Getting Acquainted With Austin

Fortunately, our flight to Arkansas had a stop over in Denver, so on our return trip to California we made arrangements to extend our 4 hour layover to five days so we could spend some time with Jeff, Amy and Austin. We were really looking forward to this visit because this would be our first time meeting our newest grandson. His pictures didn't do him justice and I could hardly wait to kiss those cute little fat cheeks! Grandpa was smitten too!

Proud, 1st time parents
Austin all ready for his blessing day -- he was a perfect angel!
We were so glad to be there to share in this special experience.
We took in the sites of Denver, took a tour of Denver U., and went shopping at the mall with Austin -- he's such a cool dude!

Home Improvement

The grandchildren will be so excited!! We have a swimming pool in our backyard.

This is the shallow end:
Here's the deep end:
Day 1 of an expected 2 week storm. We may have lake front property by the end of the week.

Thanksgiving in Bentonville

We hate spending the holidays alone. Jeff's worst memory of Thanksgiving was the year I decided I didn't want to cook for just the boys, so we had dinner at Mimi's. It was different and we probably won't repeat that experience again. Since then, if the kids don't come to us, we go to them. The past two years have been spent with the Hoopers in Arkansas. This year was made even more memorable because we were also there for Sammy's baptism.

Our Arkansas kids. Notice how Megan is as tall as her mom.

We got to meet Daisy -- the newest Hooper family member. She thinks that this chair belongs to her. Naughty dog!!

Grandpa got an opportunity to help Megan with her math homework -- wonder if she got a good grade on her test the next day?

We went to Sammy's school at lunch time and shared our McDonald Happy Meals with her. She was the envy of all her classmates.

Alas, the time went by too fast and it's time to leave. The Hoopers bid us good-bye at the airport. Do you think Mike's thinking "Finally, they're leaving!"?

This is my favorite Arkansas picture. Acutally it's from a prior visit and we followed this SUV several miles down the highway. Must have been quite a party.

Playing Catch-up . . . . Again

I'm really bad about keeping our blog up to date. I think part of it's because after spending my entire day working on a computer, it's the last thing I want to do when I get home. The other part is that there's not a whole lot of time left in the day when I do get home and I have to make a decision on how to spend those few precious hours -- do I want to spend the time on the computer working on this (it does take a lot of time), or do I want to spend my time QUILTING. Guess what normally wins out?

Anyway, there's a lot of ground to cover and make up for, so hang on while we catch you up.