Holiday Vacation November 19 - January 7, 2015

We hopped a plane to Las Vegas on November 19, picked up a car and drove to Ken and Sarah's house to meet Calvin Luis.  I had no idea how far it was from Barstow to Los Osos, but we finally arrived at 11 o'clock.  Ken and Calvin were waiting up for us, and I must say it was love at first sight.  Calvin looks a lot like Kenneth did as a baby, and holding him and looking into his sweet face brought me back 34 years in an instant.  The coolest thing, though, is seeing Kenneth interact with Calvin.  He is a great dad and he loves his boy!  Sarah is an awesome mama and Calvin looks at her with eyes of love.  It is so sweet!  They make a cute family.

 

We had a great visit.  Our stay included Thanksgiving, and we had fun preparing rolls, pumpkin pie, stuffing and an appetizer to take to dinner at Sarah's brother Sean and sister-in-law, Stephanie's home in Bella Terra, near Porterville.  In addition to our hosts, Sean and Stephanie, we joined Dona and Gino, Tractor and Chickey, Tim, Ben and David for dinner.  We love hanging out with her family, and we we had a blast.

On Black Friday, I had an opportunity to abandon an altered art project in Morro Bay, and was fortunate to see the family that found my canvas.  I worked really hard on this project, and was thrilled that a family with teenaged girls found it.  It was a gorgeous day to be down by the bay!

Our time with Ken, Sarah Calvin and Jack came to an end all too soon, but we knew we would be back after Christmas, so it made leaving a little easier.

We spent the next two weeks in the San Diego area hanging out with old friends and neighbors.  One of the greatest things about good friends is no matter how long it has been since you've seen eachother, it's easy to pick up right where you left off.  

I especially enjoyed hanging out with my very dear friends, attending the beautiful Del Mar Christmas concert, pot lucking with my friends from the Altered Book Club,  art play dates with Georgia, the ROADS Christmas party, meeting with our bishop and getting our mission application rolling, lunch in Little Italy, a day in San Diego and pictures under the Hotel Del Christmas tree, a trip to Old Town and a stop and tour of the Mormon Batallion, Christmas parties at our current and former wards, seeing all of the Johnson's home improvements and enjoying dinner with them more than once, two hours in the chair of my favorite hairdresser, time with Mariah, Eric, Gordon and Ruby (my adopted kids and grandkids), Mexico Viejo, VGs cinnamon raised donuts, Gandolfi's deli and Soup Plantation, two days on Cedros Street, Christmas shopping for the kids, big waves at the beach, warm sunny San Diego weather and a few days of R&R.

Our time in San Diego came to an end all too soon, but it got us closer to Utah and seeing the grandkids.  We said good bye to San Diego and headed to Las Vegas to see our friends Laureen and Bill Leaver.

We attended the Christmas program with them, and Laureen and Bill made the most delicious dinner.  We had a great time with them catching up on each other's lives. 

We hung out in Vegas for a few days and loved seeing all of the beautiful decorations.

We left Las Vegas and headed to Utah.  I was bummed that we were going to lose an hour in our drive time.  The weather was great until we got to Cedar City, then the snow started.

We finally got to John and Brenda's house and five adorable grandkids were waiting for us.

We had a ball with the kids.  They are all getting so big.  Hailey is 14 months old now, and she has no problem letting you know what she wants.  We did art and made jewelry with the girls.  We played pool and tag and watched movies with the boys.  Story time was a blast every night.  John had to fly back to Texas for work on Sunday afternoon, but we all looked forward to his return on New Year's Eve.  We took a ride up to Farmington on Monday to see our friends Frank and Diann.  The weather was cold and snowy in the morning, but the roads looked good so we made the hour drive.  We had a great visit and our ride home took almost three hours, due to heavy snow and lots of accidents.

On Tuesday we had lunch at our favorite little place in Utah, DP Cheesesteaks.  We got to go to Deseret Books and check out all the new paintings, books, magazines and home decor.  I love that place.  Tuesday's highlight was spending the afternoon and having dinner with our friends Maggie and Scott Richards and their cute family.  It is always so much fun to catch up with them.

Wednesday, New Year's Eve, Nicolette and Naomi were big helpers getting ready for the party, and we took Joe and Dominic with us to lunch wirh Jeannie and Keenan Kanahele and their family.  It was fun to catch up with them, and the boys had a blast playing with their nephew.  We got to see Joseph, Bruce and Rachael, so that was an added bonus.  I love those kids!  After a great visit we headed home to help get ready for the New Year's Eve party.  Unfortunately, John got iced in in Midland, Texas, and was not able to make it home.  We missed him at the party, but party we did!!  We had about 40 guests, including 20 children under the age of 14.  The authentic Mexican food was delicious, and the karaoke and dancing were fun, fun, fun!

