Busy in Boerne

We all seem to be feeling better and we've been having a good time in Boerne!  We had lunch with Pam and John at the Bass Pro Shop restaurant at The Rim.  We had a good time and it is always fun to check out Bass Pro Shop!

Gloria's brother Bob and his wife, Marilyn arrived in Boerne from Illinois on Tuesday night.  We've been visiting with them and doing some sightseeing.  We went to Cavenders boot shop and Bob bought some very nice Alligator boots.  Funny, he said he couldn't find these in Illinois!  Only in Texas!  John bought some black Ostrich boots.  Ted and I refrained from any boot buying! 

Next we had lunch with Chris Madrids.  They have delicious, huge hamburgers.  You wouldn't want to go there at night but it's a great lunch place!  Everyone shared burgers so we weren't so stuffed!  Next we went to the Mercado.  It is a small Mexican shopping village in San Antonio.  Gloria needed some Vanilla and they have the best at a reasonable price.  John, Bob and Ted got a new leather belts and I got a new leather change purse.  Marilyn found a very pretty silver flower neclace.  We were all happy with our purchases!

On Thursday night, John and Gloria's granddaughter, Haley, was elected to the National Honor Society.  We all went to see her Induction Ceremony.  She is a junior this year.

Yesterday Gloria didn't have little kids for day care so we all took off for the San Antonio Riverwalk.  We first did a tour of the Alamo.

After we did the tour and visited the gift shop, we went over to the riverwalk for lunch.  After lunch we took the 5 mile tour on the river.  They are extending the riverwalk and will allow personal watercraft on about 8 miles of the river by the end of next summer.  It took us about an hour to do go all the way through the locks to the the furtherest point you can go on the river and back.  It is a nice ride through the locks.  Part of the river is 9 feet higher and the lock holds about 27000 gallons of water.  They have restaurants along the way, art museums, a park, and have added artwork under bridges and along the river.

Today we are all meeting our friend Laura Joann at Hillbillyz for a barbeque dinner.  Tomorrow we leave Boerne and head to San Diego!

A good time in the Hill Country..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Ted and I hope everyone  had a great Christmas.    I have a lot to catch up with so bear with me and I'll try to keep it painless!

On Saturday night before Christmas several 100,000 of our best friends decided to go to the San Antonio Riverwalk with us!  It is really a treat to see the Christmas lights.  We went with John, Gloria and Bonnie (their daughter).  We walked around since the boats were full and saw the lights and made it over to the Chocolate Factory for a sample!  It was a nice evening.  Bonnie left on Sunday to go home to her family.

We had a fun Christmas Eve at Gloria and John' s house.  Their daughter Cheryl and  her husband Dan came over with the three kids.  After a delicious dinner we exchanged some gifts and the kids opened presents from their grandparents.  Jack is 8 and his favorite gift from him Grandma and Grandpa was a white shirt and tie!  He put it on with his Nike shorts and bare feet and kept it on the rest of the evening!  He looked very handsome!

Christmas morning was a delicious breakfast at Dan and Cheryl's.  We opened gifts and had a lot of fun watching the kids open their gifts.  There were a lot of electronics and they were busy the rest of the day. We came back for a killer dinner of ribs and much much more!  I just remember the ribs!  LOL

Wednesday after Christmas we spent playing Mexican Train Dominoes all day!  Ted won 5 games and was the big winner!  It was a fun day.

On Thursday we went to see Jack Reacher.  Ted and I have read all of Lee Child's "Reacher" books and really like them.  We didn't think Tom Cruise fit his description, he's about 6'5 and 240 pounds in the books and well Tom isn't!!!!  He did a good job and since it was his production company and he was producer or director or all of the above, it wasn't a surprise that he played the lead.  It  helped to have read the books I think but we all enjoyed it.  We also did some shopping and had a great day until I started getting some kind of bug.  I had low grade a fever all evening.

