Final Stop: Sun City

Wow...two great visits in one vacation! From Lake Havasu, we travelled on to be with my folks...let's see...new names...Singernana and Papatrain...sounds good to me! It was good to FINALLY see where they live...it's been a couple of years since they decided to snowbird in AZ! This was our first time in their home. It's adorable! Full of cool stuff and always a project for Papatrain! Singernana is really involved in china-painting. They love it there..and it shows.


They took us to this great place: Pure Heart Christian Fellowship to see these cool trees. Awesome. Pictures really do not do them justice, but you get the idea!


Unfortunately, I got sick the day we arrived and stayed that way until we left...well...even still now...bummer. BUT...Papatrain and Chief got to golf and go to the swapmeet they call Good Year...Chief got a new suitcase. And we had dinner at a great place called Garcia's. MMMMMMM...Mexican food.


I got to be with my Mom in her new home and see an old friend. It really was a good vacation. Wonderful...delightful...restful...needed.



Thanks, Mom and Dad for an awesome time! Good food...good fellowship...I love you...
your Little Bug!

All ABOARD...First Stop: Lake Havasu City

I'm not sure how to begin! Our trip to Arizona was wonderful...delightful...restful...needed. I miss my BFF and her family. I was so happy to see her and Poppy...JuJu, Bwin and Sizzle. And Cissy...Rosebud...et al. To meet the "other" friends! :~) To spend one more New Year's Eve with our Bestest Friends Ever playing Pinnocle and drinking Champaigne! With Raspberries! Shades of six small children running around the house until they fell, exhausted, in the living room sleeping on a couch, or a sofa, on the floor while the parents bid on excruciatingly mind-bending hands of Pinnocle.

Remember when Happy fell asleep and started talking and scared ~T~ half to death?? Or one of our last New Year's Eves when Poppy got so sick? We prayed that whole week...then month...then year...then HEALED! That was...well...amazing.

Okay...so Pinnocle wasn't the ONLY thing we did New Year's Eve...there was Scrabble and OF COURSE...singing!

And Harmonizing...The there were THESE times:

Meeting Sizzle...

Uncle Carl LOVED playing...

"My name is Bubba...my cheeks are made outta rubba..."

hehehe...

No autographs...PLEASE!

Watching Poppy play ball...old man...still got it!!

And sitting in the hot tub and watching the Hummingbirds...

I miss our times of card-playing-tenderloin-grilling-laughing-til-we-cried-champaigne-drinking New Year's Eves!! We may never get to do it again...who knows...it was the best of times EVER.

Happy New Year, BFF...I am better for having known ye...

You heard me.

A wonderful Christmas this was...this was a wonderful Christmas. All of my children home in the Frozen Tundra...with their children. It just doesn't get any better than that. Right? I suppose.


Happy, NC fan and Beautiful left today. Bittersweet. I will miss them terribly, but will see them again in 4 months. But not at Christmas anymore. I'm sad that I will not see Beautiful open a Christmas gift. Or share Christmas memories as I do with Z-man, Flower, Bright Eyes and New York. I understand the whole waking-up-in-our-own-home-on-Christmas-morning tradition thing. I understand wanting to have that special time with the children. I do. But that doesn't make it any easier. Not when I know I am the Oma who misses it. I am sad today. Poor, poor pitiful me. Pathetic and pitiful.


So...my babies are beautiful...and their babies are more beautiful! And I can prove it. Take a look:
So, there you have it. A wonderful Christmas it was...it was a wonderful Christmas.

Now Arizona here we come! It better be sunny...that's all I have to say!

The Dedication and the Blustery Day

What a wonderful day this was! Well, except it was 24 degrees when we left for church and 16 when we came home. Oh yeah, and the 35 MPH winds.

Having ALL of my children, my sister and my parents in church with me this morning... dedicating Beautiful...it just didn't seem all that significant. I LOVE baby dedications. Especially when the baby being dedicated is family. Awesome.

"Do you promise to raise up your child in service to Jesus Christ?"

"We do."

"Do you promise to pray for your child and teach your child about the saving grace of
Jesus Christ?"

"We do."

The prayer...and Happy asked ME if I would sing. I did. I did not cry and ruin it. The Holy Spirit was a very present help in my time of...well, there was no real "trouble", but I sure didn't think I could sing for my baby AND her baby. But with the help of God...it was a "Masterpiece".

Then the charge to the family..."Do you promise to pray for this child and these parents? To be a present Godly influence in the lives of this family?"

"We do."

Random pics:

Again...MERRY CHRISTMAS!