Sept 15th

Whitney, Bryson & Emerson

 

   Janet has been back visiting and then Whitney & Emerson will be coming to Oregon for a week, so we are looking forward to finally seeing Emerson in Person!

Last but not Least the newest member of the Coles

                                                           Miss Taytum

More family

                                                             Dallas' Kids

                                            Whitney's boy

Christopher's Kids

 

Few more of the kids and a couple of the ones not able to get to the gathering...

Cole Gathering

                                                 Curtis' antique suburban

                                            Steven wants a bike....

                                             Just Hanging

                                              Hand made Bow

                                                 Love those cookies

                                            Charlie's drawing on Parker

                                          Back Rub Train

                                                       Grandpa Cole

                                                   Not Hand made Bow

                                             Boy & Toy

                                           Good Looking Bunch

Olivia

Steven came for a few days so we got as many together as we could.  With Dallas a policeman and Seth working at the prison, Whitney in Wisconsin, Sam in St. George, Chris a new job, we just take who we can get. See if you know the great grandkids, See the bow that Parker made, See the "tatto" that Charlie free hand drew on Parker. (Then he forgot, went in the hot tub and it was gone)   When its boys that get together they have to play with the "toys" including the little ones on the machines...Next best part is everyone getting a back rub! and best part having as many together as we can...

We made it back home to South Beach the first part of May with stops in St. George for a nice visit with grandson Sam & his wife Erika, Kaysville, UT to see Nephew Brandon Nielsen and family, along with sister Faye, and Neice Natalie Morgan & cute boys.  Then lunch's with friends the Felters, Conlins, Winwards, Tingey's, & Rasmussen's in Brigham City & Pocatello.  A week with Dad and family in Providence, which included visits to rehab to see my brother Frank who had a 4-wheeler accident.  Then on the way to Pocatello we met the Felters for lunch in Lava Hot Springs and a trip up to their neat hide-a-way in the mountains, along with Roger finding a Geo Tracker to buy from a guy.  Dinner in Pocatello with our good friends the Stone's from our years living in Am Falls, and then because of another wicked ugly wind storm, we had a day to hang out in Am Falls until the wind quit.  On to Boise for a fuel stop and catch up visit with Hollis, and then to Kennewick to spend the weekend with Steven and family.  From Kennewick to Corvallis where we had dinner with Darin & family and Craig and Janet.  Then finally we arrived back to our "Bay Haven" and a week or two of unload, clean up, put away, go visit Curtis and his family, and settle back into our summer time activities which includes visits from friends, and visiting friends and of course getting in some fishing.

The snow & wind storm that happened while we were gone took down about 8 trees around our place but none on any buildings, and we had sons and grandsons who came, cut down, chopped up, split, cleaned up and hauled away, so we are two lucky snowbirds!!

While visiting friends in Palm Desert we went to the Palm Canyon National Refuge which is part of the Indian Reservation, and it has a huge stand of Palm Trees that are native to CA, as most all others have been brought in.  Over 25 years ago a fire was started by kids playing with matches and it burned through and across, three or four canyons and went through this canyon.  But because the palms are 80% water they survived, and still provide lots of shade, and are over 200 years old.  We went for a nice 2 mile hike through them and were amazed at how they were able to survive.

Catching Up

I start looking at friends and family blogs and wonder when they have the time to post such great updates.  I need to talk to some of you and find how how to add photos without it taking forever, plus how to add my explanations below or above the photo's.  So until I get back closer to family I will at least let you know what Roger & I have been up to down here in Yuma.  We of course have had wonderful weather, and enjoy riding our bikes and taking long walks.  In February we took a two week trip with our friends Skip & Judy, across NM and into Texas.  We didn't have any set time to be at any one place, so we were able to just go with the flow.  We stopped in Demming NM and stumbled into a museum that was HUGE and had everything you could imagine, so we spent a couple of hours exploring.  They told us about a local place we HAD to go have lunch, and it was such a kick in the pants because we were not sure we even wanted to go in, let along eat.  But of course the food was wonderful and the decorations unbeliveable...(Will try and get photo up)  We loved Fredericksburg, TX and spent a couple of days there, along with finding Luckenbach, TX which was no easy thing.  Then on to San Antonio where we stayed 3 days and would go back again.  We drove down to Corpus Christi and spent some time by the Gulf, and then drove to South Padre Island where we spent a couple of days, and loved collecting all the shells.  Went through Brownsville and up along the Rio Grande through Larado, and eventually back through Las Cruces and to the White Sands National Park before heading back to AZ.
We have had friends from Corvallis come and stay, plus had 3 different groups of people with between 14 & 20 come for omelets, enjoyed going to the 3 different swap meets, gone to friends for lunches and dinners, & dinners & breakfasts & fish frys, had 4-wheeling trips out on the desert where the Desert Big Horns are (if you just stop and look), went to the big tractor show over in Wellton, gone to the big Marine Base Air Show with the Thunderbirds as the headliners (they were awesome) also went for a tour of the Marine Base on another day, taken our bikes down along the river for a 5 mile bike trail that is really great, had fabulous FHE programs with people like Kerry Christensen and James Oneil Miner, had missionaries from HVC come for desert dogs, went to the Stake RS Birthday Party that was one of the most amazing programs I have been to in a long time, drove out to Martinez Lake for the BEST hamburgers around, went for Date Shakes, drove out to the Sand Dunes to watch the crazies try and kill themselves, hiked up telegraph hill, and even just sat out on our patio and read a book!  Going up to Palm Springs next week to visit friends from Corvallis who are spending a month there, and then we are planning on just doing NOTHING for a little while! 
To all of you who are freezing, come see us as we have a great guest house (the MH) now that we added the bedroom on to the Casita!!   Weather is here, hope you are fine!

                                             River Walk above & White Sands below

The scarey place with great food!

Oh What A Beautiful Morning!

As you know I'm not a morning person

but this was just too good to pass up

this morning!

Where did 2011 Go?

Thanksgiving

Casita addition

Christmas

Can't believe we have zipped through another year, but it is great to be back here in Yuma.  Had a great Thanksgiving with our family before heading South where we had a Christmas and New Years get together with all our many friends, and now we are just enjoying the sunshine.  We had a bedroom added to our Casita by enclosing the porch on the back and it has really made a nice addition.  Planning a trip through Arizona, New Mexico and Texas next month so if any of you have suggestions of what we should see on the way let us know.  We plan to go as far as the San Antino area and just play it by ear as to when and where we stop along the way.  Happy New Year!