A catch up, finally!

Well, it's been awhile! The computer thing for pictures took awhile to resolve. Hopefully it's fixed. Not really very many pictures since Christmas. Honestly, we've been home most of the time. 

Had 4 cords of lodge pine delivered this morning for our 
outside fires and outdoor kitchen :) 

 Ken's has had a few doctor appointments this month. All are certainly much better than a few years ago. His glaucoma is acting up in his left eye, pressure at 28. He's got new eye drops to try and an appointment in a month. 

He has a dermatology appointment tomorrow morning at 0815 to remove some skin cancer from his nose. An EKG at the end of the month to see where his heart function is at now. I'm sure dermatology will want a follow up probably in February. 

We try to incorporate as much stuff as we can when we're in Carson City or Reno as one is 70 miles away and one is 90 miles. The joys of country living! 

We did make it to Virginia City for pizza one day with Karen and her sister Heidi. Awesome pizza, but forgot to take a picture. LOL. 

It's been cold, mornings in the teens and afternoons in the low 40's. We had a dusting of snow about 10 days ago. that's it, no moisture at all! 

Had a nice but small New Year's next door. 

Izzie (Karen's mom) Karen and her sister Heidi 💖

That's about it. Can't believe it's the 20th of January already. Going way too fast! 

We still have our "Champagne Sundays" and enjoy the outdoor kitchen with the fire going all day! 

This was actually on the 11th, but was so good we did it 
again this last Sunday! Jalapeño burgers, cheese was added
after this. YUM! 

Of course, Mimosas! YUM! 

YUM! Ken's plate 

Got this sweet picture on the 11th. Jacob and Allissa on their way to church 💙
I love getting these surprise pictures! Makes this grandma's heart Happy! 💖

                         Rosie's Mexican Restaurant in Smith Valley raised money to 

                  have this 80 foot tall American flag installed along with the

                  smaller flags of the branches of the military and a Nevada 

                  flag! Very impressive! 

                                A  few Christmas pictures

John and Andrea 💙

Andrea and Lori 💗

Christmas morning at Russell and Lori's. 
Allissa, Jacob and Aaron 💙

Brother's and cousin. Aaron, Seth and Jacob.
Mason had already left and Adam was in Chico 

What a handsome group of guys! Eric, Seth, Jesse, Jacob, Ken Aaron and Russell 

    The lovely ladies..Lori, Diane, Christina, Holly, Matilda and Allissa 💗

Have a wonderful evening! 

She said YES! Carmichael for Grandma's Birthday, Russell's for Football Sunday, Christmas with family.

Adam and Erin headed for Olympic National Park the day after Christmas. On the 28th we got a call in the afternoon that they are engaged! 💗 We are so happy for them as we've loved Erin since the first time we met her! 

We've known he had the ring for a few months but knew he wanted it to happen in a special place and it was! Another hard secret to keep LOL. 

I have some great pictures, but my computer isn't cooperating or I don't know how to fix it so there will be hardly any pictures in this blog! 😢  Hopefully I can figure something out. AOL I use for email is all messed up and that's where I sent the pictures. I tried calling but couldn't understand a word the rep said! UHHHH!! 

The 18th of December we headed over to CA for Ken's mom's 98th birthday. We had a great afternoon with her, Dave and Diane (Ken's brother and sister). 

We headed to Carson City for the night and then headed home Friday morning. 

Sunday morning the 21st we headed to Russell and Lori's in Antelope, CA as he was hosting a Football party. We don't really care about football but it was a party!  We also got to see Jacob and Allissa who were in town for the holidays! Aaron's home too! 

We spent the night and then headed back home on Monday. 

Wednesday was Christmas Eve so we headed back over. Yep, over to CA three times in one week! Worth every mile! 

We were actually able to spend a couple of hours with our 102 year old friend Joanie. She's doing well, still living by herself. She even had beer and wine for us, so I had a couple of glasses with her.  💙

Christmas day Russell and Lori hosted Christmas so it was a wonderful day to spend time with family. We did get over to Carmichael to spend a little time with Grandma. 

