Ducks, Flower Shop, Engagement Party and Savannah

We did get to go to another Ducks game in Janaury Then I went with my sister Kristi and George, Brock's best friend to the Ducks Skill competition at the Honda Center. We met Karol there as well. It was fun as it was the first time we went to it.



Go George Parros



Tim in middle, Todd Marchant's young son

                                                             Karol, Kristi and George



Bonnie, one of our friends who works at Norstan with Joe and has also been working in the flower business for a number of years. She and her daughter in law, Kaylee, decided to open their own flower and photography shop. Bonnie does wonderful flower arrangements and Kaylee is a very talented photograpther.
They also decided to sell botique items as well. Their shop is just charming. It is in San Jaun Capistrano in the historic district. The street they are on has many older homes that have been turned into restaurants and shops. Their shop is called the Tangled Vine. We have a special interest in it as we gave them a number of pieces of furniture from my Mom and Dad's house as we prepare to clean it up to eventually put it on the market.

Kaylee and Bonnie



Matthew and Andrew, Bonnie's sons

                                                        

Their open house for friends and family was a lot of fun. They also do weddings and other events and we wish them the best in their adventure.

At the end of March we went to Kristi and Brock's house for an engagement party for their beautiful daughter Heather and her handsome fiancee Ryan. They are getting married October 15th at the Hilton, which is right accross from the beach in Huntington Beach. We will be back in town for that. There were a lot of friends and family at the party. Lots of good food and fun talking to people we only see once in awhile. Forgot the camera, my bad. I won't forget at the wedding and we be sure to take a lot  of pictures then.

 Below are a few pictures of Savannah who is still growing. She has been so much fun and is really a good puppy as long as we keep her from chewing on everything in sight. She made a lot of friends, people and other dogs at the Dunes. Everyone knows her and says hi Savannah.

                                                                         

She loves to walk around the lagoon and find shells. At night lately we have to check her month before going back into the MH. She will find a prize, such as a snail,and want to run back to the MH to play with it and chew it  up. Of course, she also loves to sit in your lap and give kisses so you can never get mad at her.                                                                              

Newport Beach, Newport Beach, Newport Beach

Well, our plans to stay in this area for a month ended up being four months. As they say, plans are made in jello. We finally took our motorhome to Temecula to be fixed or so we thought. We ended up staying there for almost a week just to find out, they would have to take the whole slide out in order to fix it. As they would need a full week with workers decicated to just this job, we had to wait until the middle of March to bring it in. We also would need to leave it there as we can't stay in it when the slide is out. Fortunately one of the people we know here at the Dunes who lives in a 5th Wheel also has an older motorhome that he keeps in the parking area while trying to sell it. Curt kindly oftered us the use of it while our motorhome is being repaired. Of course, nothing when smoothly. First the insurance company refused to pay saying the part is not a mechanical part and the manufacturer is responsible. This inspite of the fact that both the repair people and Thor, the manufacturer say it is a mechanical part. This was when we first had taken it in. Then when we took it in in March and they got the slide out, at first it looked like it might be something that would be covered. But no and then after going through everything they could think of to fix it, there finally found that one of the brackets had originallly been installed backwards. This seems to be the root cause of the problem and so we are now trying to argue with the manufacturer to see if they will pay for it. We had to pay the repair people, but hopefully we will be able to get some or all our money back. Yikes, not the fun part of RVing. Oh, another thing was the orginal week to be fixed ended up 2 1/2 weeks. Then, we went to Temecula knowing we would be staying there at least a day, as they were waiting for parts for a few things we asked them fix such as the awning over the door and some electrical problems. We got there Wednesday and left Friday still having to come back on Monday as one of the parts for the awning was still not in. We stopped at Joe's work as we had left everything that was on the slide section including table and anything in the shelves there while MH being fixed. We had thought about going to the desert during the months we were waiting until we could take the MH in but had some health issues. Joe had a sudden hearing loss in one ear. At first he thought it was just wax, but using ear drops didn't help at all and so he went to the doctor.  Then he had to go to a specialist and after that have a MRI to make sure it wasn't a tumor causing the problem. After all that, they still weren't sure what caused it which is typical in this problem. It could be many causes,including listening to rock music too loud when young. That seemed to be the most likely I think. He might get some of the hearing back but he will have to go back to the doctor in October to see if any change. Then I had a carpal tunnel type issue with my hand which I think was from cleaning out my parents house.A lot of repetitive action stuffing bags with trash and moving things. The other two times I had this was when doing a lot of gardening and weeding clean up in the spring a couple of years ago. It lasted for a couple of the months with being very painful for a few weeks. So anyway we ended up just hanging arould the Dunes.
we did get to go to a few events we would have missed if we left sooner and I'll put those in a separate posting and then we will be caught up and onto our next destination which is the Parker/Lake Havasu are for a few weeks to get some warm weather. Also some more pictures of our wonderful puppy who has been a joy to us since she came into our lifes.

