On the road again.....

It was sooooo.....hard to say good-bye to Megan and Carlos on Sunday and Kyle, Heather, and the girls on Monday but we are ready for new adventures - on our way to Palm Springs, CA. We drove 8 hours today and didn't even make it to El Paso! 

12-28 Two full days of driving and we finally got out of Texas. Spending the night in Bowie, AZ. The campground was $15/night - does that tell you something? "Mountain View RV Park" would be more aptly named "Train Whistle RV Park!"

12-29 We arrived in Yuma, AZ today. I found a beautiful RV resort online that was running a "special" - half off for new renters - so we decided to stay here until Friday when we drive to Palm Springs and the first of the rallies we are attending.

12-30 We spent the day cleaning - in and out. I rented a rug cleaner and we did the motorhome carpets, the throw rugs and the car rugs. Roger cleaned the motorhome and the car. Jobs well done!

Heather and her friend Stevie took their girls to lunch at the American Girl store today. Samantha and Emily were so excited - it just happened to be the day they announced the new doll of 2014 - Isabel, a ballet dancer!

12-31 They had a great New Year's Eve party here - live band, food, deserts, champagne! You know Roger and how he loves to dance - couldn't talk him out of it! We had a nice time and even made it to midnight! We haven't been to a New Year's Eve celebration in years!

1-1 Today is bike day - cleaning and getting them ready to actually use! Watched the Rose Bowl parade this morning - had forgotten how gorgeous the flowered floats are! And of course, 3pm brings us the Spartans in the Rose Bowl!

Christmas 2013

Megan and Carlos came to Heather's on Sunday night and we had three wonderful days of "family." We played games - it is fun because the girls are old enough to play games that are fun for us all - Uno, RLC, and new ones they got for Christmas. We are so blessed!

We went bowling on Monday afternoon - the 3 guys against the 5 girls - whoever lost had to do the dishes that night. Girls Rule!! The funniest part was that the girls actually did pretty good and we had to struggle to beat them! But, they got to use the "bumpers" to prevent gutter balls and we didn't!

On Tuesday we went to Lankford Market for lunch. Roger saw it on "Diners, Drive Ins and Dives" and had to try their "Fire Burger." He and Carlos both ate one - covered in jalapenos and habenero cheese sauce - Roger was proud he hung in there with Carlos and the hot stuff!! But, he did admit later that it "maxed him out!"

Then we went ice skating at an outside rink in downtown Houston. It was cool but a beautiful sunny day - unfortunately, the ice was melting and wet. I love to ice skate and was really tempted but after I saw a kid fall in a big puddle I was less enthused. Plus, the last thing I need is another broken bone! So Kyle and Samantha were the only brave hearts! Samantha is actually pretty good - must have a lot of Grandma Kate in her!

Santa and his elves surprised the girls and decorated their playhouse - it is so cute - and they love it! They got a pretend cappuccino machine so it has turned into a "coffee house" - complete with entertainment as Emily plays the guitar Santa gave her!

Santa left Samantha a gymnastics bar but, he didn't have time to install it so, he left a note asking if Daddy would do it. We played the "high - low" game at dinner and Samantha said "My high was getting my gymnastics bar and my low is not being able to play on it for 3 days until the cement dries!"

Heather asked Emily to say grace before Christmas dinner and she decided to play her guitar and sing "Happy Birthday, Jesus" instead! The guitar did not come with a pick but Judy sent them some plastic food to play with in the playhouse and Emily uses a piece of the plastic lettuce as a pick! Too funny!
 

 

Playhouse Diner

The girls invited us to be at their house at 6pm tonight for a "surprise." We figured they were going to do a Christmas program or something similar but.......

We were escorted by two waitresses, in their pink uniforms (Flo and Alice!) to the "Playhouse Diner" for a "Builder Bash." Twinkle lights, fancy table cloth, candle, china and crystal - provided a romantic setting for a dinner for two served by Samantha and Emily. We had name cards and a printed menu and very attentive service. Wine, walnut salad, salmon and asparagus with chocolate, peppermint cheesecake for dessert - it was delicious!

