Tuesday, July 14, 2026

Spring 2026


A Spring of getting settled and exploring our 
new neighborhood! We walked to 
Kokopelli's - a restaurant nearby with
a view.  Hard to believe we live here! 
 

What seems like endless unpacking, decorating, plantings,
painting,  organizing and just work we are getting
more and more settled with the help of James  & Beka!
Beka got herself a sewing machine and
came over for her first project!  She does
amazing work!  So fun to have time with
these two and so thankful for all the help! 
Dear friends came to see the new house -
great to see Elaine and Dani!
 
I was happy to watch 15 quail eggs mature,
hatch and leave the nest with their
mom and dad!  Many video are in the
2026 video link if you'd like to
watch the struggle to leave the nest which
was 5' above ground!  If you look close
you can see eggs on the left and a baby on the right! 
How amazing that our oldest granddaughter,
Adah, graduated high school!!!
We enjoyed watching the graduation
ceremony and her lovely senior recital!
So proud of this girl! 
As part of the home buying process, the previous owner
 paid for some foundation repair.
 So many delays thanks to county permits being
delayed.  Finally it was settled and the date
set for  May 28th, which we had to be here for!
  Just horrible timing for us
as we were planning to drive to TX for a Guyer
family reunion.  At least we got to see a few
pics of the family we missed seeing.
...until next time when we'll hope to be there!   



 My special-in-law, Kim, planned a special surprise
70th Birthday party for Dawn, Sue and I!
What a special re-connect time with these
'old' friends!! 
Letty came to spend 2 nights!!  What fun we had 
painting, playing, and watching wildlife!   
The Lord answered Letty's praying and a deer came to visit!
The kids surprised Dad for Father's Day with coffee and treats
and 'The End of the Trail'!  
What a special, special two weeks we had!  The Nelsons 
drove 16 hrs straight to get to their VRBO.  We had all the
gang to the new house for an evening of food, fun, games 
and pics!  We haven't all been together for almost
5 years!   Fun to see all 8 grands together - 
 5 teenagers!!!   Pics of age order, fun stairstep, with 
Grammie and Papa, and all 16 of us in our backyard! 
So much happened those two weeks... 
different combos of people getting together
for many activities! So very special!
Check out the shared google album with
almost 650 pictures!
We had an art day - peaceful music and
lots of creativity!   
What a fun thing to do with 13 people!!
 Hard to plan when we'll all be together again but
we all enjoyed getting know each other again!
  
A little surprise for Dad for the 74th Birthday!
Dad and I planned to stop for a bite before Costco and
look who was there - Surprise!!!  A quick and fun time!
 
 Lots of videos - 2026

Sunday, May 10, 2026

Winter 2026



We started 2026 with fun times!
Game nights with James and Beka
and bike ride with Clay and Rachel! 
Also re-did the front patio flagstone that
became very un-level!  Fun Times!


We'd been looking to find a new home
for a while with less upkeep and less yardwork.
We went to an open house on Jan 17th in Mountainbrook
Village - just a few miles from our house. 
We loved the location and quiet of the house, but
it sure needed updating.  We liked the realtor
and asked her to come look at our house to see if
we might be able to sell and buy without 
extra $ output.  She came over the next week,
we had pics taken of the house and
it was on the market on Jan 30th! 
We had showings on 1/31 & 2/3 
with a cash offer on 2/5!  
Escrow closing on both houses
was 3/5!  
 New House

We were in shock and then the crazy began!  
Inspections, packing, packing, packing!
Things were happening fast so we had
to ride the wave!
 The kids were all a great
help and were able to take some things! 
Then on moving day James, Beka, Clay and Rachel
came to help move!  We rented a 20 ft U-haul
and were pretty packed!  The morning of the 5th
they arrived to start the process... then a knock
on the door and it was Deb!   We were in shock
again!!!  How crazy to say goodbye to
the old house with all 4 kids that were
raised there! There are over 1000 pics and
videos in this album if you really want to see
all the details!  AND ... there was even one final
performance in the ole place! 
Our last supper in the house!
How the new garage looked after 4 overloaded truck
 trips and all the cars, too!!
The house came with a putting green that 
we surely didn't want!  Clay had it sold and 
removed the first weekend in the house!
It's now a cactus mound - pics will come later! 
My first morning watching the sunrise from
my bedroom!  Am I on vacation at a
resort??  Also ... some regular visitors next to
our house and the beautiful views!   
Grammy is happy but exhausted!!  It's already
May so I'm a bit late getting to the  summing up
our winter!  The spring update will have
pics of more of the inside of our new home! 

Winter pics 

Video Links