Catch up once again...

Well yesterday's posting didn't happen so I'll try to get a quick one now.  I'm writing this from Cal Expo RV Park as this will be our home for the next two nights. We're back in CA for our annual Christmas with family! 

This was our sunrise at home on the 20th 

We stopped at Eric's house about 1100 this am and picked up the trailer. It's been there since Thanksgiving, which saved us from having to re winterize the trailer.  Seth is home until New Years Day so everyone is happy about that! 

We headed down the hill and got settled in. I spent part of the day making 7 layer dip and green bean casserole for tomorrow. Spent yesterday making a turkey, potatoes, gravy and I forget what else. Baked some goodies for the neighbors on both sides of us too. 

I made some sausage balls to take next door..they were a hit!

Brownies for the kids to enjoy..

Ree's Restaurant Potatoes..

Today, the seven layer dip..

Around 1700 we went next door for a short visit and to drop off their gifts. We had a brandy and egg nog together and wished them a Merry Christmas. Alarm was set for 0400 so we could get out a little after 0700. 

Ken found this picture a few days ago..Grandson Adam
and Ken at Mule Days in Bishop, CA.  He was our little
cowboy then :) He was probably 4 now he'll be 21
in April!! 

Last week catchup...
Good Monday morning!  December 23rd We are awakening to dark, cloudy skies.  They're saying it may snow later today so we'll see! Tomorrow is supposed to be beautiful and clear so a little snow today would be perfect! 

Saturday morning we were out of the house just a little after 0600.  A nice drive over the hill and the first stop was Bryan's house for a short visit with Cheryl.  Bryan and Adam were working.  

Then down the hill to Antelope, CA for a quick visit with Lori and Jacob.  Eventually Russell and Aaron were out of the shower so we had a few minutes with them too.  Aaron said he wants to come over to our place on Christmas break so we'll be bringing him home with us on Thursday :) 

We left there and headed over to Joanie's place in North Highlands.  She was one of my first volunteers when we opened the Sheriff's Service Center and has always been special to us.  She is 96 years young and doing awesome!  We always get her great grandchildren a few gifts so we dropped them there! 

Joanie and "her Ken"...she loves her yearly picture with him :) 

She decorates her house so cute..with no help! 

It was after 1300 when we left there to head back home, so we made one more stop at Garcia's Mexican Restaurant to have a late lunch and to see our favorite waiter, Chris.  We're only there about once a year now and he always has our drinks ready! :0  He has a beautiful little family and always has a card for us, we have one for him too :) 

After a huge lunch and a drink, we headed for Carson City.  Friday night I made reservations for the Days Inn there.  Using my points I paid $50.00 for the night. It's a nice hotel, where I stayed when Ken had his surgery last summer.  After all the driving Ken did last week he deserved not to have to drive all the way home! 
Monday we did Carson City, Tuesday to his mom's in CA, Thursday, Reno and then Saturday to Ca again. He definitely deserved a break!  We got there and the sun was just setting.  

Enjoyed a nice evening in the room.  Yesterday morning we awoke at 0630 after a pretty sleepless night. 

Sunday evening we headed next door for our Christmas with their whole family.  Karen made an awesome bar b q dinner and then we all went into their bedroom (which is huge) and let the kids open their presents we got them.  It was so much fun to watch!  We received some very nice gifts too from them all. What a great evening.  I don't think we got home until near 2330.  They all make us feel like part of the family :) 

Cameron (left) Niko covering himself with his new blanket

Cameron was excited over Super Hero
gloves and a beanie..

Sophia with some of her goodies..

Noah and his Toyota Truck..

Niko opening one more..

Cameron opening his blanket..

Sophia..

Izzie on the left, Isabel and Lynzee 

I was telling Karen she did too much..

Lynzee, Hannah (visiting from Oklahoma)
Sophia and Noah

Izzie and Amelia 

Ken, John and Carlos

Sophia loves her Papa!

Noah, Sophia and the new puppy

This may be a little hard to follow..sorry about that, but just wanted to get this posted as tomorrow is Christmas Day.  

Happy Hour Time! Have a great evening!!

Happy Birthday Grandma! Pictures of a cute couple..closer to Christmas!

Jacob and Allissa in Disneyland 💜

Tuesday morning we got ourselves up and out the door at about 0700.  Took highway 50 to Carmichael, CA.  We called her a few minutes before we got there to tell her we were arriving. 

Beautiful morning of the 13th..from our back porch..

Closer view from the porch 

Gardnerville, NV

Highway 50..quite a bit of snow..very pretty

Lake Tahoe in the distance

Diane was there and about an hour later Ken's older brother Dave and his wife Emmy came to visit too. We got there about 1100 and left about 1430.  For awhile Ken's brother Don was in on the conversation all the way from TN.  I don't like speaker phone, but in this instance it was nice! 

It was a short visit but better than no visit for her 92nd Birthday! We headed home and by the time we got to Minden we were hungry so figured CVI was a  good place to stop.  Turns out for the first time really we were disappointed.  These are servers we never see because we're usually there for lunch not 1700 for the dinner crowd.  By the time we got our food it was cold.  I asked the server to stick it in the microwave which she did.  Just not impressed with anything! We got home about 1930 or so.  

Wednesday morning after watching the news we were really glad we didn't wait to go over the hill.  Snowing, chains and later the highway shut down because people don't know how to drive when it's snowing!  

