest stop just north of Camp Pendleton.  Laid out very pretty (watch for snakes!!) a view of the hwy and almost the ocean.  We picked up a GEOCACHE there.

Up through the Los Padres National Forest north of Los Angeles was some very pretty country.  The hills were just covered in large swaths of Marigolds.


My navigator

"He's not listening!!"

Rest Area

Geocache 150 for me





Los Padres



Marigolds