A Look Back on the year 2015!

Hoping everyone had a very Merry and Joyful Christmas, 

filled with much love. We enjoyed Christmas as we spent it with family and  

celebrated the birth of our Savior.

Another great year has flown by, faster than the last. 

It was filled with so many blessings for which we are ever thankful. 

It's hard to believe that Christmas has come and gone, 

and we will celebrate the beginning of another year! 

 Nick celebrated #60! Most Mondays he can be found riding his bike (20 miles) around Mission Bay. He tries to play golf at least once a week. He is "giving back" by doing interview preparations with firefighters who want to promote and teaching in the "fire community."

Karen still loves sewing, having made clothes for all 5 of our grandkids, and quilting!  

She also attended a couple of quilt retreats with her quilting buddies, Nancy and Lynn!

We love our times spent with family and the grandkids who are getting big, too fast. 

Gigi is 8, in 3rd grade, played softball and loved being a part of a team! 

Brody & Micah both 5, started kindergarten. They both love learning.

Brody played t-ball for the first time. 

Micah is in public school, doing skateboard tricks and ever active! 

Hallee, now 4, is basically doing kindergarten with Brody, 

goes to a home preschool 1 day a week, and started dance lessons. 

(Nicole continues to homeschool her kids.) 

Seth, now 2, is fearless, still running, talking up a storm, and knows his colors!

2015 included RVing trips to: Spring Training for Baseball in AZ; Julian; 

back to the state of Montana, for a month of camping @Yellowstone & Glacier Parks with good friends, as well as visiting friends who live in Montana; 

Santee Lakes & Pismo Beach; Del Mar Beach on Camp Pendleton, right on the sand! 

Thanksgiving week we camped at San Mateo campground-the inland campground that is part of San Onofre St Beach; it was one of the coldest Thanksgivings we've had, but we enjoyed our time together with family and friends. 

Our family vacation together took us to Laughlin/Lake Mojave, Nevada, for Labor Day weekend. All the grandkids loved riding in the boat (or helping Papa driving the boat!), playing on the big tube in the perfect, private cove we found. 

The big kids did some water sports (wake skating and wakeboarding), too! 

To top it off, Nick won big @ Keno! 

Best trip of 2015, was, by far, our 10 day Tahitian Islands Cruise. We sailed with my sister, Kathy and her fiance, Stan, and we had a fabulous time. Tahiti has the most beautiful teal ocean waters!

My mom, Great Grandma Hope is ever happy these days, albeit forgetful. She has Alzheimers but continues to have a healthy appetite and smiles a lot! She turned 88 on Christmas Day!

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year filled with family, friends, adventures and blessings!

Exploring the USA

We took our first USA RV Trip with our good friends, Sue and Bill, (and our dog, Sydney, of course!). Our wonderful journey started on August 11th when we left Lake Almanor in Nor Cal.We returned home on Oct 8th, 2014.

(we drove to the top of Pike's Peak in Colorado)

We spent 8 1/2 weeks on the roads of northern America in our 40' RV, towing our jeep, on our trip of a lifetime (the first of several such trips).

Nick and I have camped our entire marriage. We started camping in a tent, before we bought a camper. After the camper, we owned 2-travel trailers (18" and 24"), 2-Class C motorhomes (22' and 28'), 1-Class A 34' motorhome, and 2-diesel pusher 40' motorhomes. We have always talked about seeing and traveling through all the states of the USA.

Last year we bought our USA map (those of you who camp have seen the USA maps on the sides of RV's). On it, we put the states' stickers for the states we traveled to in 2013 in our RV: California, of course, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon and Washington.  Now our USA map has 19 states' stickers, only 29 more states to go, 30 if we take our RV to Alaska!

Here's a look at our trip by the numbers:

We traveled 17 states:  (18 states if you count driving 20 miles through Arizona!).

