Citrus Festival

This was the youth building at the Citrus Festival.  Student from 3rd grade to high school entered.

Some of the other visitors at the Citrus Festival.

Saddles and fruit??? Also there was a cook off with all type of barbequed meats. 

Next we headed to the parade.

There were bands.

And Floats.  

This was Bentsen Groves RV Resort float, where we live.  It took first place.

Finally there were queens! 

Not quite the Rose Parade but it was almost as long.  A fun time at a small town festival.

Asher's Dedication

On January 23, Asher was dedicated at Heather and Craig's church Park Cities Baptist Church.  We drove up from Mission, Texas to attend.  It was 9 hours by car but shorter than the drive to Mission in the motorhome which took us 3 days.

 Dallas skyline is beautiful!!!

Here is the Wilson clan on dedication day.

Heather and Craig were supposed to pick a life verse for Asher.  They choose Colossians 1:9. "For this reason, since the day we heard about (Asher), we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill (Asher) with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding."  Addie memorized it and said it word perfect.  Her dad had her practice with a microphone at his worship practice and Heather had her practice in the Great Hall when no one was there.

Pastor Pike and Pastor Lewis at Asher's dedication.

After the dedication Craig and Heather treated us all to brunch.  Bob, Scot and I.  Vicki and Dave Wilson, Matt and Cathrine Wilson, and two other families that were friends of Heather and Craig's. It was a lovely day.

New Granddog

Since Scot moved to Fort Worth, Texas, he has been wanting a dog.  For a while he hunted at ASPCA, but no luck.  Rachelle was thinking about taking a job where her dog couldn't go and Scot was willing to take her, but an ad in Craig's list had a Pekingese for sale. We had Pekingese when Scot was a kid.  Franky and Johnnie who were with us most of Scot's growing up years. Scot called on the ad and before the night was over he had a new dog.

And I had a new granddog.

 Here is Sondheim, named after Stephen Sondheim the composer.  This picture was taken after his first grooming.  Sondheim, thinks he was cut a little too short.

Addie came to meet Sondheim, and thought he was "Adorable!"
But she ended up playing keyboard with her Uncle Scotty.  Did you know he knows princess songs?

Sondheim at the dog park. He is a very social dog.

Tea with Princesses

The Disney Store in North Park Mall in Dallas, Texas had a Garden Party and all princesses were invited.

Addie of course attended.

Addie signed in.

The girls are given instructions.

Addie didn't like having to wait for her tea.

Finally, tea with like friends. (princesses)

Asher thought the whole thing was funny.  Doesn't he have the best smile!

Entertainment at Bentsen Grove

About 3 to 4 nights a week there is entertainment at our park.  Most of it comes from Branson.  Bob and I can confirm, they don't headline in Branson.  

We've heard Rick Sager.  He served food and sang at Mel's Dinner in Branson.  He was almost as good as he thought he was.

McAllen High School has a Steel Drum Band, Pan O'Steel.  There were really good, and have never performed in Branson.

Like many groups that come to the Rio Grande Valley, Goldwing Express bring the music of contemporary country favorites, historical blue-grass, and classic Southern Gospel. A friend who has been here for several years says, most of the country groups that come do all of the above plus a patriotic song or two. I think truer words were never spoken.

Some Bob liked, some I liked and some we both liked.  

 

What keeps me busy????

When Bob and I babysat Addie and Asher, Addie was using the baby afghan that I made for Asher.  She told me she needed one of her own.  I was making Heather and Craig an afghan, since their dog, Bailey, had eaten a hole in the one I made a few years ago.  I told Addie I would make her one after I finished the one for her mom and dad.  She wanted a blue one just like Asher's because blue is her favorite color. When we went to Hobby Lobby to pick out her yarn, she had her princess bag with her.  She decided that she wanted a princess blanket.  In case you don't know, a princess blanket is pink for Aurora (Sleeping Beauty), blue for Cinderella, yellow for Belle, and green Tiana.  I trimmed it in blue, since that is Addie's favorite color.

So grandma started knitting and here are the finished projects:

Heather wrapped up in her new afghan with Bailey.  He has been warned about eating a hole in this one.

Addie heading to bed with her princess afghan.

Addie asleep with her princess blanket.

Craig didn't want to be left out.  Here he is posing with Addie's blanket. 

It was a lot of work, but I was proud of my results and the family was warm and happy.

Asher wanted to show you that he could crawl and that his hat keeps him warm.  Notice the bib.  Always ready for eats.

