And Away we go

and headed south to Rundi’s.  We spent a restful night there and then up Friday morning and off to Newport for our granddaughter’s 7^th birthday party.

Just in case we did not know who’s birthday it was

We arrived at their home and got to help with some of the decorations.  They were using what we used to call “pipe cleaners” but now it is PC to call them “fuzzy sticks”.  The theme for the party was “Winter Wonderland” and we were making snowflakes that the 12 7 year old girls (more about them later) could decorate.

Then we left home and headed to pick up the ready to bake pizza, then on to the Newport Community Center

This is a commercial

to help decorate for the party

Entrance to Community center

Blow up balloons

Personalized ones

hang up lights,

Dad is busy with the lights

put out the teddy bears,

Teddy Bears all ready to go

donated by grandma, get out the cake

Mom made this wonderful cake

and other refreshments.

12 excited 7 year old girls.  When the guest arrived they got to make snowflakes

Gathering fun

and of course they all brought gifts.

Very colorful wrappings

The girls had a snowball fight complete with forts to hide behind (cardboard forts with marshmallow snowballs)

Team One

Team Two

I think daddy had as much if not more fun than the girls.

“I dare you to hit me”

Time to have something to eat

Ella serving her guest

Reegan is helping also

and the largest squeals came from the girls playing in the blowing snow (nice touch with the snow machine).

Let it snow let it snow

And it is still snowing

More fun and games and then to the important part of cutting the cake ( Cari made the cake, of course)

and the pops were made of cake with frosting of some kind on them

It was fun and delicious all at once.

Getting ready to cut the cake

and opening the gifts

We are just getting started

Reegan is always there to help her little sister

Can you say Moo

Lots more gifts

And a sewing machine from Grandma

More snow

It was a really bad snow storm

and a game with the teddy bears as prizes

Duck Duck ??

and they all went home.

We waited until the morning, had breakfast at the girls favorite breakfast place and then we headed back north to get home for church on Sunday.  Great trip and lots of fun.

Got to love American made Japanese cars

and headed south to Rundi’s.  She went down early to help get ready for Thanksgiving.  Harlyn, Cari and the girls were coming up on Monday to assist also.

Wednesday, just after noon, one of our great neighbors took me to the Amtrak station in Tukwila where I boarded the Cascade train headed south.

Nice ride

The train was quite full and a young soldier got on in Tacoma and sat next to me.  He is stationed at JBLM and was headed home to Eugene Or to spend the holidays with his family.  Very interesting young man.  He was a “civilian intelligence gather”.  In non-military language that is an interrogator.  He had some interesting stories but if he told me he would have to kill me.

I arrived at the Vancouver, WA station and Harlyn and his family picked me up. It is always great to see them; the two young girls have so much energy.  More about that later. Rundi had to work late that night so we did not get to see her until after 10PM.

The rest of the evening was filled with Reegan and Ella practicing their “dismount” from the “beam”

Nice red beam

The best that was scored was a 9.92 (I am a very hard judge)

Ta Da

Ella had learned to play Chinese checkers and so she taught me.  I’m not sure of the exact rules but I know Ella’s.  She won some and I won some.

Up to 6 can play but we stuck with 2

Thanksgiving Day the house smelled very good early

Pre-dinner snacks

and we had our dinner about 2:30.  Of course I forgot to take the before photos, but did get some after ones.

Harlyn & Cari working

Rundi made the neat chair back covers

This is what is left of the turkey after Harlyn was done carving

After dinner we had some great homemade berry pie made by Cari.

Harlyn took the two girls to the park (part of the get rid of the energy program).

Smile nice for Grandpa

On the way home they found two Mormon Missionaries walking along the road,

Nice, well mannered, and very clean cut

so they picked them up and brought them home for dessert.  Nice young men and we all had a great time.  Harlyn would not let me harass them and pretend I knew little about their religion.

Rundi had to work Friday so she went to work, Harlyn, Cari and the girls left for home and Barbara and I checked for leaks in our eyelids and looked after Frankie (Rundi’s act).

Saturday morning we got into “Get’em up Scout”

About the same color as HI Ho Silver

and headed home for a dark but dry drive.

We have a lot to be thankful for this year and look forward to a great 2013.  Cari made a Thankful Turkey

Great idea we all can take part in

and we got to pin tail feathers on with the things we were thankful for.  A great tradition and we look forward to adding more feather next year.

