I'm writing this on
the road, heading back to Colorado. It's almost spring and we've had
a great winter. We spent it in Arizona, enjoying the warm weather,
the kids and the grandkids. For those of you who are new to our blog
or for those who need a refresher course, Jim and I got married 8
years ago and blended our families.
Jim has 5 kids
Karen, Jeff, Joe, Melanie and Avey.
Karen has 3 kids,
Isaiah 22, Holden 14 and Bella 13. They live in Merced, CA.
Joe has 3 kids,
Aravis 13, Judah 10 and Daisy 7. They live in Phoenix
Melanie has 2 kids,
Jack 7 and Harvey 4. They live in Phoenix.
Avey has 1
daughter, Elena 4. They live in Sacramento, CA.
I have 2 kids Jeremy
and Alisha.
Jeremy has 1 son,
Ethan 14 and lives with Brandy who has a daughter, Sydney 11. They
live in Whitewood, SD.
Alisha has 2
daughters, Kalyn 16 and Allie 11. They live in Golden, CO
So all in all, we
have 7 children and 13 grandchildren. So now you will know who is who
when we brag on them and write about all the wonderful time we spend
with them. It is not as much or as often as we would like as they are
so far flung. Needless to say we spent as much time with the Arizona
family as we could while we were there.
We stayed in Black
Canyon City, AZ in a funky older RV park, Rivers Edge RV park. Lots
of grass and trees, gorgeous sunsets and wonderful owners and
neighbors. Casey and Joyce bought it a couple of years ago and have
made lots of improvements and really put their hearts into running
it. Our RV park and other Arizona scenes pictures It was only 45 minutes from Melanie's house so we got to
spend a lot of time with them.
We spent Christmas with them and Joe.
Jack and Harvey loved the Lego video games we got them so we were
very popular. Christmas at Melanie's pictures
For Joe and the
kid's Christmas we took everybody to the Science Center. The Science Center website. We
all had a great time and the kids were full of wonder. The Science Center pictures
For the 1st
time in a long time, we had the opportunity to spend time with them
and get to know them better, especially now that they are older. Both
Aravis and Judah are quite the artists and Daisy is nuts about Lego.
It was especially wonderful to be able to celebrate Judah's and
Aravis's birthday while we were there.
We took Jack to the
mall to his favorite store (Black Market Minerals) for doing so good
on his tests in 1st grade Family fun pictures. Avey and Elena came to
Phoenix for a weekend and we went to the zoo for Elena's 4th
birthday. A day at the zoo pictures. We finished off the season with a day at Bubble Mania at Odysea in the desert. Bubble Mania pictures
We didn't spend all
of our free time with the grandkids. Black Canyon City (a very small
town) has a great library with Yoga workouts 3 days a week and
Tai-chi 3 days a week at the community center. Jim and Sadie had
twice a day “chase the ball” workouts at the RV park. She is
turning out to be a great dog. Pictures of Sadie (and Lucy) I did a couple of “ice (tie)
dying” workshops and introduced several ladies to the wonders of
fabric art. Ice dying pictures Just before we left Joyce had a "Tea Party" for the ladies in the park, complete with scones with homemade clotted cream and cucumber sandwiches. She had many special events during our stay. She does an amazing job and really puts her heart into it. The tea party pictures
Of course we spent
time with old friends too. We went off-roading with Mike and Ryan up
Table Mesa Rd Jeeping on Table Mesa Rd pictures and also with John and Wendy up the back way to
Jerome Jeeping to Jerome pictures. We took a drive by ourselves up to Aqua Fria National Monument Aqua Fria Pictures. Flickr photo album of Agua Fria BLM Agua Fria website. Paul and Bonnie were traveling through and visited us for a couple
of days. We haven't seen them in many years. They are friends that we
met while diving in Mexico. We went east to Queen Valley to see Jimmy
and Nadine and out west to Goodyear to see Chet and Penny (Alisha's
in-laws).
Phoenix and vicinity
is home to the Cactus League so of course we had to catch a Rockies
game! They didn't win but we had a great time. Our seats were 3rd row up off the 3rd baseline. Wonderful afternoon of
baseball in the Arizona sunshine. Rockies game pictures
It is great to be
retired (again). We'll be heading to Cotopaxi, west of Canon City, CO
for the season, April 2nd.