Holiday Cheer

We had nice holidays. Xmas eve we went to Karol and the boys for dinner. We had cooked a pork roast in the slow cooker. We have really been using it alot lately. Meat comes out so tender. It had a sauce that included cranberries and golden raisins that I found on one of the slow cooker blogs I use, A Year of Slow Cooking. I also made a dish with apples and leeks that went well with the roast. Karol made all the rest. Everything was great. Dusty, their cat, was very friendly when we were there. Usually she would be upstairs most of the time. We brough Savannah and she and Dusty got along pretty good.

Karol gave one of her gifts to Chris early. It was a NHL game for the Wii. It is a pretty cool game. You can pick your teams( of course Anaheim Ducks was used for one of the teams), You can also practice shooting and lots of other cool things. It is a fairly new game and so the players are current as of last season.

Joe just relaxing after dinner

                                                         


Got one of Karol who trys to avoid having her picture taken.



Chris playing some Wii Hockey

Michael kicking up with a beer

Didn't take a lot of pictures. One of Casey didn't come out. I must have been on a wrong setting and a few of the pictures came out fuzzy. Sorry Casey.

For Christmas day we went to Kristi and Brock's. Heather was there but Kori went to her boy friend Nick's parents house for dinner. Casey and Michael came for dinner as well as my Dad. Chris and Karol ate at her Mom's but stopped by after dinner. We all played some Wii games and just talked and enjoyed being together as a family.

New Years Eve we went to the Back Bay Cafe which is right by one of the boat ramps and in the Dunes Park. It was nice. First New Years Eve I didn't spend at work for over 10 years. I don't miss that at all.

We were going to leave at beginning of January but our slide needs fixed. We had a mobile repair guy out but he determined that it needs to go into a shop to be fixed. bummer. We need to set up a time to take it in. ALso having the microwave/convention oven fixed. So we are not sure when we will be able to head to Arizona where we want to spent a few months. Hopefully somewhere warmer with less rain. I like rain but we have really had a lot since we got here. Much more than normal for this time of the year in Orange County. And trying to house train a puppy who needs to go out often even if it is raining is not much fun. Can't whine too much as it is certainly better than being back East with all their major storms.
Well hope everyone had real nice Holidays. Bring on the New Year and further adventures in Trails End.                                                                       

Home to Sunny California

I have been taking a break from blogging as we are back to our old home town visiting family for the holidays and Joe has doctor and dentist appointments, needs to go into the office for some meetings. We also need to have some work done on the motor home. Within a few days of arriving at Newport Dunes, we were finally able to go to a hockey game. Chris, our oldest son, got tickets from his friend that has season tickets. We have missed going to games after having season tickets for a number of years. We went with Chris and one of his brothers, Michael. Unfortunately the Ducks were shut out and we didn't get to do much cheering. However, later in the week Chris got more tickets and he and Carol and us went to another game that ended in the shoot out win for the Ducks. Yeah!!!!. More exciting game for sure.
Another project we had to do was help clean up my parents house. My dad had to go into the hospital as he had fallen again. He wasn't hurt but his blood pressure was high. THey then transferred him to a nursing home so they could have him do therapy to strength his legs a little. In the mean time, Kristi and Brock put our Mom in a board and care as she can't be alone in their house due to her dementia. WHen my dad able to leave the nursing home, they had him go into another board and care that is owned by the same person as where Mom is. THis one is right next door to Kristi and Brock. My dad realizes that they can't go back to that big two story house and so wants to sell it. There is a lot of work to do as my Mom saved everything. There is a lot to just go through and throw away. Then sort through what needs to be given away or sold or kept. So we have spend a number of days on that.
A more exciting event this month was that we finally got our new puppy. Savannah flew into John Wayne Airport and we went to pick her up. SHe came on Continental Airline which is an airline that a lot of breeders and people who show dogs use as they take very good care of the animals. We picked her up at a place a few blocks from the airport and there were two other dogs that had flown with her. She is just the sweetest dog. She was so happy to get out of her travel crate and just gave us lots of kisses.