Ken put on a movie for the kids around midnight, and Nicolette and Naomi conked out around one in the morning.  We were planning to head out early in the morning, so we put Dominic and Joe to bed (kicking and screaming) around two.  We were able to get the kids up and dressed and out of the house by 9:30.  We met up with their mom in St. George, and had a tearful farewell, with promises to write and call.

We headed back to Los Osos for one last weekend with Calvin and to be there for his blessing.  Three of Ken's college roommates were there for the occasion as well as Sarah's family.  Ken gave his son a beautiful blessing, and Calvin cried through the whole thing.  We enjoyed Saturday afternoon in Pismo Beach and had a nice lunch after church.  It Is always fun hanging out with Sarah's family.

We headed out on Monday for one last drive to Vegas to take advantage of a two night, three day trip I won by answering a quiz on the radio while we were driving through Vegas the first time through.  The brunch that came with the trip made it well worth it!!  We returned our rental car with almost 3,000 miles on it and boarded a plane back to Tampa to resume our adventure.  We are staying in Clearwater for the next two months.   It was a great trip, we had a wonderful time, but it was really nice to get "home".  We are looking forward to a fabulous 2015 and are anxious to see where this year takes us.  

Happy New Year.

Clearwater, Florida, October 20 - November 19, 2014

It was an easy 200 mile drive from St. Augustine to Clearwater.  It really felt good to be headed West!  There's construction everywhere in this state (in all states really.  I think this is how they are keeping the unemployment numbers dropping, just sayin').  The RV park is in a perfect location.  We are smack dab between Tampa, Clearwater and St. Petersburg.  The park is quiet with good shade.  The pool is nice and warm, the rec hall has ping pong, darts and crafts.  There are two laundry rooms on site that are pretty reasonable, as laundry prices go.  I do miss my washer and dryer, but there is something to be said for only doing laundry once a week, and getting it all done in 90 minutes or so.

Our neighbors, Gary and Cheryl, are from New Jersey.  This is their fourth year in this park.  The neighbors on the other side are a young couple that live here in a 5th wheel full time.  They are both nurses and work afternoons and/or midnights.  I think they sleep all day.  Their cars are parked out in front during the day, but we hardly ever see them.

We were only here a few days before we boarded a plane to Arizona for Dominic's baptism in Page, on  October 25.  We were able to pick the kids up from school on Friday afternoon, take them back to the hotel for an afternoon dip in the pool and then off to Dominic's first football practice.  So fun!  We attended the town festival that night, and the kids had a ball going on all the rides.  They have no fear!  After dinner out at their favorite establishment, we headed back for a pajama party, movies and popcorn in bed.  A good time was had by all!

The baptism was special with all of Dominic's grandparents participating.  There was a wonderful luncheon catered by Cheyito with delicious Mexican food and drink.  We got to hang out with the kids again Saturday afternoon and had dinner with them in their home on Saturday.  They were so excited for us to see where they lived.  John and Brenda drove down from Utah on Sunday, and we hung out with them and all of the kids at a park in town.  It was hard to say good bye for all of us.

The kids were back in school on Monday, so we checked out of the hotel and headed down to Sedona.  What a beautiful town.  It was our first visit, but it won't be our last.

It's always fun to get away, but there is something to be said about coming "home."  My friend Carolyn thought it was funny that I consider our RV "home" but it it is home to us now.  We'll be here for three weeks before we fly back to California to meet our new grandson and to spend the holidays with the kids.  

 That will give us time to explore this area, hang out with our friends and have some awesome studio days to work on art.  Speaking of art, we found an awesome salvage store in Tarpon Springs.  The husband is a full-time picker.  They said there are not a lot of old buildings here, so most of their inventory is imported from the Northeast or Central America.  We bought some really cool stuff and can't wait to get busy!

We hung out in the park one day working on Christmas cards, canvases and repurposing some of our fun finds.  The most awesome bird hung out at our place all day.  I'm not sure what kind of bird it was, but it was fun to have this feathered guest.

One of the reasons we chose this area of Florida is to spend time with our dear friends Frank and Donna.  We have known them since before kids.  Frank had open heart surgery the day before we left for Arizona, and he was home and recovering by the time we got back.  There is something to be said about old friends.   The history you share forms a bond that cannot be broken.  We can sit and talk for hours (and we do) and it is like no time has passed at all.  It has been so fun sharing meals with them and getting to know their youngest daughter Courtney.  

We left Tampa airport early on November 19th to start our holidays.  We flew into Las Vegas and picked up a rental car and drove to Los Osos.  I had no idea how far Bakersfield was off the 15, and what a lot of nothing to see.  I think the ride seemed even longer because our new grandson was waiting at the finish line!!   

We are going to chill here for a couple weeks, help out where we can, and get as much baby time as possible.  There are some great walking trails around here, and Calvin loves to go for a walk.