We visited and or/traveled to:

*** 38+ American cities/towns

*** 6 cities visited friends

*** 8 National Parks:

    Glacier National Park
    Yellowstone National Park
    Theodore Roosevelt National Park
    Badlands National Park
    Rocky Mountain National Park
    Arches National Park
    Bryce National Park
    Zion National Park

*** 26+  Points of Interest and National Historic Sites, including:
    National Bison Range, MT
    John D. Rockefeller Memorial Pkwy (the road between Yellowstone and Grand Tetons)
    Little Missouri National Grasslands, ND
    Mt Rushmore National Memorial, SD
    Custer State Park in the Black Hills, SD
    Crazy Horse Memorial, SD
    Minuteman Missile National Historic Site, SD
    "Wall Drug," SD
    Jefferson Expansion, St Louis Arch Gateway to the West, MO
    Anheuser Busch Brewery and Budweiser Tour, MO
    Branson. MPO
    Air Force Strategic Air Command and Museum, NE
    Holy Family Shrine Chapel, NE
    The Mall of America, MN
    Minnehaha Falls, MN
    Harley-Davidson Museum, WI
    Wisconsin Dells, WI
    Vesterheim - Norwegian-American Museum, IO (both Sue and I are Norwegian!)
    Covered Bridges of Madison County, IO
    United States Air Force Academy and AF Cadet Chapel, CO
    Pike's Peak, (14, 115') CO
    Garden of the Gods, CO - National Natural Landmark
    Royal Gorge Suspension Bridge, CO
    Grand Mesa outside of Grand Junction, CO
    Lake Mead and Hoover Dam, NV

*** 4 baseball parks: Minnesota Twins, Target Field; Milwaukee Brewers, Miller Park;
               St Louis Cardinals, Busch Stadium; and Kansas City Royals, Kaufman Stadium

*** 33 RV parks, including 3 state park campgrounds and 2 city RV parks

*** 28 days/nights of rainstorms with thunder and lightning, like we've never seen in southern California! Everywhere, along our trip, locals told us it was the "wettest" summer in years, which we can attest!

***12 audiobooks listened to along the way

*** 2,000+ pictures taken

*** and 8,600 miles put on our RV and 1,500 miles on our jeep.

America is so much larger than we imagined, with the most amazing beauty, vastness and diversity of the terrain. We saw green rolling hills, lush foliage and forests;

many rivers, including the Missouri River, the Mississippi River, the Arkansas River and the Colorado River; waterfalls: many lakes and the very Big Sky of Montana; the wildflowers; glacier, hot mineral springs, and geysers;the brilliant blue skies over America with the clouds almost close enough to touch; the beautiful sunsets;

the sunflower fields, as well as the endless fields of sorghum and soybeans, and corn fields; Hoodoos (spires); the plains; the many mountains, including the mighty Rocky Mountains; and many different wild animals, including: American Bison, Elk, Prone Horn Antelope, Mule Deer, Whitetail Deer, Prairie Dogs, bear, chipmunks, ground squirrels, and Mountain Goat.

We drove on two lane highways, interstates, back roads, and dirt roads; throughout National Parks; through small towns and large cities; in the middle of what seemed like nowhere, alone on an interstate and stuck in traffic (YES! there is traffic outside of California, although shocking, I know!); used 4 GPS's and a good old-fashioned Atlas, at one time, to guide us along our way, sometimes finding a "different" way to get to our destination. We drove on sunny clear days and through some torrential thunderstorms; had warm weather and some really cold weather in the fall (woke up to 27 degrees in Bryce Canyon National Park); through the plains, over the continental divide several times, and over the Rocky Mountains via the Independence Pass, 12,096 ft.

To see more of our trip check out  my flickr page !

Spring Training 2014

We RVed the month of March in Arizona for Spring Training. It's become an annual trip for us, staying once again at Pueblo El Mirage Golf and RV Resort.

We met up with friends and family, played some golf, rode bikes, took walks,visited most of the spring training baseball fields, and enjoyed a lot of baseball games! 

Here's some highlights.

We also visited the Fire Museum in Phoenix, the Hall of Flame

To see more Spring Training 2014 pics, go to my flickr page .