                                                                 

Cattail Cove State Park, Lake Havasu

Boy, were the racers lucky. The weather had been nice on the days of the races. However, Sunday was really windy. So much so, that they probably wouldn't have been able to race. We stayed another day and left for Cattail Cove State Park on Monday. The park is right on the Colorado River between Parker and Lake Havasu. We were able to get a spot pretty close to the water for a nice view. We will be staying here until Friday when we will head back to California.

                                                                     

This is definitely a place we would come back to to stay this winter for a few weeks. A nice combination of water and desert. Places to hike and to kayak as well. We went into Lake Havasu, about 15 miles away for shopping and  some lunch and to just check out the area several days while we were here.                                                                                       

Racing in Parker

Friday, we left Safford and headed on to Parker, Arizona. It was about a 7 hour drive. We decided to just stay at the Blue Water Casino in their parking lot for a few days while we are here for Michael's races. It is free which is nice. No hook ups so will be using generator and solar. WHen we got there, we were surprised at how many motor homes were parked at the Casino. I am sure the Casino doesn't mind as they know most people camping there will probably spend some money at the Casino. In fact we did. Casey, Michael and Chris arrived with the boats about 9 o'clock and hadn't eaten and so we went over to the Casino for a bite to eat. It was nice catching up on what everyone has been doing since we last saw our boys in June.
Casey and Michael got a room at the Hotel and Chris stayed with us.
The APBA(American Power Boat Association) races were being held both Friday and Saturday. However, Michael had to work on Friday and so only participated on Saturday. This is the APBA/ SCSC 63rd annual Thanksgiving regatta. It is also the last race of the season. Michael has two boats he is racing. He races the small hydro planes. His brothers help him out. He had some issues with his boats. He ended up borrowing an engine for one of his boats. Everyone there is very helpful that way. Michael ended up with two third place finishes. He thought he had won second place in one race but they checked his boat and the engine wasn't exactly sitting the way it was suppose to and he got disqualified on that one.

Michael pulls away in his little red boat

Casey waiting for the start of the race

Working on the engine

Chris and Casey pushing Michael out into the water

Close race at the moment

           Here are some pictures of the other types of boats that raced

  

   Above is a picture showing both Michael's boats. Casey recently bought a boat but it is just the basic boat without engine, etc. He will be buying parts for it as he finds them and then will start racing also. He did race earlier this summer in someone else's boat and had a lot of fun. Chris has been a great brother helping Michael out. Go Dirty Racing Team!!!!


We went over to the Casino and had their buffet which was very reasonably priced. Not like Las Vegas. At least these days. We then went to the award ceremony where Michael got several.

The boys left Sunday morning but we are staying through Monday. We spent some time checking out several campgrounds and are planning on going to Cattail Cove State Park in Lake Havasu, which is right on the river. We'll be there until Friday when we will head back to Newport Dunes. Back to California.

                                                         




                                                                                                  

Thanksgiving at Roper Lake

We have just been relaxing here at Lake Roper, taking walks, reading, little working for Joe. Have just been in town a few times for supplies. Last time we were here everything was very green. Here we actually have a little of the fall colors.

This is the first Thanksgiving it has just been the two of us. Though we will see our boys on Friday at Parker.
I looked up slow cooker recipes for turkey as we had purchased a small turkey breast. I complied a few, using wine and a little chicken stock and some vegetables and basting the turkey with olive oil and herbs.
It really came out tender and moist as the blogs I read mentioned. We also had mashed red potatoes with sour cream and cream cheese added and some peas with thyme added. Very yummy. Also had some corn bread I had bought at the store and with a little wine, had a very good Thanksgiving meal. We are very thankful that we have been able to live this new life style. The first six months have been awesome. We have really seen some great places. THese months have also been pretty packed full and we have covered a lot of territory as we knew we would. We will be spending a month or maybe longer in Southern California and then spending the rest of the winter in Arizona at a slower pace.