Christmas Day - 2010 at Jesse's and Heller's - Look at all the Happy People!

Santa's elves got busy and met us over at Oma's house for Christmas Morning by 7:30am. We opened gifts and shared in the delight of Bryan & Kristi's children as they found what Santa brought them. Santa did some early bird gifting at the Durochers so we didn't have to travel with as much. The photos will tell the story well, but as a starter we met at Jesses for the traditional Christmas breakfast of Scrapple, Muffins & Egg caserole. It was all delightful and we exchanged sibling gifts...those that were there anyway. We next headed out to brother Dean's new ranch that is south and east of Gardnerville. It's a great place and I can sure see why they love it out there. The traditional Christmas dinner was magnificent! Great job D & L and family for providing such a fabulous meal. Nick's truck is equipt with a GPS and we were glad to use it to find our way in and out of Smith Valley, Nevada to get back to Carson City. What a great Christmas day it was with food and family chatter.

Sunday we got ready for Church and met at Mom's ward at 11am. It was a nice service and we left to meet at Jesses for a noonday meal and the Durochers headed out of town. Many thanks to the Carson families for a place to stay and such hospitality at your homes.

It was indeed a Merry Christmas!

Arizona here we come! Thanksgiving 2010 Part 2

Another great day spent with the Lloyds. We spent the day touring the National Park called the Chirichaua National Monument. The area of Arizona the Lloyds live in is a mile from New Mexico and about 50 miles north of Mexico. The rangeland reminded me of central Nevada with wide valleys and mountain ranges between. Lloyds live near the base of the Chirichaua's which hosts the stories of Geronimo and Tombstone, AZ. The mountain tour was facinating with volcanic ash creating pillars known as the 'pipe organs' that look like tootsie rolls stacked on top of each other. One photo has what looks like a pencil balancing on top of a flat rock. Natural phenominon for sure! One photo shown has the mountain siloette of an Indian chief with his prominate nose and chin at rest. After leaving the National Park, we ate at a mexican restaurant that was delish and they sang to Morgan for his eminate birthday. The Lloyds are sure fun at making memorable photos! After taking Morgans picture with the Sombrero, the photo was stapled to the wall of the restaurant. In the photo is Morgan, Lauren, Tate, Shaelyn and Jerrica. We had a great time!

Arizona here we come! Thanksgiving 2010 Part 1

So much to see...so little time. The day started with visiting a local museum featuring the local slithering fellows, including snakes, turtles and lizards. The Lloyds are fun to take pictures with as a Goof Off picture always follows a poser picture. We a carried on to Mexico after the museum and found a local flee market to experience the mexican commerce. Interesting to say the least. Needless to say, we were all relieved to be back on American soil and the transition from Country to Country was absolute. We did buy some antibiotics as you can buy it over the counter there. The local flour tortilla was also a hit as the flavor is 10 times better than the packaged stuff in America. A short drive from Douglas, AZ (border town) brought us to Bisbee, AZ which has a copper mine pit nearby. Bisbee is just like Virginia City, Nevada, or Park City, Utah in the street front stores and local hippee population. It was a great part of the day to enjoy the shops and even watched the cities official Christmas light festival. It was unseasonably cold there in AZ and had to buy a sweater and Layne a poncho.

We left on Monday after I got off work and drove as far as Kanab, Utah and stayed the night there. We left early enough to make it to Pheonix in time for a visit with my neice Hilary as it was her lunch hour. Me met at a great Mexican place called American Taco Shop! Thanks for a great visit Hilary!