January Highlights

Ezra, while still at the Hanchetts, made a movie with legos using Donna's camera. It was really great. Our bathroom door handle fell off.... Between Donna and Wayne, the Tui family got to the airport where we said our good byes. :( The day after we settled back in at Happy Trails in Surprise in our motor home, but it was way too quiet for me! Wednesdays finds us playing "chicken foot" (a dominoe game) with our Minnesota friends and a couple from Washington. One evening I WON with the lowest points on my table of 8 women. Yeah!!! Bought a refrigerator for our shed. Both of us joined the Happy Trails "Get Fit-Stay Fit Challenge" club. I watched the "Inauguration" from 7:45 a.m. till 2 p.m. We joined Sam's Club after their offer of a $25 gift card - ended up costing us only $18.00 for the year. I suffered a horrific rash all month that almost drove me mad. Played Hand & Foot (card game) each Thursday with the L.D.S. Card Game Club. Denise & Jesse came over and pulled out a dead tree and 3 unruly ground covers on our lot. Had a surprise visit from our Beaverton neighbors, Don and Marsha Davis. Watched a parade down our resort's main street in honor of the Armed Forces. Ate dinner at the Pearsons. Wayne bought a vintage golf cart that he has gutted and is fixing up. We met Donna, Sarah & Luke at the grand opening of a Sam's Club just 5 minutes from our lot where we ate lunch then shopped. Found the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on channel 5. Devina got me hooked! That is about it for January's update. Love to you all.

Vintage Golf Cart Show

Wayne and I spent a couple of hours checking out vintage golf carts in Sun City, on Saturday. It was interesting to see the different types out there. (For those of you that don't know, a lot of people use their golf carts around Sun City and here at Happy Trails to get around).

THANKS

I must give a huge thanks to Donna who showed me (and did most of the work) how to post these pictures at her house last night. After dinner we spent (leaving all the dirty dishes in the sink) until 11:30 p.m. doing the posting. Thanks again Donna, I am thrilled with the results! Love you, Mom

Saying goodbye to the Tui's

Luke's Blessing day

Celebrating Emma's 10th Birthday

Christmas Day in AZ 2008

Road trip to AZ-- last two days

Road trip to AZ-- first two days

Thanksgiving and more...

Rewind to November....tour of the Tui home

Dec. 16th to January 1st, 2009

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL WHO READ THIS.

Much has happened since my last blog. We arrived Tuesday the 16th of Dec. at our property in Surprise, AZ. around 2 p.m. Before we got there we stopped at an Ostrich Farm called Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Farm where I got some great pictures of Emma and Eli feeding some ostrich, deer, donkeys and lorekeets. We call Emma "Bird Girl" now because so many of the birds sat on her arms, hands, shoulders and head. She was covered and she liked it! I preferred the donkeys and went back to them and made sure each one of them got some food. It was pretty great that we could feed them.
Thanks to Denise who hosed off our dusty site before we arrived, so we could just back right in and set up camp. Emma helped me put up a "Merry Christmas" lighted banner then we played checkers, ate dinner and then went to bed.

These are the highlights of the past two weeks:

