10-44 Dec. and Christmas 2010

December started with us camping at the Indio Elks lodge again this year. The camping fees are good at $20.00 a night, but that only includes water and 30 amp elec. The dump station is on site, but that means we unhook and dump each week. But, that is better than the $50 a night (or more) the full hook-up RV parks charge.

We had to go to the Tamale Festival in Indio the first weekend in Dec. Dixie gets her tamale fix.

We spent most of the month doing Doctor check-ups. Both for Frank and fo Dixie. Some days we had two a day. We are trying to get them all done before the RV Rally starting for us on the 7th of Jan.

We also had to do some repairs at the house. The washing machine quit working and the swamp cooler was plugged up and leaking. We spent one full day working on the water cooler and cleaning off the flat roof. But, we “got her done.” Only had to go back to put on a new belt that we had to order Just the joys of being a landlord.

Aubrey spent the night with us in the RV one day when we didn’t have Dr. appointments. She is a joy to have around. Full of energy and a very social personality. Christmas Eve we spent with Ray, Nicole and kids. Frank played Santa again this year

The kids had fun opening some of their presents with Santa. Aubrey says
“Santa came twice to her house, because she had more presents in the morning when she woke up.”

Opening Presents VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

We took off on Christmas Day and drove to Carlsbad, CA to spend the day and night with daughter Diane and family. Husband Mark’s parents were there as well as grandson’s Cameron and Andrew. It was a nice grown up Christmas.

Andrew and Cameron Proulx

The Christmas tree and some of the presents. Diane is getting Gidget her present from daughter Renee’ Gidget wore her Santa coat. Diane takes all day to open her presents, so even after dinner we watched her open a few last gifts.

Mark and Richard are carving the turkey.

Diane sets a beautiful table and we all enjoyed our meal together!

Gidget wants to have turkey dinner too.

We drove back to Indio the day after Christmas. More Dr. appointments on the 27th.

New Years eve we stayed off the roads and watched the ball drop in Times Square on the TV. Very quiet beginning for year 2011. We are thankful that our health is still good, that all the Dr. appointments were just for check-ups. And we pray that 2011 will find us still on the road and enjoying life. Good health, peace and happiness to all our friends.

#10-42 Thanksgiving weekend

The morning of Thanksgiving was cold and clear. The night before the weather froze and all the leaves fell off the tree, all at once. Ray raked up a big pile of leaves so his two kids could play in them. The kids jumped in them, fell into them and just had a big time playing. The day was clear, cool and sunny. Great Thanksgiving weather.

Aubrey got dressed up for dinner an is modeling out by the fish pond. She is ready for dinner.

Graham is teaching A.J. and Aubrey how to play video games. I don’t think their Mom is really all that happy about that.

The table is set and we are ready for all of us to sit down and eat.

This is just some of the food we prepared. There were three of us helping to fix dinner. Nicole, Laurie and Dixie. We had turkey and all the trimmings, three kinds of desert with choice of ice cream or whip cream! There were nine of us for dinner, and we had lots of leftovers.

Mary Beth, Laurie’s good friend for over 25 years is watching Laurie hold her grandson, Eldon. Rachel and Allie arrived home from Texas the night before and all of us gathered for breakfast on Saturday Morning. Laurie said that Eldon missed her while she was gone and had to have lots of hugs.

Eldon is starting to walk. He still uses his push toy, but he won’t be using it for long. He is adjusting the volume on the TV for his Great Grandpa.

We only had one day left of our long weekend and we ended up at Rachel and Allie’s house to make candy during the day and all of us went out for dinner.

Our last night in the high desert was Monday the 29th of Nov, so we took some steak to Rachel and Allie’s, picked up Laurie after work and had bar-b-que. Allie is a great chef.

We left on Nov 30, headed to warm weather. After a week of below freezing weather at night we were looking forward to sun and warmth.

#10-41 Before Thanksgiving in Lancaster, CA

While Mom, Rachel and Dad, Allie were making dinner, Eldon played with his Uncle Collin.

Muffin, the dog, decided that Frank was an OK guy and hopped up in his lap. Muffin will not have any thing to do with Allie. She only likes Rachel and Eldon.