Hi Ho and away we go

and our chauffeur Steve Klem took us to the airport where got on a Delta A319 Airbus

Leaving SEA

and headed to SLC. While we were waiting to board Barbara got us breakfast.  She wanted me to think we were headed to Hawaii to she got the Hawaii McDonald’s breakfast, white rice, fried Spam and scrambled eggs.  Quite tasty. Since I was slow in getting our seat assignment we did not get two seats together nor did we get an aisle like Barbara likes.  Here is where Delta scores the first of many good deeds.  When we got to the gate, the agent call our name and when I went up there she gave us new boarding passes together and upgraded us to Economy Comfort seats including as aisle at no charge. (they are normally $29.00 each)

We had a 2.5 hour lay over before we got on the Delta Connection RCJ 200

They make great SEADOOS also

headed for ABQ. While we were waiting a very nice gate agent told us they were overbooked (surprise, surprise, surprise) and if we wanted to give up our two seats we would get $200 Delta credit each and meal vouchers and confirmed on the next flight only 1.5 hours away.  Since we did not have to be in ABQ at any particular time, we said yes.  But when they were ready to board they only needed one so we did not get the offer.  It does not take long to board 50 passengers so off we went to ABQ, traded our “baby jet” for a Mazda 6 (they call this a full size car),

Full Size???

had diner at a local truck stop and then on to our motel for a quick check-in.

The purpose of our trip was to watch Brooklyn ride in the Youth National Championship Horse Show

Welcome Banner

Next morning we were up at o’dark thirty (who rides at 8AM on a Sunday morning) so we could meet Brooklyn for breakfast at 7AM.  We got exhibitor’s parking passes so into the show grounds we went.  Then on to a side road with a lady guarding the way in.  I asked if there was handicap parking down there and she says she did not know but we could go look.  We drove straight to the Horse arena front door and parked.  Brooklyn rode at 8AM and did well and went through to the next round.

And she makes the cut

Who says you can’t work up a sweat in an air conditioned arena

We watched a couple more events then on to find church.  On the way Barbara got VERY bad stomach cramps, so bad in fact that I took her to the University of New Mexico Medical Center ER.  Readers Digest version.  Checked in at 11AM, sat in the waiting room until 6PM (they did keep checking on her and the pain had eased), went into an exam room at 6PM and the Dr. saw her at 9PM and admitted her to the hospital at 5AM.  They are very through there and they ran many tests and she was discharged about 5PM Tuesday.  Love those beds that keep airing up and changing the support spots.  Barbara is fine and all they could figure after MANY exams and at least 6 quarts of blood (well maybe not quite 6) was that she has some sort of intestinal virus that the antibiotics fixed in the 2+ days she was there.

On Monday while Barbara was being well looked after I went to watch Brooklyn ride again. Did not do well but that is only because the judges were BLIND.

Waiting for the Blind Judge

After Brooklyn rode she went up to see grandma and made some friends for her from some PURPLE exam gloves

Very pretty

filled with water and faces drawn on them.

Monday evening the group from Melville stables

Rich keeps the place looking great

invited me to go to dinner with them to a local “hot spot” the “Le Pinto” in NW ABQ.

Nice looking place

Nice looking place and though we had thunder storms and it was a Monday evening they were busy.  I requested a table for 12 and in a timely manner we got to sit out in the covered patio.  Nice old Spanish style building and the wait staff were great.

Waiting area

This is the end of the good story.  When we go to our table they only had settings for 11 not the 12 we had requested.  It took ages for the drinks to arrive.  2 of the 12 meals were sent back as they were not as ordered, we asked for extra salsa twice and none arrived. I had the “House Specialty” Chile con Carne Enchiladas and not only was it not tasty, it had set under the heat lamp way too long and the cheese was hard and crusted.  The final decision is that none of us would probably go back.

On now to Tuesday and Barbara coming out of the hospital, we left about 5PM and went straight to get her something to eat as she had not eaten since 7AM Sunday.  Back to the motel and she went to sleep at 7:30 PM and got up at 9:30 (AM) Wednesday.

We went to watch Brooklyn ride twice that afternoon.  Once the horse played up

Doing well now

and then once again we had the blind judges.

“And halt your horse”

We picked Brooklyn up from their hotel and we went to dinner, although she had found the in house bakery and some very good cake before we got there so she did not each much. Dropped her off and we went back to get some more sleep.

