July

We started out the month with 4th of July celebrations at the Veras house.  Kids never fail in their enthusiasm for fire, add in fireworks and they are even more excited. It just seemed so strange to not have Joshua here lighting them off for us.  But Josiah took over and did a great job too.

We celebrated the 90th birthday for my good friend Wally. His 3 kids and grand-daughter were all there along with some friends and family.

And the next day we all celebrated Mom and Dad's 66th anniversary.

Jessi invited me along on a little hike/fishing trip.

The trail and colors were gorgeous.

Wild huckleberries. We found a bush so loaded. The kids were not so keen on eating them, but we picked huge handfuls and I showed them how I used to pop them in my mouth all at once and squish them with my tongue against the roof of my mouth.  I felt like I was a kid again. Funny how a taste or smell brings back a memory.

It was a bonus to find some Indian Pipe mushrooms.

It has been so so GOOD to be so close to the kids.  We get to have them over for no reason at all.  And we have so much fun, painting, playing games, riding the little cars, baking cookies, and eating them too. They just learned about how I used to freeze balls of cookie dough for their parents, so now we have to have a bag of cookie balls in the freezer all the time.

While we were in New Mexico, I found some scorpion suckers.  Well, Daniel is crazy for chocolate covered crickets, so I figured they would like to try a scorpion. They thought it was fun to get them in the mail. I have not yet heard how they tasted.

We had our first sleepover since returning from our trip. Its pretty fun now that Mom can stop in for hugs right on her way home from work, before going home to catch a couple hours of post shift sleep.

Jessi's Phoenix parents stopped in for lunch. It was fun to see them on our turf and always so fun for Jessi to get to be with them again. Who would have thought that all these years later, they would get to know her kids too?

Along our fence-line is a huge row of wild blackberries.  We are filling up on them and so is the freezer.

I have the kids help me pick berries for a while when they come over. Lina was really interested in my little nail brush when we washed up afterwards. I usually keep it in a drawer, but this is how I found it when they left.  It just made me smile how she had tidied up.

A few years back, I took part in Project365.  Each day you load up a photo you took that day. People comment on it and you comment on other photos that they post. It is strange, but you get to know people from their photos and comments. I met Catherine there. She lives in Texas. After a few years of posting, we both gave it up, but ended up on Facebook. Well, she and her husband came to Portland to celebrate their anniversary and while they were here we met up. It was really nice to meet in person and now I am looking forward to meeting up with them this winter when we head that direction.

Everyone knows how much Josiah loves to fish.  Fishing has taken over as his #1 love, even more than garbage trucks and drums. He saved up his money and he and his Dad finally made it out on a deep sea fishing adventure.  He brought in 3 salmon!  A dream come true for him.  He called us to come and see them. As we drove up, there he was with his wagon and fish going around to show the neighbors.

While they were gone, we had a girls night with pedicures and manicures and dinner out.

Things are pretty much settled here at the new place. I love that I get to see the sunsets!

and the hummers are busy again at my feeder. With the usual 'guard' controlling who gets to feed. For the first time, I have seen three feed at one time at my feeder.  Normally it is one at a time. Maybe these three are a family? 

I planted a few flowers, but not too many because it really isn't my yard, but I planted enough to give some color and make it mine for the time I am here. One day, I pulled up what I thought was a weed and was so surprised to find a peanut! I am guessing that a squirrel or bird planted it and it managed to grow. I didn't even know that would happen with processed peanuts. I replanted it in a pot and it lived for the month. I don't know why it gave it up. It was doing great and then it wasn't. 

Things are all settled in, flowers are blooming, birds are feeding, grandkids are spending time with me. It is so good to be home, to be back to life somewhat as it was. As much as I loved my old place, this feels like home. I used to have a little wall hanging that said "HOME IS WHERE YOU HANG YOUR HEART"

I find that is so true. No matter where I am, it is what surrounds me that makes it HOME.

JUNE

did not go to plan, but that does not mean it was a bad thing. Sometimes our plans are just an idea of what we want to do and being flexible makes things a whole lot easier.

We left Sedona and headed to Page.  Cyndi and Dan were already in the area waiting to meet up with our parents. She contacted me to see if we wanted to meet up a few days earlier before Mom and Dad arrived.  We met them for an early dinner and then went to Lee's Ferry and sat by the river for a long time. We really enjoyed the time together.  They left to head for Vegas where they were meeting up with our parents for a few days before the 4 of them met up with us at Lake Powell.

The red rocks reflecting in the water was spectacular.

We stopped at the Navajo Bridge.  There is one for walkers and one for cars. Some condors with their young there.

Right by Lee's Ferry in the Marble Canyon is the Balanced Rocks. I had not read about them before we went, but it was sure a sight to see.  I am surprised there isn't more publicity about them, they are really impressive.

We spent the next few days on our own while we waited for Cyndi and Dan and Mom and Dad to show up. 

Grand Canyon was next on the list. Pictures do not do the place justice.

