First month of life….

Papa holding his newborn son.

Robert Bayard baptized at six days old…..

Nothing cuter than a sleeping baby—especially our sleeping grand babies.  This little guy sleeps an awful lot.  Doesn’t he look contented and adorable?!!

While Robert sleeps, Vernon and Hannah are hard-riding cowboys on the rocking horse that we sent them!

Vernon shoots his “gun” from horseback.

Papa said that Vernon spent so much time riding on the first day he got his horse that he got a blister on his hand.  It makes us happy that he is enjoying his gift so very much. 

Robert continued to sleep soundly as his brother and sister galloped away on their horse.

He even sleeps while cradled in Hannah’s arms….

Little four-year-old Hannah is a born mother.

Robert was crying, so Hannah comforted him….and put him to sleep.

Hannah pretended to be asleep so her little brother, Vernon, would take a nap.

Hannah and Vernon giving each other hugs and kisses….

And then she has more hugs for little Robert….

There is a new little baby in the home, but luckily, Vernon has learning how to get dressed all by himself!

Robert awakens and looks at the world and his loving family.  He has such innocence, trust, and faith that he will be loved and cared for.  This is what every baby should feel and have.

Robert cuddled safely in his Mama’s arms….

Robert’s first smile on his one month birthday!

Happy one month old Birthday, Robert!

It looks like Robert is waving to us….

How time flies…this little grandson of ours is a month old.

In the blink of an eye, we are three quarters of a century old.  We are grandparents to fourteen grandchildren!  It seems like just yesterday that we were children ourselves. 

All of these fourteen grandchildren are ours to cherish and love for every moment of their lives.  And when we are gone, our hope and dream is that they will remember us….Grandma and Grandpa who loved them with all our hearts.

We have hiked 5000 miles….NOT

For the last thirteen years, my Danny has kept meticulous records of all our bike rides, dances, walks, and hikes.  He keeps this data on spread sheets that include the distance, elevation, and time spent on the activity.

Today while hiking the Pine-Strawberry Trail, Dan asked a man that we passed if he would take our picture.  There was a BIG surprise that my love was saving for me…. he announced that we had just passed our 5,000th mile hiking!

This was a really big deal for us.  We have taken a photo every time we have hiked a thousand miles. At 1000, 2000, 3000, and 4000 miles we have taken a photo indicating how many miles we have hiked.  

So today we took a photo of our achievement of hiking 5000 miles together!

Oops…it looks like we have hiked 0005 miles.  Oh well, in today’s age of iPhone photo technology, we can fix that.

5000 miles!

We were totally stoked….until we got home and Dan entered our new hiking miles into his database.  Looks like we still have 40+ miles to hike before we get to our 5000 miles.

Even though we didn’t pass the 5000 miles of hiking today, we did get to see some pretty spectacular things (besides seeing each other).

A Coues deer buck:

The biggest tarantula that either of us have ever seen:

A gorgeous sunrise:

We now have two new goals: 

Hike 5000 miles before the New Year of 2025.  And to take our photo correctly at the REAL 5000 mile marker! 

We can see for miles and miles

 Sun rising over the Mogollon Rim….

We hiked up and down along the edge of the Mogollon Rim.  The entire time we were treated to some of the most spectacular vistas that we’ve ever seen.  

We have camped and hiked in many of the most remote and beautiful areas of our amazing country.  But this area has its very own unique, wild beauty.

Our last night camping—setting on the Rim….

For the grand finale, we were treated to a brightly shining full moon….the perfect way to end our most perfect camping trip!

We were awakened as the sun rose by a great horned owl serenading us from the top of a pine tree….50 feet from our little camper.

This wilderness campsite with all of its splendor, abundant hiking, and a “dance floor” on the edge of the world, is only 21 miles from our mountain cabin!

Dancing on the edge of the Mogollon Rim….

 …..amidst the mountain wildflowers.

There is nothing more romantic and loving than holding each other and moving together to the most beautiful music….in the middle of nature!

It was beautiful, even though the surface we were dancing on was rough.  And we mean ROUGH.  It slanted, and was rocky.  Here are some close-ups of it.

We'd like to see Ginger Rogers, Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, or Gene Kelly try to dance like Danny and Vicky could dance on this!  We had to alter many of our patterns because of the surface, but so what?  This is what we have done as we have danced in nature all over our wonderful country. 

My love and I were all by ourselves, except for a sweet little hummingbird nestled in the pine tree overhead watching us….

Lovers forever….