Wilderness Lakes, Meniffee CA 1/24/11 - 2/10/11

After leaving Palm Springs, we headed about 75 miles west to Wilderness Lakes Campground. Ron & Alice and Bob & Lolita were there for a couple of days with us before they left. It was good seeing them again.

There is always a welcoming committee when you go to Wilderness Lakes. You just have to be careful to not be too hospitalible to them, or feed them. If you do, they never go away and they leave little presents everywhere on the ground for you!

We got a really nice spot where we could watch all of the ducks, geese, and swans from a distance. The weather was nice, and we wanted to do more bike riding, but Terry ended up with a bad knee for a while so we missed our ride around Diamond Lake. We did get to sell Scentsy at one craft sale and did really well--sold 12 warmers!

There is a temple about 50 miles away in Redlands. It is between Palm Springs and Menifee. We had tried to go when we were in Palm Springs, but didn't realize it has limited sessions and when we got there, there wasn't a session for about five hours. So, we planned a little better and were able to get in a session this time. It is a very small temple, but very beautiful and the workers were very friendly and were glad we came "all the way from Idaho" to attend the temple.

While we were at Wilderness, we also made a quick trip to Utah for a grandson's, Luke's, baptism. We rented a car and left early on Friday morning and were back on Sunday evening. It was a great trip and we are very proud of Luke and the decision he made to get baptized!

Ryan's family were all at the baptism and later that evening, Ryan and his brother made homemade ice cream using liquid nitrogen from a tank to freeze it. It was pretty cool the way it worked. It was kind of using dry ice, but a lot faster.

The kids all helped stir it until it was frozen and then we all enjoyed eating it. It was very good!

The day we left Wilderness Lakes, this little roadrunner came up to tell us goodbye and wish us a good trip! We are off to Pio Pico and a cruise!

Palm Springs, Palm Desert CA 1/3/11 - 1/24/11

The Sunday before we left Apache Junction, we had Travis and his family over for dinner. It turned our really well. They didn't even know they were eating instant mashed potatoes until we told them afterwards!
Here are Shannon, Travis, Nicholas, Joshua. . .

. . . Nathan, and Spencer. We had a lot of fun being around them for three weeks and spending Christmas and New Years Eve with them.

Palm Springs is one of our favorite parks. I am not sure why, except from the first time we were there we have been fascinated with the palm trees. The sites are close together and hard to get into sometimes, but this is what we could see from our big back window in the Condo one evening!

This is the view from the other direction. The whole sky was lit up, with the sun going down on one side and the moon coming up on the other side!

Terry is always looking for projects! I create some for him, but some he creates a few for himself. We connected with a little corner cement wall going out of our last park at Apache Junction. The only damage was to the bike rack and to the corner of the condo. So, we visited the local NAPA store to purchase a fiberglass repair kit and Terry was busy for a few days!

He did a really good job repairing our bike rack--almost completely rebuilding it. It ended up being a better rack than before it got "bumped."

I just kind of sat around and watched the show! Actually, our friend Jim took this picture to show us what good pictures his new phone takes. I warned him that his camera/phone may never never be the same if he used it on me! But, it did take a pretty good picture. We got to spend quite a bit of time with Jim and Sue, playing games, eating, and visiting.

I got Terry a hummingbird feeder for Christmas. I didn't get any pictures of the hummingbirds, but quite a few of them came to it. We could see them really close from in the house, looking out the window. Our windows are so dark that the birds couldn't see us, but when I would go outside to take their picture they would fly away. I wasn't patient enough to sit outside long enough for them to come back.

We went on a couple of hikes with the hiking group. The first one was called "Chutes and Ladders" and was in the Painted Canyon. We started out following the bottom of a riverbed.

When we found the "arrow" pointing up, we began to go through the "chutes and ladders."

Terry is going up one of the first of the ladders.

I am going up the second one.

Then we walked through all of these narrow passageways. Most of them were so dark it was hard to take pictures. Terry is kind of claustrophobic so he didn't waste too much time getting through! But, I did talk him into stopping long enough to take this picture.

We finally made it on top and what a site it was! We could see a little bit of the Salton Sea and it felt like we were on top of the world. This is quite a mountain range!

We came to another arrow. There were several trails we could have taken. It is nice to have a guide who knows where is is going!

We couldn't believe that the Ocatillos were already blooming in some of the areas. Usually they were just beginning to bloom the end of March when we would go to my Mom's place in Wikieup.

After climbing down a couple more ladders, we started walking a in riverbed again and went through the Painted Valley. We came upon a place where there were a lot of stacked rocks. Each of us added at least one rock to one of the stacks. It is sometimes quite a trick to keep them all balanced so they don't fall over.