The 26th we met with whoever could, at Old Town Pizza in Auburn. There were 9 of us and a nice way to end the holiday. 

We headed back home but there was no way over highway 50. I told Ken next year we need to plan a mini vacay after Christmas so it'll be easier getting back over. So about 5+ hours later we were back at Russell's for the night. We had a nice visit and a few adult beverages. 

Saturday we left at 0600 and Highway 50 was in much better shape, still a slow down at chain control, but not bad. We stopped in Minden to have breakfast at Carson Valley Inn and then headed home. 

That's the end to a busy holiday season. 

It's been really cold the last few days with temps in the teens in the am to 40 in the afternoon. 

We'll be next door tomorrow for New Years Eve so I made some collard greens for the first time in my life! LOL We'll see how they turn out. Ken's making his black eyed peas and ham and then I'll do cornbread.

 This symbolizes prosperity for the coming year. Black eyed peas, represent coins, Collard greens, paper money and cornbread, gold! Who knew?! LOL. 

I made Lori's sausage, Rotel and Velveeta dip too. Yummy and so simple!

It was wonderful spending so much time with family but it's also nice to be winding down. These months go way too quickly nowadays. We'll see what the New Year brings. 

Have a wonderful New Years!  

Merry Christmas! A full house and a full heart!

Christmas morning we were up at 0530 reading blogs and just enjoying the morning.  We had a couple of presents that Bryan and Cheryl had left in our trailer while it was parked at Eric's so we opened them. :) 

Got ourselves ready and everything loaded up and we were at my sister Linda's house just a few minutes after 1000.  Dusty and family were there so we watched them open gifts that Santa had left at Grandma's house. Owen at 5 years old and Cassidy at 18 months were so much fun to watch.  

Little Cassidy feeding Owen's Wonder Horse a carrot..

Owen and his mommy playing a shooting game..

Owen talking with cousin Mason

We prepared some of the food and waited for people to show up.  A great gathering and we got to see all our kids and grandkids :) A very nice afternoon and great food! Thanks again Linda and Bobby for hosting once again! 💜

Jesse, Russell, Jacob and the blurry Aaron..those are Aaron's pants we got him
for Christmas..holes and all! Just don't get that fad! Used to you were poor if you
wore pants with holes...now they cost a mint!!

Bryan, Adam, Jesse and Russell

Lori by the window and Christina

There's our Marine, Seth

Ken, Greg, Shawn and Eric 

Eric💙

Linda's life long friend, Kim and Bobby

The little Princess Cassidy all tuckered out 💜

I love our family get togethers.  They don't happen often but when they do they're just something to treasure.  

The loves of  my life, my grandsons 💙💙💙💙💙
Aaron, Adam, Seth, Jacob and Mason 

Aaron, Adam, Seth, Me, Jacob and Mason
One Proud Grandma!!

Here we've added cousins...
Mason, Adam, Seth, Aaron, Jacob, Dusty, Jesse and Owen 💙💙😀

One good looking group of men!
Eric, Bobby, Bryan, Russell, Mason, Adam, Seth, Aaron, Jacob, Jesse, Greg, Ken and Owen

Bobby, his niece Marie, Chelsea, Dusty, Owen, missing my sister
Linda as she hates pictures even more than me...

Greg, Jesse and Diane

We were planning on picking up grandson Aaron on our way out on Thursday.  While talking with Russell he said "So you're getting all the boys" I said, "Not that I am aware of" Turns out while they were all together the night before the boys worked it out and said they were going to Grandma's! Yay!!  The only one who wouldn't be here is Adam, as he has to work. 

About 1700 we headed over to see Ken's mom, Diane and Jesse came over three too. 

Grandma and Bryan 💜

I love this pic of Bryan and his grandma 💖

Ken and his mom...looking good for 92!

Ken, Grandma and Diane

Greg, Grandma, Diane and Jesse

Thursday morning we rolled out of the park and had an enjoyable drive up highway 50. I heard from the boys so we knew we had time to stop at Walmart and stock up!  A couple of hours after we got home, Seth, Mason and Holly drove in.  A bit later Jacob, Aaron and Allissa!! We've got a full house!  YAY!! 