Thursday Brooklyn left for home and Barbara and I went exploring.  We found more of the old Route 66

Modern travel center

Not so modern travel center

Bad news for baddies

and found a Sonics and happy hour and a couple of HUGE LDS chapels.  Back to the motel and some TV and laundry.

Friday we did some more exploring (that is code for garage saleing, flea markets and trading posts).  More sightseeing enjoying more of the 95 degree very dry weather.  And more of Route 66

This is an old road

We found a new and interesting High School in SW ABQ.  The Atrisco Heritage High School.  Ahahighschool.com   Check it out.

When I went to check in with Delta on Friday evening they again became heroes.  In the middle of the things you need to click on to get checked in was a banner that asked if we wanted to upgrade to First Class from SLC to SEA as there are no first class on the RCJ 200’s. The cost was $75.00 per person.  Now it cost us $25.00 per bag to check the two bags coming down and we bought another bag there to bring home the extra goodies (See Friday activity) So that was $150.00 – $85.00 for checking 3 bags in economy and then if we upgraded to Economy Comfort for another $58.00 for two that makes it $3.50 each to go to first class.  This was a no brain er and when you figure the cost of the free booze in first class (oh wait we don’t drink).  Anyway it was a very nice upgrade.  Delta rules!!!

First Class tickets for a first class trip

Saturday was filled with last minute details.  While I went to check in the car, Barbara checked the bags.  As we had not been assigned seats together (because of my slow actions before we left) the very nice agent changed our seats and gave us 1 A & B,

Leg room at the bulk head

leg room on the bulkhead. Delta strikes again!!!

As we went through security the gloves the TSA agents were using was a brand named “Better Feel”.  I don’t care who you are that is funny.

The only thing that would have made this flight any better was if our friend and Captain for Sky West had been our pilot.

SLC was a quick connection and we got from terminal E last gate to C 07 just as they called first class.  Great seats and comfort home on a local built 757

Gotta love the local aircraft

When we got to SEA our son Stephen and his family met us and hauled us home.  Stephen even carried the VERY heavy bags up stairs so we could unpack in the morning.

The End

Hi Ho Silver "Away"

and headed south.  We stayed the night at Rundi’s and headed for the Oregon Coast Thursday morning, stopping at the Woodburn Outlet mall

Woodburn Oregon

then on to Newport.

The goal of this trip was to help Reegan celebrate her 9^thbirthday

Birthday girl

Even though her birthday was not that day she had planned a party for some of her friends. We helped decorate by hanging streamers

Reegan's bedroom door

and other decorations,

Dad and guests in the foreground

and blowing up balloons

Grandma hung them on the wall

(Ella helped me with this job).   About 6PM guests start arriving for a 7PM start.

Here come the girls

More guests

9 eight and nine year old girls.

First we had appetizers and popcorn

Good goodies

then pizza and pink lemonade, then for dessert we had “grilled cheese” sandwiches

Grilled cheese

Now with candles

And now they are out

and “Tomato” soup.

Soup was NOT hot

Ask Reegan what they really were.

The invitations had asked them to bring mud boots and pajamas.   In their treat bags were glow in the dark sticks and LED flashlights.  So outside in the rain they went and played flashlight tag and harassed the chickens.  Once they were all wet and muddy, they came inside, changed into their PJ’s and we opened presents.

Presents

Lots of squeals of joy (I think that is what they were).

Now for the good fun

Reegan would not let me try out her new longing whip.

Not a fly rod

(I thought it was a new fishing pole when it was wrapped). After the presents were opened

More presents

And still more presents

they each had a pillow cover to decorate and then take home.

Pj'ed girls and pillow cases

More of the above

Mom starts cleaning up

Thank Heaven for moms

Barbara and I left about that time and missed the movie and the goodbyes as the party ended about 10:30 PM.

I guess we are getting too old for all the excitement and the sounds of that many young ladies having fun.

After breakfast at the Pig N Pancake

Girls' favorite breakfast spot

where we again celebrated Reegan’s birthday and Ella’s getting a new bike because she can now ride with no training wheels, we headed towards home.

No excitement coming home except for the sunshine and no rain.

The first challenge is we had to run a HDMI cable from the component cabinet up to the attic, over the walls and then down under the house.  We ran out of time as Harlyn was also in town to help DJ at a friend’s wedding so they had a rehearsal that evening.  So with the family room in pieces and the TV not working, we waited until Friday morning to finish the job.  The TV works fine, but the 15 year old Sony receiver does not have a HDMI in or out so no sound except through the TV speakers.  So off to Best Buy for a new receiver (this one has 6 HDMI ports) and all kinds of features that will take us in the 23^rd century (at the rate I upgrade).

