Busy Morning, Fun Family Reunion

The Ridge

On Sunday, July 13th Bill woke me up by rubbing my foot at 5:55. My foot was sticking out from under the sheets, as I often find myself doing. He was going to get water at the Acreage. He knew we were getting low but there wasn't going to be enough for me to shower if he didn't go now. 💕

Good morning!
My shadow man was out taking pictures
of the Buck/Hay/Thunder (all names I got from Nancy's blog)
Moon the other night. 

I stayed in bed for another 15 minutes and got up to sort laundry. It was a cleaning day as well at the Mat. Bill was back by 6:40 and I left with the basket of clothes about 10 minutes later. Just Shelley there and as I was leaving with clean ones, Mr. 'me, me, me' walked in. Good timing on my part!

A lovely day on the horizon.
The sky tells me so.

I came straight home and hung the clothes on the line. It was gearing up to be another hot day so they would dry fast. Bill had closed windows before he left and turned the a/c on. It felt really stuffy inside so I bumped the temperature down so it would come on. Gibbs would be alone and I wanted him comfy.

I drive past Robin's house every day
and always make sure things look normal.

My cupcakes got frosted last night so all I had to do was cut up the spuds and mix up the salad. Well, I had to pack a cooler bag with the food, drinks and plates and utensils. Bill wasn't planning on joining me as after flying, the boys were helping Peter get a wood stove out of his house. Timing was up in the air. 😉

I needed to pick some green onions
for my salad.
First harvest! 😂

When I was loaded with the above, my chair, camera and tripod and hat, I headed out. It was just after 11:30. Donna texted and asked if I would pick her up, Gerry wasn't going to go this year. We arrived at my cousin Harvey's in good time. 

Good day for a picnic, eh?

The traditional (from our parents' days of hosting) plan was meet at 12, eat at 1. We've upheld that, even in their absence. There was some updating required in the old family book, eg. marriages, deaths, births, so Donna and I added our own wedding dates and Mom's passing. 

Food was set up inside their home.
Top L to R: Charlene, Jennifer, Tammy, Ralph,
Ellen, Rob.
Bottom L to R: Mary, Brad, Harvey, Charlene, Jennifer

We sat outside on their lovely deck until Harvey announced that food was ready. The shop was all cleaned and swept with tables set up to eat inside.

There was plenty of food but only 15 people
so leftovers!

The heat was a bit much but it is also more comfortable to eat at a table, if possible. 😋

Good eats!
The pecan pie was dessert for Bill.
Honest!

I had a great chat with Brad, Harvey's younger brother, about 'everything' music. Kind of. He asked about musicians in the family, remembering my first husband's talent. The food was great, lots of variety, even those little pastry stuffed sausages that Aunt Fern used to make. Yum!!

Here we all are. A small group of 15 this year
BUT it was great conversation with everyone. 
I really enjoyed today.
L to R Back row: Darcy, Cathy, Harvey, Charlene, Ellen, Brad, Mary, Bill
Sitting L to R: Patsy, Rob, Sue, Ralph, Jennifer, Donna

As we sat chatting, I recognized a voice and saw Bill had come in on Jazz. 💖 That made me very happy. We all sat on the deck until around 4:30 or later. It was a great time. I did get my camera set up and we had some laughs positioning everyone. Poor Jennifer, she got moved around the most!

Who's that handsome biker?
And look at that Yamaha! 
💕💕

Bill pulled out with Jazz first and I dropped Donna off at home before heading to the Ridge myself. It was still warm but would be cooling down for the evening and overnight again. We reached a high of 27C/81F and that was pretty nice. 

Funny story:
Bill usually gives Gibbs cheese with his supper
when he's making his lunch. Gibbs had not eaten his
breakfast (w/cheese in it) so Bill just told him
'you didn't eat breakfast, I don't think you need any more cheese'.
Gibbs dropped his head in a pout......tell me he doesn't understand!!
(ps, yes, he got more and gobbled everything up.

No supper was necessary, so Bill made tomorrow's lunch and we relaxed for the night. There is leftover potato salad and cupcakes for tomorrow and a new week begins!

My Uncle Jerry could not make it today,
his health has gone downhill but he sent some
of Aunt Grace's jewellery items for us to choose from.
I saw this simple gold chain with a heart and
I knew I would be proud to wear it in her honor.
Good night!

Thank you for your visit!

 

Family Reunion Reunites

The Ridge

On Sunday, July 14^th we woke up early to a mixed sky. There was sun, clouds, heat in the air and wind in the forecast. There was also rain and chance of an afternoon storm in the weather report. The winds didn’t take long to pick up but Bill was able to go flying and get one flight in early enough. Anything over 10 mph makes for sad pilots in the RC world. ☹ 

Good morning!
Last night, it was beautiful outside.

Bye Daddy!

Oh-oh, not looking like anything good
coming our way.