The girls were so cute - Emily told us all about our silverware - which was our salad fork and which was the one to use to eat our "pink fish." She also told us to please talk quietly because there was a "wedding party in the room next door!" Samantha told us the food was free but we could leave a tip if we wanted - "Mommy told us not to ask for a tip - so, I'm not asking for one - I'm just telling you about it."

They have been to enough restaurants to know all the lingo and are hilarious in how accurate they are imitating the waitresses. I got them some receipt books to play with and so they write down our orders and everything - although, we often have to spell for them!

Boomer Dinner

We went to Austin last Friday, had dinner with Carlos and Megan and then drove up to Waco, on Saturday, to see the Madison Mavericks football team (the high school the girls attended) play in the state semi-finals. A cold but clear day and a great game until the end when Pearland scored in the last minute and won!

We went to San Antonio on Sunday afternoon and stayed at the townhome for a couple days getting some things done before we leave for the west coast. Roger checked in with the guys at work and we met friends for dinner.

Monday night was Boomer night - always fun to get together with our RV crowd!

Playhouse - Phase 4

Almost done! Just a little landscaping, flowers in the window box and decorating the inside!

 

 

 

I "set" the stick on floor tiles but they did not turn out well. Not sticky enough to stay flat but too sticky to pull up and re-do! Roger says it's because I'm not used to doing any "blue collar" work! I say it's because we weren't smart enough to use additional glue!



Family Furniture

It is fun for me to visit the girls homes and see family furniture with a "new life."

Megan took the top from the round, oak table that was in my grandparent's kitchen for as long as I can remember and made a new coffee table for her living room. The wrought iron legs are from one of Carlos' relatives.

Heather took - well, to tell the truth, I forced them on her! - the two mauve swivel chairs that were in our formal living room on Briardale and then in our Spring Branch home - and had them recovered for their new family room. They are really comfortable chairs and look great in their new fabric!

 

Roger and I bought this chest before Heather was born and used it in her room - with a changing pad on top. It was painted in many pastel colors. I can't remember all the places it has been in the last 40 years but, here it is in Heather and Kyle's guest room!

 

 



 

 



Samantha Kate's 8th Birthday Party

Samantha's birthday isn't until December 17th but that is always too close to Christmas for friend parties so she had four classmates over yesterday for a "Fairy" party. They made fairy gardens to take home - had a scavenger hunt to find fairies that were hiding in the house - ate ice cream cake and had a fun afternoon. Hard for us to believe she is 8 years old already!

Christmas Tradition

We made our traditional gingerbread houses this week-end - always fun to decorate with the candy and frosting that is left after all the tasting!!

Heather has had fun decorating their new home for the holidays!

The "kids" tree 

 

Emily calls this "the adult tree"

 

 

 

Playhouse - Phase 3

The playhouse is almost done! Roger installed the door today. Kyle and Heather volunteered to have it painted - hopefully, the weather will allow it to be done tomorrow as scheduled. Then the shingles, door hardware, inside shelving and the floor tiles.

The girls are already playing "drive through restaurant" - you place your order and pay at the side window and pick up your "latte" at the front window! Starbucks beware - competition is coming!!

Playhouse - Phase 2

It was really cold and rainy in Houston when we returned from Broken Bow but the weather has cleared and it has been cool and sunny over the Thanksgiving week-end. I have been in Kuala Lumpur the past 2 Thanksgivings so poor Roger has missed his favorite holiday meal. Kyle, Heather and the girls are in Biloxi with Kyle's family so I cooked a small turkey with dressing and mashed potatoes for the 2 of us. It was delicious - not that I'm that great a cook - we were just really hungry for our traditional meal!
This has been a great time to work on the playhouse. The girls spent the night with us on Tuesday and we went to Home Depot to pick out supplies on Wednesday morning. Samantha and Emily were a big help and used their math skills to help us count and figure out cost. Everyone they saw was told all about how Grandpa is building them a playhouse!!
I was looking at fresh Christmas wreaths on the way in and said I wanted one for my house - Emily said "Excuse me, you don't have a house!"
Roger does the building and I do the carting, carrying and clean-up - sort of the work sight squaw! We are making progress....