We've Got the Travel Bug, Part III

July-August 2013

We were gone on our Summer Vacation RV Road Trip for five weeks, visiting three states and British Columbia's Vancouver Island in Canada! We returned to Bend, Oregon, for a week of camping with our friends Lynn and Rick. While the boys went fishing for a few days, Lynn and I sewed outside on the patio of our site at Crown Villa RV Resort. The weather was a beautiful 80 degrees with a nice breeze! She and I also took a quilting class at the local shop, BJ's Quilt Basket.

We spent a day at the 38th Annual Sisters Outdoor Quilt (and it wasn't rained out this year!)! admiring thousands of beautiful quilts (pics from the Sisters Quilt Show).

From Bend Nick and I headed northwest to Portland for a few days. We visited the famous Multnomah Falls, 611 ft high,

and the Wahkeena Falls, 242 ft high, both east of Portland. located in a tropical rainforest area. We toured little big city of Portland on the Big Pink Trolley, for a day.

Next, we drove up the Olympic Peninsula of Washington on Hwy 101 and stayed at  John Wayne's Waterfront Resort in Sequim (pronounced SQWIM), on Sequim Bay. Once we arrived we soon realized we were just in time for the Annual Sequim Lavender Festival! Lavender grows everywhere in this region and the lavender fields were beautiful.

During the festival there's a street fair, a craft fair, a quilt show, and each of the lavender farm shad more craft vendors, music and food, and lavender inspired items.We drove all around the quaint community and visited several of the local lavender farms!

We took the Black Ball Ferry from Port Angeles, WA, USA to Victoria, Vancouver Island, Canada and visited the world famous Butchart Gardens. It brought back some fond memories of my childhood as I had visited the gardens with my mom, dad, and sister many years earlier. The gardens were even more exquisite and beautiful than I had remembered!! My favorite garden was the rose garden and the walkways with the rose covered trellises!

From Sequim we drove to the Seattle area, staying about 20 min out of Seattle.  We walked around the Wharf, took the monorail from the '62 World's Fair, the Seattle Space Needle and rode the elevator to the Observation Deck.

From the Observation Deck the views of the area were amazing and we even saw a Fire Boat doing a pump exercise.

We walked all through the amazing Pike's Place Market! We also took a Ferry to Bainbrige Island, where I visited Mckenna Ryan's quilt studio and shop!

From San Marcos, we drove north through central California, through Oregon, Washington, Vancouver Island, back to Cali , on to Lake Almanor, and home again: 2856 miles in all!

Here's more pics from our summer vacay!

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!

Apple Picking in Juilan

Last weekend we took our motorhome to KQ Ranch RV

Resort in Julian, for Apple Days, and in honor of David's birthday.

Julian is about an hour and a half from us in the local mountains.

{Grandbabies and Proud Grandparents}

Nicole, David, 3 grandkids, Dan and Jeri joined us for a fun weekend of camping at the resort. The town was hopping, or as Gigi said, "It's bumping!!" (I think her daddy taught her that saying!) Lots of tourists were walking all around the small quaint town of Julian.

The weather was warm, sunny and beautiful all weekend. Nighttime was cooler but not too cold. We took walks around the resort, rode bikes, and relaxed in camp. Mommy, Hallee and Gigi slept in the motorhome with Yaya and Papa. It's always an adventure for Gigi to sleep in the motorhome. She was so excited about sleeping on her camping mat and in her very own sleeping bag on the floor of the motorhome!

On Saturday we drove just outside of Julian to pick apples at one of the local apple orchards. Gigi really had fun picking the apples off the trees and putting them into her very own bag.

She's at a great age (4 yr)!! It is pure joy to see her excitement, written all over her cute face at doing new and fun things. After apple picking, we enjoyed lunch "downtown" Julian and yummy famous apple pie ala mode!

Gigi loved riding her bike around the resort. She has a cute way of coaxing just about anyone to go with her! She also enjoyed feeding the nearby horse a big carrot. She's like an energizer bunny----she is go go go all day long--no napping for this "big" girl!

Brody (18 mon) had the most fun just being a boy and getting as dirty as possible. He loved playing with the set of MatchBox cars that were his daddy's, right in the dirt! He go go goes too!!

