It has been a very busy summer.  On May 21 and 23, two of our grandchildren, Eden and Logan, graduated from kindergarten.  We are proud of both of them!  They will be big first graders this year.  Eden already started on July 15th and Logan will start on the 25th.

On May 28, my long time friend and I started our journey to visit a mutual friend who had just moved to New Mexico.  I was pretty excited about the trip because I had not been to New Mexico except to pass through.  We drove east on the I-10 to Las Cruces, and then north on I-25 to Albuquerque.  Our friend has a new place in the hill country between Albuquerque and Santa Fe.  It was absolutely beautiful.  It was good to see our friend again after 30 years.  She is a great hostess!  Thanks Chris! 

We started back toward home on May 30.  We had a pilgrimage to accomplish.  We stopped at the "Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary" in Candy Kitchen, NM.  We drove through some awesome country and arrived at the sanctuary in the late morning.  We took a tour with an excellent guide who told us the history of the sanctuary and each canine that is homed there.  Most of the animals are wolf-dog crosses, but there were also a few full blooded Arctic wolves.  I think the Arctic wolves were my favorites although some of the young wolf-dog pups were awful appealing too.  I think the work of the sanctuary is commendable but I would much rather see them stay in a natural environment.  It was a bitter-sweet visit.

My friend and I returned to Arizona through the Salt River Canyon in northern Arizona.  It is almost as spectacular as the Grand Canyon.  I took lots of pictures there even though we have been there many times.

In June, Steve and I took a drive up to Roosevelt Lake, northeast of Scottsdale, AZ.  We got to ride around and fish in a pontoon boat with friends and family.  The lake is man-made and in a deep canyon fed by the Salt River.  We saw several large bass swimming around but only caught 2 smaller ones.  I enjoyed being on a boat once again although actually getting between the dock and the boat was more challenging than I remember.  Old knees and soft muscles don't make for quick moves or easy balance!  LOL!

At the end of June, we loaded up all the grandkids and their moms and headed for Oregon to visit Steve's mom and family.  We took 2 cars and took 3 days to travel.  Mostly things were OK but the overnight stop in Stockton, CA turned out to be the motel from Hell!  We had traveled 12 hours that day.  The desk clerk put us on the first floor and the third floor facing the pool.  The pool was full of a crowd having a birthday party.  There were other questionable people around smoking questionable substances and drinking.  It turned out the desk clerk lied to me because Shawna went back and told her the first floor room was not acceptable.  Shawna managed to get a 3rd floor room closer to our room even though the clerk had told me there was absolutely nothing available!  Then the bedspreads had cigarette holes in them, there were holes in the walls and the ceilings.  The only ice maker on the facility was in another building across the parking lot on the second floor. Breakfast was supposed to be complimentary the next morning, but the room was so small and so crowded with the party goers from the night before that we just left and went to Denny's.  All the while, the desk clerk from the night before glared daggers at Shawna and me as if daring us to say anything at all!  Boy, were we glad to get out of there!

We had a nice visit with Steve's family.  It was good to see them all again.  Our niece had her first baby, a boy, the day we left. I made her a quilt with the dinosaur theme that she had picked for the baby's room.

The moms and grands left Oregon a few days before Steve and I.  They visited the Oregon-California coast and the giant redwoods.  They got home a day ahead of Steve and I.  Steve and I decided to drive back home via the 395 on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains instead of going back the way we came on the I-5.  The traffic was much lighter as were the crowds in restaurants.  We drove through some of the tallest mountains in the lower 48.  I got to see the Owen's Valley and we stopped at the visitors' center at the foot of Mt. Whitney, the tallest mountain in the country outside of Alaska. 

So we get home in time for the first really bad monsoon thunderstorm of the season.  On July 2, a bolt of lightening struck so close to us that we about jumped out of our skins.  Then I saw a weird flickering orange glow just down the hill and in front of our pine trees.  It was a fire!  I was freaking out!  Steve grabbed a shovel and headed down the hill.  Fortunately, it was a single yucca plant.  Steve was able to knock it down and cover it with dirt.  I was so thankful that I saw it,(it was 930 at night) and that Steve was able to put it out by himself.  We had plenty of rain that night too.  Thank the Lord. 
 
Then on July 8, my little red dog, Penny, got bitten right between the eyes by a rattlesnake.  We lost her the following morning.  She was 16 years old. I will miss her.  She is buried in my rock garden in the front yard.


The chickens have not started laying eggs yet but I am hoping they will soon.  My garden produced some lettuce and tomatoes, a few peppers and turnips, but then was wiped out by one of our famous storms.  I will be ripping it out soon and may plant flowers instead.  


Til next time.....