Fathers Day and June Birthdays

We are really lucky with the children area of our life. We were able to spend Father’s Day and celebrate June Birthdays with our twin sons and two of our grandsons. Steak and dad’s macaroni salad were on the menu. Lee cooked the steaks and the rest of us ate and enjoyed the fun times. We had s’mores for desert  

Scraptember!

I joined a group that creates a scrapbook layout each day in September. The gal provides a sketch and then everyone runs with it and they post the results each day. It’s amazing to see the jump off sketch transform into an actual layout. 

I wanted to use  these pics of my dad on a boat ride up the Klamath river the year he passed away. My brother Ray took him up river and posted the pics. Such a great memory shared showing Dad doing something he loved. 

Going Home?

Laton and I had a few days off so we decided to head to Picacho and do a check up on the park model. There had been several inches of rain and a lot of monsoon storms. House was okay, but unfortunately, our car barely made it home. Instead of four days in AZ, we spent eight days while the new transmission was put in our car. We were very lucky to have good friends and our son, Lee, help us out with errands! 

Got to spend some time with our very cute and funny grandson, Ethan. I got 3 months of dust off the floors but still needed to dust the furniture. Ethan scolded me and told me my house was very dirty! Out of the mouthes of babes! 

Ethan and Major struggling to sit closet to me. I felt so loved! Lol

Major

I got the cutest puppy picture of Major with a carrot. Sarah sent me some baby pics! 

For those that don’t know, Major came to live with us when Ethan was a baby because he had dog allergies at the time. So he is actually our granddog! 

Celebrating

Today is my birthday! Not going to put out a number but it’s more than “29”. It was a peaceful, relaxing day. Heard from all my children. I really enjoyed that. I ordered a cordless vacuum cleaner for the RV and a shipment of scrapbooking supplies arrived. All in all, a very nice celebration! 

We saw some wild horses on our drive from town. There are some baby owls hanging out in the campground. I will try to get a picture. Laton saw turkeys today. We hear them all the time. They really do gobble. Lol

Wild Horses

Happy Mother’s Day

I had a wonderful day, being totally spoiled by my hubby, even though I’m not his mother! Lol. I heard from all my children which I enjoyed very much. I sent several greetings to friends and family and received  lots of responses back. 

Sarah, Ethan and Lee sent me this picture! So sweet! I’m a lucky mom, wife and g-ma! 

Major

Our Major is very happy! He looks a little grumpy in this picture. Backstory-Laton wouldn’t let him chase the wild turkeys!

Fun Day Friday

I’ve been waiting for this trip cuz I love, love, love Kayla R. at  Posh Salon. She does a great job cutting my hair and her shampoos are so relaxing. 

That evening Steve made us smoked salmon 🍣 on his smoker BBQ. Wow, it was delicious. 

Family

We had a great evening around the campfire at  Island Acres State Park. We had tacos, and played poker. I kicked butt and cleaned out Steve and Biba of their nickels and dimes. Steve asked me to make Calico Rice, a family camping favorite. 

Calico Rice

Create an aluminum foil bowl. I always layer my heavy duty foil in a cast iron skillet that can go on the campfire. 

1 can of Veg-All mixed vegetables

1 small box of minute rice 

1 pkg ( 2-3 cups) of shredded cheddar cheese

1 small onion, chopped

2-4 tsp butter

Salt and pepper to taste

In aluminum bowl, dump the undrained veg-all, using can as measuring cup, add 2 cans of rice, 2 cans of water, then add in onions, cheese, salt and pepper, mix and add butter in dollops to top. Cover with foil, set on BBQ or campfire and heat until water is absorbed and cheese is melted. 

Enjoy!

Our Anniversary

Today is our 49th Wedding Anniversary. I have heard from all my kids and an extra special dinner was created for me by Laton. I love my hubby! Seems like yesterday when we married. 

This says it all...

And together we built a life we loved!

4-15-21 49 Years

Happy Easter Post Covid

This holiday is very different than 2020. We had a family get together yesterday, hid Easter eggs with our grandchildren, shared delicious food and took the littles swimming. What a joyful day. 

I made a fun tray for treats for the bunny and the kids!

Ethan and Tino with grandma. I even had a happy fur baby! 

But the real reason for such a wonderful holiday is beyond chocolate and eggs. 

He is risen!

Hygge

It has been helpful to be off social media during this trying times; quarantine, covid, and politics. 

