August 12, 2011

So much has happened to us since last year. We have a beautiful new Granddaughter named Ruby. She was born in May and we were lucky enough to be there for her birth. We miss her and her parents and can't wait to see them again. Thanks to the internet we can watch her grow in pictures.

The other 6 grandchildren are all getting ready to go back to school. Four will be in college and two are in high school. The ones in college will be in Arizona, Illinois, California and Ohio. The two in high school are in California. They sure grow up fast!

We did a lot of traveling last year when we left Oregon. We visited California, Nevada and Arizona where we were able to see all of our children. We spent Thanksgiving in Las Vegas and Christmas in California. In November, we went to a taping of the Regis and Kelly show in Las Vegas. We also went to the Pawn Star shop...they have a show on TV. That was lots of fun. In April, we joined a friend at Harrah's in Las Vegas for a Birthday lunch at the Oyster Bar. It is always fun to get together with a good friend. We spent one week in the foothills of the Sierra's where it rained for 6 out of 7 days. We spent a month in Arizona and then went up to Nevada where we spent 4 months. After Ruby was born. we drove to California for Jessica's high school graduation. In June, we headed to Oregon for the summer.

Our time in Oregon has been very busy with volunteering and enjoying time with friends. There are so many activities to do at the park that we are constantly busy. We have a coffee group, a couple of happy hour groups, a craft group and a Friday night dinner group. Retirement is so very busy and we just love it. We took some time and went over to the coast for a day. The Oregon coast is just beautiful.

The Oregon farms are abundant with fresh produce right now. The farm I go to has lots of flowers and old furniture and farm implements. They also have a shop where you can buy jams, jellies and chutney. I picked beets, green beans and summer squash a couple weeks ago. Tomorrow we will go pick again. I have decided to can pickled beets and make bread and butter pickles. The blackberries grow wild up here and I will be making jelly and jam. I have already frozen blueberries. Sounds like I'll have my hands full.

There is a block party coming up the first part of September and a crab rally coming up the end of September on the coast. Then we will head back to California and maybe Nevada and Arizona. Nothing is for sure yet. You never know where we will end up. Once we went to Reno for a function and ended up in Maine. That was so much fun so you can never tell where we will go.