I was up at 6:30 and began making my keto cake as soon as Bill left. I had not made it before so I was curious. Yes, the picnic recipients would be the guinea pigs today if they chose it. The rule was to meet at 12 so you had to know that I was packed up and on my way before 11:30 AND the first cousin to arrive. Harvey gave me direction where to park and I walked with Uncle Jerry and him around the sunflower patch.

Beautiful! See that, Daddy?

Just wow! There were a lot and about 6 were in bloom already. I think he has 3 different varieties but they’re all beautiful to me. In my heart and mind, Mom and Daddy (Bridgette called them Grandma and Grandpa Sunflower) were with us. It has been 4 years since the last reunion on Sunday, July 14^th, 2019. That was the 58^th family reunion on Mom’s side of the family. There were 23 of us present to eat and 22 still there when I took the group picture. ♥ A darn nice turnout, I think!

Set up nicely indoors so the weather was no issue.
Fill our plates inside and move out to the shop.

There was so much food and we all got our fill, plating up in the kitchen and eating out in Harvey’s shop. Then we sat out back under their pavilion until 4 or so. Jennifer’s encouragements to play Bocce ball or croquet weren’t heeded but she did try. Are we too old? Never! However, the sun was very hot and it and the big meal drained our energy. Yah, that’s what we’ll say for an excuse. 😊

I think I behaved pretty good. Only my roll and a bit of potato
salad were the no-nos. 

Brad helped gather the group.
My 3 sisters and sister-in-law (far left) made up
most of the front row with Uncle Jerry.

I was welcome home by Gibbs, back and forth letting Daddy know I’d returned. Only then did he eat his dish of food from this morning. I guess the family was together again. I didn’t need supper so sat out where it was cooler with Gibbs while Bill finished with his movie. He made a sandwich and went to the Hangar. It is even hot down there, he said. This was a wonderful day. The rain and storm missed us today and, as usual, another family reunion went off without a hitch!

I told Bill yesterday that I bought
a bike. 😂
He relaxed when he saw it.

My Corabelle's are lovely.

It got to 27C/80F feeling much hotter than that. Thank heavens, truly for the wind. I hope you enjoyed your Sunday.

Enjoying some cooler air after I got home.
Clouds moved across by 7:30 so we may get
the rain tomorrow.
Good night!

Thank you for the visit.

Blessed Calm Day, More Puzzling, Reunion! Two SunsetsL

Park Place RV Park (Darn laptop!!)

On Tuesday, Jan. 9^th it was a lounge in bed day. When I opened the blind upstairs at 7:15, the sky was lightening up already and it was clear as a bell. 😊 The best thing of all though was that there were little to NO wind. The cold spell was upon us with the temperature sitting at 33F/.55C. Brrrr! That has been the coldest night yet and I believe there may be another one before the week is through.

Last night, I love these moments.

This morning - some frost
but beautiful sunshine

Black Beauty had a bit of frost on her windshield but it was by no means heavy, it came off with the first sweep of the wipers. After Bill disconnected us from power, we are at least benefitting from the sun’s rays, he left for the field. I finished my morning tea and Gibbs and I bundled, he in his sweater, me in my warm coat, and went for our walk. It had warmed up considerably (well, about 8 degrees) by 9 when we left.

A couple of selfies on my walk

The lesson here?
"Never Give Up"

Not sure if you can see the quail in the bottom photo
but they are all getting ready to run across the road.
Follow the leader! (they made it)

I dropped him off at home and continued on with my own walk. It felt great! I was getting a good dose of steps in today, compared to my norm. 😊 I took the time to snap a couple of selfies before returning home. I made a coffee and went over to work on the puzzle until noon hour. Bill and I had minced ham sandwiches for lunch and then drove down Main St. to Ken’s Grocery Tent. They carry a few things we like at very good prices so we picked those up.

Making some headway

The $1 Tent behind him, has the best deal in town for certain items too so just check the expiry dates but check them out. We needed some small coiled booklets for notes and ‘stuff’ so for a real steal, I bought 6. We shouldn’t run out again for a while. We also stopped at the sign ‘kiosk’ at the corner of I95 and Main but they were gone for lunch so we’ll go back.

Back home, the boys dozed and I went back to the puzzle for an hour. 3 of our friends, who were camped the other side of Yuma, in California, had arrived at Roadrunner BLM this morning. Time for a group Happy Hour! 

We found the group easily enough.
Oreo in the doorway to see who's coming

We left home around 3 and found them easily enough. Hugs all around with Kim, Ken and Keith. Oh, and pets for Oreo too. It was a nice couple of hours rehashing old and new things, but mostly just being together. As Kim said, it seems like a long time!

Patsy, Bill, Gibbs, Keith, Ken, Kim

Keith showed Bill and I his quaint little, perfect for him, home for a couple of months. He has made it really nice but especially with that rug! 😊 We got a selfie, watched the sun drop behind the mountains (La Paz ?) and headed home around 5:30. Supper was not going to be chicken legs as planned, it was too late to start a meal like that.