I decided to extend my gratefulness to include Hygge. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hygge 

It’s a Danish word that translates to a mood of coziness and comfortable conviviality with feelings of wellness and contentment. 

A nice place to be! I found a 7 day challenge of how to achieve HYGGE. 

Gratitude

Laton and I have noticed a side effect of this quarantine is a feeling of gratefulness. We are grateful for our home, our friends, our family, food, gas and the fact that we still love each other!  

One of my goals this year is to reread my Simple Abundance series by Sarah Ban Breathnach.  Today’s reading referenced a gratitude journal. Today’s essay starts with the following. 

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision of tomorrow.” -Melody Beattie

Sisters!

My sister and I are extremely close. I’m 12 years older than her, so I feel like her sister, 2nd mother, aunt, and best friend. We live 1,200 miles apart but our hearts live next to each other. We have a tradition of talking to each other several times a week, we pretend to have coffee and lunch together several times a month, there are little gifts back and forth a few times a year, and we try for a in person visit at least once a year! 

Today she was on a trip to the vet with the new puppy, Copper and she sent me this pic. Of course I had almost the same pic that I took a couple days ago!

Her response was Sisters!

A New Adventure

I haven’t talked about COVID-19 much. Laton and I have sheltered in place since 3-18-20. After 47 days, we are on the road again. We accepted a camp host position at Highline Lake near Grand Junction, CO. click here

We start working 5-1-20 for a two month stint. It is so nice to be out of the house, away from the news and house chores. The different scenery is great! We drove southeast and plan on going up through NM to CO and take a few days to get there. Something different from traveling through the AZ-UT reservation as there are few places to stop and there is a high COVID-19 infection rate in that area. 

With masks in hand, we have set out on our adventure. NM has state park closures until 5-1-20 so our favorite landing spot, City of Rocks State Park is not available for camping. 

We ended up spending the night at Elephant Butte Lake RV Resort near the town of Truth or Consequences, NM. It was a very nice resort and we ended up getting one of the last spots. Because of COVID-19 mandates they are required to stay at 25% occupancy. Most traveler services like rest areas, truck stops and restaurant drive throughs are mostly open. 

Our dogs are really happy to be out and about again. Temperature are in the 90’s so far. Using the AC requires electricity so we will be doing very little dry camping at this point. Stay with us on our new adventure! 

Happy Easter

As we shelter at home on this Easter holiday, there will be no family dinner, no Easter egg hunt, no church service, no new Easter outfit and especially no gathering of friends and family. 

In this time of electronic communication, I still get to hear little Ethan yell “love you Grammy” on our FaceTime calls, my sister and I still have cyber coffee and lunch together, we get calls and texts from our family on a daily basis with the added admonition “wash your hands”!

So, no family dinner means no dishes, no Easter egg hunt means no chocolate to resist, no church service still means God knows what’s in our heart, no new Easter outfit means money saved,  no physical gathering of friends and family means no one will drink too much, eat too much or get their feelings hurt. 

We will have this day to truly ponder the fact:

• John 11:25-26: "Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?'"

Snow Babies!

Carrie with her snow baby girl, Lumara

Lumara's snow baby boy, Vance

California or Bust

We are settled here in Grand Junction for several months so have decided to go to California to pick up our jeep & utility trailer from storage and bring them back. We checked on lots of options for traveling to California. The cheapest was Amtrak, believe it or not. It was only $114 for a 1-way ticket to Sacramento for one person. After much discussion and crunching the numbers, we decided to rent a car for $88 with unlimited mileage, drove 15 hours to Yuba City, CA and had time to spend a day or two with our nephew Alan and his wife Kirsty. It worked out well because I got to go and we were able to take the dogs with us. They love to travel.

Cousins!

Vance, Lumara, Valentino, Lee

Lee & Valentino

Our son Lee has a son!




Our newest grandchild, Valentino Lee, was born on September 2, 2011 and weighed in at 7 lbs 14 oz and is 20 1/2 inches long.

Oh Baby!

Grammy & Diesel

Spent the afternoon with our daughter and grand baby today.  We had so much fun. We had dinner with our friend, Tom. He baked his famous Shepherd's Pie...So good.  Our former neighbor, Victor came for dinner also.  Then we spent an hour swimming in Tom's pool.  A pool is a real asset here in this hot weather.
I know everyone is tired of pictures of the baby, but we sure aren't. LOL  We had suggested the name Dalton when Lumara was picking a name. She choose Vance, so we call him Diesel Dalton just to tease her and it is becoming his nickname.

Lumara & Vance in the pool