December 4 - January 1, 2015 (Yuma, OR, WA)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

I can't hardly believe that a month has gone by since I've posted to our blog and now it is January 1, 2015.  Time does have a way of passing by doesn't it?  Since it's been a month since I've posted, I'll just recap some highlights of the last month.

This was a visitor to our 5er one sunny day.  Gracie so wanted to go over to it and play, but we were more interested in getting a picture before it decided to leave....

Roadrunner...I always thought they would be a bigger bird...I guess from my childhood cartoon days of Wiley Coyote and the roadrunner.

A picture of one of the many beautiful sunsets we see down here in Arizona.





The Palms is a very pet friendly RV park.  They have two very nice off leash dog parks as well as some other green space for your pets.  They also host a Christmas Pet Parade so of course we had to dress Gracie up in her Christmas dress and join the parade.

Gracie in the center of the pic saying hi to several dogs her size

Gracie with Santa, she wasn't cooperating for a good photo oportunity, she was too busy checking everything out

Gracie and me walking in the parade around the park

Group photo, we are at the end.  I included this photo even though it doesn't show all the dogs because Rich liked the husky that was next to us.

The Palms also has a Christmas light decorating contest and people here take it quite seriously.  It was amazing the amount of work that some people went to...of course the seasons worth of free concert tickets might have been part of the incentive.  We enjoyed walking around in the evenings checking out all the pretty lights.  It really was quite lovely and festive.  Though there were quite a few inflatable Christmas decorations which really surprised me.  Since we are not a fan of the inflatables we didn't include any of those in our pictures.   

 



This was the view out the back of our 5er window

 





 

On the 16th of December we headed out on a road trip back to Oregon and Washington to celebrate Christmas with family and help Jessica and Garry move into their new home.  Because of the falling fuel prices we penciled out renting a car vs. driving up in the dually and decided to go with the rental car.  We left early in the morning  to time our travel to miss the commute traffic in the LA area.  Our 2 day journey took us up I-5 with a nights stay north of Sacramento in Williams, CA.  Boy Rich and I both got a lesson in California freeway driving.  The drivers are so very rude and they drive so fast and close to your bumper, it was awful, we just couldn't get over how unsafe and rude they were. 

 

We made it safe and sound to my mom's and spent several days enjoying visiting my mom and other family.  The Pacific Northwest had experienced quite a bit of rain, so the creek was pretty high for this time of year, but it sure was pretty.

 

We also got to spend some time with our new grandson Elijah.  Amber and Norm and Elijhah came up to mom's for pizza one night and then mom and I got to babysit Elijah one day. 

Great Grandma with Elijah....love those smiles.  =)

Great Grandma doing what Grandma's do best...reading stories.  Cookie and Misty (her two puppies) are wondering why they aren't sitting on mom's lap, their normal spot when she is sitting in her chair.

Grandma and Elijah

After several days at mom's we hit the road to head to Washington to visit with more family and celebrate another grandsons birthday, celebrate Christmas and help Jessica and Garry move.  We didn't do very well with taking pictures while we were in Washington. 

 

Cameron with his Seattle Seahawks cake pops birthday cake, he turned 11.  His younger brother, Calvin is standing behind him. 

Cameron was born on Christmas eve so after his birthday party, we got to attend Christmas eve church service at Tidelands, the church that Brandon pastors.  It was a beautiful candlelit service and we are glad we got to be part of it.  We  We spent Christmas morning with Jessica and Garry and then we all went up to Brandon & Kris' house for Christmas dinner.  Kris' parents were also there, so we got to spend time getting to know them better.  They also spend the winters in Yuma, so were sharing some pointers on the area.  We had a lovely prime rib dinner.  It was a very enjoyable Christmas and we felt blessed to be able to share it with family. 

After Christmas, it was time to get Jessica and Garry moved into their new home.  They had been renting a home just down the street from the one they just purchased, so the move distance was very short.  The home they purchased is very lovely and I'm sorry we didn't get any pictures except the one below.  The first day moving, I spent priming and painting the bedroom wall while Rich and Garry moved alot of the furniture.  The second day we had some of Jessica and Garry's friends and neighbors helping.  So after only two days, they were completely moved out of their rental home and into their new home.  We also were able to get the rental home all cleaned on the second day.  Now their work begins, putting everything away.  =)

Me on ladder and Jessica prepping the wall for a new coat of paint.  I can't believe we didn't get a picture of the new paint color - it was teal and turned out very pretty.

Since the house move went so well and the weather report was changing with some snow forecast for the mountains, we decided to head back to Yuma a day early.  We hit the road for a 3 day road trip back to Yuma.  Our first day was the shortest because we stopped and spent the night at mom's so it wasn't a full travel day.  The next two days, were both long and stressful because we were back to those rude California drivers.  We decided to cut over to Bakersfield on the way down and bypass the LA traffic.  I'm happy to report that we made it back to Yuma all in one piece.  We were very glad to be back to our little home after living out of a suitcase for a couple weeks.  It sure felt good to sleep in our own bed. 

 

Because we were back a day early, we checked on getting tickets to the New Years Eve party that The Palms hosts and were told they were sold out but they would take our name and if there were any cancellations they would let us know.  We no sooner got back to the 5er and got a call that 2 tickets were just turned in....yahoo, that worked out well for us. This was the first year that they did an actual dinner we found out, and we thought they did a very fine job.  They had a nice prime rib and lemon chicken buffet.  The food was quite good.  For dessert they had a chocolate fondue fountain that you could dip rice krispy treats or marshmellows or strawberries.  They also had chocolate chip cookies.  Very yummy.  The band for the dancing played some good dancing music and the musicians/singers were quite good.   We had a very enjoyable evening eating and dancing and getting to know some of the couples in the park.  The Palms has a high percentage of Canadians so we were surprised that the couples seated at our table were all from the states.  We had a couple from Virginia, a couple from northern Idaho, a couple from Seattle area and a couple from Utah.  So after spending about 3 hours dancing, we rang in the New Year with the traditional noise makers and balloons and all the hoopla that goes along with reaching the New Year. 

 

 

Rich and Kelly in their New Year finery....

 

Today, January 1st is a nice relaxing day at home.  We had a leisurely morning with a nice walk around the park with Gracie.  It's very cold here today, and we noticed that some of the bushes/flowers in the park were nipped by frost last night, including my pot of geraniums that I just hauled up north and back so they wouldn't die while we were gone...sigh.  Hopefully they will recover.  Rich is watching the Rose Bowl with the Oregon Ducks and Florida State....go Ducks! and I'm catching the blog up. 

 

We both wish you all a very Happy and Blessed 2015.