On Friday Ted and I packed up and drove north to Ingram, Texas for a Traveling Supreme rally.  We had such a great time.  We had a lot of meals together, played some cards, went to an art gallery and more.  I was battling my "bug" for most of the time but then on Monday, the Acadamy Award day, I felt a lot better.  Unfortunately, Ted was starting to get it and was not feeling all that well.  We were able to partake in the activities anyway and it was a lot of fun.  The evening went as follows:

We arrived promptly at 6:30 p.m. and walked the “red carpet”. James H. Smith and Ardis Schenk hosted the red carpet and interviewed all of us “celebrities” coming in (which was hilarious)! The press corps; Linda Brian and Barbara Smith were there to take pictures. After we arrived and had a chance to mingle and we had a sit down dinner. Our three handsome waiters; the Smiths: James H., Jerry and James R., did a fabulous job of serving Cesar salad, ham, potatoes, green beans, rolls and red hot pineapples. The coup de grace were Banana Fosters! It was fun watching the three men cooking their bananas and almost setting themselves on fire! They were fabulous!
After dinner the show began! Our host and hostess; James H. Smith and Ardis Schenk introduced the various acts. The acts were snapshots from the various rally’s held in 2012 and we all had skits to participate in, they were great! There were so many funny moments…too many to mention! In between the acts, Gail Smith handed out ”special” awards. There were awards for “two left feet”, “golden axle award”, “best rally”, “best overall rally” and so many more. I  bet you can guess who won the Golden Axle Award...yes, Ted and I.  The awards themselves were so funny and Gail and her team did an outstanding job!

Barbara Smith hosted a “movie trivia” game. We had to answer questions, to the best of our abilities! Mike Bruce was the big winner but several of us won boxes of movie candy! It was fun.

Finally we got around to the gift exchange. This year we drew numbers and we actually opened the presents.  (Last year you stole unopened presents)!   We could steal a couple of times. There was a lot of stealing of wine and flashlights! I guess after you drink the wine, you need a flashlight to see to get home! It was a lot of fun and brought us up to the midnight hour! We sang “Auld Lang Syne“, toasted and then headed home to bed to dream of the academy awards!

Tuesday afternoon we had our first pot luck of the New Year! Again, way too much wonderful food (not time to start the diet yet)!

Wednesday we left Ingram and headed to Pipe Creek to the RV service place.  On Friday night our furnace stopped working.  Fortunately we have the fireplace and a ceramic heater and we kept nice and warm.  It is a lot easier with the furnace!  They found that both the air conditioner and heater boards were fried and needed to be replaced and we picked up the RV yesterday afternoon.  Our heater worked great all night.  It has been in the 30's all day and very cold and rainy.

I'm well now and Ted is barely coughing.  John is still not feeling well (his cousin's husband) but better today and Gloria remains healthy!  I'm catching up on this blog and also wrote an article for the Traveling Supreme newsletter and have laundry going!  This brings you up to date!

Happy New Year!..."Ain't Life Grand!"

A busy week!

On Sunday we had brunch with the kids.  Poor Stephen had a really bad toothache and upset stomach so he and Marissa didn't stay long.  After we ate Ted and I drove out to Stephen's lot and toured the model of the house that has just been started being built for he and Marissa.  It is supposed to be done in March of 2013 (hopefully)!

On Monday morning we left for Texas.  We made it to Needles, California and camped in a dry camping lot in back of the Avi Resort and Casino.  You can park at a lot of casinos for free, but you have no electric or water even.  We went in for dinner and did a little gambling after dinner.  Ted lost $25 and I doubled my money!  It was fun (for me) and  relaxing after driving.

On Tuesday we decided to drive on route 40 through Flagstaff.  There were no road condition warnings.  It had snowed the night before and was a beautiful, clear but cold drive.  We decided to head south from Flagstaff.

We headed south and ended up in Eloy, Arizona, south of Tucson!  On Wednesday we headed out and passed Picacho State Park.