But he does finally give way to resting, here coming close to sleep on dad's lap! Daddy and brody slept in their tent!

The litttlest camper, Hallee (4 months) did a lot of cooing, sleeping and eating, but she also enjoyed the outdoors. She's been camping twice already at her young age. She loves being held, but she has to be facing everyone so she can see all around her. Mom just carries her around in the Ergo or Moby and she's fine.

Here she is sitting with Papa and talking up a storm! She's too cute!

You can see more Apple Days pictures here.

July Brown Bag Quilt Retreat

I just returned from attending another Brown Bag Quilt Retreat in Buellton, our third retreat this year. (We are hoping to go to the November retreat, but we are only on the wait list right now).

We had so much fun as we always do, sewing pretty much non-stop from 8:30 am on Friday till 3 pm on Sunday. Ok, we did go back to our RV's or homes for some sleep--but not much. We sewed until 12:30 am Friday night and returned by 8:45 am. Saturday we sewed till 1:15 am and returned on Sunday morning by 8:30 am. Our husbands (Lynn's and mine) still think we are crazy, and they can't understand how we can stay inside sewing or quilting for that much time. We've told them it's not near enough time--we'd love a week long retreat!!

Here's a look at my Quilting BFF's from the retreat:

Nancy (also the Retreat Hostess with the Mostest!)

working on her Floral Block of the Month, preparing the blocks to be hand appliqued using the freezer paper method. She does beautiful applique work!! Here's her first two blocks:Lynn,

working on her Mystery Block of the month (her husband and mine hang out at the RV park, play darts and cards, and miss us while we are at the retreat!).

And, Dolores, another local,

sewing her blocks together on this very pretty quilt!

For this retreat I decided would work on finishing a few WISP's rather than starting a new project (another thing about sewing and quilting our husbands don't understand--starting a new project before finishing one!) So I pulled this project out of my closet, Love Ya Oodles, by Quilt Soup. I think I started it 4 years ago. I had gotten all the squares done but needed to put them all together. It took me a while to figure out where I was. (Note to self: make notes as to where I left off, should I leave a project to finish for years!!!)

Although the pattern calls for doing the applique prior to sewing the whole top together, I plan to use paperback fusible for my applique, so I chose to sew the top together first.It is still a WISP but I am much closer to finishing this quilt. I'm now in the process of choosing the fabrics for all the appliqued flowers and hope to get them sewn on in the next two weeks.

I also made two pillowcases and three more Batik Strippy Totes for friends. I just love making these bags for gifts!! Each one turns out so cute and I'm tempted to keep it.

With these 3 I have now made 19 of these pretty totes!!

I designed this quilt for a friend's first grandson. Her daughter's theme is turtles, so I made these happy turtles to applique on the quilt and I am so pleased with the way it turned out.
I just need to quilt and bind it, (again hopefully in the next two weeks!) and it will no longer be a WISP!

I felt very accomplished at the end of this retreat because I finished what I had planned to finish, a first for me! I usually try to finish way too many projects. (I did take a couple of additional projects just in case I had extra time! Wouldn't want to run of projects!) I'm sure I'm not alone when I say it's a great feeling when a quilter gets closer to completing a project, especially one that has been lingering in her "stash" closet!

Camping at Fort Bragg

Another AB Diving Trip

We spent a week on the Northern California coast, with our best friends, the Nances, in one of the most beautiful campgrounds we've ever stayed in.(L to R: Rick, Lynn, Nick, Eric)

Located just south of Fort Bragg, one of the best things about the Pomo RV Park and Campground is the fact that they have many double sites and these double sites are surrounded by tall trees and shrubs that give you lots of privacy!! Some of the many flowers were beginning to bloom and everything was so green!!

We had cool weather and even some rain, but we really still had fun as we always do when we spend time with the Nances!!