Oreo enjoys the sun too

Before we left, Keith and I captured the sunset
at their campsite

We were hungry now. That meant warming up the last of the meatloaf after all (I was going to skip a night), eating the last of the coleslaw and cooking a veggie. All was fine, it was worth it to have a reunion with friends. The sunset tonight was one of those ‘knock me down, blow me away’ ones again but I tried not to go overboard. Hahahaha. After loading the dishwasher, Bill went to watch a movie while I wrote this.

As we drove away, towards the south
Bill and I captured another sunset (haha)
where the mountains were lower.

It has been a great day even though we only made it to 56F/12C. If you got ‘weather’ where you are, I hope you are warm, safe and healthy.

And then this. It was no surprise,
we knew with those clouds that it would
be another spectacular sky.
Good night!

My laptop was very slow last night so by 8 pm, I shut it down and watched another good movie. 7 Days in Utopia with Robert Duvall and Lucas Black. Watch it! 😃

Thank you for stopping by!

Second Morning Waking in the Garden Inn, Day Three, Home Reunion

After crawling into bed around 11:30 pm on Saturday night, we both slept well, not just me. We woke up around 7:30 on Sunday, Oct. 15^th. Not such a rush this morning as I took my time finishing my post for yesterday. Bill got his shower first and then I hopped in. It has been ‘forever!’ since I’ve used such a large area for bathing and Bill said ‘You can let the water run, just enjoy the continuous spray’. Funny, what you get used to when conserving water.

Almost devoured it before snapping a photo
So good!

We dressed for the day, it was another warm one with the high to be 19C. October? Breakfast downstairs was delicious. I ordered an omelette with ham, cheese, mushrooms, peppers, tomatoes and spinach – hoorah. I also ordered bacon and home fries and had tea and apple juice. That was some meal and sure to sustain me until lunch. We were on our way to the Congress Centre just after 10.

A new day

7th floor view in the daytime from our room

Bill and I wanted to walk through some of the other rv’s just for fun before the show started at 11. It is interesting to see that a motor home that matches the caliber of quality as the DRV Suites is in the $500,000 range. Glad we’re not looking to buy one. It would be out of the question.

This would be our end dream
Not the end end, but when we stopped travelling
Instead of a house or apartment

The dreams don't end, just the timing

 Today the show was quieter, a different group. For the most part, a younger group who are years away from taking any steps towards purchasing an rv.  Interest, sure, but kind of ‘tire kickers’. It was still a good day, we had fun and in the last 30 minutes we met Mim and Stuart from Thornhill. Too bad they didn’t arrive sooner, we hit it off great and had lots to talk about. Stuart said Bill had answers to questions he hadn’t even asked yet! We exchanged info and hopefully will hear from them.

If you keep walking down the hall past the kitchen
it jigs to the right and you're down another hall to the bathroom
and bedroom

Others that we met over the weekend were Rocky & Sally, John & Debbie, Bob & Adele, Charly & Denis, Rick & Val, Deb & Jeff, Gary & Valorie, Hans & Vassa and Linda & Perry. If any of you have followed through and read my blog, drop a comment. It was a pleasure talking to you at the show!

Another color choice and style for the Vintage Vista cruiser

It's like sitting in a Ford Fairlane or a 57 Chevy!

Right down to the beautiful tires
Hey! I can see myself!

There were sub sandwiches for lunch, lots of snacks and water to keep us all satisfied and hydrated. The sales over the weekend were great with most of the sales reps making at least one customer happy. From what we think we remember, there were approximately 10 rv’s sold. Great job!

Snacks to keep us going

The boss's office

It was after 5 when Bill and I said goodbye to the staff. The drive home was a bit of everything and the temperature dropped from 19C in Toronto to 13C in Caledon and 7C home on the Ridge. 

The Can Am Stance - I think I find myself adapting it at times too!

The rain was intermittent but it sure was cold and windy when we stepped out of the car. Rob and Pat were out to dinner at their daughter’s and offered to bring Clemson to us when we arrived home. It was within 5 minutes that they drove up the lane.

Just before the doors opened

Looking from one end of Can Am's display

 Clemson was on Pat’s lap in their car and took a minute before deciding it was okay to come out into our arms. I think his temporary Mom and Dad looked after him quite well. They said he was a good boy and they enjoyed very much having him ‘take over their house’. He had to do some sorting out too, after being away from home for 3 days, sleeping in another bed and making sure the bags were being Unpacked this time.

The only Mobile Suite at the show

It was 7:20 I think when we arrived home and we were settling down for the night within 30 minutes. It didn’t take long to empty the suitcases. This was a good weekend and now we are home. Looking at our winter trip pictures on Bill’s laptop today brought reality home for me. I am ready to pull out and head back to that wonderful state of Arizona again. It was nice to remember that they weren’t ‘vacation’ pictures, but our life.

After watching people  eat ice cream all weekend, I had to get my own today
Yum!

 Warning! picture download of our drive home.

I've been waiting for one to fly over while I was outside
I listened to them go overhead all day

Crazy! I love it.

Lots of different cloud formations on the way home

Home Sweet Home

I hope you’ve had a good day too. Thank you for stopping by and I’d love to hear from you.