Thursday, December 25, 2008

MERRY CHRISTMAS


We wish all of our family and friends a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We wanted to share our beautiful Minnesota winter with all of our freinds in warmer climates. We love our Minnesota winters as long as it is only for a month. Our son Ryan and his friend Heather joined us for Christmas day and our daughter and our son-in-law Brady will join us on Saturday for our official Christmas celebration. Our sons Tony and Jeff cannot join us this year and we will surely miss them.


Today we went out for two hours on our snow machines and the trails are spectacular. We will be tubing on a large hill near us tomorrow. We will be staying at the lake home until Jan 4 and then home until our departure for the south.


We will be departing for San Antonio where our motorhome is at on Jan 7 and then heading for Florida. We will be in Orlando by the second week where we will join with friends we met last year on our trip. We call this the Doc/Ranger Rally. We would love for anyone to join us. The RV resort we were to stay at is full so we are still looking at possibilities. We are still not sure where in Orlando but will work it out in the next week or two. Anyone we met last year, please join us if you can. After that visit we will head to Fort Myers where we will spend the rest of the winter months supervising the building our new home.


For now be SAFE!!!!!

Sunday, December 7, 2008

San Antonio, TX December 2 through December 6th

"Smile Pam!" I caught her off guard.
I took loaded these pictures in the wrong order,
but I will tell you the story. This is after I tried
to ride...the cinch broke and I never got to ride.

Here is Jim and this 5 year old paint that he raised and
trained for herding cattle, roping etc... So he got him
all ready, put him on the walker and worked him a
little himself.
Jim showing me some of the leg movements he
uses on her.

Here Jim is trying to shorten my stirrups and if
you'll notice I put my legs forward on her. Jim
told me later he was amazed she didn't make a move
when I did that! It was when I moved my legs
back, she thought I was making a move and she
must have expanded her belly so fast and hard that
the cinch broke and I just slide off the side. No one was
hurt but it sure was funny. John and Pam were both
there with cameras and neither one caught it on film.!
A view of their pasture.
Pool in the back.
Front of house. You can kind of see their
dog Pepper in the foreground.
Jim at the restaurant "Papa Gallos".
Pam's dad Bob and Jim and I.

John, Skog, me and Pat out at a restaurant
we went to with Jim and Pam.

Pam, me and Jim at the restaurant.

Pam and and having a good time.
We arrived in San Antonio on Tuesday and after we got set up we drove over to Pam and Jim's. We hadn't been there for 11 years so we got to see some wonderful additions. They built a pool in the back yard and Pam put a 1000 sq ft photography studio. It was awesome. They took the piano out of it's own room and made Jim a TV room and put the piano in the living room and it was really nice. Pam's mother died in August (she is from Chicago) and she just got back the week before Thanksgiving from getting her dad to come down to San Antonio for a while. I think he likes it, but he is lonely and sad. They were married 64 years I think or more even....(I can't remember the ages of her brother and older sister.) Anyway, he is adjusting. We sure enjoyed his company. We made a run to the motor home to get a few things for dinner and also made a trip to the grocery store. Had a great meal and even better conversation.
Wednesday we just got up and threw on some clothes and headed over to their house. We had coffee and then I was going to ride. Well, it was pretty funny as I explained up by the pictures.
No one was hurt and we all got a good laugh. After that escapade we went out to lunch and a great Mexican restaurant and all stuffed ourselves. After lunch John and I went home to get a few things done and call Pat and Skog to arrange dinner for the 6 of us. We decided to meet at 6:30. Showered up and they picked us up for the drive in rush hour traffic to the restaurant. Pat and Skog were there and we really enjoyed our time with them. The restaurant was pretty crowded and very loud so conversation wasn't the easiest. We decided to meet in the morning for breakfast.
Thursday morning, John and Jim decided to go to Tractor Supply and so Pam and I thought we would meet with Pat and Skog by ourselves. We dropped Pam's dad off at Pam's sister's house. Boy, did she have a nice house.! She was going to get his prescriptions and do some shopping with him. Pam and I really got in a nice quiet visit with Pat and Skog. Skog is still on the mend after a bout in the hospital just days before Thanksgiving. He says he's feeling better, but I thought he was quiet. We discussed all the family members and filled them in on all their goings on. After lunch I went home for awhile and John got his hair cut. We then went over to Pam and Jim's for dinner and a poker game. I had so much fun...I love playing poker.
Friday John and I went to Pam's for a scheduled photo shoot. She took our pictures together and we hope we get a good one. She is one talented lady. She did a calendar for the female firefighters in San Antonio that raised 40,000.00 and gave her considerable notoriety.
Friday night we went see "Australia" and then to PF Changs for dinner. What a great evening.
Jim picked us up at 7:30 and dropped us at the airport. It was very kind of him. Our flight ended up being canceled for a mechanical and we got on the next flight in time for them to tell us that our original flight got whatever fixed and it would leave shortly. We decided to go ahead with the new flight and pray we could make our connection in Dallas. We were racing down the terminal to the next gate and they were calling our names! Good news is we made the connection and the bad news my suitcase didn't! American delivered it to me that night at 10:45pm. The joys of flying.
We didn't get any pictures of Danny (their son) nor their adorable Boston terrier, Pepper. We we fly back in January I will try to do that. Pepper is hilarious...he skate boards!!!!
I will try to get a blog in around Christmas. I have decided not to send Christmas cards, I am going to send New Year's cards....(unless I change my mind.)
Merry Christmas to all of you.