March 18-April 1, 2018 Scottsdale, Arizona

I rented a 3-bedroom condo for two weeks near the green belt in South Scottsdale. The first week, I hiked with Marla and they had us over for dinner one night. Arne and I went to a Cubs game. We had dinner with grandson Aaron and his fiancé, Kaitlin.

On Friday night, we were joined by Erik, Kadin, Gracie and Jeffrey who were on Spring Break for the following week. We were fortunate to meet up with several couples from our church group, The Barge, with whom we had monthly potlucks for over 25 years.

Moondog and Sonia came down from Jerome for three days. We all went to Top Golf one night, joined by Mark and Marla, Nick and Sarah and Taylor.

Took many long walks along this golf course. Beautiful view of Camelback Mountain.

Visited with grandson Daniel. He was nearly killed Feb. 14 when hit by a car.

Our "Barge" friends.

Uncle Erik with Taylor

Can't believe Jeffrey hiked to the top of Camelback Mountain.

Kids are heading to a Diamondbacks game.

February 2018 Clearwater Beach

February 22 we  spent the day on the beach at Treasure Island, celebrating Merlin’s 80th birthday. His kids had rented a large cabana so we old folks could sit on couches in shade. It was fun seeing Jeff, Susan, Chris, John Muench, Dean and Joyce Olson, and Julie Semprini.

Christmas 2017 in St. Augustine

Arne and I spent two nights in St. Augustine, taking a tram ride Christmas Eve through the town enjoying the thousands of lights.

 

 

Terravita Friends Oct 22-24, 2017

On Oct. 22, friends from Arizona, Tim and Marilyn, spent two days with us as part of their two weeks in Florida, visiting Mickey in Orlando and Tim’s brother near Tampa.

Los Alamos Visit October 6-11, 2017

 Los Alamos High School Homecoming - September 2017

Kadin with her beautiful dog, Akira

Luis and Gracie

On Friday, October 6, I flew to New Mexico to celebrate Jeffrey’s 7th birthday by going to a high school football game. I also got to see Gracie play two volleyball matches.


 

Was a little chilly one day. I took this picture from inside the house.

Hurricane Irma September 10-11, 2017

Hurricane Irma was heading our way! First indications were that she would come up the East coast but she changed direction as she got near Florida. It then looked like she was going to go up Florida’s west coast. She got to Ft. Myers before turning inland and by 11 PM was heading directly for The Villages. By the time she got to us, she had gone from Cat 5 to Cat 3. I made up a bed in our closet and slept like a baby, through the brunt of the storm. Arne kept watch.

While people in the southern part of the state were told to evacuate, we decided to stay. We had spent September 9 getting the house ready by moving all lanai furniture into the garage and sealing up the front door against possible flooding. As we went about our neighborhood on September 11, we saw that we were very, very lucky with hardly any cleanup to do. Our neighbors with large oak trees had a huge mess. We didn’t lose power although some areas east of us were without power for up to a week. The only damage we had was peeling paint from the front door as we removed the duct tape and plastic Arne had used so well to keep water from coming into the house.
 

 

Midwest Trip 2017

Aug 14-15   We flew to Omaha and drove a rental car to Lake Panorama where we spent two nights with good friends, Jody and Merlin Muench. Luckily we got a boat ride in late Monday afternoon as Tuesday was a rainy day. Wednesday, after a delicious late lunch, we drove to the farm to spend two nights with Mark and Marla.

  Arne and I visited the cemetery on Thursday to “see” Lisa.

Friday we drove to Omaha where we would meet up with Larry and Jan’s families. We all stayed in a lovely hotel and attended Matt and Janelle’s Omaha Reception on Saturday night. It was a wonderful trip, arriving back in Florida Sunday evening.