It was a day of wrapping and rechecking the list to make sure everyone is taken care of present wise.  Just waiting on 2 from the same place and a gift certificate needs to be bought.  Whew...:) 

Organized mess..

A happy mess, but a mess...haha.

About 1600 Ken texts me asking "where's the egg nog" a cute pic of a fire going? What the heck he had just told me he wasn't sitting down yet?! Well, he got a fire going out back and about 1/2 hour later we both sat down for happy hour in the cold temps.  We were nice and warm though! Karen came over and joined us a little later.  

Troublemakers! Egg nog and brandy..oh so yummy!

Looks like another storm coming in over the weekend so we've made the decision to head over on Saturday morning, drop gifts at Russell's, my friend Joanie's and then to Georgetown to drop them at Bryan's.  All that will leave is Eric's which we'll drop on Tuesday when we pick up the trailer. The news is saying travel Saturday, not Sunday.  So hopefully they are right. Probably another one day turnaround.  

Grandson, Jacob and his sweetie Allissa took a trip this week to Disneyland. I got a sweet text from her saying they wanted to share pics throughout their trip so I'm sharing them with you.  Made my days getting these pics. 💜

Jacob made his own light saber at the new Star Wars exhibit..
That's our Sailor to be next month!

It's so pretty at night

Last night's picture..they had a blast!

Our Marine, Seth will be home next week for Christmas. We're all excited to see him for a few days before he heads off to school for his job! 

Well, he's done it again!  It looks like Happy Hour is out back near a warm fire :)

Have a great evening everyone!  

Birthday buddies, Antique shopping, Adam visits, Ken's dr visit

Well here we are again..another catch up post.  I don't know why I don't blog more often..no excuses..

It's been so cold our beautiful wreath has stopped
dropping needles!! Think they're frozen. haha.
15 degrees this am with a high of 37! Brrrrr...

Friday the 13th was my 64th Birthday!!! How did that happen?! Luckily most of the time I don't feel like I should be 64 so I consider that a blessing.  I heard from all my sons along with daughter in law Cheryl who called trying to beat the crowd.Haha. She didn't, as Russell had called first. Heard from 3 of the 4 grandsons that were able to call. Seth is at MCT school, so he couldn't call if he wanted to.  Adam forgot, but I talked with him the day before.  So many shoutouts on FB and on my phone. :) Happy Day! 

Ken offered to take me to breakfast and/or lunch but i was happy to stay home. We had plans to go to Karen's for dinner.  We headed over late afternoon and had a wonderful time.  Her grandson, Niko is my Birthday Buddy.  He turned 9!  He's such a cutie and gives the best hugs :) I've got another buddy..Haylee Madsen, she turned 17 and is just a doll! 

Haylee..way too grown up already!! We used to go
ATV ing w her family about 11 to 14 years ago..💗

Niko and some presents

His grandma Karen put $$ in each balloon so they had to be
popped! 

Cameron, Niko and Sophia 

Sophia watching her cousin open gifts..

We probably spent too much time by her large propane fire pit, but that's ok we certainly enjoyed.  

Saturday morning we picked up Karen at 0915 and headed to Fallon about an hour away from here.  We were headed to Just Country Friends an antique shop we enjoy.  Spent a couple of hours there and she spent a lot of $$.  I spent $5.00 on a old red sauce pan and Ken spent $45.00 on a cast iron kettle for the wood stove.  After that we headed for Stockman's Casino for a nice lunch. After that we headed home as we had a parade to attend later. 

Our little town holds a Parade of Lights in December.  This was the 3rd annual and what a turn out!  They had 51 entries which were pretty amazing. It was certainly cold and in my mind I thanked my sister for my Uggs she bought me a few years back!! We headed over to Karen's mom's house for a bit before heading home. 

Miss Izzie, Karen's mom...💜

Miss Amelia attending her first parade! That's how
cold it was! 💗

A little blurry but Mr. and Mrs. Claus!

Sunday morning we got a call from Adam saying he wanted to come over.  He worked at the pizza parlor from 1000 to 1600 then he was driving over.  I told him his Papa had a dr appointment Monday, he was welcome to run around with us if he wanted.  He got here about 2000 and of course being a boy, he was starving! Luckily Ken had bar b qued some awesome chicken and I made mashed potatoes so he had a hearty meal.  It was a pretty early night for us all. In the end he decided he was just going to head for home in the am.  We always say this kid has the gypsy in him...he likes driving and going if he's got a few days off. 😀

Today we said goodbye to him as we left first.  The Dr. appointment went well. Dr. Foster is so awesome!  He wants Ken to get a CAT Scan in April and then come back.  He's still shaking his head to figure out why Ken had the issues he did.  I got my hug before I left. :) 

We did a bunch of running around in Carson City and then had a late lunch/dinner at Betsy's Big Kitchen.  We lucked out and got Lisa once again.  turned out we were talking about how great she is and it turns out we were sitting right next to her sister and Lisa's husband! They enjoyed hearing us talk so good about her. :) 

We headed home and I wrapped a few presents.  We've decided to head for CA and to visit Ken's mom tomorrow.  Her birthday is Wednesday but it's supposed to be snowing over the summit!  It'll be a one day turnaround as next week we'll be over for a few days because it's Christmas.  

Have a good night!