Trip to Salinas

This post is being back-dated because I'm behind in posting. We went to Salinas for a quick visit. We planned this kind of on the spur of the moment but with good reasons. We thought it better for both of us to go to Salinas to see both my parents rather than just me going to AZ for the family reunion and only see my Dad. We did it now because we could both fly for free (one free pass and on companion ticket) whereas later on only one of us could fly for free.

We had a great time in our short stay. We went to Gizdich Ranch for pie, went to Fisherman's Wharf and went to Mom and Dad's church. They let me help a little with landscaping on Monday. I would have liked to have done much more but there was only so much we could do. Here are some photos to document the trip.

Isn't she cute?

Jaelyn came to visit today, along with her parents and Grandparents. Isn't she just a cutie? She only 2 and a half months old. So, do you want to know who the parents and Grandparents are?

It's the Montanks! Parents: Seth and Stacy, Grandparents: Carl and Karen. We had a nice visit with them too.

Old Friends, New Neighbors

This story has been months in the making but seemed to happen fast anyway. Several months ago, Judy, who is a friend from our youth, emailed to ask my opinion about the best place to live. She thought that we might have an opinion since we've done so much traveling. You can probably imagine my response. I tried to be fair to the whole US but I really just had to brag about Chattanooga. After that email I didn't hear from her for months and months.

Then, a couple weeks ago she emailed to say her sister, Jan, was coming here with her husband and their Mom to check out the area. They arrived last Sunday and came over for dinner. It was sure fun to reconnect and meet John for the first time.

They have spent the week here, checking out our neck of the woods. As planned, we met again for dinner last night. As it turns out they hate this area... NOT! After taking a good look around, they have decided to move here! They have rented a place already! They're going back to Grand Junction to wrap up business, pack and move! They expect to be back within two months.

Judy will be coming for a visit soon too and she's already convinced she is moving here too. What fun!

This is kind of funny to me because it was Judy and her sister Jill who were instrumental in Larry and me moving to Santa Rosa 30 years ago. Now, we're instrumental in them moving here.

Now... who else wants to come!!

Here we are at Olive Garden. Ben was working and couldn't join us. (Ironically, he was somewhere in this building because he works at Olive Garden when not busy with real estate.)

Amber & Daniel's wedding

Amber (Laura's good friend from Las Vegas who now lives in TN) and Daniel got married on Saturday. Laura was the Matron of Honor and we were honored to be invited guests. Amber & Daniel are a great couple and we're very happy for them. We're all glad that we live less than 2 hours from each other.

For those of you who have been waiting to see updated photos of Laura, here you go...

Front view...

and...

a side view!

Snowflakes

There was an email from Dad this morning asking if we had snow and I told him "not a single flake". It was after that it started to snow this morning. Now look!

I put my newly purchased cast iron skillet outside to catch snowflakes and sure enough, I found one! Isn't that cool! (Pardon the pun.) My neighbors probably think I'm nuts, catching snowflakes in a pan and taking pictures of them. I just had this desire to see for myself the intricacies of an actual snowflake. It's God's creative hand awesome?

While I had my camera in hand I caught sight of a Nuthatch on the birdfeeder.

Yes, they mostly feed head down. Silly birds.

Road to the Horse Event

Over the week-end I had the pleasure of attending the Road to the Horse event. It was fascinating to watch four expert trainers start with 3 year old colts who had very little handling (I guess you could call them wild) and within two days compete in riding, freestyle and an obstacle course competition. It made me believe that I could train a colt too (a childhood dream of mine). Not in two days of course but it would be fun to try!

I found some great photos of the day online!! (Mine were fuzzy since it was indoors.) Here's the winner, Chris Cox, standing on his horse. Amazing, yes? Remember, this was an untrained and unworked horse the day before.

Here are the other contestants - all pros.

Mike Kevil

Tommy Garland

Ken McNabb