Our private park in the middle of the Phoenix metropolitan area!

Five million people live in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Unbelievable!  

That’s WAY too many people for us.  Our Happy Place is to be alone, surrounded by nature and silence, except for the sounds of wildlife….coyotes howling and yipping during the night, birds singing for all the world to hear, elk bellowing as they call for a mate, javelina grunting as they dig out roots and herd their little babies to safety, and the silence of bear and mountain lions stalking their prey.

Four or five days a week we head out in the dark to take a pre-dawn hike from our home in Leisure World.  Leisure World is surrounded by endless miles of businesses, freeways, and row upon row of homes in the middle this gargantuan metropolitan region.  We are seeking our place of peace, our Happy Place.  

And, surprisingly, every morning we find what we are seeking before the world awakens…..right here in Leisure World!

In our private park a vast array of birds live with us.  These are just a few of the birds that sing to us as the morning breaks and all through the day….our world is alive with the sounds of bird music!

Together, we share these spectacular morning…..all alone in our private park.  And this is what we get to see  as we head home!

Tomorrow morning we will hold each other, look into our love’s eyes, and dance, dance, dance.  We are blessed to have found our soul mate.

Our latest visitors at Nuestra Casa….

The fountain in our garden overlooking the golf course behind our home in Leisure World attracts a countless variety of hummingbirds and other wildlife every day. 

In the last couple of weeks we had some new visitors to our home…

As you can see, we old folks never have a boring day sitting out on the back patio of our home…wonder who will visit us tomorrow afternoon!

Candice and Adam visit all of us in Pine….and Happy Birthday to Adam!

Meeting the new baby in our family…..

As you can see, holding Gideon was the prime time activity for all of us!

Making good use of all our grapefruit, oranges, and lemons!

Candice and Adam brought our Summer Little Home to Pine.  The children helped her level the trailer, now to be known as our “Little Home.”

Our Little Home in the Mountains….

Isn’t this the way that all knights carry their swords?

 

We surprised Adam with a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

It was so very wonderful to have so much of our family together….to listen to them talk and laugh together, but most of all to feel all the love that filled our home and hearts.

My "Angel" 15 years later

15 years ago today, Vicky went to a dance on Whidbey Island..... because she loved to dance.  I happened to go to the same dance because I was testing out my newly-constructed foot.

I got to the dance, and looked out onto the dance floor.  There was this woman dancing who simply sparkled with life.

So I quickly put on my dance shoes, and when the dance was over ran out onto the floor.

My first words to her, as her back was to me, was "Can I have a dance?"

Her response was "SURE!"  "What is it?"

My response was "A waltz."

(how many people can remember the first conversation with their spouse, 15 years later?)

The dance actually was a waltz.  Sarah McLaughlin's singing of the song she wrote "Angel."  (Thank you Sarah.)

So, 15 years to the day, we danced to Angel, with me playing the piano.  We even duplicated that first conversation.

AND Vicky wore the same clothes she wore that night.  Before we formally met, I didn’t know her name, so I called her my "pink sweater lady." 

She literally swept me off of my feet, and nothing has changed about that in our 15 years. 

Here is our dance today to Angel:

The only difference in our dance today from 15 years ago, is the loving kiss in the middle of the dance that I gave to my love.

Dancing is something like many other skills.  You have to use it or lose it.  We have danced practically every week for 15 years, all over this fine country of ours...often outside of our camper when we were camping in dispersed areas (i.e., on lonely roads, not in campgrounds....out all by ourselves).  

Dancing together to beautiful music is part of our life, part of our love, part of us.

15 years ago we met.  It seems so long ago, and, at the same time, only yesterday.

We are taking the whole day to celebrate.  Actually, we will celebrate every day for the rest of our lives. 

Where did all of the fine actors go?

Would have a hard time even naming some current actors, other than Brad Pitt, who belong on this list of famous actors of the 1950s and 60s.  

 

Jimmy Stewart

Cary Grant

Gary Cooper

Gregory Peck

Sidney Poitier 

Randolph Scott

Kirk Douglas

Tony Curtis

William Holden

Ben Johnson

John Wayne

Charlton Heston

Lee Marvin

Paul Newman

Robert Redford

Spencer Tracy

Clark Gable

Montgomery Clift 

Karl Malden

Orson Wells 

Marlon Brando 

Humphrey Bogart

James Dean

Burt Lancaster

Jack Lemmon

Sean Connery

Gene Hackman

Robert Duval  

Home with little baby Gideon

Mila and Gideon spent the first night out of the hospital with us at Nuestra Casa….

Hannah, Vernon, and Robert talked to Gideon.  And they listened to Gideon’s sweet little squeaks snd mouse noises that he makes all day and night….except when he’s in a deep sleep.

Mama and child….

Owen drove Hannah, Vernon, and Robert down to the Pebble Beach Recreation Area on the Salt River, to meet up with us, and bring Mila and Gideon back home to their cabin in Pine. This scenic river park is in the Tonto National Forest just north of the Phoenix metropolitan area.  It’s on the route that we take to drive to Pine and has a great beach where the children can play and “swim,” so it’s a great place for us meet up.  

Owen was so very happy to see his beautiful wife and precious little son….and the children were so excited to see their new little, tiny brother!

Little did we know that Owen and the children had planned a party for Mama and little Gideon….with balloons for the children and Grandpa, cake made by Papa and Hannah, and flowers for Mama and Grandma!!!

Hannah wrote Gideon’s name on his birth celebration cake.

Papa and Hannah made up a cake recipe….a four or five layer cake with pancakes cooked in a pan, and decorated it with a maple and cinnamon flavored frosting.  We named it Gideon’s Birth Pancake Cake.  It was delicious!

This past week, culminating with Gideon’s family birthday party, is a memory that we will always cherish….the birth of our grandson and being included in all the joy this family shared as they reunited, and then headed back to their home in Pine.  This is what gives meaning to our lives.