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Wall #1

Wall #2

Broken Bow, OK

We spent last week at Beaver's Bend State Park in Broken Bow, OK with friends - Gary, Ann, Dan and Pam. Beautiful fall weather and color until Friday when winter blew in! Dan and Pam are younger than we are but just got fed up with the stress of jobs etc. so sold everything, moved into their motorhome and are now "full timers" like us! Gary and Ann are getting ready to do the same when Gary retires next October. Proof that we are not the only crazy people out there!

Good friends, good food and plenty of good laughs!



We played golf - sunny but cool - this is the 16th "island" green

Dan, Gary, Pam, Ann, Roger



We camped along the river where the eagles dived for fish

 

Superhero - Bepa

"Bepa" is what the girls call Kyle's Dad. Samantha is studying about Superhero's at school - not TV/movie ones but everyday hero's. Wendell was interviewed on the local TV station recently for a story regarding driving while using a cell phone. Sharon posted it on Facebook and I showed it to the girls when they were here visiting. This essay is the result. She had to point out that only 5 essays out of the whole second grade were chosen to be displayed in the hall and that the second grade at Hubenak is bigger than Emily's entire school! I know I am prejudiced but her writing, spelling and penmanship - compared to the others - was amazing! Just a bragging Tima!!

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Playhouse - Phase 1

I talked Roger into building a playhouse for Samantha and Emily for Christmas this year. We knew we had to get Kyle and Heather's approval (think Kyle was afraid his mother-in-law might move in when the kids outgrew it!) but, we also had to get the Homeowners Association to sign off on the plan, the size and the location in their yard. After much research and discussion, I bought a plan online and we got everything approved - ready to buy supplies and get started - right? - wrong!! Seems we (all 4 of us) didn't communicate as well as we thought and we ended up starting all over again. New plan, new location, new permission from the HOA.
Roger wanted to get started setting the blocks it will sit on so we started before we got the formal OK. He and Kyle figured it was low risk - we didn't change that much in the plan - figured it would be approved again so we dug out sod and leveled the blocks yesterday morning and built the floor.

The approval came in the mail in the afternoon with one caveat that was not in the first letter they sent  - "It must be located 6 feet from the property line." Guess what?! Yup, today we filled in what we dug up yesterday and moved the playhouse to a different location! Hopefully, this is the end of our problems. Why don't our projects go as easily as the ones on the DIY network?

The girls are excited and Heather and I are anxious for the decorating stage!

Stay tuned........

Top Golf

Happy Birthday, Kyle!

We all went to Austin this past week-end to celebrate Kyle's birthday (11-10) and an early Thanksgiving. It was beautiful weather so we (us women!) decided we did not want to stay home cooking all day on Saturday and ordered a fully cooked turkey from Luby's cafeteria. That way all we had to do was make the side dishes. Not the best Thanksgiving dinner we've ever had but...we were all together for the first time in several years so we were thankful anyway! My gravy was a total disaster without turkey fat - should have bought a package of gravy mix! We all thought of Izetta - she could make delicious gravy out of nothing!!

We went to Top Golf on Saturday afternoon. What a unique place! Those that have never heard of it should check it out on the Internet - most of them are in Texas. In a nutshell - it is a 3 level golf driving range with computers that allow you to select different games and that keeps score for everyone. You can bring your own clubs or they have clubs available - even for "lefties" and kids. Fun for the whole family!

They have other games; serve food and liquor and cater parties. Carlos said they have the 3rd highest booze sales in Austin! I guess bars are typically open at night and here people drink all day long!!

On Sunday, we went to a Farmer's Market and then went Geo caching at a nearby park. The girls were so excited to explain it to Grandpa and I and when we actually found the hidden "treasure" they went crazy! Another fun family activity.

Kyle's best friend from college, his best man at the wedding, and his wife now live in Austin so we brought the girls back to Houston with us while Heather, Kyle, Megan, Carlos, Jennifer and Rod all went out to dinner and to a taping of "Austin City Limits" on Sunday night. It is so nice to be close so we all can get together often!