17th Wednesday: Cleaned out our shed that had layers of dust and bird feathers on every shelf and piece of furniture. Emma and Eli helped every step of the way. They filled up our bird bath with our blue nuggets and set our two blue birds on top. We drove to Albertson's to get more food. We (Eli, Emma and myself) walked all around the golf course. After dinner we went to the laundry room and while waiting for the clothes to wash and dry we played table tennis and had lots of fun!
18th Thursday: After learning that the rest of the Tui family's plane had been delayed because of weather, we delayed taking the children over to the Hanchett home. An expected arrival time of 1:30 p.m. turned into a 5 p.m. arrival instead! So I played some checkers then packed up Emma and Eli and their suitcase and back packs and headed on over to the Hanchett home. The children were of course very glad to see their family. We stayed until 10 p.m. and then traveled back to our site in Happy Trails.
19th Friday: Today my body just would not let me get up until 10 a.m.! We ate lunch at a Chinese restaurant before we drove over to Donna and Mike's home. Komi and Mike were at a shooting range and Donna and Devina were grocery shopping. Just before 7 p.m. they went to a ward party with some of Donna and Mike's friends. After the men watched a dvd that did not end until after 1 a.m. we did not get home until close to 2 a.m.!
20th Saturday: Got up at 10 a.m. again as I was still so tired. At 2 p.m. we drove over to Mike and Donna's home. Dori called 3 times today letting us know about all the snow that is falling in Beaverton! Wow, the year we leave we miss record snowfall... I was a little sad, really. We were back in the motor home by 10:40 p.m. tonight.
21st Sunday: We met the Hanchett and the Tui family for Church at Donna and Mike's Mountain Ridge Ward. Donna is a counselor in Primary and was unable to sit with Devina and me in Relief Society. Devina had put some pork in the crock pot before she left, so we enjoyed Kalua Pork with rice after the meetings. With 19 people eating, the rice ran out before Donna, myself and Devina had some. The Pearson family: Jesse, Denise, Tristan, Britton and Camden joined us for dinner. I was not amused that the men played poker after dinner leaving us to mind and tend 11 children. We came home near 10 p.m.
22nd Monday: I did 2 loads of laundry, then drove to Costco where we bought some food for Christmas day. Today Brian Pasero went over to our house in Beaverton and took some pictures of the snowfall. I could not believe how much snow there is.
23rd December found us driving our motor home with the Suzuki attached over to the Hanchett home where we parked inside their gate, this time. On the way we bought gas for $1.57 per gallon. Almost 2 months to the day we had bought gas in McCloud CA at $3.49 per gallon. Thank goodness it is not that now. This afternoon I made my apple crisp that was enjoyed by most of the family. Donna and Devina went off again to do last minute Christmas shopping. They began wrapping a few and I was thinking about joining them when I realized that my "box" of presents were not with us. I had left them at our property in our shed! Went to bed at midnight.
24th December Wednesday: Back to our property where I found my lost "box". All is now well. Ezra and Jake rode with us where we met Donna and Denise at the Anthem Park where all the children played for a time. Then we went over to the Anthem Outlets stores where they lined up for a picture with Santa Claus. After eating a pasta salad that Devina had made, she continued to cook making a double batch of cookies and started her recipe of Orange rolls for Christmas breakfast tomorrow. My cell phone suddenly stopped working... Donna suggested I turn it off, pull out the battery and after I put it back in again it worked!!!!! Who would have thought? Emma came out into the motor home and helped me by writing names on the tags and sticking them onto the presents I was wrapping. It went so much faster. Thanks so much, Emma! Dianna let us know today that the weather was so bad that it took them from their home in Beaverton, OR 3 hours to get just passed Woodburn! They are on their way to Disneyland. I got into bed by 1:15 a.m.
THURSDAY CHRISTMAS DAY DECEMBER 25th 2008:
Donna let out Cody, their dog, and his barking plus the outside piped Christmas music woke us up around 8 a.m. We went inside and watched as the Hanchett family opened a few of their gifts, then walked into the living room where the Tui family were opening up their gifts. A lot of walking between rooms this morning and taking pictures! Every one seemed happy with what Santa brought and the gifts that their parents had given them. We ate Devina's orange rolls with the link sausages I had cooked up. Denise came with their family around 2 p.m. or so. After dinner the men watched sports (surprise, surprise) while we looked after the children. I came in at 10 p.m. and called Dori around 11:30 p.m. Good thing I did not wake her up! A fun, full day.
Dec. 26th Friday: I went with the mom's and children and the two dads down to a park closeby to let the children run off some of their energy and it worked! It was a little cold but sitting in the sun it was not too bad. A little windy, though. Later on all the children went with Devina, Komi and Mike on a hike. I made a large potatoe casserole for dinner. Watched a movie with Devina and Donna, while the men watched one in the family room. We are always in the bedroom, go figure. Just before I was going to go to bed I put a load of dark clothes into the dryer and came out with all the lights off. Donna thought I had already gone out and was locking up for the night!!!
Dec. 27th Saturday AND EMMA'S 10th BIRTHDAY!
Wayne and I went grocery shopping today. We sang Happy Birthday to her and she opened her presents before driving over to Denise and Jesse's home for a great taco dinner with Jesse and Mike's homemade salsa. Children played inside and outside. Wayne and I left at 9:30p.m.
Dec. 28th Sunday AND LUKE'S BLESSING!
Last night was the coldest in AZ so far, a freeze warning had been issued over the t.v. last night. Many of the cacti around their home was covered. O'Malley slept all night under the bed covers, and when he does this we know it was super cold. It turned out to be a beautiful day. Mike gave his son, Luke a special beautiful blessing. I think the best I have heard thus far. Dianna called from Disneyland where they are enjoying the fun of it. We ladies watched Diary of a Princess.
Dec. 29th Monday: It was a very warm day today. Not much else happened besides going again to a grocery store for some New Year's Eve food.
Dec. 30th Tuesday: I went with Donna to Luke's 2 month checkup and immunizations. I almost cryed with Luke while he was injected twice in his left leg and 3 times in his right. Devina and Donna got a pedicure. I got into bed by 12:30 a.m.
Dec. 31st Wednesday NEW YEAR'S EVE!
I made for the event: A banana creme dessert, Brian's bean dip, Little Smokies, and a shrimp salad. The Pearson Family arrived near 3 p.m. or so. A poker game was played in which Denise participated. Even Devina played some. Donna and I stayed most of the night in her bedroom watching New Year's stuff on the T.V. inbetween keeping watch over the children. With 10 children running to and fro it was an interesting and noisy night. 10 can certainly make noise! The New Year was welcomed by all running outside to yell and blow their blowers. May all who read this have a very Happy New Year!
JANUARY 1st 2009 Thursday: It was hard getting up this morning. Devina and Donna went to the movie Twilight. This afternoon I spent a long time updating my blog. I hope that I will learn sometime how to add pictures. It has just been too busy around here to get Donna to teach me. After all, Luke is just two months old. She is still really busy with him which is to be expected. And to have all of us visiting and eating and sleeping in their home gives her no time to herself. This is one of my New Year's goals: To be able to include some pictures in my blog! Wish me luck. I am going to publish this now even though the day is not yet over! Mike just left for the airport to pick up his dad, Chuck, who also lives in Oregon. So there will be one more here!!!