Happy Memorial Weekend!

Happy Memorial Weekend  to all...

We arrived in Sacramento, California on Friday.  The weather is beautiful this weekend!

Yesterday we visited with our friends Joel and La'le and went out for lunch.  We visited them last year in June.  I took some pictures last year so thought I'd reuse them since we look pretty much the same! 

Joel and La'le have a lovely back yard.  It is so pleasant to sit in their living room and look out and see beautiful green trees and to watch the squirrels play. On Wednesday we are going to go to Old Town Sacramento with them.

This weekend we are just kicking back and relaxing! Driving home from their house yesterday we could see the river and in just a very small area there must have been 50 boats! Crazy out there!

Thankful for our men and women who are serving and have served..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Enjoying Atwater!

Yesterday Billy and Vicky took us to the Hillmar Cheese Factory, in Hillmar north of Atwater.  They have lovely gardens, information on how the cheese is made and a nice lunch area and gift shop.  We had sandwiches for lunch and I think I was the only one with a grilled "cheese" sandwich!  It was a beautiful day and it was fun visiting the factory.  We bought some delicious cheese for snacking!

Today it was pretty cloudy in the morning and so our drive up near Sonora in the mountains didn't seem like a good idea so we played several games of Yahtzee and some good snacks instead, including some of the cheese Vicky bought yesterday!

This morning I took some pictures of the goats at the campground to share!

Tomorrow we leave here for Sacramento area.

Fun and games..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Moved on to Atwater, CA

Monday night we had dinner with Craig and Claire, Chip and Stephen and Marissa at Yukon Jacks.  We had a good farewell dinner and lots of laughs.  It became a Droid Tech Meeting because Chip and Craig got new Droid phones, Stephen has a Droid and Ted has a Droid.  Stephen was giving classes and helping everyone set up their phones.  Ted's had his since Missouri but mainly knows how to answer it and make calls!  LOL!  The kids learn everything so quickly!
We are up the road in Atwater visiting Ted's classmates, Vicky and Billy Whited.  We arrived at the Air Castle Campground (next to the Air Castle Airplane Museum) and found we had dead batteries in the RV.  They have only a few camping spaces here with full hookups so we are "dry camping" meaning no hookups! So we took off to the RV place to replace our batteries, another slap to our bank account!

Vicky and Billy invited us to a great dinner (and dessert of course) and a fun evening!   I took a couple of pictures of their huge Great Dane, Thor! 

Dinner with friends and their "big" dog..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Still in Fresno!

Last night Ted and I were on our own and had dinner at Famous Dave's Barbecue.  I REALLY enjoyed my St. Louis Spare Ribs!  I brought home my brisket and cooked apples because there four ribs, 3 slices of brisket, a delicious cornbread muffin and garlic mashed potatoes.  I wanted to try the green beans or the coleslaw but they sounded a bit HOT for me!  Ted had a Georgia Chopped Pork salad and he said it was also delicious!  It was a fun place with good food.

Today we met Chip and Haley for lunch at Chevy's.  Poor Haley still has papers to do and turn in for college but Chip's pretty relaxed since he's all done!  He's had a fun couple of "graduation" days so was happy to just kick back this afternoon.  We enjoyed lunch with the two of them.

During lunch Haley was talking about the Coke Halwell Center for River Studies.  Her mother works for the River Conservation Trust that is preserving and restoring the San Joaquin River lands of ecological, scenic or historic significance.  So after lunch we headed over there to check it out!  The River Center has restored an 1890's Ranch house that had been lived in until the 1970's.  The house was in a total state of disrepair and today is lovely inside and out with pretty gardens and a circular drive with a pond.

In the house they have some oil paintings that are available for purchase to help support the property as well as some birdhouses that are being auctioned to raise funds.  Some of the birdhouses were very original and I told Ted that the bird in one of the houses looked real, and then she blinked!  Looks like Mama Dove is sitting on some eggs!

Sunday afternoon with Chip and Haley and the wildlife..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Graduation Day for Chip!

This morning Andrew "Chip" Meredith (our middle nephew) graduated from California State University at Fresno with a B.S. in Geomatic Engineering!  Chip was one of twelve with this type of degree!  There were a total of almost 200 graduating with Civil, Mechanical, Electrical, Computer and Geomatic Engineering and Construction Management degrees.  An Associate Professor of the Engineering School did a great job as "emcee" and the speeches were not too long! 

After the graduation we stepped outside for some picture taking with friends and family.

After picture taking, a group of family and friends had breakfast/lunch at Huckleberry's!

Proud of the new "graduate"..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Dinner with Stephen & Marissa

Last night we had dinner with Stephen and Marissa.  We had a great time and a great show at the "Japanese Kitchen" restaurant. 

Enjoying a great evening with Stephen and Marissa..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Dinner with the nephews!

We thought we were only having dinner with Craig and Claire because Chip and Stephen both have finals today.  We were happy to have Chip and Hailey join us for dinner and then we all met Stephen for dessert at the Cheesecake Factory!  By the way, the Caramel Royal Macchiato Espresso is delicious (my dessert) and the Warm Apple Crisp is large enough for 4, but apparently delicious!  We had a great time with the kids!

Stephen's girlfriend, Marissa, was busy with her Mom and Dad last night and couldn't join us but I think we will see her tonight!

Craig (oldest) just finished his first year of law school.  Chip (middle) is graduating from Fresno State with a Geomatic Engineering Degree!  Stephen is finishing his first year of college at Fresno State and plans to go to Pharmacy School after getting his degree.

Proud of these guys and their girls..."Ain't Life Grand!"