We started April off with a 90th birthday party for Jimmy on the 1st.  He loves to tell everyone that he is an April Fool.

Since we were still living in our trailer waiting out the COVID to travel again, we had a little party for him at my parent's place. It also marked the first time the great grandkids had seen Great-grandma and Great-grandpa since they had to stop giving out hugs.  I don't know who missed the hugs more, but it pretty much looked like it was Grandma when everyone unloaded from their car.

4 generations of daughters

The next morning, we loaded up and headed south! 

 First stop was Rome, Oregon.  I wanted to see the Pillars of Rome.

They had a unique greenish tint to them.

It was so great, right there in our parking spot for the night, I spotted a pair of owls!  They even had a huge nest!

The next morning, we hooked up.  Well, we tried to hook up.  Somehow in the hooking part, the hitch slid sideways and the whole trailer went sideways.  In the process, the post bent.  It bent so much that it would not crank up into the post so we could go.  We had to dig a hole and put in boards in order to jack the post up.  It was pretty nerve wracking to me, but sure enough it all went together to get us back on the road. 

Before I could forget about the events of the morning, we had our first flat tire on the trailer. Right before an exit even. It was perfect timing for us to just pull off the hwy.  And would you believe it?  Directly in front of us was a tire repair shop!  We had to wait a little while, but it was worth the wait to fix the tire and get back on the road.

The cause of the flat was a huge bolt. I am more than sure that it happened at the campground the night before.  The parking spot for the trailer was not a very tidy space. But at least I saw some owls, right?

We ended the day in Tonopah, Nevada and enjoyed a beautiful sunset.

The next day, we arrived to Carly's place in Lake Havasu City. We planned to park the trailer at her RV park while we spent a couple of weeks with Dennis' family in California. There was not a place to park it at his place, so it just worked out great to leave it there right next to her trailer.  While we were gone, we had it set up to have a guy come in and replace the hitch for us.

Carly has all kinds of critters that visit her regularly.  She feeds them and puts water out for them.

Just south of Lake Havasu, my best friend from high school, Terri Anderson, now Cavanaugh, has a winter home in Bouse, Arizona.  They have invited us to visit them for years, but it just never worked out.  This time, we had plenty of time, so we met up.  What a nice place to spend the winter!  Tom made us lunch and we had a great time catching up.  Of course, they live right here in Sandy, but life keeps us from getting together as much as we would like.  Maybe now we will see each other more often.

We had such a excellent time with Dennis, Abby, Gabe and Daniel.  We spent two weeks there.  I hope they had as much fun as we did!

I showed the boys how to sew on a sewing machine. They took right to it! We started off on paper, then moved to fabric and made small pillows. Next trip, we will make something even better. They are ready to move on from a pillow.

Tie dye was a hit too!

Daniel decided that I needed to learn how to play his video game with him. I have never been good at that.  But he was so patient with my goof-ups. I was so surprised with his words of encouragement and praise as he did his best to teach me.  The first day, he handed me the controller and told me to carry it around all day to 'get a feel for it'. It cracked me up. I never did get a feel for it, as after a couple of days, he did get tired of taking the controller from me and showing me how to get my character back out of the water or whatever.  But it was fun watching him try to teach me how to play. 

Gabe was the winner at mini golf and we had some really nice dinners out with everyone. Eating out is great, but Dennis and Abby are such good cooks, we love eating at their place best of all.

 One morning, Dennis took me on a morning walk.  It was really nice to spend time alone with him.

One night, Daniel decided he wanted to look at his Korean memory book that his foster mother made for him. He was so into it and it made me smile to watch his face as memories came back to him.

We went on a hike to a lake and a few of them swam.

Since I was not there for each of the boy's birthdays, they had saved their money and we went birthday shopping and out for lunch. They had it all figured out where they wanted to go. Would you believe it was a craft store?  They both went wild with their decisions, but each of them saved a little to stop off at Target when we were done with lunch. It is so fun watching their minds decide and narrow it down and figure out the best value for their money. I had already sent Gabe a cookbook on his birthday and he had a brownie recipe marked for us to make together. And of course we ate it up together too! 