Happy Birthday, Emily!

Hard to believe Emily is 5 years old! Her birthday was Tuesday, November 5, but her party was at her gymnastics club on Saturday afternoon. All her friends from school and the neighborhood were there to bounce in the blow up choo-choo train and have fun with the instructors. It was a great place to party - the kids played, ate cake, and went home - we did too - left the clean-up to the staff!!

Samantha and Emily in the Chuggy Choo Choo

We topped off the day with dinner at Lupe's and a Spanish happy birthday song!

 

 

Halloween 2013

We passed out candy while Kyle and Heather took the girls trick or treating. They found "costumes" for us too - I was a cowgirl and Grandpa was a clown! They were so cute when they came home - they were excited to tell us they "got plain M&M's for Tima and peanut M&M's for Grandpa because we know you like them!!

Kyle and Rachel's Wedding - October 12, 2013

We left Albuquerque on Tuesday morning and headed for Texas. Judy and Marilou believe us now when we say west Texas is a whole lot of nothing! We stayed in San Antonio on Wednesday night and then drove to Houston on Thursday. It was so great to see the family and especially the kids!
Everyone was at Kyle and Heather's new home for a "Kyle and Rachel Fiesta" complete with a Mexican buffet; margaritas and fried ice cream!



The girls got the glasses at a garage sale!!!

It was a whirlwind week-end of eating and drinking at the rehearsal dinner; the wedding; a brunch on Sunday morning at the Morgan's home and then a final Eddy/Lasich get together on Sunday afternoon. Always fun to spend time with family.

 

We got to meet our great niece, Charlotte (6mns,) for the first time - what a cutie. Of course, no one paid any attention to her!! But, she was so good - she went to everyone and was happy to just watch the "goings on."

The wedding was lovely, the bride beautiful, the groom handsome, the food good, the band great - a wonderful celebration! Samantha and Emily had a ball dancing the night away!

Mass Ascension - Day 2

We stayed at the motorhome for the second mass ascension and saw the balloons from a different perspective. Another glorious morning for launching them.....

Mass Ascension - Day 1

It was a glorious morning Sunday for the Mass Ascension of balloons - I'll let the pictures speak for themselves!

I'm having a problem loading my entire web album into this blog so here are just a few pictures!

International Balloon Festival - Albuquerque, NM

We registered at the Balloon Festival campground on Thursday afternoon and then picked Marilou up at the airport early evening. Our camp site is in the "standard" lot - no water, electric or sewer but plenty of dirt and other RV's! It is directly across the road from the launch grounds so the balloons float right over us. The volunteers do a great job and the whole system is very well organized - they have been doing it for many years. This year's theme is "Enchanted Sunrise."

We rode the tram up to the top of Sandia Peak on Friday morning for a spectacular view of the city and surrounding area. It was sunny and in the sixties in Albuquerque and 38 degrees with a 25 mile an hour wind on the top of the mountain!

Us girls went to an Arts and Crafts fair on Friday afternoon and saw some amazing art, jewelry, pottery and clothing - of course, some of it had our names on it! Roger is so glad to have Judy and Marilou with us - gets him off " shopping duty."

The shuttle bus to takes us across the street to the Balloon Park. The "Dawn Patrol" was scheduled to go up at 5:45am on Saturday - this is a group of experienced balloonists that check to wind speeds and directions. Next comes the "Morning Glow" - the balloons are inflated and "glow" in the dark while remaining on the ground. These events are followed by the "Mass Ascension" - all the balloons ascend in waves - as they are given the "OK" from the "Zebras" - the officials wearing black and white striped jackets. Unfortunately, the mass ascension was cancelled on Saturday because the winds were not favorable. A few balloons went up but we were tired, cold and disappointed!!

Not much happens during the day - the main events are early morning and dusk.  The evening events - the "Twilight Twinkle Glow" and "Afterglow Fireworks" display were fun but the mornings are when the real action takes place.