Eldon thinks every thing is funny and is really a very happy boy! This was our first night in Lancaster.

We are parked at the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds RV Park. 30 amp full hook-ups on cement pads are $20.00 a night. Great bargain and only about 3 miles from Rachel and Allie’s home and 6 miles from Laurie’s. It’s a perfect spot for us.

The next day was Wednesday and Collin had the day off work and didn’t have school until later in the afternoon. So, we went to the thrift stores to see what we could find to fill his home with furniture. We found a nice five piece patio set and some throw pillows.

This is the front of Collin’s home. (Collin is 19 years old, works 40 hours a week as department lead in the appliance department of K-Mart and is attending Antelope Valley Community College, taking a full load) The leaves on the yellow tree in the front yard all fell down on one day. His yard is full of leaves just a week after this picture was taken.

Inside Collin’s home and his backyard. VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

We kept going to the thrift stores and found some neat stuff to fill his empty rooms.

These were two of the finds we located at the Goodwill store. The recliner was in great shape and the pedestal table is all wood with two 24” leaves. The top was in really great shape. Both were great buys at $45.00 each! Merry Christmas, Collin! We are really proud of you.

Rachel and Allie received a call from Allie’s Mom in Texas that his grandfather had passed away, so they left the weekend before Thanksgiving to be there for the funeral. They spent Thanksgiving day with all the family in Texas and flew back to LAX on Friday. So we really missed them at our Thanksgiving Dinner at Laurie’s.

#10-40 Yuma, AZ and Algodones, MX

We left Carlsbad and drove to Yuma, AZ to check out places to spend the months of Feb and March. We also went to Mexico to get some shrimp tacos and do some shopping.

We spent the day in Algodones, MX getting new glasses for Frank and picking up some medicines for us and some of the kids. We enjoyed shopping and also got some of the wonderful fresh shrimp tacos!

We heard the music and stopped at this outdoor patio restaurant and had a Margarita.

This place has been here since the 1950’s. It was a great place to rest.

We left AZ on the 11th of Nov and headed back to Indio. Dixie had a Dr. appointment on the 12th, so we drove to the Indio Elks Lodge and parked. It is time for our regular yearly check-ups, so Frank went to his Dr. while we were here and we did some blood tests and will find out the results after Thanksgiving.

We filled up with Diesel in AZ. It is about 10 to 15 cents cheaper than in CA. It was $3.17.5 in AZ and 3.37.5 in CA.

#10-39 Carlsbad, CA–Grandson Andrew’s football game

Grandson Andrew, number 18, waiting to go in and play. He is on defense and does a lot of tackles.

They played against Oceanside, who have a lot of big kids. I don’t even know the score—our team lost big time.

I had a lot of fun watching the cheerleaders. They were really awesome and did a lot of lifts and tumbling as well as leading the cheers. There must have been a dozen cheerleaders. I couldn’t keep track of all of them.

The next day we went with Diane and visited Carlsbad street fair. It is only held twice a year and has over 800 vendors. There was music and I got these pictures of one guy who had a bunch of birds. He drew a big crowd.

It was a fun weekend and we really enjoyed our time. The weather was great and it was nice to be out in the sun.

#10-38 Grandson, A.J.’s 3rd birthday weekend, La Quinta, CA

Alex (AJ) had a cake and cupcakes for everyone at the party.

The Pinata was a great hit with all the kids, big and little!

T

Tomorrow is Haloween, so Aubrey had to put on her costume and put on a little show for us.

(Sorry the video is sideways.)

Rachel and cousin, Micaela have been best friends since they were born. They were so happy to see each other. Only two weeks until Micaela celebrates her 21st birthday.

Kids, grandkids, great grandson and us at party 10-30-20 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Breakfast at the Westin, Mission Hills the day after the birthday party. Us, daughter Laurie, Granddaughter Rachel her husband Allie and our great grandson Eldon. Grandson, Hallam and Graham came a little later.

