Family and Friends: Nothing Sweeter

 Elle and Emery coloring at the cabin

 Gigi's required matching pajama photos

 It was not easy to get all six together! Luke did not want to sit down and Aidan only agreed to wear the pjs for the photo, reluctantly.  He's getting too old for these shenanigans.

 But they are all pretty darned cute, wouldn't you say?

 The girls liked their fairy wings

 Out to dinner at Perini Ranch with family and some of my best friends in the world

 Karen and Randy

 Diana and Jim

 Susan and Corey

 Ally

 David, Bonnie and Luke (what did we do before ipads to keep kids occupied at restaurants?)

 Sarah, Miles and Beck

 Elle and Ally

 Aidan

 Susan, Sherri, Rich, me Susan, Corey, Karen, Randy, Diana and Jim

 Oldest and youngest grandkids Aidan and Luke

 The sweet girls Emery, Ally and Elle

Abilene State Park

The three girls wanted to ride with Gigi and Grandpa on our outing to Abilene State Park. It was so much fun listening to them chatting in the back seat.

 We had an ongoing discussion about what constitutes a "park."  They thought a park should have playground equipment.  We explained that sometimes a park means being out in nature.  They thought we were crazy.

 "Where are the slides?  Where are the swings?"

 First, some lunch

 Then off on a trail to see what we could see

 David got a workout!

 Skipping rocks--I believe Uncle Miles was the winner in this event

 Sarah and Bonnie

 Somebody's worn out

Girl cousins are so much fun!

Holidays 2013

Yes, way behind, way behind. I know!

Before heading off on vacation, my friend Melanie and I did our traditional Christmas shows on KUCB radio.  We've been doing this for a few years now and always have a blast playing lots of holiday tunes and taking requests.  It's especially fun when some of our family and friends live stream from elsewhere and we can give them a little shout out and send a dedication.  This year we had the additional "fun" of some local pranksters calling us and requesting "Sympathy for the Devil" over and over.  I kept saying "We're playing holiday tunes! It doesn't really fit with our theme!" And various people continued to call with the same request.  Finally after our last show was over, we queued up the darned song for them. Yes, we know who the culprit was (and he was good at getting lots of people to call and go along with it!) but I will not embarrass him by calling him out in public. :)

On Christmas Eve, Rich and I flew from here to Anchorage, over night to Seattle, slept a bit at SEA TAC airport and then flew on to DFW on Christmas Day.  The girls and their families were spending Christmas with their dad so we had a very quiet day at a hotel in Dallas, then rented a car and drove on to Abilene on the 26th.  Because of everyone's schedules, we only managed to have three nights with all the family together but we packed in as much fun as possible!

We rented three little cottages in Buffalo Gap, down the road from Abilene.  It was wonderful to see all the kids and grandkids again!  It was a beautiful day so we walked down to the Buffalo Gap Historic Village, where I attempted to get a photo of all six grandkids together.  :)

Aidan-10, Ally-6, Elle-5, Beck-3, Luke-18 mos. and Emery-4.

 Cousins Elle and Ally always love getting together

 Playing on the old playground equipment

 Dr. Pepper--good for when you are hungry, thirsty OR tired!

Bonnie with Luke, Emery, Elle and Ally. They loved this cat, who wanted nothing to do with them and managed to scratch Luke's cheek.

 Sarah and Beck

 Aidan and Rich checking out some artifacts

 Jumping is such fun!

And so is playing tag with Uncle David!

 David and Miles evaluating the old building

This thing could kill ya--but the kids loved it!

Susan is interested in an old dental office, since she used to work as a dental assistant.

 Back at the cottage

My three beautiful girls--Bonnie, Sarah and Susan

Back Home: ESL Class, a Graduation, and Selling our Wares

We had another session of ESL/GED in the fall with many of my favorite students returning, along with a few new ones.  We did a lesson all about ice cream, ending up with making ice cream sundaes and ice cream sodas.  Now that's what I call fun learning!  :)

 First we read a bunch of poems about ice cream.  The best was Shel Silverstein's "The Ice Cream Stop."

The circus train made an ice cream stop
At the fifty-two flavor ice cream stand.
The animals all got off the train
And walked right up to the ice cream man.
“I’ll take Vanilla,” yelled the gorilla.
“I’ll take Chocolate,” shouted the ocelot.
“I’ll take Strawberry,” chirped the canary.
“Rocky Road,” croaked the toad
“Lemon and Lime,” growled the lion.
Said the ice cream man, “Til I see a dime,
You’ll get no ice cream of mine.”
Then the animals snarled and screeched and growled
And whinnied and whimpered and hooted and howled
And gobbled up the whole ice cream stand,
All fifty-two flavors
(fifty-three with the ice cream man).

It was a crack up with all of the interesting words, the animal sounds, and the realization at the end that the poor ice cream man was no more.  :)

 No one knew "I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!" so we had to recite that a few times.  And then we had a little ice cream party.

One of our students, Henock, completed his GED AND his American citizenship all at the same time so we had a ceremony and celebration for him.  He was actually in my friend Pipa's class last year but works at the hotel and I know him as well.  What a hard working guy!  Congratulations!

Soon it was the end of another session and now we are off till sometime in February.  I usually have my students over to our home for dinner at the end of the session but Rich was super busy at work and didn't really have the time to cook for us as he typically does.  So we had a potluck in the classroom and everyone got their certificates while we visited and enjoyed each other's company.  And hammed it up a little!

My hubby is  quite the jam-master, making a variety of gourmet jams with local salmonberries and different tasty flavors.  Right before the holidays, there's a series of arts and crafts fairs in town so we usually have a booth at each of them. Rich has some fans and followers who call or message us early wanting to put in an order before anything goes on sale.  :)  We sold out in no time and I'm thinking he's going to have to make a lot more next year.

Tammy stopped by to visit while I was working one of the arts and crafts fairs. We had photos, note cards and jams for sale, and it's always a good time visiting with everyone who comes by.

And as the year was winding down, we were getting ready for our next vacation.  Stay tuned and maybe I will get all caught up soon!