Visiting Mom and Dad in Arizona

I got to spend a few days down in Mesa visiting with Mom and Dad.  The weather was beautiful every day and we had a great time.

 This is the front entrance to their house in Mesa, Arizona.

Here's Dad in front of one of their trees in the front yard.  Is it still called a yard when you have rocks in place of grass?

 Here's Mom by the front gate.

This is a side view of the house.  The oranges were still green but getting plump, and you can see the giant 20-30 foot cactus in their yard.

 Driveway and car.

 Picture of their house from the corner.

 They live in Leisure World which is a retirement community.

The clock tower.

 Lots of beautiful streams and ponds and water fountains.

 The central courtyard.

 Two 18 holes golf courses which makes for lots of beautiful walking paths.

It's so much fun just walking around it's so beautiful.

Shuffleboard courts.  They also have tennis courts and a large gym and they're putting in several pickleball courts, which is the new rage among the retirement community.

 Another beautiful walking paths, this one along the way from their house to the recreation center.

 A favorite of mine, one of the two jacuzzis.

 Rec. Center #1 swimming pool.

We went out to dinner twice, the first time to China City, a buffet just outside the South Entrance.  Tons and tons of good food.  I ate so much shrimp it was unbelievable.

The second time out to Texas Roadhouse.  Good steak char-grilled to perfection and a fun western atmosphere.

We did do some work.  Once a year the palm trees have to be trimmed.  Dad let me help him with one of them but he wanted to save the others for later.  He's always liked working in the yard.  We've only got about 6 limbs trimmed off so far.

 Here's all the damage.

 The finished product, a neatly trimmed palm.

 It was Halloween and some people decorate, desert style.

You wouldn't think pumpkins and cactus would mix, but they look good here.

 We got to go on some fun walks all around.

 I couldn't resist photographing some of the wildlife.  This is a heron.

 Another type of heron and some other squat birds watching for fish.

Just some plain old mallard ducks, but it's always impressed me the way they pair up and stick together as couples.  I've heard ducks will sometimes stay together for life.  How do they keep track of each other and not get lost from each other?

 A third type of heron.

 The heron in flight, not an easy picture to get.

 Quail all over the place.

The famous leisure world vultures.  For some reason they seem to like it here too.  They're always watching.

 I must of taken 100 pictures trying to get one in flight.

On the last day there it was sunny and beautiful as always so we decided to go to the swimming pool.

This is Rec. Center #2 swimming pool.  Dad and I went in the hot tub while mom enjoyed a good book.

It was a great trip to Arizona.  Mom and Dad are doing good and we had a lot of fun together.

Cider Mash and Corn Maze

On Saturday we went out for some October fun with Malachi, Layne, Andrew and Mallory

First we went to a cider mash at Meeker Mansion.  We had free tickets from Brother Dawson and so we got to make two giant buckets of apples into cider.

 Malachi and Andrew and I were operating this cider mash.  The girls were doing the other one.

 We got two full gallons of cider.

 There were also some games and displays of crafts and we got to take a tour of Meeker Mansion.

Mallory wanted to meet the Princesses - here she is with two of the high school Daffodil Princesses.

 Then we went out to one of the farms with harvest activities.  It was raining on us at times but Andrew was prepared.

 The highlight was the corn maze.  The corn was humongous, really really tall and thick.

 It must look extremely tall and scary when you're a small person.

We found all the check points and had a lot of fun.

Halloween Table Runner

Jacquelyn and some friends (Sue and Julie) got together today and made these nifty Halloween table runners.  They turned out really great.  I love the colors.  Jacaqueyln said there was a lot of detailed sewing involved going around each decoration.



 Fits out kitchen table just right.

 And if you turn it over you have a Christmas runner.

Go to the link on your right that Doranda put on the blog for us.  She makes lots of crafts and clothes and gives tutorials on how to make them.  Or add this link to your website - http://watchoutforthewoestmans.blogspot.com/

Andrew's birthday

Andrew had his birthday party this last Saturday.  He is six years old and he had a huge party.

Layne and Malachi rented a covered picnic area at Bradley Lake Park and one of the ball fields.

There was tons of food and after everyone ate we played baseball.  Here is an interesting picture with Andrew playing first base and Tucker on the base after batting.

Now we have the reverse with Tucker playing first base and Andrew on the base after hitting.

Mallory got to bat too and has a nice swing.

She didn't take being out in the field as serious though.  Here she was playing third base.  Watch out Mallory the ball might come your way.

Then it was time for presents.

There was a great turn out at the party and Andrew got lots of presents.

I think he had a great time.  He certainly did seem happy.

Happy Birthday Andrew, we love you.