Welcome to our Winter Home, in Bentsen Grove RV Resort in Mission, TX.

Yesterday we arrived at our winter home, at Benson Grove RV Resort . We pulled in about 12:30 p.m. and were welcomed in the office and introduced to Bob who showed us where our mailboxes were and lead us to our site, W8.  He helped my Bob back into our site on the first try.  I was glad to have Bob take over my navigating duties.

Bob hooked up and I set up in the motorhome and then we took Pralines for a walk.  On our way out of the office when we registered, we had run into Kathy and she had invited us to stop by their 5th Wheel when we got settled. (Kathy and Dave Whittier are the friends who had recommended this place to us.)  We easily found their site and after hugs and a short conversation, they continued on our walk with Pralines and turned it into a tour of the park.  We were thankful for the tour.  The park is really large, 850 lots, with 2 swimming pools, 2 shuffleboard courts, many buildings for table tennis, pickle ball, rock and wood labs, more and more.  We also got a two page activity sheet to choose which activities we might be interested in joining.  After our walk, we headed back to the motorhome and at about 5:00 p.m. Kathy and David had invited us for dinner, so we again headed to their site.

Kathy, a birder like Bob, invited him to join her for a walk in the morning.  I had already decided that I was going to join the water aerobics class in the indoor pool, directly across from our site.

We are snow birds and very happy about it.

Our winter home in Bentsen Grove Resort.

Our Praline flag is out and we are settled in here.

We feel very welcomed and have enjoyed our first two days here. We are already glad we decided to take the Whittier's recommendation and give Mission, Texas a try.  I forgot to say that it has been perfect weather.  In the 80's during the day and down to 60's at night for good sleeping.

Camping at Walmart in Alice, Texas

On Sunday, January 2, 2011, we left our Dallas home, (Wylie, Texas/ East Fork at Lake Lavon) to travel to Mission, Texas for a warmer climate for the next two months.  We drove about 200 miles and spent the night at Waco, Texas, at a beautiful COE park called Midway Park.  It was cold there as it had been at Wylie.  Temperatures in the 40's to 50's during the day and 20's to 30's at night.  I dress wearing my Cuddle Duds, which for those who do not know are my long underwear, a long sleeve shirt and jeans, plus a sweat shirt.  Our next stop was another 200 miles to New Braunfels, Texas where we stayed at a private campground.  It was large with many park models.  When traveling our routine is to move out about 10:00 a.m, have lunch at the truck stop where we get fuel, which usually means a Subway or McDonalds,  locate our new campground. Then, I set up, take a nap and Bob walks the dog.  After my well deserved nap, I make dinner, we watch a little TV, play a few games on our Iphone, I catch up on my blog and then we head for bed.  Real exciting, but we love it!  Today we traveled 150 miles to Alice, Texas.  We were going to stay at a private RV park in Falfurrias, Texas but I found Bob up about 6:00 a.m.worrying about the route into this park.  He had even talked to the owner of the park the day before and she said that the exit had construction, the road was rough and it could be tough for a 40' motorhome.  In this area, there are not a lot of RV parks.  Honestly, there is very little anything in this area.  (We were going to be between San Antonio on the north and Corpus Christi on the east.)   I ask if there was a Walmart that we could stay at, which started a whole new search.  There was one in Alice, Texas, so we changed our destination and headed to Alice.

For those of you who don't know about Walmart's RV policy, they allow RV'ers to spend a night in their parking lot.  That is most Walmart's do, not the one in Oxnard, CA.  I think this is the third time we have stayed at a Walmart.  We don't set up, don't level or open our slides.  We don't unhook our car.  We pull in on the side, turn our generator on and stay inside to eat and sleep.  I wouldn't want to do it often, but tomorrow we are at our winter home in only about 2 hours, so it isn't much of a problem.

The Walmart in Alice, Texas.  Notice the security truck on the right.  Walmart is open 24 hours, so some of the Walmart's have security trucks that roam all night.  Also there are security camera all over the parking lot. We checked in with the security guy and he had us park over by the fence.

Here we are parked with our car still attached.

This rig pulled in shortly after us.  When Bob was walking Pralines, he talked to this couple.  There are from Holland and their rig came over on a boat.  They arrived in November and will be staying in the states till May.  They picked their rig up in Florida.  They are heading to Corpus Christi.

 

This 5th wheel pulled in later and another motorhome pulled in beside us, since I starting writing this blog.  The weather here is warmer in the 70's and as we move on to Mission it is suppose to be in the 80's.  It rained a little while we drove today.

