Den!

I've been talking about the changes we've made in our guest bedroom, and thought I'd post some pictures!
We decided that since the guest room was only used occasionally, that we weren't getting optimum use of the room. We've turned it into a den. Some of you will recognize Lee's Mom and Dad's rocking chair and their cedar chest. The cedar chest was purchased when they got married in 1939. The tall chest replaces the dresser and is a fantastic way to store clothing!


We got this rocking chair at Costco. The little sewing table was Lee's grandmother's, and I love it!
The bentwood rocking chair belonged to Lee's aunt, Erma, who sadly passed away at the age of 16.
Home office!

We still have pictures to hang, but we are really enjoying using this room.

Now don't think that we don't want company, or don't have room for company! In about 20 minutes, this room converts back to a bedroom! We have a queen size aero bed with a stand, so that it's not on the floor. Lee and I slept on it for a couple of nights, and it's quite comfortable! Nathan slept in it when he was here last September and pronounced it wonderful! So, come and see us!!

Our beautiful back yard

A week or so ago we woke our deck and yard up from it's winter sleep, and cleaned all of the furniture and refurnished the deck! It looks wonderful - we love sitting out here and enjoying the flowers and the sounds of the fountains. It's a bonus when the sun is shining, but we love it even when it's not!

Note the lazy susan on the picnic table that Geoff made! It looks like a little deck, and turns quite nicely. Works great for snacks or condiments, when you have people around the table. Thanks, Geoff!

The chaise lounges are inviting! They have little tables underneath that pull out and hold a glass of wine - or whatever! : )

Swing, glider and chairs, with the vines in the background.

The adirondack chairs in the corner are one of our favorite places to sit and enjoy the yard.
For those of you who remember the yard in it's natural state, it's been quite a journey, and a very rewarding one! We have one thing left to do, aside from maintenance, and that's have rock put down in the area behind the deck, as it's just dirt. We hope to get that done in June, and then the back yard will be DONE! Whooo hooooo!

Visiting with Betty and John

After we left Cody on Thursday morning, we drove to Phoenix to visit with Betty and John. We hadn't seen them for a couple of years, so it was time! They are doing great - they have just finished a remodel on their home, increasing the size of their family room, and including a "museum" for John to display his impressive collections of memorabilia. It looks wonderful, and we really enjoyed browsing through his very interesting items, and Betty's doll and crystal collections.

Betty and John had gotten tickets to see the Chihuly glass exhibit at the Phoenix Botanical Gardens. Chihuly is an amazing glassblower, creating all kinds of incredible glass sculptures. His creations were in and among the desert plants in the gardens, which made an incredible backdrop. We took TONS of pictures - here are just a few!



The blue glass creations look like exotic birds!

Ok, this picture is out of order! We also saw the butterfly exhibit, and Lee got this great shot!

This creation is all in yellow, oranges and red - it looks like a party!

Here's a sculpture among the cactus.

Betty and John, with barrel cactus and red glass creations.



Late April and the desert was just beginning to come into bloom. Amazing!

This sculpture was hanging from an overhang - very impressive!

Lee and I with barrel cactus and red glass.

This sculpture was about 9 ft. high! Unbelievable!

On Friday morning, we got loaded up and headed up to Betty and John's "cabin" in Pine. It was supposed to be in the low 90's in Phoenix, but only in the low 60's in Pine. It's amazing the temperature difference in just about an hours time. Oh the way to Pine, we stopped in Payson for lunch, and to browse some thrift shops, a lot of fun - I found a great pair of tan capris for $1!!

Betty fixed a great taco salad for dinner, and we had a nice relaxing evening. Saturday we headed off on a field trip to Strawberry, Cottonwood, and finally to Jerome! Jerome was once a booming mining town perched on the side of a hill. While there is still mining in the area, Jerome today is a combination of shops, restaurants and B&B's surrounded by crumbling structures. It's very quaint and unusual, and we loved it! The Jerome hospital, built in 1926 is now the Jerome Grand Hotel. We had lunch there in the Asylum! It was a hoot - we had a fabulous view and a wonderful meal.
On Sunday, we got to see Jim and his family, and Leslee and the kids. Jon and his family had a prior commitment, and we didn't see them, but maybe next time! On the way out to Jim's, we stopped at the Arizona Falls which also is a hydro electric plant. It's on the irrigation canal and has created a great water environment.
Betty and John at the Arizona Falls

And under one of the waterfalls!


