Winter Activities at Roadhaven

 ***   Catching up old blogs since we haven't done any in a year.   ***

We had a lot going on this winter.  There were three grandchildren baptisms: Spencer, Leon, and Hannah.  We also had more visitors to Roadhaven and problems with COVID restrictions.  We also try to visit my dad and Jacquelyn's mom as much as possible.  On a daily basis we play pickleball, golf, workout at the fitness center, do line dancing, and go on hikes in the desert hills and mountains.

The kids heard I was wanting to buy and plant a cactus.  Tianna organized them and they got me a cactus for my birthday.  I had fun shipping for one and then buying and planting in.  I got a Mexican Giant Cardon, also known as a False Saguaro or Mexican Saguaro.  They are a little bluer than normal Saguaro and grow faster and get arms quicker.  This one I bought is about 5 years old.  I planted it here at the side of the driveway.  Thank you everyone for the cool cactus.

Homer and Connie Rogers visited us one day.  They are good friends from our Mission in the Philippines.  They were in the same mission and had the Bustos Branch while we had the San Ildefonso Branch.  We got to know them quite well in the Philippines.  They live in Arizona and we get together once in a while when they are in the Phoenix area.  Homer and I played a game of golf.

Jacquelyn and I got our COVID vaccines at the first opportunity for our age group.  It was really hard to get an appointment and took me about 5 hours to get us scheduled.  We finally got in at the Cardinals Football Stadium parking lot.

We got our first shot on February 1st and the second one on February 23rd.  We also took my dad with us and he got his first on February 23rd and second on March 17th.  We didn't have any side effects and 

I got a call from the Red Cross and got a deployment down to the Mexican border in Texas to help with the immigrant crises.  So I went down to Dallas for two weeks where we set up a shelter.  Jacquelyn was all by herself for two weeks.  The entire first day at the Shelter was spent in setting up cots at the Dallas Convention Center.  Then the clients started arriving.  All unaccompanied minors, teenage boys from Guatemala, Honduras, and Costa Rica.

No pictures of the boys for privacy reasons but these were the beds we set up for them on cots.  I worked the night shift.  We in-processed the boys and the Red Cross had responsibility for feeding and monitoring and helping with problems. 

The first night we took in 200 boys for a soft opening then gradually built up to about 2,300 boys all in this one giant convention room.  It was almost wall to wall cots.

They boys were all very polite and well behaved and cooperative.  They were happy to be there after having finally made it to America after a very danger trek across Mexico.  I was glad I as about to be of assistance.

I'm doing the baptisms on a separate blog.  The only one we got to attend in person, because of COVID, was Hannah's.  And it was close to Easter.  We got to see Nathanael's and Joshua's and Tianna's families.  It was great.  Nathanael put together a big Easter Egg Hunt at his house where we were all staying.

They have a huge backyard and it was a lot of fun.

We also went on a hike up in the hills near his home.  The trees were barren without many leaves yet.

We also had some visitors, but no pictures since I left my camera at the hotel in Dallas.  Talitha was out and also Tianna several times with James and Ashton since she has her own place at Roadhaven, and it was really nice to have Amery and Josiah come for a visit.    What a blessing to have grandchildren grown up and married now and coming to visit.  Josiah is really really good at pickleball.  We had fun playing and showing them around Roadhaven.  Also Nathanael and his family came out for another visit.  they seem to love going swimming, especially since it's so cold back home.  We love them all.

Talitha and David are building a house nearby in Maricopa.  We went down and got some pictures to show her the progress.  This is the foundation and one wall.  In the background you can see the lake.  Their backyard will be lake front.  It's going to be nice.

My Dad was with us went we went to check out the house.

Here's a different view up towards the front.  You can see our Jeep parked at the street.