#10-37 Rogue River, Medford, OR and SF, CA

We left Cape Blanco ad headed inland towards Roseburg on the Hwy 42 out of Bandon which is about 20 miles north of Cape Blanco. Because of the Coast Range of mountains we had to go north to go east to get to Southern Ore. We decided we would spend the night at the Seven Feathers Casino and RV Park just south of Roseburg in Canyonville. It is a really nice RV park and has shuttles that pick you up in front of your RV and take you to the casino. We treated ourselves to a nice dinner and some warm weather. We also filled up with diesel. Not a cheap stop. By the time we left we spent about $300.00, but we won $14. at the slot machines. We played with the credits we got for spending the money on diesel and RV parking. Big deal! But, it was fun and different than what we had been doing. We only spent one night and then headed for our favorite park—Valley of the Rogue.

We had beautiful fall weather and the park wasn’t crowded. The trees were turning colors and losing their leaves. The Oak Trees were dropping their acorns and the squirrels were busy storing up for the winter. We ended up staying almost 3 weeks. While we were there we had time to spend with our son’s and their families.

Jeff and Kirsten had us over for dinner a couple of times. Jeff is a great cook and we really enjoyed his dinners. While we were there the four of us went for a ride in the Model “A” to Jacksonville. Kirsten and I rode in the rumble seat. It brought back so many childhood memories of the first car my parents ever owned.

We also spent one Saturday afternoon at a Volleyball tournament where granddaughter, Marissa played.

She is now 6’ 1” tall having grown one inch over the summer and surpassing her sister’s height by one inch. They won one game and lost two while we were rooted on the team. She is a sophomore this year and is on the JV volleyball team.

That evening we joined the whole family out at their house for dinner. It was a house full of teenagers, and grandparents. I think the grandparents were noisier than the teens. They were all snuggled up in front of the TV watching a movie. But they all got up and filled their plates for dinner!

Back to comfy places in front of the TV.

We are definitely back in OR where the log trucks have big logs on them. We used to laugh at the size of the logs we’d see on the road in the mid-west. Below is a picture I took of a log truck in front of us on the I-5. Those are some big logs!

The last weekend we were in Medford we joined Mark and Teresa to attend Cascade’s Homecoming game, played at Crater High School’s football field. They played the team from Rogue River.

As you can see by the scoreboard it was a run away game by Cascade Christian School. Rogue River has one great running back, but no depth. Cascade ended up playing it’s second string players and rotating everyone on the team is at some time during the game. It was fun to watch and the final ending score was Cascade 49, Rogue River 8. Rogue River made the first touchdown of the game and never made another. Cascade defense ganged up on their lone running back and kept him from gaining too many yards.

Above is the 3rd quarter score. The school honored their Alumni during the 1/2 time and all alumni and grandparents were admitted free to the game. There was quite a crowd their and the weather was fairly warm and very comfortable. It’s been a long time since we’ve attended a football game! Thanks for asking us Mark and Teresa.

We had a great time in S. Oregon. Did a lot of shopping, visited some friends, and did what the old Gov. McCall told us to do. Come to Oregon, spend your money and then go back to CA!

We headed south the 22nd of Oct. We stopped just outside of Sacramento and had dinner with Kirsten’s grandfather, Carl. Always nice to see him, and then headed for San Jose Elks Lodge. We arrived on Friday afternoon and planned to take the train into SF to spend the weekend with Renee’ and family. The train doesn’t stop at the station across the street from the Elks on the weekends! So we ended up taking the light rail, then a bus, then the BART to the Embarcadero in SF. By that time it was pouring down rain. Thank goodness we didn’t have to take the last bus to Peter and Renee’s, Peter came and picked us up. Good thing we brought an umbrella, because we waited on the corner in the rain.

That evening we were all glued to the TV (except the girls and me) watching the last game of the National League Play-offs. The Giants won! Now they go to the World Series. The first game is Wednesday, Oct 27 at SF. It’s a BIG deal. Peter and Renee’ are HUGE fans. They will be having a party that night to watch the game and carve pumpkins. Should be a lot of fun for them.

Katherine and I watched part of a movie downstairs while the game was on. She tried to stay awake after dinner but didn’t succeed.

We left San Jose on Tuesday and are headed to Indo. Our youngest grandchild will be celebrating his 3rd birthday on Halloween and hopefully the Lancaster, CA part of the family will be there with our Great grandson! But, that is another post.