Wherever we stay, there has always been beautiful sunset.

October, November, and December 2010

 When you see what we've done these last three months, you'll understand why I got behind in my blog and never caught up.  Enjoy, we sure did.

October:  We headed into Dallas and our son Scot decided to check out Ft. Worth, Texas for a possible move.  Here he is with Addie and Asher.

 Uncle Scot and the kids.

Rachelle's house in Fort Worth.

Scot's apartment over Rachelle's garage.

Rachelle Weber, Scot's cousin by friendship, is living in Germany but has a home in Ft. Worth, Texas.  It is being renovated and the process had been moving slowly, with Rachelle away.  So Scot was thinking of moving into her apartment over the garage to help oversee the renovation.  We suggested he visit before he committed.  So that was the reason he met up with us in nearby Dallas.

While in Dallas, we visited the Children's Museum, Addie our budding scientist, checked out a microscope.

Addie played check out with a new friend.

Papa, Heather, and Asher here at the Dallas Zoo.

 We stayed at Lake Lavon, East Fork in Wylie, Texas.  The Wilson's joined us to celebrate Heather's birthday, at our campsite. Here are the two proud grandfather's of Addie and Asher.

Addie and I planned Heather's birthday party.  Of course it had a princess theme.  Heather got her mom a crown for her birthday.  A perfect present for a perfect mom.

After Heather's birthday, we took off toward California.  One of our stops along the way was Monahan Sandhill State Park.

As you can see it was all sand and a few hills, but at night the stars were incredible.  Pralines didn't care for this campground as she got cactus in her paws and I had to spend a lot of time pulling them out with tweezers.

A quick stop with Mom in Tucson, Arizona and then on to California.

We stayed on the beach at the Rincon.  Pralines and I were glad to be home, or at least close.

Back to beautiful sunsets and lots of shore birds.

We moved to Faria Beach, after 7 days on the Rincon without hookups.  Faria was $50 a night but it was worth every penny.

We spend two weeks visiting with friends.  Here we are at one of our favorite fish and chip places at Ventura Harbor.  The Henards, Webers, and Kathy.  It was a great night.

 We weren't in Dallas for Halloween, but here is Addie as Dora the Explorer and

with her friends, J.J. and Ben and Addie this time as a piece of sushi.  Isn't my daughter creative.

November:
One of the reasons we had returned to California this time of the year was to join Charlotte Wakenhut and her family for a camping trip to Refugio.  Twice a year, Charlotte reserves the group site at Refugio.  We'd been invited several times, but never had been able to join them till now.

 What a beautiful campsite, overlooking the ocean.  There was about 11 RV's and about 40 people.

Bob is with Joan and Charlie Karp and Debbie Drake who I worked with at CSUCI.  Joan retired when I did and they had been on the road all summer.  We had a lot of stories to share.  Sorry I didn't get a picture of Charlotte.

From there we head toward Desert Hot Springs for a week before heading to Tucson for Thanksgiving.

 In Desert Hot Springs, we stayed at the Sand RV Park.  The sites were a little too close together, but it had the best dog park, according to Pralines.

 We of course went shopping in Palm Springs and at the college swap meet.  I loved this shirt but didn't buy it because I wasn't sure grandmother's really should wear it.  While here we visited with Larry and Judy Drake and had dinner one evening with Johnny and Ruth Larring.  It was fun to catch up.

We also visited Joshua Tree National Forest.  We liked it so much we spent two days.

 The rocks here are rearranged as this park is on a fault line.  They looked like building blocks on top of each
other.

 This is a Joshua Tree, in case you have never seen one.  We enjoyed our time in the high desert.

As we pulled out of the Sands RV site, Bob was watching the left and he ran into a small palm tree on his right, that did a lot of scratching damage but no hole this time.  It also hurt our awning.  Another story.

 You know you are back in Arizona, when you see the Saguaro Cactus.

 Our home for two weeks was Catalina State Park.  This was our second visit here.  We love it.  The mountain view is unbelievable.

Remember that Pralines had issues with cactus at Monahan Sandhill Park, well, she also had issues in Tucson.  So we bought her boots.  She really doesn't like them.  She will wear them, walking a little funny but she won't go to the bathroom in her boots.  We got these at REI after trying a cheaper pair at Petco that she wouldn't wear.

