We end the Year with Snow at Jojoba Hills

Yes, the new Blog Header picture is of New Year's Eve morning. Savannah got us up when it was just starting to get light and we looked out the window to see everything covered with snow. What a beautiful way to end a great year. We got dressed and took Savannah out for a walk around the Park taking the camera to take a lot of pictures.

When we got back I had to put Savannah in the shower to melt some of the snow off her paws. She had a bunch of snow ball clumps attached to her fur. The picture below didn't come out very good but you might get the idea. I think she had fun in the snow. I let her off lease for awhile to run around.

There was a New Year's Eve party but we just decided to stay home and had a quiet evening. Joe has been on a very low carb diet for his diabetes for a few weeks or so and no alcohol and a lot of food restrictions. Christmas Eve and Christmas were the only days he went off it as far as food goes and his levels have been much better. I have had some stomach issues and so I have been trying to be careful of what I eat and drink as well.
We have been having a good time here in So Cal. We have been attending Ducks games and are down to our last two games including one tonight. There was a big Thanksgiving dinner in the park but we ended up getting together with three other couples for a small dinner as the Ranch House. The Ranch House has a living area with couches and chairs, a big screen tv, tables for dining and a large kitchen that anyone in the park can sign up for for gatherings. Pat and Kathy Vicks brought several turkeys that Pat smoked on his large barbeque grill. It was wonderful as well as all the other food everyone brought. We had a great time. Then we got a second Thankgivng on the following Saturday with the family. It was at my niece Kori's and husband Nick's house this time. All the family was there plus George and Felicia and her daughter and son in law. Our grand nieces, Kayla and Amber are just adorable. It was fun to see them. They are great little girls.

Of course more delicious food and just enjoying each other's company.

Back in Jojoba we continued have fun, with get togethers, volunteer work and hand weights and yoga for me. Can't get Joe to those but at least he is getting some exercise by walking in our hilly roads here is the Park. There are many activities and committees and we now even have a Dog Park committee. Below are some pictures of our first meeting at our great Dog Park with many dogs and their humans.

As we were going to spend both Christmas Eve and Christmas in the Orange County area we decided to reserve a spot at San Clemente State Beach and spent 4 nights there. We didn't have an ocean view from our spot but it was a short walk to the overlook of the beach. We had great weather while there.
Christmas Eve we went to Karol and the Boys house. Karol's mother Sharon and her husband Noel, her sister Karen and nephew Nolan were also there. Karol had an Italian theme and there was a ton of good food with lots of pastas. On Christmas we headed to Kristi and Brocks for Christmas dinner. Our nieces and their families were at other members of the family and so it was just Kristi, Brock, my dad and Karol, Casey, Michael and Chris and ourselves. Savannah came also and Lily, Heather and Ryan and Amber's dog was there and those two seem to get along though Lily was the playful one. She could play ball for hours. Didn't get any pictures taken this year for the Christmas holidays. We had a good time at both family get togethers however. Next week we are going to spend 4 days at Bolsa Chica State Beach in Huntington Beach. We have our last Ducks again that is honoring Teemu Selanne and we are also going to a special film about Teemu in which he will be there talking and answering questions after the film. We hope to take the kids out to dinner when we are there as well. We also are having our RV leather furniture redone as the original ultra leather which is so thin is ripped in numerous places. Right now we only have the driver's seat in the motorhome. That will be covered when we go to pick up the other furniture. Looking forward to that. Will have pictures of our "New Furniture" in the next post.
Hope everyone has a great New Year in 2015.

More MH Work and a Surprise in Julian

We stopped at J&L RV Repair and it was determined that new ramps were needed to fix the slide, same as the slide fixed a few months ago. Approval from the Insurance Company received right away and parts ordered. We will return later in the week when parts are in. Meanwhile we decide to go back to the Anza Borrego area. This time we are boondocking at a  spot on Rockhouse Road that we read about on one of the blogs we follow, Wheeling It. It is just a few miles from Borrego Springs. Nice large area to ourselves with great views and FREE!!!

                                                   

I get to run off lease, HURRAY!!

We woke up the next day to a light dusting on snow on the Hills.

We had noticed on our last trip that the town of Julian is only about 30 miles away from where we are staying and so decided to take a drive to the historical gold mining town. It is a quaint place famous for its apples. There are many restaurants and shops advertising their apple pies. They also have a number of wineries. We started our drive througha a winding road with pretty scenery. Here is a picture of some snow we saw.

                                                        
                  And more snow.

            And more snow in town.

                                                                                    We really hadn't expected this when we started off on our drive. What a nice surprise. We had thought we would eat at one of the restaurants where we could sit outside with Savannah. Unfortunately for Savannah, she had to stay in the car as it was too cold and so we had lunch inside at Julian Cafe and Bakery. We had chicken pot pie and shared a piece of apple pie, of course.    
The next few nights we had lots of wind and all day on Thursday. Not our favorite weather. Much rather have rain than wind. We even pulled in the slides one night it was blowing so hard. Can't complain too much when reading about the tornadoes. Our hearts go out to all those affected.
We found out that the parts will be in on Friday and so Thursday night we drove to Morango Casino so we wouldn't have far to drive on Friday morning. It happen again. Last time we had the slide fixed we had a major leak right before we were due to head to Fontana for the repair. This time, the night before we went to Fontana, we both smelled amnonia when we opened the refrigerator. Joe had looked this up and it didn't sound good. When we got to J&L, we told Joe, the owner about it. Luckily, his shop is an authorized repair place for Dometic, our refrigerator brand. Joe called the person he used for this type of job and luckily he had the cooling unit, which was what needed to be replaced. Joe got him to come the same day and got the insurance handled and everything was done that afternoon. We love J&L. They are the best place to go for repairs. They do a wonderful job and always do their best to get thing done as quickly as possible. Friday afternoon we headed east, stopping at another casino for the night. We are headed towards New Mexico with a few Arizona stops on the way.