Hanging Christmas lights

Thanks Nolan for all your great help with our outside Christmas lights and decorations. I was feeling scared for Don to put up those lights that were so high. You were such a great help. We love you and appreciate you so much.

Thanks again Nolan!!!!

J. Anderson family visit to our house

It was great to have Carrie & Ben here for a few days while Jarrett had fire training for 4 days downtown Fresno. Jarrett & Carrie were able to have a date night on Tues. Carrie, Ben & I met Mel for lunch on Wednesday. She works very near here every Wed. so that worked out well. Todd, Mel & girls joined us that evening for dinner here.

Ben had fun with the toys that Phil & Doug played with when they were this age. Eden & Emily were enjoying entertaining Ben.

Carrie, Ben & I went several time to the park area by Sierra Vista Mall to let him explore. He seemed to really enjoy it.

We had a great time, thanks for spending time with us!

Happy 11th Birthday Haley

It was fun spending a couple of days at the Smith house. What a great dinner Heather made for Haley's birthday. I think Haley was pleased with her gift from us. Anything American Girl.


A nice thank you kiss for her papa. (Her only living grandfather)
The grandkids are all growing up too fast. (Check the decorated tree in the background....it's Nov. 8th!)

Thanks Heather & Frank for a great couple of days. Certainly put me in the Christmas decorating mode.

Trip to the CA. Living Museum (CALM)

of Bakersfield

It had been too long since we had seen Ryan so we decided it was time to babysit for the day and then have dinner with Phil & Jenny.

Our adventure started out at Starbucks because Papa Don and grammy need their coffee before such a big adventure. Ryan had his Starbucks too (milk in a SB cup and a straw). Everyone was happy as we headed east of Bakersfield. There was much to look at as we went. There was road construction which provided Ryan with lots of construction vehicles to get excited about. Soon there were mountains to take in. How exciting that was. Finally we got to the zoo.

There were a lot of animals to see and not too many people so that worked out great. The first animals we saw were 2 skunks which had NOT been de-scented, so the ranger told us. We got close enough to tough but decided against that...you never know. (no pix of them)
All the animals had been rescued from the surrounding area which was pretty cool.

We saw a brown bear and a black one.

There were sheep & goats to pet. Ryan was especially interested in the sheep that was pooping.(no pix of that either) The sheep was very close to the fence and rear facing us....he thought it was so funny.

Oh the things that interests Ryan. For one, rocks, and how they feel under your feet.

The cement bear bench. He was actually afraid of it at first and was hiding behind me. He soon warmed up to the bear. "Hello bear, what's your name?"

Equipment truck...surprise surprise

I think he liked the ducks the best. He kept wanting to go back to see them. These deer were very friendly. He loved petting them.

No, he didn't pet the fox

It was past lunch time and we were all getting hungry. We asked Ryan where he wanted to go to lunch, Sonic or McD. Well he chose McD. After lunch and a nap at home I asked him to try on his Halloween costume. Well he couldn't have been happier to do that as you can see from his expression. The crocks had mickey cut outs. Too cute!!!

What a fun day for us all.
Thanks for a fun day Ryan (& Phil & Jenny too).

Fall get away

Had a great time this past weekend. We left Fresno on Friday and went to San Juan Batista. When we went through about a year ago, we stopped there. It was around 4pm and stores were closing. We decided then that we needed to come back another day and explore. We ate lunch at an OLD hamburger joint. Food was great! Proceeded to check out all the antique stores . As we walked into our favorite store (more junk that you can imagine), the first thing I saw was a group of dishes that I have a set of. It's the Real Old Willow pattern. Needless to say, I bought every piece because they are very rarely seen anywhere other than on the internet.
We continued to our hotel destination (Bay Landing, Burlingame). Got settled and went to dinner at the Fish Market (Yum!)
Saturday we drove over to Half Moon Bay, going past all the pumpkin patches which were loaded with people. Drove on down to Pescadero where we found the BEST bakery/grocery store. They were bringing fresh bread out about every 10 minutes. There were tons of bicyclist and motor cyclist there too. Went on to the Redwood Memorial Park and back for lunch at Barbara's on the beach at HMB. (Again, Yum!)
Sunday we drove down to Capitola and had lunch on the beach there. I think is was Zelda's. Checked out some antique stores in Soquel and drove through Watsonville over the mountains to Gilroy and then home.

Oh yes, we did bring some pumpkins home