Hooked it up and it works great, better than ears can detect.  The Denon receiver has a set up microphone that receives sounds from the speakers and sets them for the “sweet” spot.  Now that is neat.

On Saturday Barbara bought some daffodils that were still in the “bud” stage.  They came out overnight and looked great.

Red hair, yellow flowers

Sunday came and off to church.  Harlyn’s family came back over after church and we had dinner.  Saturday afternoon Barbara made some deviled eggs.  These are special “peeps” and Reegan and Ella helped by putting the black olive eyes and carrot noses on them.

Our "Peeps"

Leg of Lamb, ham, two types of potatoes, 3 other veggies, baked rolls, sparkling cider, green salad and other stuff too numerous to mention was the fare.

We are about ready

Ella is ready

Dessert was “bunny” cupcakes and finally we got to the baskets someone left for us.

Great goodies from "The Grandma bunny"

All is well except that we do not have an HD Blu-ray player so I guess that is next on the wish list (Hint, hint, hint)

Hi Ho Ouch !!!

but only took a short trip to the body shop to have the repairs done on the car while we were away.  Came home and jumped into Black Beauty

Thanks to Alamo

and headed for parts East & South.  We had brunch with my sister Jill in Sand Hollow Idaho

Interesting place as it is the only building in "town"

on the 9^th and headed for Utah.  Barbara got an ear infection that night and we found a new BFF in “Instacare” in North Ogden, UT.

27 minutes after walking into the office, seeing a doctor, getting a prescription filled we walked out all ready to continue the trip.  A stop by Deseret Industries in West Jordon to meet up with our niece to get some canning supplies, and finished products, to take to AZ for my brother and his wife.

We stayed in Provo at our son’s house and off on Saturday night to “Love on Broadway”

Love on Broadway

a musical review of favorite Broadway songs about love.  Our granddaughter Brooklyn was part of the cast.

Notice Brooklyn

Another day of rest and lots of snow and we headed south again. Those stretches if I-15 that are 80 MPH are great.  If anyone ever asks, buy your gas in St George UT not Mesquite NV.  40 cents a gallon more in NV.  More driving and we arrived in Scottsdale for the Arabian horse show.

New background every year

Our main reason for the trip.  This is Brooklyn’s 5^th year showing there and we have been each year.

Then after the first show (in which Brooklyn won a ribbon)

5th place today (out of 27)

we headed off to my brothers home. In the following days we did more shows,

"Slick" stands proud

more ribbons

Top 10 out of a VERY big class

and visits with Albert and DJ Wilson, dinner with the Manginos and church with Dan and Melissa McAfee.

Jerry picked fresh oranges, tangelos, and grapefruit from his back yard and we took them to the stables with us for the crowd there.

Monday the 20^thwe headed west on I-10 and stopped to visit Norville and Leoyce Broadbent at their “winter” home in Palm Desert. We went to dinner at a posh Southern CA restaurant

Top notch place

.  A couple of more relaxed driving days and we stopped to visit an old missionary companion of mine Justin

My first "Greenie" (44 years later)

(had not seen him in 42 years) He was actually my first “greenie”.

44 Years ago

They are in Folsom, not the prison the town.  He works at the Sacramento Temple one day a week.

Very pretty

Got to meet his wife Lori

Justin has great taste in ladies

and their youngest son Andrew.  Great visit then we hit the road again and went north on I-5.

Last stop before home was our daughter Rundi’s home (and of course we saw Frankie the cat).

Home late Sunday evening after driving through sleet, snow, hail, and some sunshine.  Great trip now we just need time to recover from vacation.

The Program

Each year the local community theater group put on a musical in January (See last year’s “Wonderland! The Musical Misadventures of a Girl Named Alice”) at the Performing Arts Center (the PAC as our granddaughters informed us)
Again our son Harlyn was the musical director of the live orchestra and Reegan played a 3rd class passenger. Ella was also involved as the aux percussion. She played the ship’s bell, the wooden blocks, and the cymbal.
It was a great performance although Reegan died again this year. Last year she played a clam that was eaten by a walrus. I told her she need a better agent.
One of the neat things they did was to hand each theater goer a “boarding pass” with the name of a real passenger or crew member.