We passed on through afternoon rush traffic in El Paso on Wednesday and luckily did not have any problem with the wind and dust storms that follow route 10 through New Mexico and Texas.  We actually had a tail wind and go over 10 1/2 miles per gallon...whoohoo!  We made it to Van Horn, Texas about 7:30 p.m.

You can see the dust behind us in this picture, almost blocking out the setting sun, but our roads were always pretty clear!

On Thursday we had a little over 400 miles to go and made it to Boerne around 5:00 p.m.  It was an easy drive with clear skies, little traffic and no large towns to have to drive through.  We got set up and drove over to Ted's cousin's, Gloria and John, to surprise them.  We called them from the front door to give them an "update" on our travel progress!  When they asked where are you?...At your front door, it's cold, let us in!  We arrived a day earlier than we thought.

On Friday Ted and I did a little Christmas shopping before meeting John, Gloria and Bonnie (their daughter visiting from Dallas area)!  Us ladies went shopping and had a fun afternoon.  Gloria and Bonnie ran into some friends at Old Navy!

We met up with John and Ted for dinner at the Cracker Barrel in San Antonio. Tomorrow we plan to have more fun!

Safe driving..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Craig and Claire's great Christmas Party!

Last night Craig and Clair had a Christmas/open house/housewarming party. They have really worked hard on the house this past year and it looks beautiful!  We bought some things for the party and came by early to drop them off and I took the opportunity to take some pictures of the calm before the storm!  The house looks great and we are really proud of what they have and continue to accomplish!  They have gotten to know a lot of their neighbors and some of them came by.  They invited friends from school, work and friends of Chip and Stephen. Needless to say, they had a lot of people!  In spite of the low 40' s temps, some of their friends hung out by the three fire places they had set up outside!  I would say the party was a huge success and we heard so many people talk about how perfect their house is for them!

The back yard!

I didn't take pictures of the party goers, just too many!  I did get a picture of Craig and Claire, Stephen and Marissa and Chip.  Ernie and Linda are Claire's parents and Jack is Claire's cousin.

Today we are going to have lunch with all of the kids and then a trip to see Stephen and Marissa's lot...they have just started building their house!

Love these kids..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Early Christmas in Fresno!

After we left Vegas we took two days to get to Atwater, California . We have friends that live there and they host the Red Lips party every Christmas.  Several of us arrived on Thursday and got together for dinner.  Three ladies; Marion, Pat and Joette left from San Diego and didn't arrive until after midnight!

We had a group of 17 this year.  We decided to have the gift exchange Friday night this year. After we had Jim and Della`s awesome Spaghetti dinner, we first played a 1964 trivia game for a prize!   Della was the big winner and won a box of 1964 candy!  The candy was not really around in 1964, just the kind of candy!   1964 was the year that Ted`s high school class graduated and most of the group are from that year!  There was also a game question on how many states Ted and Susan visited.  Duane was the big winner and won 10 scratch off tickets for $4.00!

We had a really fun gift exchange this year. Everyone brings a $20 good gift and a $5 gag gift!  There are always some interesting gag gifts and this year was no exception.  We had "mop the floor shoes", "hand sanitizer in case you touched your genitals", "a bottle of Tequila with two urine sample glasses to drink from" to name a few!  Phil always finds unusual gag gifts and this year his gift was really odd, to say the least.  He sent a gift in his absence because he is working in Austria and couldn't make it to the party.  He took a beer bottle, put some clothes on it, some eyes on it and a chunk of his ponytail!  It was hysterical and we all had a good laugh over it and all the gag gifts in general!  Box alcohol sets seemed to be the most popular good gifts along with Starbucks and a couple of household items.

 Kelly found the best "red lips" gift for Billy and Vicky, our host and hostess!  She found it on one of her bike trips and had to carry it in her backpack while riding her bicycle for eight weeks!  It even made it all in once piece...and so did Kelli!

