Some Vacation Time!

Once again, just catching up... I'm enjoying 3 weeks of vacation right now, will go back to work the first week of August then have one more week off. During that week we're flying Madeline and Abigail out for a week of "Camp Grandma (& Grandpa!)." We leave soon for Colorado, where we'll go to Estes Park for a little retreat with Erin and Jim. We'll also get to see where they'll be living for the next year, and will actually arrive there before they do, since Jim is flying back to get Erin and Garrett and drive them north. Whew!

Chris and Gretchen were here overnight on Saturday night. She was working at the shop on Saturday, then on Sunday he took them to John Wayne airport to fly to Dallas for a little family time with Erin and Heidi. The flight was cancelled due to weather, so he brought them back and they spent Sunday night as well, and David took them down Monday morning for a successful flight. Chris may be able to head out to Dallas in a week if a good ticket turns up and if work permits.

Luanne and Ed left to wend their way back to the Philippines, so the day before they left, she and I hung out and did some shopping. They needed a new suitcase and I was looking  for some things, then lunch at El Pollo Loco was good. I hate to say good-bye to my sister! It was just so nice to have them here, even though we didn't do as much together as we might have liked to.  

It seems I often need "guinea pigs" to help test and eat foods for the magazines, and last week Anni and Natalie Wiens, along with Rudi's sister who is visiting with her family, came over for lunch. We had Italian sausage, cheese and spinach wrapped in lettuce leaves, topped with marinara sauce, bacon wrapped dates and pineapple chunks with a pineapple based sweet and sour sauce and dried fruit cookies.  It was just a lovely time and I'm so glad they could fit the visit into their busy schedule!

On Saturday night, when the Jensens were here, we had a tailgate party in our driveway, another meal for the magazine. The flavors went so well together... a hot onion cheese dip with veggies and plain pork rinds to dip (and tortilla chips for the non-SCD people), pork chili verde, grilled chicken skewers with avocado sauce, little fruit skewers, fruity cole slaw and a carrot/radish salad. More fruit cookies for dessert, along with roasted cinnamon pecan halves. Yum.

Now here's something you don't see very often... the original family of the five of us, just sitting around the dinner table. We had a nice barbeque at mom and dad's for the 4th of July and just kicked back and did what we like to do best... talk.

Anders turned 3 at the end of June and they had a nice party at Travel Town, which is at Griffith Park. Mom and Dad rode with us and Gretchen had reserved a nice area under lots of trees. Anders had a great time with his friends and all the trains!

David and I sold our trailer but we still want to make sure we have plenty of fun. We had scheduled a weekend at Bolsa Chica, but with no trailer we decided we still wanted to do something. David went onto Priceline and found a very nice Holiday Inn Express at Cardiff-By-The-Sea for $79, and we headed down for just one night. We took our bikes and rode on a nice trail, visited the Lodge at Torrey Pines for lunch and a little putting practice, and just felt like we had a really perfect get-away!

A few weeks ago David went to Yosemite without me... I had to work and he was joining Tom and Mary C. He loved it, and it got him in the right frame of mind for our big drive to CO. We have new tenants moving in later this week, so this morning I was over there doing some touch-up painting, etc. Plans are under way to redo our backyard, and we're getting bids, so that will probably happen in August, after Camp Grandma, and we look forward to enjoying our yard even more. Yesterday I drove sister Gretchen to the House Ear Clinic to have the first appointment with her new cochlear implant, and it was fun to be there with her for it. Afterwards we went to Phillippe's for lunch and split a turkey sandwich. I like to come home on Beverly and it's interesting to see how they're putting a train right down the middle of Beverly and it's almost finished! I think it veers off to El Monte or somewhere, but it goes right into downtown, to or near the train station.

Well, that about catches us up... I hope you're enjoying your summer. Stay cool!