We visited awhile and then Ken set up the ping pong table and got a fire going out back.  Later I pulled out leftovers from my sister's house.  Before we left, she said I better take the leftover food as I was having all those mouths to feed..Thanks Linda!! 

Allissa, Jacob and Aaron

Mason, Seth and Holly 

We had an enjoyable evening chatting with the kids. Heard quite a bit about Seth's bootcamp and MCT.  Hard to believe our grandsons are so grown :) 

Aaron's legs, Jacob, Mason just chillin..Later in the afternoon they went to town to bowl a few games

Holly and Seth before they headed to Mexican in town 

It was past time to measure the boys on "the door"
We've had this since our boys were young, so height is
documented 

Papa had to reach to get Jacob's height..We did all
four boys :) 

Jacob and Allissa playing ping pong

Jacob :) 

Allissa got a pic of Ken and me playing, just like in
high school..I beat him!! hahah. 

Allissa noticed the sky turning pink, so we had to go
outside and capture it!

Aaron

Seth and Holly 

This little wood stove about cooked us out of there :) 

About 2330 we said goodnight (well almost).  I decided to take care of the dirty dishes haha. 

Ken and I were both up about 0530, had our coffees and visited our blogging friends. Showers out of the way and about 0800 Mason came in from the bunkhouse. French toast, hot chocolate and bacon for him.  It's now 1000 and just waiting for everybody else to awaken. A beautiful, cold day 29 degrees right now, heading for 42. Once they're up and fed we'll see what the rest of the day brings. :) 

Pretty much the rest of the day went really fast.  Breakfast finished about 1200 haha.  Seth and Holly ended up going to town having a Mexican lunch and then all the kids met in town to go bowling for a few hours.  Our town doesn't offer much, but Pioneer Crossing Casino does have a small bowling alley and a movie theater that unless they have 8 people for the movie they won't show the film. 

I baked some cookies while they were gone and those were enjoyed upon them coming back.  Later in the afternoon we played some ping pong and then Ken bar b qued his Papa Burgers and they were awesome. Some french fries to go along and it was a great dinner.  Some more ping pong and great chit chat.  A good night for all of us I'm thinking.  I know it was for me 💙💙

Jacob had requested biscuits and gravy for Saturday morning breakfast. I can do that! Mason was the first one up so it was French toast again for him. Seth wanted a breakfast sandwich and biscuits and gravy.  Jacob added eggs to his breakfast and there was bacon too. Allissa enjoyed biscuits and gravy and some bacon.  Holly only had yogurt but I did make her a sandwich before they left.  Yes, this was the day to go home :( 😔

Sausage gravy...according to Jacob "AMAZING" 

I HAD to have a little with my eggs...oh so sinful!! 

The weather for Sunday was expecting snow over the passes and they all have plans with their grandpa on Sunday afternoon. It was better for them to be assured travel was good. They weren't in any hurry so they left around 1300.  Allissa texted me when they got home and I texted Mason to be sure they made it.  

Papa and Seth

Papa and Jacob

Aaron, Allissa, Jacob, Holly, Seth and Mason 💙💙

Good bye Seth, Holly and Mason! 

Good bye Jacob, Allissa and Aaron! 

We love these kids and were so happy they chose to spend a few days with us here. Made our Christmas!  They know the door is always open!  Girlfriends included anytime. We were so happy to have Seth here during his 9 day leave. It was hard saying goodbye since he will be going to school, leaving Jan 1st  not really sure when we'll see him again.  

January 14th, Jacob begins his adult life being sworn in to the Navy. We'll be there to see that :) Having these two here was even more special because time is short for them. Like I said on FB, Our hearts and home were full for a few days!  So blessed to be all the boys grandparents!!💙💙💙💙💙

I've been trying for days to get this blog done, but it was a very busy time and family took first place. :) So here ya go..probably too long, but I've got to document these memories! 

Have a  great Sunday everyone!