It turned cold and grey on Saturday but it didn't stop the band from playing!  Vicky and Billy's son plays in a band and he has a lot of musician friends that seem to like to come and play for us. We always have a huge pot luck and lots of beer and the band and their friends have a good time playing, eating, drinking and singing for us.  One of our classmates had a bucket list wish to sing with a band.  Joette sang the Jose Cuervo song.  She was very brave and did a good job!  We try and get them to play music for us from our era and it doesn't always work, but it's always a great time!

Sunday morning about half the group met for breakfast and then we head out in all different directions!  By Sunday we all are exhausted!  Such a fun weekend!

From there Ted and I were going to go over to Sacramento for a few days but we were unable to connect up with friends so we headed down to Fresno. So far we have had lunch with the oldest nephew, Craig.  We had a good visit with him and have run some errands. Wednesday was cold and rainy so we took advantage of an opportunity to just rest up and read our books!

Last night we went to Costco with Craig and then met up with everyone at his house.  Craig and Claire are having a huge Christmas/Open House/House Warming on Saturday and were busy with the house.  Stephen had to study for finals so Chip went to dinner with Ted and I.  We had a good time catching up with him!  He is really enjoying teaching high school math and being the assistant wrestling coach.  He loves working with the kids.

I'm trying to download the Red Lips party pictures so I can get this posted!  Pat took a lot of great pictures of the group!

Enjoying the early holidays..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Almost ready to leave Las Vegas!

We had a fun evening with David and Debbie.  They picked us up and decided we would go to downtown Las Vegas for dinner!  We had not been downtown in forever!  We were there at 4:00 so there were not a lot of nice places to have dinner until 5:00 and there were lot very many people around for a Saturday afternoon.  We ended up at the Grotto at the Golden Nugget!  I had an angel hair crusted Mahi.  It was fabulous!  Everyone enjoyed their dinner and then we decided to take a walk on Fremont Street. 

Freemont Street is a few blocks long and we started at the beginning.  They have opened the street for walking and there is a covering over the street that goes on for three blocks and is a big screen!  It is a show all by itself!  And then there is the street people...you can see almost anything and everything...not kidding, it's scary!  We saw an Elvis, Sponge Bob Squarepants (whose costume was very dirty), Darth Vadar, women of the evening (if you get my drift), a guy painted all in gold (clothes and all) and one in silver.  There was an indian with beautiful headfeathers and a thong (he had seriously cute cheeks)!  I didn't take any pictures of the people because they all want money for their picture!  I did take a picture of the giant tv screen!   There are live bands and muscians scattered all around!  Near the end of the street there is a restaurant called the Heart Attack Grill!  If you weigh 350 pounds you can eat for free!  They give you a hospital gown when you come in and all the waitresses are dressed as nurses!  They advertise the "most butter fat in their milkshakes" than anywhere else!  It's a kick!

On Sunday we met Howard, a co-worker of Ted's at the County for lunch.  We had lunch at the Sunset Station and caught up with what he was doing.  We gambled a little and I came out ahead this time!  It was fun.

Yesterday we went to see the movie Skyfall.  We had been told that it was more like the old James Bond movies.  It was very good and kept our attention the full 2 1/2 hours!  I am excited about one of the previews and that is "Jack Reacher".   Jack Reacher is a character in a series of books written by Lee Child that I enjoy reading.  The Reacher character in the books is a really big guy and so I have a hard time picturing him as Tom Cruise but we'll see!

Today we are getting ready for the RLS Christmas party that we will be headed to tomorrow.  We will spend one night in Bakersfield and then arrive in Atwater on Thursday when the festivities will begin!

Enjoying the sites of downtown Las Vegas..."Ain't Life Grand!"

More Grand Canyon Pictures!

I worked on my pictures from the Grand Canyon this morning and thought I'd add them to the blog! 

Tonight we are going to have dinner with our friends David and Debbie Hawkins!  They are on the go alot so we were lucky to catch them at home!

Still enjoying the Grand Canyon..."Ain't Life Grand!"