Gabe loves acting and singing. He leads kids worship at his church and gets roles in the church musicals. Recently he tried out for a local acting group and has done a couple of zoom show presentations (covid). While we were there, he had to stop what he was doing and go upstairs to his online rehearsal. I bought a ticket and watched him act online a few weeks after we left.

While we were there, I had MY birthday. Dennis and Abby took us to a really nice place for dinner on the patio. It had a great view and great food.

This is what happens when you ask your grandson to take your photo.  Daniel never fails to make us laugh.

The two weeks flew by!  We gave out hugs and headed back to Lake Havasu to see how the trailer hitch repairs were going.

The middle of April, Josh began the final step to becoming a Marine. The Crucible. 

Of course we knew he would do it and do it well, but still, it was my grandson and just thinking about what he would be going through mentally and physically, really choked me up. I was so glad to hear that he truly had succeeded and was officially a Marine. Two weeks later, John and Rachel were given the blessing of being the second group to be able to attend their child's graduation since being closed to public because of COVID a year earlier.

Below is a screen shot of his Fox team final run around Camp Pendleton. I was on a Facebook Fox Company page during his bootcamp training. Every time there were photos posted, we scanned every one looking for a glimpse of him.  Finally! We had one! We had one way early in his training, too, but this one was a long time coming. He is in the back row on the left.

Marines were told that they would have two tickets for whomever they chose to attend. What a tough thing to do! He chose his parents. His girlfriend, Alexis knew that was the right thing to do.

That is him at his graduation, outside row, 3 tan shirts back.

Afterwards, they did a Facetime call so we could cheer him on!

Well, when we returned to Lake Havasu, our hitch was not going to be done for another week. We went to Topock for lunch one day.  The boats were out and it was a party on the water. Huge boats and so many of them. Looking around, it was so insane to me that there were so many people crowded together and nobody was wearing a mask. Arizona had been hit hard. Why didn't these people believe in doing their all to try to stop it? Even if masks don't help, how can it hurt?

There isn't a whole lot to do in Lake Havasu without a boat, so we took drives and had lunches out.

Pirate's Den was a really good spot. Great view and good food.

We also walked along the waterfront, saw the London Bridge and took a ferry across the lake to a casino for lunch. The London Bridge was bought from London. Each piece was labeled as they tore it down and it was built again exactly as it was.

Finally, our hitch was fixed and we were off to Phoenix, a week late to meet up with the Kleckas. When Jessi left for college, she was blessed with a roommate called Julie. She became the sister Jessi always wished she had, only better, her very best friend. The two of them are still friends. Julie's parents became her second parents. They were just what a Mom wants for her child when they leave home. They took her him for holidays and family gatherings when Jessi could not get home. They took her on vacations with them to their cabin. Dan even did her taxes for her. We met up with them for a nice home cooked meal and an evening of conversation. They recently bought an RV and it was fun comparing notes. Julie joined us for dinner. She is a kick and we always love having her around. 

They also have something we don't have in Oregon. Citrus of every kind growing right in their own yard. They gave me a huge lemon. I turned it into a lemon drop. mmmmm! best one I have ever made.

I asked them their top choice of places to see in Phoenix. They suggested the Boyce Thompson Arboretum. What a good choice that was. I expected a little garden walk.  Nope, this was a hike through natural and planted cactus and other natural plants of Arizona. It was so good! Definitely glad we took them up on their suggestion. 

The cacti were in bloom and that was an extra bonus.

We even saw a cardinal.

Bird nests everywhere. top left was the tiniest humming bird nest ever.

I secretly wanted to see a rattlesnake in the wild. From a distance.

The sky on our drive home.

Ahhh...yes, it was so nice to back on the road again.