CA dreamin'

Flight out
View of San Francisco

Curly locks

Katie after

Katie before

Our new digs...for now

This is titled California dreamin cause we were dreamin of escaping the dismal Texas weather. Instead we got cold (50 deg) rainy weather except for a day and a half of sunshine. A couple of days it actually rained all day! We had hoped to play outside with the grandkids, do a little touring, etc. but the weather and our health finally won. In spite of these, we had a good time and enjoyed playing with Jack (2 1/2) and Katie (13mos.), and visiting with son Matt and daughter-in-law Beth.

Things got off to a rocky start when we arrived in San Francisco and had to take the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) train to Pleanant Hill and walk the mile or so to the condo dragging our luggage. It was one of those rare days when Matt and Beth both had to work. We didn't know how to find a taxi so we hoofed it. The weather was overcast and damp, but in the 60's so not too bad. We stopped just up the street at the Black Bear for supper, then went on. During the next few days we stayed with Katie while Matt and Beth took Jack to look at a preschool. We played with both kids while Beth worked and Matt went to donate plasma. We all went to watch Katie get her first haircut and Jack got more of his red curls trimmed and thinned. On one night the babysitter came. We adults went to a very nice restaurant for dinner--including dessert. Then we went to see Avatar in 3D. Great fun! It really lived up to the hype. It was kinda predictable, but definitely not boring. On another day I wanted to go to Berkley to see if we could find my nephew David whom I hadn't seen in years so Matt and Beth reserved space in the daycare on Monday. Unfortunately, disaster struck. Duane and I came down with terrible colds. We coughed and blew our noses through the rest of our stay. Duane slept a lot and I had trouble breathing. When Monday came, Matt was sick too. So instead of touring, we stayed home (it rained all day anyway). Matt and Duane spent time in their respective beds. Beth and I watched a movie called District 9. Pretty good actually. Get the dvd and see what you think. The rest of the day we sat around watching Family Feud (really feeling yucky) and chatting. We did have a nice dinner of roast chicken with rice stuffing (Matt likes to cook and is always trying new dishes.) The children were gone from 11 to 7 (or so) and we did a lot of nothing. We left Tuesday. Matt was going to drive us to the airport, but was still sick. We didn't want Beth driving in the pouring rain in backed up traffic either, so we took the BART to the airport. At least we didn't have to walk to the station this time! In spite of our woes, we still had a good time. Most of the time we felt ok. We just went through a lot of tissues. Today (Wed.) we decided to do some more sitting around. We did our things. This means Duane computered and watched tv. I read and watched tv. The one different thing is that I have to cook now. O well. Can't be on vacation all the time!

Enough for now!

Louise and Duane

COLD !!!!!!!!!!

This is NOT a good year to be in Dallas, TX. IT'S COLD HERE!! The temperature on the outside of the coach is 18 this morning. This has been the coldest it has been in 14 years. We have the slides on the motorhome closed so we don't have as much area to heat. We used 16 gallons of propane the first week we were here. Normally 16 gals will last 3 months. Next year I think we will spend Jan. where it's warmer, if we can find such a place...lol

So... why are we here? Kids and grandbabies!! We will have Christmas with all the TX. kids tomorrow. Monday we get on a plane to fly to CA. to visit the kids and grandbabies there. We have had a great time visiting the big kids and playing with the little people. The babies are the cutest in the world. Their mother entered them in the Regis and Kelly baby contest, if they don't win I'll quit watching that show...LOL The Kilgore and Temple kids will arrive today for Christmas tomorrow. It will be great to have half of the kids in one place. This does not happen to often because of their working and our travels. Maybe some day we can get all six kids and nine grandkids together in one place again, hope so. They live in CA., TX., and OH., which makes it really hard work out . Of coarse it don't help that we are on the move a lot. We do workcamp some which ties us up. Quite a job to get everyone at once.

Till next time

Duane and Louise

Double fun

Gramps and the girls

Who's who?

Big Girls

Hey everybody, we have been here in Celina since Wednesday visiting son Duane Jr., daughter-in-law Brandey, and of course Emma and Ava. Our house is parked in their driveway for the time being, so we are having fun being close to the family and visiting them every day. The girls are really cute and at that fun age when they recognize faces and can sit up and grab things. They are getting ready to crawl also. They still look a lot alike. We can only tell them apart when they are close together, or by looking at their different color earrings. In the top pic, Ava is on the left and Emma on the right. In the other two, they are switched. They have been practicing sitting up alone, so they got new high chairs on Saturday. They looked pleased, don't they! They are really cute and smile most of the time.

Since we were working on Christmas Day, we missed visiting our Texas kids. We will be making up for that on this coming Saturday. We will be celebrating Christmas then and are looking forward to seeing them again. If you are lucky, or --more likely-- if Duane gets motivated, you will be treated to pix from our party. Until then, you'll have to make do with the ones above.

Basta!

Louise and Duane