An Unsual Evening

At least it was for us. We attended the Summer Kickoff dinner at our resort. It was, in essence, a normal happy hour--drinks and loud music--with a hamburger or hot dog, chips, a slice of watermelon and a cookie thrown in.

If you know us very well, you know we aren't often interested in parties and music so loud you have to shout at the person right next to you is an even greater irritant. Because John wears hearing aides, any situation with lots of people or other background noise makes communication impossible. But, the food was free!

Since summer is coming to Arizona, most of the resort residents have already headed north, but about 200 came to the party.

I mentioned happy hours. During the winter season, there is live music for happy hour in the resort two or three times a week. Those who attend can have two free drinks--if they wear their name tags. There is also popcorn available. We have never attended, but often they are held outdoors, one street over from our house, so we hear and see them. Many of the residents do attend and love to dance to the music. They did the same at the Friday dinner.

We did enjoy talking--or shouting--at the others seated at our table. The couple on my left are from Holland. Every year they come to the United States, pick up their RV, which they store in Texas, and travel the country. I enjoyed talking to Hilde about their life.

On John's right were Otis and Tina, two long-term residents of the resort. We will see them again.

There was another couple on the far side of the table, but we weren't able to hear each other and so we didn't try much.

Anniversary Party

A big focus of our visit to Colorado this month was the party our son Eric organized to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary. The anniversary was on June 5, but we decided to hold it later in the month so our son Doug and his daughters could be here too. The party was held in the club house in their neighborhood. They prepared all the food for the 40+ people who came and it was so delicious!

We enjoyed the champagne host, followed by a delicious white and chocolate cake.

There is no way I can include photos of all the family and friends who came to celebrate with us, which included one friend John has known all his life, a college friend who we spent a lot of time with when our children were young, and a friend John worked with on the Boulder Police Department years ago.

I did select photos of our sons, our grandchildren and John's sisters and brother.

Eric talking to Larry, the friend from the police department.

Doug with his cousins Craig and Jennifer.

John's sister Kendal is second from the left. His brother Tim is in the center. Also in the photo, John Abbott, Diane Andrews and niece Megan Konty.

John's sister Cindy (left)  with her daughter Tina, husband John and our son Doug.

Our three granddaughters together.  Kylie is the life guard, with Rachal and Samantha next to her.

The young people were invited to play in the swimming pool next to the club house.  Here are most our our nieces and nephews.

Kylie is the lifeguard, grandson John is in the center, and granddaughters Samantha and Rachal are with our great niece Tara.

Thanks, Eric and Liz for all you did to make this possible; thanks Doug for coming and bringing your daughters to be with us; thanks family and friends for helping us celebrate this milestone.

April Happenings

The month of April is two-thirds gone. What has been happening here? The first Sunday of the month was Easter. The altar area of Epiphany Episcopal Church in Tempe was beautifully decorated and the worship service was even better. John assisted at one of the services.

This is the month when the snowbirds begin their flight north. Just look at these nearly deserted areas of our resort.

Since so many people are learning, one of our neighbors had an end of the season party.

We had our RV washed an waxed early in the month.

Ever since we moved out of our house in 2009 to live in our RV full time, we have had stuff in storage. We went from five crates of stored items, plus on U-Haul storage unit, to a smaller U-Haul unit after getting rid of most of the stuff. Last spring we drove to Denver and brought the remaining storage items here to Arizona. We pared that down to one 5 ft by 10 ft unit last fall. Now we are going through lots and lots of paper filed in boxes. This is what is looked like in our living room one day this week.

Here is a picture as we loaded the truck in March last year. Notice the 3 black file cabinets. That is where all the paper was located that we are trying to get rid of.

We are pushing hard so we can empty the storage unit and have everything that is left stored here in our winter home. We hope that we will finish that work and the construction on our addition will be far enough along that we can leave here about May 1.

Friends and Funny Ears

We haven't seen Bob and Marcia, friends from Colorado, for two years because we weren't in Arizona the early months of 2012. So Tuesday we met them at the Red Sage Restaurant in Gold Canyon, then drove to their park model in the Gold Canyon Resort for dessert. The chocolate ice cream with fresh berries was delicious and we sure didn't run out of things to talk about. We also enjoyed seeing their Arizona home and looking around their resort.



Before seeing them for lunch, we walked around our resort and saw people building floats. There was a mardi gras parade later in the morning. It looked like they were going to have a good time.





I don't know how many people recognize what John has in his ears in this photo. If you do, you will really appreciate what it means.



Yesterday, John had an appointment for a hearing test and adjustment of his hearing aids. We were delighted to learn our insurance company approved new ones! He has been wearing hearing aids for close to 20 years and every few years he needs new ones. Though they are expensive, the technology improves all the times, so each new set works better than the earlier set ever did. We are grateful that our insurance company makes a contribution toward the cost every few years. (They don't pay the entire cost, but it is sure worth it to us to pay the rest.)

Yesterday was Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. We attended services at Epiphany Episcopal Church in Tempe and John was the celebrant. It has been nice for both of us that he is able to assist there this year.

Yesterday afternoon, the street behind our RV was blocked off for a party. We don't know the folks there, so we weren't invited. But when a DJ started playing music, we did take a look at what was going on. There were quite a few folks out there.



Then we saw this couple dancing. Were they just married?



No. It was a party for their 50th wedding anniversary.



In case you can't read the sign on this golf cart, it says married in 1963, still married in 2013. Doesn't 50 years of marriage mean they are really old? The scary thing is, they were married only 2 years before us!

Welcome Back to Paradise

That was the theme of the free party given yesterday at Valle del Oro for all of the returning snowbirds. They came in cars



and on bikes



and in neat golf carts.





The theme seemed to be the south sea islands.



Or maybe Florida? I thought we were in Arizona.



The music was provided by the Southwest Surfers.



Wherever we are, there are lots of senior citizens out to have fun. Every Saturday night here, there is a dance. Since Nov. 1, all the crafts and other activities have been in full gear. All three men at our table have been doing woodwork; Jane took a stained glass class yesterday, and I have been trying my hand at beading, as well as pottery. Isabel knits and Barbara is still deciding what to learn this year. Even if it wasn't Saturday night, the music was so good some people decided to line dance.



The park is much fuller than last year at this time, maybe more so than when we left after Christmas. Look at all the people who are seated outside. And even more were inside the ballroom. The folks at the front of the photo are Barbara, Vern and Jane, three of the people who are parked just down the road from us.



Here is the rest of our table, John, Joe and Isabel.



What better way to end an evening in paradise than watching a nearly full moon rise over the Superstition Mountains a a palm tree?