Merry Christmas 2018

(Christmas picture taken by Alex, while we all camped at Del Mar RV Park 

on the Camp Pendleton Marine Base!)

2018 marked our 40th anniversary! 

Our kids and grandkids surprised us with an impromptu celebration including a delicious chocolate ice cream cake shared amongst family and friends. To celebrate, we treated ourselves to a 15 day South Pacific Cruise, (ports in Papeete & Bora Bora, Tahiti, American Samoa, Western Samoa, Fiji, New Caledonia, Brisbane & Sydney, Australia).

We met a lot of nice people on this cruise!

It was a wonderful trip! 

Also during 2018, Nicole & David celebrated 15 yrs of marriage; and Alex & Angelina celebrated 10! 

During the summer we RVed across America on I-40, visiting 11 states: Arizona, New Mexico, the panhandle of Texas, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina & Virginia, for a total of 5500 miles! 

The south is so very beautiful, green and lush, but it also has terrible humidity (which we expected and never got used to)!

Our grandkids are growing faster than we’d like (Gigi-11½, Brody & Micah-8½, Hallee-7½, and Seth-5½), and they are all oh so busy with soccer, baseball, softball, and school.

  Wishing you and yours all the blessings of Christmas 

and a Happy 2019!

HAPPY 2018

Wishing all our friends and family 

a very happy new year! 

May 2018 bring you many blessings!!

Happy New Year from the Pavones!

We made so many memories on our travels in 2017.

We are truly blessed and fortunate to be able to travel.

Mid-January took us to Nashville where we met great friends and visited the Jack Daniels Distillery, in nearby Lynchburg, as well as a 'behind the scenes' tour of the Jack Daniels Fire Brigade; met friends in Las Vegas; a Caribbean Cruise, in February, with Kathy and Stan (my sis and BiL); and a few RV trips, including trips to Pismo Beach, Buellton, Rincon County Beach, Newport Beach, Thanksgiving week at Del Mar Beach Resort on Camp Pendleton, and our annual trip to El Mirage, AZ, for the month of March for spring training.

When we returned from AZ, we picked up our new puppy, Bailey, a 14 week Brittany, at the San Diego Airport. She flew down from Idaho to become a member of our family. She's a year old now and a great addition to our family, although we will be glad when she stops digging and chewing things that aren't meant for dog (like drip lines, dog beds, paper or fabric scraps!). She is loving and playful, and helping to keep Sydney (now 13) young at heart!

In July, we took a trip of a lifetime cruising the rugged coastline of Norway with Kathy, Stan, and our good friends, the Lauries. It was a fantastic trip. The Norwegian landscapes and fjords are breathtaking and spectacular (my favorite fjord, Geirangerfjord, is pictured on the front of this card). Norway is one of the most beautiful places we've ever seen. It meant so much to walk on the land where our fathers' ancestors are from (although our cruise didn't take us to Skien, 

the actual town, of my dad's ancestors).

Our Christmas gift to our family was taking all 11 of us on a Caribbean Cruise, in mid-December. A wonderful time was had by all, especially the grandkids. They loved everything about the ship, Oasis of the Seas (one of three of the largest cruise ships on the seas): the food, the buffet, swimming in the ships' pools, the Carousel, kids' club activities and more. They also had fun going ashore and swimming or snorkeling in the clear turquoise waters at the beaches of Labadee and Cozumel. It brought us such joy to watch the excitement on our grandkids' faces on this great adventure. Guess we've spoiled them; they can't wait to go on another cruise!!

Sadly, we said goodbye to my mom, Hope (she had Alzheimer's), at the end of Sept., three months shy of her 90th birthday.  She will be missed by so many, and always remembered with love!

            We are thankful for our family, our health, and our friends.

                        Wishing you and your family a very happy and healthy 2018!

OUR NEWEST FAMILY MEMBER

Meet Bailey

She's an adorable pure bred Brittany with Roan speckling. 

She was born on December 22, 2016, 

in Kuna, Idaho. She came to live with us on April 6. 

She flew to San Diego on Alaska Airlines!

It was love at first site for me; Nick has taken a bit longer!!

Here's Bailey with her mom !

She was one of five females in a liter of 9 pups.

Our old dog, Sydney, turned 13 in December! 

She didn't take long to adjust to Bailey moving in with us. She has taken Bailey 

under her wing, shown her both good and bad habits.  

They play a lot together, but there are times when Sydney lets 

Bailey know she's had enough and is done playing. 

At first Sydney didn't allow Bailey to lay too close to her. Then we had Bailey spayed; 

and, when we brought her home, Sydney knew Bailey might be hurting and Sydney 

laid next to her. Now they sleep side by side most of the time!

Bailey is a lucky pup to have Sydney as her second mom and playmate!