The canyon had so many beautiful colors and fascinating designs in the rocks, I can see why they call it the Painted Canyon. My pictures didn't capture what it really looked like. It was a fun hike, but a little longer than the ones we had been going on in Apache Junction. This one took about four hours, with lots of up and downs. We ended up in the hottub that night!

The other times we have been in Palm Springs Terry always wanted to go to the General Patton Memorial Museum. So, this time we did. General Patton had a training base here during World War II. It was really interesting to watch the film and see all of the memorabilia from the War.

There was a yard of old tanks and machinery they used in the War. Terry actually drove one like this one at one point when he was in Viet Nam, although he was usually on an APC (armored personnel carrier.)

This is where they held Church services for the military men. I guess it must have been nice enough weather to have it outside.

Our muscles recuperated enough that we went on another hike the next week. Our guide told us at the very beginning that he had never been on this hike, but he had a "map." He gave us the option of bailing out or going with him. We all decided to go for the adventure! This hike started a little higher than the one last week, and before long we were on top, heading for the grottos, which are caves in the rocks. We walked along the top for a while and then started our descent down to the valley floor.

On the way down we spotted this "oasis" that had been made for the mountain goats in the area. We hoped to see one, but never did. When we got to the bottom of the canyon, the guide pointed out two trees--one for the women and one for the men!

We knew there were some people on horses coming behind us, and sure enough, they were closer behind us than we counted on! There were quite a few squealing women behind their tree as the horse riders started down the hill. They assured us that the guy with the camera was in the back and didn't get a chance to take any pictures! We laughed about this the whole rest of the hike!

Well, after taking a couple of wrong turns and several miles out of our way, we ended up at the place where the grottos were supposed to be! You had to climb through this narrow opening in the mountain, on your hands and knees part of the way, and then climb down a rope with knots in it to get to the bottom (which we were going to have to climp back up later.) The "map" stated that there was supposed to be a ladder there. Well, I am sure that Terry and I could have made it!?!? but there were some older hikers that were already pretty pooped from the extra miles of walking, so we decided to not go any further. We headed back and didn't realize that we had come down the mountain sooo far! Each time we got to the top of a hill there was another hill!

We were all very tired and hot by the time we got back to the vehicles. The horse people had come and gone, but they left a pile of ice from their coolers on the ground. We enjoyed putting the ice on the backs of our necks and our wrists to cool us off! This was by far the hardest hike we have been on. I was really amazed at how well some of the "older" hikers did! We don't know if we would do that hike again, but we feel like we accomplished something! Hottub, here we come!

A little roadrunner came to say goodbye to us the day before we left Palm Springs. They are all over the park. One day Terry was sitting at the picnic table and one jumped right up on the bench and onto the table and looked at him. He tried to get my attention so I could get a picture, but as soon as he tried, the bird left. Once again, we enjoyed our stay at Palm Springs!

Golden Sun, Apache Junction AZ, 12/13/ 2010 - 1/3/2011

Our next park was Golden Sun in Apache Junction, AZ. We stayed here for three weeks. We really like this park. We like the staff and the location. They have a length restriction of 35 feet so we just "barely" squeeze in! This is an Encore park and more than half of it is park models where people own them and lease the space. Most of them stay six months or more and a large part are from Canada.


Megan's Pinning

I left Terry to fend for himself and I hopped on a plane and flew to Medford, OR, to meet up with my brother Bill. We then drove down to Arcata, CA, to our niece's, Megan's, RN pinning. This is a picture of Mt. Shasta and Mt. Shasta Lake from the window of the plane. It was a much more awesome site than this picture shows.

LouAnn and Larry Sutton (Megan's step grandparents) and Megan's brother, our nephew Marc, also came down for the pinning. I ran away with them and Bill while Lorrie, Marcie, Taylor, and Trista went to help Megan make cookies. We went to a beach that Terry and I had been to when we camped at the Little Red School House campground. We saw lots of elk at the campground before we went on down to the beach.

This beach is beautiful, but kind of scary. It usually had big waves crashing up against the rocks. Marc almost got wet standing on them. This beach has a lot of agates on it and there are usually people looking for them. We found so many different colored rocks that it looked like we had "rock candy" in our hand. Marc took some home to drill holes in them to make pendants for his two boys.

Well, Megan got pinned after four and a half years of hard work and nothing but "A's" for grades and running on the track team all four years, getting national awards.

Lorrie did the honors up on the stage (and didn't even fall down walking up there!) Megan will make a great RN.

Uncle Bill and all of her other relatives and friends are really proud of her!

