On Being Thankful !

I want to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving, so I thought I'd share my whimsical,wall hanging for Thanksgiving.

On a more serious note, as I reflect on Thanksgivings past, I am reminded of all the good times we have had as a family and our life long tradition of "camping" for the holiday. Family and friends join us in this tradition. We used to camp from Wednesday afternoon until Sunday morning. But over the years we have added a day or two to the time we spend camping, at the beach (South Carlsbad State Beach or San Elijo State Beach, with a couple of years spent at the San Mateo Campground in San Clemente, part of the San Onofre State Beach). The last few years we have camped for the entire week of Thanksgiving, rain or shine! I say "rain or shine" because we've had a few years with downpours of rain, but it never dampened our holiday spirit.

This is a time to be thankful, and I have much to be thankful for: my health, my family, my grandchildren, my life, my God. I was inspired by a "pin" on Pinterest, which linked me with the blog, simplyvintagegirl, so I made my own Thankful Tree.

With a grateful heart and joyous praise I give thanks to God who blesses us all!

Spontaneous Family Fun Day

On the spur of the moment, Nick and I went with Nicole, Gigi, Brody and Hallee to WAP, one day, the San Diego Wild Animal Park, now known as the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. We still refer to it as the Wild Animal Park, some things are hard to change!

It was a beautiful 70 degree day with a light breeze blowing. As we walked all around the park, we saw the elephants, tigers, lions, gorillas, including the newest baby gorilla, named Monroe, who is almost the same age as Hallee, born a couple of weeks after her in June.We also saw so many beautiful flowers all around the park.

While walking through the Lion area the funniest thing happened. The lions were lazing around in the sun, when one of the lions sneezed. We were standing on a bridge area behind a fence. Brody was standing next to papa, and jumped behind papa at the sudden sound of the lion's sneeze! He was quite startled. He also didn't like the sounds coming from the "jungle cars" in the kids play area.

Hallee slept through much of the day, while Gigi ran and skipped her way around the park. Brody rode in the stroller half the time, and the other half he tried to keep up with Gigi, which wasn't an easy thing for him, since he's still a bit unsteady on his feet, especially when he tries running.

We ate lunch at the park and enjoyed a waffle ice cream cone. After our "snack" we stopped by the meer cats exhibit so see them all "sunning" themselves. And, a visit to the WAP wouldn't be complete without a ride on the carousel! Gigi and mommy rode on animals, and it wasn't easy to capture them while they rode round and round!
Brody didn't want to ride on an animal so he opted for a seat with papa.

Days like this one make extra special memories because we see things through the eyes of our grandbabies!

More pictures.

Our Trip to Oregon

Fall Colors!

We took an RV trip up to Bend, Oregon, a couple of weeks ago and thoroughly enjoyed seeing all the "fall colors," we had been too early for when we were in New England in Sept.

We visited our friends, the Nances, in Redding, CA, for a few days on our way to Bend and on our way back. One night our friends the Lauries came over from Paradise,
for a birthday dinner in honor of Sue. [Nick, Karen, Rick, Lynn, Sue & Bill]

It was great seeing them and spending some long overdue time with good friends!

The weather was clear, sunny and warm while we were in northern California. Nick and Rick went fly fishing and bear hunting, while Lynn and I had our own "quilt retreat" and sewed for a couple of fun days.We were able to complete the first three blocks in the "America the Beautiful" BOM (2011 block of the month from McCalls' Quilting magazine) we are making together.

Once we arrived in Bend, however, we were surprised to discover how cold it was. Nick had to immediately change from his shorts to jeans! The air was very crisp and the sky was a gorgeous blue, which should have been our first clue of the weather to come. The first day it was 38 degrees when we got there in the early afternoon. That night the temp got to a high of 15 degrees. The next day it got into the low 40's and that night it only dropped to 20 degrees.

We stayed at a fantastic RV Resort, Crown Villa , right near the beginning of town. The sites are all 72' long, made with pavers. Each site has a storage cabinet you can use at the back of the site and the sites are extra wide, maybe 45' wide with lots of grass.

We drove around the town of Bend, a very, quaint town. The vibrant, rich yellow, rust and red leaves were everywhere we looked and so beautiful. We walked along the beautiful Deschuttes River in the Old Mill District of Bend. We had dinner one night, downtown at McMenamin's Pub and Tavern.
Nick went fly fishing and we visited a couple of cute quilt shops.

One afternoon we took a beautiful drive northwest to the cute little town of Sisters, Oregon, and visited the famous quilt shop, The Stitching Post. I really want to return (maybe next July) for their Outdoor Quilt Show that is the second Saturday in July every year (2011 was the 36th Annual Outdoor Quilt Show).

On our return to Redding we stopped and visited Nick's sister and family in Yreka, CA. We hadn't been to their Historic Victorian home in many years, and we got to see all the remodeling they have done,and more "Fall Colors" as well. It was great catching up with family.

More photos of our trip on flickr!

I just discovered that my last post was my 100th post!

How exciting!!