A Day at DeAnn's

 

We arrived in Lynden about 2:00 on Saturday afternoon and surprised everyone, except DeAnn.  It was great fun because they all came home at separate times so we had four surprises.  Dad helped John tear up the basement carpet on Saturday afternoon.  Sunday was a wonderful day with Holly which is another blog and then Monday Dad started taking the basement sofa apart.  After they remodeled the basement here, the couch would no longer come up in one piece.  Dad spent all afternoon taking it completely apart.  In the evening, the two guys brought up the loveseat.  The downstairs really echoes now with no carpet and no furniture.

 

 This is the remainder of the couch this morning after the garbage man left.

 After breakfast at Dutch Mother's (which was wonderful!!!!!), Dad and DeAnn went to get a friend's truck so we could take the loveseat and what was left of the couch/sofa to the dump.  It was a great adventure.  At the dump, they weigh your garbage - we had 240 pounds.

 After returning from the dump, DeAnn mowed the grass - yes the grass!!  They have none of that white stuff to move - just beautiful green grass that smells so good when it's being mowed.

 The following are pictures of DeAnn and John's yard and their flowers.  Spring is such a nice time to be in the northwest.

 

I had a lot more pictures of the yard but somehow they disappeared - perhaps I'll put them in tomorrow.  After all the hard work of the day, we went for ice cream when the kids got home from school.  We met Aunt Sally on the way so she had treats with us.

I've never been able to put a video on my blog so I'm not sure if this is going to work or not but we'll try it.  It's our Katie performing her "Plant Song".

 

It's been a wonderful day with the Washington kids and grandkids.  We always have a good time here.  Plans now are to leave on Thursday morning, stop in Sturgis for one night and possibly arrive in the Sioux Falls area on Monday.  I have another grandson that I am most anxious to see.

Happy day to all.
Love,
Gramma and MOM

Good Friends

I rather liked this picture of Marv and Dad.  Marv said he couldn't turn around any further and I didn't want to push my luck in repositioning Dad.  We took these on our ride last weekend.

Good friends on top of A Mountain with the city of Tucson in the background

Blooming Ocotillo - they are so pretty.

 A Saguaro Forest

An Interesting Saguaro Cactus

Some of our friends here at the park had told us about this large saguaro that had many, many arms soooooooooooooooo the other day, Dad, Marv and I took a ride to find it.  It was almost freaky.  It does indeed have lots of arms.  We showed it to Will and Linda the other night when they were here and they had not seen it before.

 

So, if any of you come to visit, we'll take you to see this "one of a kind cactus" here in Tucson.

 

 This is looking from the bottom up - interesting, isn't it?

 You can see how tall it is with me standing beside it.

I've started some packing today and some cleaning of rugs and things in preparation for leaving next Monday - IF the weather is good in South Dakota.  We heard the rumor that they're supposed to be getting more snow this week - I do NOT want to see snow, just green grass and pleasant temps.

I had more pictures I wanted to show you but with only 1 or 2 bars on my wi-fi hookup, this is the best I could do.

Have a wonderful, terrifically good week!!
Love to all,
Gramma and MOM

Marv's Steps are DONE!!

 

Marv's steps are finished, painted and ready for Judy to do her decorating.  My before and after pictures got a bit mixed up but you'll be able to see which is which.

 

 

I think they turned out great, even after a tough start.  A big improvement over the old ones.  Should have done it years ago.

I thought Dad was finished with projects for the year or so he told me, but I forgot the little wagon that's up front in the rocks needed to be stained and varnished.  I've been putting it off because I don't like doing putzy stuff like that.  Well, dad did the staining today and hopefully we'll do the varnishing tomorrow and that will be finished.

 

Unfortunately now we have to start thinking of packing and going through cupboards and all that stuff.  Oh well, it had to happen sometime.

 

That's it for today.  Some very special people are coming to dinner tonight so want to take a little nap first.  It's going to be very simple and easy.

 

Have a super weekend.

Love to all,

Gramma and MOM



The Shed is Finished!!

This is the view across the street from us now.  They have been trying to evict the lady who lived across the street since last summer.  She moved her trailer out last Friday.  It was an exciting day!!!  Maybe now we'll get a new trailer in and new neighbors.  They took everything but the brick steps.

 The roof before:

 The roof after - I know it looks a little warped but the tin is old.  At least it's no longer a rust color.  Looks much better from a distance.

 The front before

 The front after - what do you think of dad's orange doors.  That's the color he choose.  Actually they look much better than I thought they would.

 The side before

 The side after - once again this isn't a real good picture but a huge improvement.

I wanted to get a picture of Marv's new steps all painted and finished but didn't get there today.  They look awesome but then what do you expect with two master carpenters!!

Today we went to look at a cactus that has many, many arms and nodules on it - it was kinda freaky and then we went through Saguaro Nat'l Park where they have forests of cactus - beautiful.  Up through Gates Pass and to "A" Mountain.  Beautiful drive.  Even brought a picnic lunch.  Have to download my pictures from today yet.

Amy, Kurt and Chase, stay warm and keep off the ice!!!

Plans are to leave Arizona on the 22nd, IF the weather in South Dakota improves.  More on that later.

Have a great Friday
Love to you all,
Gramma and MOM