This picture caught both waterfalls.

Grandma and granddaughter! This is Ashley - she's Jim and Kristie's little girl.

Here's a picture of Jim, Kristie and Ashley, who was tired of pictures at this point!

Grandma and granddaughter! Here's Leslee's daughter, Katelynn!


Leslee, Matthew, Katelynn, with Betty and John.

Time to go home! : ( Betty and I as we are leaving for the airport.

Oldies but goodies!! Thanks, Jayna, for taking the pictures for us!
We had a great time, Betty and I talked and talked and talked - it was great! We're hoping that they will come and see us in September!

Visiting with Cody

We had a great, brief visit with Cody last week on Wednesday. We headed to Phoenix on the 7:40 am Southwest flight, which was only half full, so we not only got on the flight, but even got to sit together!
We got into Phoenix at about 10:00 am, and picked up our rental car and headed south on Hwy 10, to Tucson. It had been a couple of years since we'd driven to Tucson, and we were amazed at how much the area along Hwy 10 had grown - lots of developments, shopping centers, movie theaters, etc. We had a motel that was pretty close to Cody's house, and after we got checked in we called Cody. He came over and met us, and after chatting for awhile, he took us over to see where he lives, and to see his new bike! It's pretty amazing, and very, very loud! It's clear that he loves it!

We then headed off to a shopping center and did some browsing. Cody found a new golf shirt, that is really nice. We then went to a restaurant and Cody bought us all a lovely glass of wine. For dinner, he took us to a wonderful sushi restaurant, called RA - they have fabulous sushi rolls! We tried some of Cody's favorite rolls, and also some different ones none of us had eaten before. It was just great, and we'll definitely go back on our next trip to see Cody. We finished up about 8:30, and headed back to the hotel. By 9:30, Cody had headed home, and we all turned in early. We had gotten up at 4:00 am to catch our flight, and Cody was tired as well.

Cody came on Thursday morning and had breakfast with us. This photo was taken in the lobby of the hotel.

Here's a great picture of Cody and Grandpa, in our room
And Cody with Grandma.
It was so wonderful to have the opportunity to visit with Cody, hear his plans for the future, and see how well he's doing in school. If all goes according to plan, he'll have his bachelor's degree by the time he's out of the Air Force, or shortly thereafter. We're so proud of you, Cody!

Big winds!

Tuesday we had gale force winds on the entire peninsula, and especially so on the coast. After dinner, I was doing dishes, and looking out the window, watching the trees blow around, when I noticed that there was a tree in our back yard, whose branches were on the table! We went out to investigate, and one of Denny's trees (behind us) had split in the wind, and half of it was now over the fence and in our yard! Denny was away, but came home on Wednesday. He's going to contact the tree guy down the street to have the tree removed. In the meantime, the branch is getting lower and lower, and is now resting on the trellis on the fence. Looks like we'll have to do some pruning, to reduce the weight, while we wait for the tree guy!

We also lost cable service Tuesday night. We had candles all lit, waiting for the power to go, but it never did. By Wednesday, the wind had let up, and we've had a warming trend since then.

1977 or do you remember when?

Look what we came across. We think it might have been taken at Santa Cruz. Thought you would enjoy this.

Filoli Mar 2009

We are members of Filoli - amazing grounds and gardens at the former home of the Bourns - now on the National Trust for Historic Preservation. You can check it out, here: http://www.filoli.org/explore-filoli/history/

The gardens are always amazing, and especially so in spring, when the bulbs are in their glory, the lilacs are amazing, the wisteria is getting ready to bloom, and the peonies and roses bud, promising amazing displays. It's an incredibly peaceful place as well, and we always leave there completely content. Of course, we're usually content, anyway! : )

We know that we've posted Filoli garden pictures before, but we just couldn't resist taking several dozen more pictures. Fortunately, we're just posting a few:

Tulips - in all their glory! About 300,000 tulip bulbs are planted each year. They don't get reused, as we don't get the freeze that bulbs need, and the color scheme changes each year.


More tulips - these had a light fragrance

Field of dafodils

Our forsythia at home had more booms this year than ever, but nothing compared to this one!