When I got off of the plan back in Apache Junction, Terry gave me a bouquet of mums! I was really surprised. When I asked him what was up, he gave me some crazy stories about trading in the 5th wheel and other things, but I guess he just missed me! I could get used to this!

Christmas in Arizona

We usually put up our Christmas tree after the 15th of December, so up it went--well, not too far up. It is only a couple of feet high! Our ornaments were the ones we made in Wikieup last year with pictures of all of our kids and grandkids on them.

We didn't do much decorating outside--just our "big" stockings and some red bows. We spent a lot of time picking them up off of the ground when the wind would blow. Some people really go all out with decorating their RVs for Christmas. It is fun to see them.

We were putting up the "big" stockings after Christmas and found a little gift in each of them. They were signed "Merry Christmas, from Bev and BJ." There was a note on one of them that said, "We just couldn't resist." We tried to figure out who they were, but we never did. That is just the kind of people RVer's are!

We spent Christmas Eve at Travis' home in Gilbert so we could get up with them Christmas morning. The boys are all anxious at the top of the stairs. I think a couple of them had already ventured down and spied some filled stockings and Santa gifts!

My nephew, Cameron came and spent Christmas Eve night and Christmas Day with us at Travis's home, too. It is always fun to have him with us.

Spence, Nic, Nate, and Josh all stop for the go-ahead, all wearing their traditional Santa hats.

Well, it looks like Santa left filled stockings for everyone, even Terry and I and Cameron!

I got Terry a rack for the back of his bike. Lots of times we ride our bikes shopping and have to hang the grocery bags over the handlebars. Now we can pile them on the back of his bike!

I was the one really surprised this year. A couple of months before, we had been in Costco and I saw this little "theater" popcorn popper and I told Terry that it would be really fun to have. He said his usual, "We don't have room." So, I didn't think much more about it until I unwrapped it Christmas morning! It makes great popcorn. We use it almost every night. And, I did find room for it!

I don't know how surprised our family was this year that everyone got a Scentsy warmer for Christmas, but they seemed to like them okay. Shannon and Travis are opening their gifts.

I am helping Josh open his "basketball" Scentsy warmer. They all got two Scentsy bars (scented wax) that they could share with each other.

Spencer was on the high school golf team when they lived in Payson, so he got a "golf" warmer.

Nicholas got a "soccer" warmer and Nathan a "baseball" one. I hope they all enjoy using them. They will have the best smelling home in town!

Nathan is taking fencing lessons so he got all dressed up in his stuff and showed us some of his moves. It looked kind of scary, but he assured us that he will not stab anyone who doesn't deserve it!

My brother, Frank, had our name for Christmas this year and one of the things they gave us was a puzzle of Boise State football team. It was so fun to put together. It has the capitol building in the background, along with the Boise River and people floating down it (which we have done in the past.) The track around the blue "smurf turf" field is the one that Sarah ran lots of races around in High School (although this picture didn't show the track too well) and we sat in the bleachers cheering her on. It kind of made me a little homesick as I put it together. What a great gift, Frank and Andy!

Hiking at Saguaro Lake

We love hiking with the Golden Sun Park hiking group when we are there. We went to Saguaro Lake and hiked part way around it. It was a great hike.

We had a pretty good group and got to make new friends and meet old ones from the previous times we have been here.

We were quite fascinated with all of the pin cushion cactus that were on the mountains. I guess because when we go to Nettie's Place in Wikieup it is hard to find them. That is probably because over the years we have confiscated too many to take back to friends and family (school teachers, bus drivers, etc.) each Spring break for over 20 years. They are just the right size to fit in a butter dish or little pot.

We were part way around the lake and looked down and saw this little green oasis at the point of this little peninsula out into the lake. I told Terry that it would be a fun place to go.

Well, we ended up there and had our lunch! There was actually some grass growing--which you don't see too much of in the desert.

On the way back I got this picture of the mountain reflecting into the lake.

Not too many places do you see a fisherman fishing out in a like like this one, in December, wearing a short sleeve shirt! How nice to be in Arizona in December!

I got a late Christmas gift from Terry. He had Travis and Shannon pick these up at the M & M Factory when they went to Las Vegas the week before. They had left them in their hotel room when they left, so they were sent to them and arrived after Christmas. How fun!

We spent New Years Eve at Travis's. We played games all evening and the boys set off fireworks intermittently until midnight. Then we all went outside and set off the grand finale fireworks and saw the new year in! We were invited to come back the next morning to start a Travis Howard family tradition of a polar bear swim in the pool on January 1 (not as challenging as in a some climates--but the water was about 42 degrees). We declined, but Travis and his four boys all did it (with Shannon documenting it on film) and then they all jumped in the hot tub!

What a great year!! We are looking forward to another one in 2011!