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Saturday, December 26, 2009

Can you believe Marinel has her own blog?

Retirement has been wonderful!! We moved out of the house in Nampa and are enjoying living in a wonderful fifth wheel. We started our adventures with Grandpa and traveled to Utah and stayed for about a week with Scott and Carolyn. We met up with Richard and Diane Green on the way to Moab to visit Canyonlands and Arches National Monument Park. Had a great but blustery visit at both parks, even Chloe had a great time.

Next visit was to beautiful Lake Powell where we enjoyed "Perfect" weather and gorgeous vistas from our R.V. park. We were there for a two night stay where we headed to Mesa where we introduced Grandpa to his new home with Gerry and Mary. We visited a ghost town outside Mesa called Greenfield on Superstitious Mountain and enjoyed the walk back in time.

From there we headed West to Las Vegas where we met up with Scott and Carolyn for the Las Vegas Summit Nationals. Believe it or not I (Marinel) actually enjoyed watching the drag races. The next day we went to the MGM Grande where we say the lion cubs. We walked down to the M&M store and watched a 3D movie. Lunch at subway for a salad and healthy choice lunch. Had dinner at downtown vegas to watch the laser light show and ate at the Outback Steakhouse. It was on Halloween and watched all the trick or treaters meander around Vegas.
We said our goodbyes to Scott and Carolyn and family and headed on the road. We always wanted to go to Death Valley so we plotted our course. Our first impression of Death Valley......"Not Impressed!". Lots of people and no where to go so we headed to Ridge Crest, CA and spent the night.

Monday morning we were headed to Oceanside to our favorite R.V. Park, "Paradise by the Sea". Immediately after hooking up our R.V. we walked down to the beach with Chloe and wasn't able to even put our feet in the sand, NO DOGS ALLOWED! So we had to watch the beach from the pavement. We went back and crashed after a long day of traveling. We have a basket on one of the mountain bike and Dennis puts Chloe in the basket and went for a bike ride and came home with donuts and a newspaper. Had breakfast, Dennis had a nap and took Chloe for a ride down to the pier and back. And then rode the bike to Dennis' old high school and his old house in Oceanside and headed home.

Had a great visit with Rex and Sara in Vista where we caught her doing dishes at the sink. For those of you who don't know, Sara has been diagnosed with Parkisons' disease. They invited us to stay for dinner and we enjoyed our visit.

Uncle Jim, Aunt Sharon, Kelly and Liz met us at Oceanside Harbor for lunch the following Saturday, where Aunt Sharon announced she was called to be the Relief Society President in her ward. We enjoyed watching the sailboats having a mock battle between each other after our lunch of fish and chips. Jim and Sharon and Kelli and Liz followed us to our fifth wheel to check out our new "Mobile" home and we enjoyed a dessert of ice cream. Sunday we attended church with Jim and Sharon where Sharon was sustained and had dinner with them at their home afterwards.

Monday was the beginning of a frustrating, painful and distressin ordeal for Dennis. He was feeling off and on most of the week but was still able to enjoy a day trip to Winter Nationals with Jim. Saturday and Sunday he became worse where it forced him to a visit to the doctor on Monday. While waiting in the waiting room, enjoying Monday night football, he happened upon Liz who was there for a post check up on their new arrival Livia, who by the way was born the previous week and Dennis was able to meet Livia for the first time. Tuesday the test results were in, the verdict "Diverticulitus" and perscribed two antibiotics. Rested the rest of the day and headed to Alpine, CA where we are currently staying at an R.V. park on an indian reservation in the middle of a modern day working cattle ranch. The cattle wander through and visit us in our park everyday and Chloe loves to see the cattle. Dennis needed several days of rest where he slowly but surely got his strength back.

One day we went down to San Diego Harbor and had a delicious fish lunch. Another day we took a drive to El Centro to look over the area for future possible winter habitation. The day before Thanksgiving Dennis ended up in the E.R. from severe pain and a couple other unmentionable discomforts. After several tests he was sent home with no new diagnosis just more medicine (all complications from the previous described Diverticulitus).

Twice a week we went to visit Aunt Sara, Rex and Pat and Diane and Richard who were there for Thanksgiving. Diane and Richard were alos there to assist Sara who had broken her hip the weeks prior. Took a trip to Yuma, AZ and found an R.V. park that we liked and put down a deposit for the remainder of the winter (thru April of 2010).

Bought plane tickets for Idaho for the holiday which included a purchase of a travel carrier for Chloe, Riley child #7. Flew into Boise on December 15th and Chloe was a terrific traveler. Stayed busy with hair appts., vet appts., doctor appts., and holiday shopping. We missed everyone so much it was so good to be back close to our friends and family. Missed the snow around the holiday season. We have enjoyed visiting friends Kenny Casteel and Carol, and Gina and Terry Hall. We are staying in our old house where Nanett and kids currently reside and in our own room. House is set to close on Feb. 27th, keep your fingers crossed that all goes well.

We had our annual Christmas Eve breakfast at McDonalds and trip to Walmart for the grandkids (Chelsea, Carissa, Lance and Nicholas were the only grandkids around) to pick out their Christmas presents. Had a great Christmas with Nanett and kids, got a great email from Mitchell who is doing wonderful on his mission in warm, sunny Arizona where he too misses the cool weather and snow around the holidays. We had our annual Chicken Cheese soup, Brett's Bacon Potato Chowder, Cream cheese pie and a pumpkin pie for Christmas Eve dinner. Christmas morning woke up the grandkids (teenagers sleep all day) and watched them open their gifts and Dennis made his "Special Eggs" for breakfast. Gotta have those holiday traditions.

Loaded our gear and headed North to visit Steve and Bridgett in Grangeville, ID where there is lots of snow (they had 4-5 inches Tuesday before Christmas). Weather was awesome and the roads were good. Arrived to hugs and kisses, Ksenya even kissed Grandma and Grandpa before Chloe. They were really excited too see us!! We exchanged gifts and watched the kids display all their presents they opened that day. Enjoyed a wonderful Traeger turkey, mashed potatoes, homemade rolls, fresh salad, home grown corn from the Barela-Williams garden and I brought more pumpkin and cheese pie for dessert. It was a great dinner. Enjoyed the evening with a movie, "Forever Strong" and retired for the night.

We are currenlty in Grangeville where Bridgett is helping me set up and type my blog.

Hope all is well with all friends and family who may view this new Riley Blog!!