 My sister and her husband flew in from Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio for Thanksgiving with my mom and Bob and I. We have been spending Thanksgiving together with mom for several years now.  It's a tradition we all enjoy.

 Traditionally we take a walk on Thanksgiving morning at Sabino Canyon.  It is always beautiful but this morning it was cool.  Bill and Charlene are hikers.  Bob keep up and I just complained.  Maybe if I am lucky they won't invite me next year.

 After Charlene and Bill left, Mom, Bob and I went to Holiday Lights at Tohono Chul Park.

Mom is a member and on the weekend after Thanksgiving they put on a light show.  Music and crafts to share.  All to benefit the park.

We walked around and enjoyed the lights, music and felt like it was a good introduction to the Holiday Season.

December:  We headed back to Dallas, because Craig and Heather were going on a cruise and Bob and I and Vicki and David were scheduled to babysit.

On the way to Heather's, we stopped at an Escapee Park in Benson, Arizona called Saguaro RV Park.  One of the residents at the park told us we needed to see the Sandhill Cranes at the Whitewater Draw Wildlife Area.

These birds come in flocks of hundreds all landing at once.  It was amazing to see. When we return and we will, there is enough to see in this area to spend several days. On this visit we had plans to visit Tombstone and Bisbee, so we only stayed a few hours.

We drove on to Tombstone, but didn't even stop  Very commerical and it didn't peak our interest.  We did move on to Bisbee.

 Bisbee is a mining area.  Known for it's copper and turquoise.

 Looks like stripe mining to me.

 We had lunch in town.  The town seemed to have been hit by the poor economy.  Many places closed.

Houses here built on the hillside.

On to Dallas for Addie's birthday.

Addie had her 3rd birthday and celebrated like all princesses with a ball.  All her family and friends were there.

No one was suppose to bring presents, only family, you can see why.  Is there enough pink princess stuff???

Birthday out of the way, Heather and Craig left for a cruise.  They needed the rest.  After we babysit we understood why.

I bought Addie fairy wings at the Dollar Store. She was thrilled!! Her only disappointment was she still couldn't fly:(

Asher liked the wings also.

Papa took Addie to the drug store.  She got a blue lollypop.  She takes after her Uncle Floyd.  Family joke, see Floyd's picture on Facebook.

 Addie and Grandma made a Gingerbread House.

For those of you who might have thought I lost my mind and baked.  This was a kit.  It was fun but messy.

Papa and Asher spend a lot of time together.  Bob is reading Asher's favorite book.

We had the children for three days, then Dave and Vicki took over for the weekend.  They were bravery them us, taking them to the Lakehouse and out to eat.  We didn't manage to leave the house with children, except for Bob's journey to the drugstore.

Heather and Craig had a great trip and we retired to our motorhome to recope before Christmas.

Our motorhome had it's own decorations.  A Jim Shore Nativity Set that was on a steering wheel table that Shellie Weber made for me plus the tablecloth and dolle.

Christmas Eve we went with the children, Scot, David, and Vicki to church and then out to dinner.  The next morning would come early.

Christmas at the Wilson's 2010.

 Asher enjoying his John Deere Tractor, Grandma enjoying Asher.

Asher got musical rattles from Discovery Toys.  Did you know Discovery Toys were still around?

Addie loves to dress up, so she got a Cowgirl outfit.  Her hat does say Arizona, for Great Grandma Emery.

Addie and Dad playing with Marbleworks.  Not sure if this gift was for Addie or Craig, but I know they both enjoyed it.

"Give me a minute and I will have it figured out," says Addie.

Aunt Shellie send new pieces for Mr. Potato Head straight from Disneyland.  It was for Asher and Addie but I am not sure whether Addie is willing to share.  At least not Christmas Day.

Bob's present was a day at Texas Motor Speedway, including driving a race car.  He was surprised!  He thought he was getting a bike.

Heather out did herself for Christmas dinner.  I was supposed to bring stuffed mushrooms.  One dish I know how to make.  I forgot.

Last but not least,we had a birthday cake for Jesus.  Notice  Scot in the background.  That's what happens when you are upstaged by children and dogs.  He did move to Ft. Worth.  Already found a job and is happy he made the move. Loves being closer to family. He got an electric piano for Christmas.  He had to sell his piano in his move, so this was a must at his new place.

That's it.  We are in New Braunfels, Texas tonight.  Tomorrow we head to Falfurrias, Texas and on Wednesday to our winter home, in Mission, Texas.  I see if I can keep this up.  At least I feel you got a taste of 2010 with the Gilmores