Mr Frank Oliver Evans

Then they had a list of all the names and whether they lived or died, 711 lived and over 1500 died. Barbara and Rundi died, I was a crew member and lived as he rowed one of the lifeboats. It was neat when we got home for me to go online and read about this crew member and how he testified at the Senate hearing. I got to read the whole transcript of his testimony.
Saturday morning we got up and met the kids at the Pig N Pancake (this was a request of both the granddaughters).

Newport’s historic city hall was renovated and reopened in January of 2009 as the newest Pig ‘N Pancake restaurant. The city hall was originally built in the 1920′s and is now part of Newport’s Deco District with Pig ‘N Pancake carrying on the tradition. Come check it out for yourself and see our Deco Pig – “The Professor.”

After breakfast we headed to Rundi’s for a short break then Barbara and I headed home through a snow storm. Good ole HHS made the trip fine.
Can’t wait until next year to see what play they are doing.

Again overflowing

and opening of presents.

The tree once more played an important part.

Santa did come to our home

Jonah got to watch his sisters open their presents as he had gotten his during Episode II

Nothing for me today - poor boy

Brooklyn showing Grandma neat stuff

Elissa is happy with this one

Sydney holds up "what is this"

Brooklyn once again excited

All three girls are happy with all their stuff (notice the mess)

I think the highlight though was the neighbor’s chicken.

Yum Yum Nope Nope

I wanted  it to play a very important role in the evening meal, but could not convince the girls of that.

With KFC being out of the question we finished Christmas 2011.

Full to the brim

hoping Stephen would soon be there. Stephen and part of his family joined us for our traditional Christmas Eve diner: Aussie meat pies, Pavlova and Bundaberg Ginger Beer.  Also a couple of our friends Cheryl and Tyler joined us.

After dinner Jonah played Santa

Ho Ho Ho

and we opened the stockings and any presents we had

Keri & Tyler with their Stockings

Keri seems more excited than Stephen

Cheryl watches "Santa" opens one of his own

Barbara can hardly wait

What is in the BIG box????

A chime clock - the face moves when it chimes

hoping for more when Santa comes tonight.

Our tree was a “special” one Barbara found at a local store,

Tree with presents

very colorful

With the lights on

and had that 70’s look to it.  We all got good stuff.

Now no presents (until later)

Once the mess was cleaned up all our guests left and Barbara and I settled down for a “long Winter’s nap”

Stay tuned for the final episode III

Our trusty steed

and headed south to our daughter’s place.  Not long after we got there our son Harlyn and his family arrived for what was going to be an early Christmas celebration.

Frankie (our daughter’s cat)

Frankie

was not sure what was going on and tried to stay out of the way.

Monday morning and after a quick trip to McD’s for breakfast Harlyn and Cari took off to finish Christmas shopping.  Barbara, Rundi and Reegan went to the gym that left Ella home to look after Grandpa and Frankie.  More getting ready and then we had a great dinner

Cari's Pav

Table all set

and then open the stockings

Not really hung by the chimney, but close

and some family presents

Ready to go

as of course Santa had not arrived yet.

Another "poor" Christmas

Tuesday we bundled up and headed to Hood River Oregon to ride the Polar Express.

Ticket to ride

This was a present from Harlyn’s family to the other 3 of us.  Another friend Sandy came also.  We arrived at the train station,

The Station

waited with 200+ of our closest friends

Friends

then “All Aboard” was called

The Conductor

and we climbed into the Dome Car

Grandma first then Reegan

for our trip to the North Pole.  The ticket taker came along and punched the tickets

Ticket is punched

Reegan's also

We were diverted to another line as the road ahead was blocked by Reindeer.  We had hot chocolate and cookies

Lots of cookies

but had to watch out for the hobo trying to get what he could.

Nice man

(Does any of this sound familiar?)  We reached the North Pole; saw Santa’s house,

Santa's home

Santa and some of his elves.

Ready to come aboard

Santa got on the train and we headed back towards the station.  As we watched the great scenery go by Santa made it to our car and talked to the girls

Grandma first

As Reegan’s main request the whole year was for a DS, and she had opened that gift the night before, she did not know what to ask Santa for.

Gee Santa I don't know

Now this is a secret Santa

We arrived back at the station, loaded into the cars and headed back to Rundi’s. We went out looking at some great Christmas lights. We spent Tuesday night there and on Wednesday we all went our separate ways and left Frankie and Rundi to recover.