Lynn and I stayed at camp to watch Lynn's granddaughters, while Nick, Rick, Eric, Emily and Dave went abalone diving in the freezing Pacific Ocean. We were told the visibility was just about the best they'd ever seen in 25+ years of diving. Everyone got their limit,

The Ab's in their shells

The divers, abs + little ones,
L to R: Nick, Eric, Isabelle, Dave, Rick Emily and Olivia

There's nothing like fresh abalone dinner!! Luckily they dove a second day so we were able to bring some home, frozen, for the next best thing to fresh for another dinner!!

Can't wait to go again next spring!!

Check out more pictures on my flickr page>

CGQC Goals for September/October

MY GOALS AND A FEW FINISHES
FOR THE CHARMING GIRLS QUILT CLUB

I know, I am late posting my goals for the Charming Girls Quilt Club. It's already September 2oth..........dare I say I've been busy. It seems we've been gone a lot in the last 3 months: a wonderful trip to Yellowstone National Park, a couple of long weekend camping/RV trips to Pismo Beach and Julian, a couple of day trips to visit our grandbabies, and I spent a few days in Simi Valley with my mom.

In between these travels, I have managed to sew and complete a few small projects, also listed on my sidebar under OPAM finished projects:

(1)several pillowcases for the Conker Cancer Project in conjunction with Project 9 of Craft Hope (my daughter, Nicole and I hosted a few friends one night
and we all made pillowcases to donate)(2)2 sets of placemats for gifts (one set I forgot to photo so will have to post it later) (3)re-made the "cupcake" apron for my d-i-l, Angelina;
(4)a new "Charger" dress for my granddaughter, Gigi;
and (5) my husband's "Fire Patches" Quilt. Below is a preview pic, full pictures and details will be in a future post, following the "chief's" retirement at the end of October!
I've been working on a couple of baby quiltsboth baby quilt tops still to be completed, pinned, quilted and bound.
I hope to finish them both by the end of October.

Other projects I hope to also finish include my "Moose Junction"
quilt by Mckenna Ryan. I made the top at the February quilt retreat
and it's time to complete it!

I need to add another border to make it into a small lap quilt,
then I need to pin, quilt and bind it.
I think I will finally make the Moose tablerunner, also by Mckenna Ryan,
pictured here in an earlier post.

This coming weekend we will head north once again, to meet our Redding buddies at the Flying Flags RV Resort for yet another Brown Bag Quilt Retreat,
our last one of 2010! Here's to a great weekend with friends and lots of quilting!!

Showering Baby Micah

Baby Shower for Angelina

Last weekend Nicole and I hosted a Baby Shower for Angelina. Family and friends from near and far (San Jose, Paradise (north of Chico), Sacramento, Redding, Upland, Orange, and Santa Ana) came to shower Angelina and her baby boy, Micah, due May 20, with lots of clothes and baby essentials!

Nicole made some very cute decorations with dots (a favorite of Angelina), including this mobile that Angelina can hang in Micah's room.Cupcakes (another favorite and must for Angelina) were made from scratch by Nicole and decorated with brown, green and blue M & M's. A baby bottle was filled with brown, green and blue M & M's for a fun guessing game.

Here's Angelina with the baby quilt I made for Micah. Angelina found the pattern on a blog and picked the colors. No standard blue and boy theme for Micah. The colors for baby Micah's room are brown, greens and a bit of blue, with lots of dots and some animals thrown in. I also made a quilted throw out of the same fabrics, some burp cloths, receiving blanket and a pack n' play crib sheet.

Below, Angelina models the tote (Bunny Hill Pattern, Jelly Bags), which can also be used as a diaper bag, made of the leftover fabrics from the quilt!!

If you look closely you can see the baby bump under Angelina's green shirt. With just a bit more than four weeks to go, it's looking like this baby will have everything he needs and more!

Nick and I have plans to take our RV up to Orange county, to Newport Dunes RV Resort the weekend before Micah is due and the weekend after his due date--in hopes he will be born on one of those weekends while we are there. To say we are anxious is a bit of an understatement. We all love baby Micah so much and can't wait to meet him!

You can see more shower photos on my flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/72308330@N00/sets/72157623779439289/

and starting here on Nicole's flickr page.