I loved the happy face in the clouds!

John spotted a dead snake in the road, he turned around so I could get a photo of it.  I was hoping it was a rattlesnake, but it wasn't.

There was an elk eating in the bushes when we parked the truck.

The Desert View Watch Tower 

The Indian reservations continued to be covid closed, which meant that my hopes to get to the Antelope Canyon was not going to happen on this trip.  John heard from a woman in our RV park that there was another slot canyon really close to us.  It is called Wire Pass. We headed out to check it out. It was a pretty drive full of painted rock cliffs.

I warned John that I read that it was an 8 mile unpaved road. Well, that did not prepare him for what was ahead of him.  It was unpaved and so bumpy. Most of the time you could not talk because of all the vibration.  We even spotted a muffler that somebody lost.

We finally made it and headed out on the short hike to the slot canyon.

I was not disappointed! 

The path was so narrow at some places you had to turn to get through, there was a rock pile that had a ladder to get down, then there were wide places, smooth places and really rocky places.

But it was full of awes and ohhhs.

I have searched online to figure out what those white things are in the canyon wall below.  Zoomed up it looks like it might be ribs, but if it really were a dinosaur, I think there would be something written about it. I will keep looking.

We wandered forever and finally made the decision that it was time to turn around.

There were petroglyphs

and it looked like a huge strip of bacon

and then that long bumpy 8 mile drive back to civilization.

Definitely worth it!!!

Horseshoe Bend.  We have been here before, but it is a place that you can return to and still be awed. 

We went for sunset photos.

 We didn't have to go very far to see the landscape.  This was right at our RV park.

They also had these cute little wagons that they rented out to campers. 

Everywhere we drove the landscape was full of color variations.

Temperature at Lake Powell was the hottest we had been since leaving Oregon. Water levels were super low. Cyndi had reserved us a boat tour. The first one cancelled, and then the second one cancelled.  When she called to let me know, I suggested that they find another place to spend their time and we cancel our get together there.  It was just going to get hotter and hotter and our trailer was not cooling down even at night with the air going nonstop.

Everyone agreed that was a good idea.  John and I had lunch and toasted 'to the party that didn't happen'.

We went back to our RV park and loaded up and hit the road.  We always start in the morning, but we wanted to get going and drive in the cooler part of the night because of tire pressure.

The landscape was beautiful as we headed north and west towards home.

We saw the moonrise and the sunset and sunrise.

Finally, we knew we had to stop for a rest. We pulled into a Love's truck stop. In all of our travels, we have not done that before.

It was super hot in the trailer with not power to run the cooler. The trucks next to us had their noisy generators running all night. I was sure we would not sleep, but we managed to get 4 hours in. And then back on the road it was!

HEADED HOME!!!

Finally made it to Oregon. No tire trouble from overheating.

It is always a welcome sight to hit the gorge.

It wasn't the plan, but it worked out so perfectly for us to see the grandkids. In fact, we made it in enough time that I drove them to the airport for their 3 week trip to the Dominican Republic!! It wasn't for very long, but I was happy to get in a bit of love before they left.

I don't know if I already mentioned it. We decided that buying a home right now is not going to happen. The market is just too crazy. Very few homes are on the market and the prices are ridiculous. And on top of that, you have to bid on the house and add on a few thousand in hopes of getting it.  John hated the apartment where we had our things stored. I did not want to LIVE in the trailer.  It was great for traveling, but not for living. So we decided to rent. I went online and found a really cute place.  It really stood out from the rest of the rentals. We sent Jessi to tour it via Facetime.  And out of a pile of applicants WE were chosen! Thank God! But believe it or not, even then we had to bid to win! 

Our new parking place!!!

The house is on a little land and even has a place to store our trailer. 

 

We dog sat while the kids were in the DR. Charlie loved his new 'friend'.

I missed Mother's Day, but was home in time for Father's Day.

We celebrated our 46th anniversary at Hood River.

Sunset and night shot from our balcony.

The next day we drove to find a lavender field, but it was too early.  But I found a great shot of Mt. Hood.

Here are my roses and one for the year ahead.

We had a heat wave come through. 109 degrees here. Roses don't like it hot.

They barely lasted a week.

It feels good to be settled in a home again.  I loved the travel. We are not done yet. I hope to continue with the rest of the south east states this coming January. But in the meantime, it is so good to have my stuff again, to feed the birds and grow some flowers. Those little lights are solar powered and are so pretty at night.

It is fun to have the grandkids stop in, we are back to doing nails, playing Barbies and sewing classes. Josiah is happy we have all those empty boxes to break down for the recycling.

The heat wave was worse than what we left behind at Lake Powell. John and Rachel came up a day sooner than planned to before their Costa Rica trip.  Salem hit 117 degrees!!!

The kids decided (with the help from their mother) to see if you can really fry an egg on the sidewalk. (the answer is no)

And now John and Rachel are off to Costa Rica for a month. It seems like somebody in this family is always on the move.