Bailey's also lucky to have Scully as a playmate. 

He's a lovable, rather large, labradoodle. 

The two of them became best of pup friends when they first met. 

He's a month older than Bailey and is a part of our daughter's family. 

These two get to play together frequently. 

Despite the fact he probably has 20 lbs on Bailey, 

she can hold her own when they rough-house!!

Bailey is full grown, about 40 lbs! 

We love Bailey, but not some of the bad puppy habits she hasn't outgrown as yet.

Looking forward to no more holes in the lawn or chewed up drip lines, 

dog beds, or other fabric items!

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE PAVONES

Highlights of 2016

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and a happy new year!

I had the best of intentions for writing blogs, but alas, our busy life got in the way and I didn't make the time to write any! So, here are the Highlights of 2016. It was another busy year filled with family, friends and fun, traveling, RVing, quilting teaching, and much joy. 

We traveled throughout the year. In January our traveling included a trip to a very stormy New Jersey,  and a Caribbean cruise with friends. In July, we flew to Seattle & took a summer road trip with friends (not in the RV) thru the Olympic Peninsula; drove around the Lavender Festival in Squim; ferried to Vancouver Island; stayed in a quaint, boutique hotel close to the waterfront in historic Victoria; spent a day amongst the beautiful flowers of the Butchart Gardens; ferried to Vancouver, Canada; spent a couple days in Whistler; then continued on to the big city of Vancouver; then back to Seattle. The Pacific Northwest is so picturesque and a favorite of ours. Sept we went to Laughlin on our now “annual family vacation;” spent 4 fun-filled days on the Lake Mojave with our adult kids and 5 grandkiddos-always a great time! Oct we went to Santa Catalina Island on our friend’s sailboat. It was a wonderful, relaxing trip; had fun exploring the town of Avalon.

RVing included the month of March in Arizona for Spring Training again; in May, a weekend with family and friends in Julian; spent the 4^th of July in Oxnard with my sister and family, then onto Buellton to camp with friends; in Aug at Rincon County Park (on PCH but right on the edge of the beach; for our Annual Thanksgiving week of camping we spent it with friends and family at Del Mar RV Resort, on the Camp Pendleton Marine Base.

Nick did a lot of teaching all over So Cal for the State Fire Marshal’s Office; he worked on beautifying our yards, and helped with our master bath remodel, re-staining our vanity and tiling the floor. Karen went to the Broadway play, ‘Carole King’s Beautiful” with Nicole (a wonderful night of reminiscing back to my college days!)and went to 4 quilt retreats, making many quilts for charity.

Rounding out the year we tried to spend as much time as we could with all 5 of our grandkids (pictured above l to r: Seth-3½, Hallee-5½, Gigi-9½, Micah-6½, and Brody-6½). Every time we are with them it is always fun. They bring us much joy and happiness.

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!

Hallee is 4 !

A belated birthday post!

Hallee's birthday was June 7th, 

and I didn't finish my blog post about her special day!

(OOPS! bad me). I've been so busy, I have neglected my blog. Traveling, sewing, quilting and just plain life seems to get in the way. I always have good intentions, and then I fall behind.

Hallee is 4 years old.

When she was born she was so tiny, 

the size of a Cabbage Patch Doll;

she was instantly loved by her big sister and brother;

she's very curious;

she's a girl of many faces;

she's quite a character;

she has many expressions;

but some of her faces aren't so happy;

she's a busy bee, so it can be hard to catch her looking at the camera;

she is adorable;

and she can be such a happy girl;

she can be shy;

she's a risk taker and she loves her "Poppy;"

she's a sweetheart;

and she loves her Yaya, too!

This Yaya is so blessed by her grandkiddos. Just the other day, Hallee said to me, "Yaya, I love seeing you," as she climbed into my lap! Hallee is a heart melter for sure and I love her so much!

Seth Turns 2 !

Our youngest grandson, Seth, aka Sethers, Sethie, Doodle 
turned 2 on June 3rd. 

Once again we find ourselves asking the question, 

"Where has the time gone?"

It seems like only yesterday that

 he was such a chubby, cuddly baby;

 he's expressive;

he's sweet;

he loves his Papas (he has two!);

he loves his yaya (aka yayayayayaya!);

he's inquisitive;

he has no fear (just like his dad, the big kid in the helmet!);

he's happy;

 And, he's adventurous! 

So glad he's ours!! 

He makes everything brighter and happier when he is around!

Micah is 5 !

Happy birthday Micah!

Our grankiddos are growing up so fast. My son's first son is now 5, too!

The memories of how little he was are so clear. 

Here's a look back at his first 5 years!

Papa and Micah at Papa's fire station

Papa and his boys, Micah and Brody

Two crazy cousins

Silly boy!

Like father like son!

We sure love this boy !!