Home for a couple of days Updated

Thank you, all, for your lovely comments, thoughts, and prayers. Mom has been doing fairly well, but she starts Thursday with another "procedure". So, it is off to another round of doctor appointments and back to Mom's to stay for at least a few days.

Pictures taken with crappy cell phone camera. Sorry. As always, click on the picture for a larger view. :)



On Highway 101 (Highway 1) before getting to Santa Barbara. It was getting dark, but it was so beautiful.


The Channel Islands were so clear and close. Sorry they don't show up well here. You can just barely see the fog starting to roll in.




Stole this from Carmen. Thanks, Dear. What a difference in camera quality. Channel Islands from Highway 1 Santa Barbara County, California.

Actually, we (my husband, daughter, and I) "snuck off" to beautiful Santa Barbara, California, for my mother-in-law's 80th birthday party and a mini family reunion.

Of my in-law's ten children, only one son couldn't make it. (He is self-employed, this is his busiest season, and his substitute workers came to the party.) My husband is the oldest child, and our son is the oldest grandson and the third grandchild. (I'm pretty sure Carmen is the 6th grandchild.) In-laws have eighteen grandchildren ranging in ages 34 to 3.

Carmen & Molly. Molly is the 2nd to the youngest great-grandchild. Molly belongs to one of our nieces.

Six grandchildren and two of the seven great-grands weren't able to come.

Grandma and Grandpa with a little over half of their grandchildren. Pictured here: grands aged 32 to 3. By the time this was taken, a couple of the grown grandsons had left the party. (The oldest grandchild had just had a baby, so her family wasn't at the party - too far to travel with a itty-bitty one.) The two next to Grandma are twins. The 3-year-old was so tired. Too bad he has his face covered. He is just a doll. Okay, they are all cute :D

So disappointing that everyone wasn't there; all of us would have loved to have seen them. All of Mom S's siblings were there along with all (her family side) of her nieces and nephews and some of their children! It was a rushed trip (two long days of driving one way) and a little stressful, but it was great visiting with those who were there.

Our son D & his better half K. lol Really, both are super "kids".

Our son and his family met us there, and then we traveled north to their house for a day a couple of days.

Crossing the Golden Gate Bridge in the fog. It was a chilly 57 degrees.



The size of the supports on Golden Gate Bridge is amazing.





This is a view from D & K's driveway. Yes, that is a small, very old, private cemetery.


So good to spend a little time with our "kids"! Our (step) granddaughter will be a senior in high school! Where does the time go? I didn't get a decent picture of her with this camera. "Kirs" was being her normal silly self, and yes, her hair is purple.


"Kirs"

"Kirs" and her Aunt Carmen


Our grandson will be in the 8th grade. He is still on the little side. Although you can't tell it here, he's only about an inch shorter than his Aunt Carmen. (He's always hungry, so I expect he'll shoot up tall this school year.)


J with his Aunt Carmen
Rough housing in the house. Both old enough to know better. LOL

Pictures First Part of Trip

Seems all I have done in the past two months is ride in the car. I have been to Lewiston so many times, I've lost count. (I haven't posted because I've been gone so much.)

Pictures are scarce because unfortunately, I'm usually driving. It's difficult (not to mention dangerous) to take pictures and drive at the same time. (No kidding!) I've tried to get others in the car to take pictures for me, but ... (Let's not go there.) Several pictures that I thought I took are nowhere to be found. I *hate* my camera because it is so slow! I think it has snapped the picture, but it really hasn't. By then we're clear past what I wanted a picture of.


Southern Idaho from the freeway. Sorry it's blurry. Notice how green it was. It was raining, but the farmers were still irrigating.

Southern Idaho or Northern Utah

From a park in Ogden, UT. The mountains are so close and still so green. Family reunion picnic day! Mother Nature was kind; it was absolutely gorgeous that day. (It had poured rain the day before and poured that night and all the next day. )

Same park, different view. The Unitas are so beautiful.

The edge of some badlands in Wyoming. One of the pictures that didn't take was of more badlands. Again, notice how green the grass and sagebrush is.

Just some of the critters that reside in my cousin's yard. They're headed across the street to the river. My cousin's side yard is natural landscaping so she gets all kinds of animals. It was too dark to get a picture the night the big buck was helping himself to the grass in the side yard.




Taken from my cousin's front yard. That is the North Platte River at the top of the white fence. From these views you can't tell it is flooding or how wide it is. The old timers said it has been about 60 years since the water has been this high. The other pictures of the river are missing. The bottom picture was taken after the water level had dropped some. Notice how close the water is to the bottom of the bridge. The only times I had ever seen this river was when it was so low we could wade across it.

More pictures another day. I was in Lewiston today. I have to go back tomorrow and will be there at least through Thursday. This time Mom and I will stay all night. I think I could drive this route with my eyes shut...

Home

We just got home from a fantastic, 12 day trip. We surprised my father-in-law by showing up for his 80th birthday party. We all had such a good visit with family and friends - some we hadn't seen in years and years.

I'm not sure of the exact mileage we put on our car but somewhere around 3600 miles. The most expensive gas we saw $4.59/gallon was in Goleta, CA near the entrance to UC Santa Barbara. (Why don't they try to gouge the college students a little more?)

It is good to be home even if it is only 47 degrees outside. Will hopefully post some pictures as soon we get them loaded onto the computer.