Happy Dafodils

Flowering crab apple - just laden with blooms

More tulips

Lee, under the flowering cherry

Garden path to the gate

Tulips

The gardens beyond the pond - note the ducks in the pond

More views of the garden. Note the azalea in the foreground.

We're going to visit Filoli again this weekend, as the peonies will have begun to bloom, and to see what else has come into bloom. I suspect that we'll have more pictures to post.

Disneyland, March 2009...

Disneyland!

Lee and I left on Thursday, March 12th, for our trip to Disneyland to meet the Murphy's, Hailey and Lucille, a foreign exchange student, and a friend of the family. We broke up our trip and spent Thursday night with Jim, then drove into LA on Friday. We had figured that we would hit traffic, but, boy, we had NO idea!! We spent two hours virtually sitting on the freeway. Thank heavens we don't live down there and have to commute!

That was nothing, though, compared to the coordination that Cathi and Don had - two cars left Canada, Cathi picked up Hailey and Lucille in Everson, Don picked up Nathan in Seattle and they survived the check-in and security process at the Seattle airport - no small feat! It was the first flight for Patience, Jordyn and Nick. The girls loved it! Nick really didn't care. We planned for Lee to pick up Cathi and the "littles" and 3 carseats at the Orange County airport, while Don and the "bigs" came to the hotel via shuttle.

As we had gotten their early, we were able to check in and get all the rooms. We had brought our porta-crib for Nick, as well as a stroller, so we were able to get all set up, as well as load up the kitchen with the food and snack stuff we had gotten at Costco. Our plan was to NOT eat at the park, and we were pretty successful - the "bigs" loaded up a backpack with snacks and drinks and took turns carrying it. We met back at the room for lunch and for dinner.

Here's the bigs and littles, on Saturday morning, ready to go to the happiest place on earth! Nick, Dylan, Patience, Lucille, Jordyn, Hailey, Sean and Nathan.

The happiest place on earth!

Patience and Jordyn loved the carousel ride

Cathi, Don, Patience in Jordyn, in line for the Dumbo ride. Nick is with Grandma and Grandpa

The crew, minus Nick. The big kids were on their own - we were able to keep in touch via cell phones, which worked really well.

Don and Jordyn, with magic feather, ready to take off in Dumbo.

Cathi and Patience in the Dumbo ride

Jordyn, waiting patiently for the Pixar Play Parade, at California Adventure Land

It was a great parade, filled with all the pixar characters from Toy Story, Monsters Inc., Bugs Life, Finding Nemo, etc.

Don, Patience, Jordyn and Grandma on the ladybug ride in It's a Bugs Life - similar to the tea cups, but they don't spin as fast, thank heavens!

Don and the girls in Toon Town

Getting Goofy's autograph

Jordyn drives the Toon Town truck

Too cool for school! The girls with their hats and sunglasses.

The Murphy clan

Patience and Jordyn with Winnie the Pooh's honey pots

Papa "Jack Sparrow" - this is the hat that Nathan bought, and wore for the entire trip.

Starting the day! The hotel provided a breakfast which the girls totally approved of - mufins, danish, juice and hot chocolate! Got them all sugared up for the day!

The "bigs" on the rope bridge to the treehouse. Do you think they're having fun?

Lucille, Sean Jack Sparrow and Hailey

Dylan and Sean, heading back up to get a little wetter on the log ride!

Happy Nick!

Captain Jack Sparrow - Aarggghh!

Tinkerbell and the future Tinkerbell. Hailey has decided that she's going to work at Disneyland when she gets out of school, and be Tinkerbell! She especially wants to fly around the castle during the fireworks.

Happy girls at the happiest place on earth!

Yum! Breakfast to go, on the way to Disneyland


Nathan bought Patience and Jordyn Churros! Jordyn asked her mom if she could have one of those "long brown sticks" when she grew up. Of course, Cathi said that she could. I suspect that she will have eaten many churros before she grows up.

It was a fabulous trip! Great fun for the littles, who opened the park each morning, and were so excited to see all of the Disney characters and experience Disneyland for the very first time. And great fun for the bigs, who closed the park each night and went on all of the fast, scary rides.

We're looking forward to the next Disneyland trip!