Shuffleboard Tournament

Today was the beginning of the annual shuffleboard tournament. Dad has been practicing for a while but hasn't been able to the last couple of days. Here he is in the maroon pants practicing against Lyle. Holly, you remember Lyle, don't you!! I told him it was your birthday a couple days before and he remembered and told me to be sure to wish you a Happy Birthday from him last Tuesday. Then he asked me the next day if I had remembered. He thinks you are VERY special and of course, I had to agree with him.

The big tournament:

Dad and his partner, Lynne, won their first game but I wasn't able to take pictures because I was a score keeper. He did awesome!!!! This is the scoreboard from the second game - they only lost by 5 points. Lynne shot a puck into the -10 spot with only one puck left. She could either try to knock the -10 out or try to score but couldn't do both. So she knocked out the -10. VERY good game.

Dad in action:

He was playing against our good friend, Gayl.

Well, that's it for today. We have games at 6:00 tonight and finals tomorrow morning. Time to eat so have to sign off. Have a super, duper wonderful week!!!

Love you!!!

Gramma and MOM

Washington in February

Look at this little cutie - isn't she the sweetest 3-year old around? Can you believe I only took a couple of pictures when we were in Washington - I didn't even get a picture of our "STAR".

We went for breakfast almost every morning with this lovely young lady. When DeAnn and I went to this cute little new boutique in Lynden, I had her try this hat on. I thought it looked so cute on her but she wouldn't buy it so I did. Happy 41st Birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I did, however, take some pictures from the plane. The pilot said we would be flying directly over Mount Rainer, which I have only seen from the plane. It seems to be clouded over a lot when we've been in Seattle. The pilot also said that off to the right was Mt. St. Helens. You can see very clearly where the volcano blew - it was off to the side. I had always thought it blew from the top but that is not the case.

These are Mt. St. Helens:

This is Mount Rainer - tallest mountain in Washington. Very majestic!!!

DeAnn says she can see beauty in all types of locales, such as the prairies of the Midwest; the mountains of the West and the oceans and rivers. However, she has tried to tell me there is no beauty in the desert - well, she's WRONG!!!! These pictures were taken from the car window so they are a very poor representation of the beauty of the desert. I love driving through on our way to or from Mesa. In a few weeks, there will be lots of wildflowers blooming so it will be even more beautiful. What do you all think?

These really are poor pictures but I'll take some better ones when Marv and Judy are here. They're coming this evening and we're anxious to show them around our "home away from home."

That's it for this week. I will try very hard to take more pictures. I have some videos of Holly's play but I don't know how to post them. Will work on it.

Love to all

Gramma and MOM

The Haan Hideaway

There have been some requests to see the inside of our new "Haan Hideaway" so here goes. I thought I had published pictures of the inside after we bought it last spring but maybe not.

These are the new wall letter decorations that I just put up today. I won a contest that DeAnn's friend, Julie held last year and the prize was lettering done on her new machine. Doesn't it look nice? Even dad said it did and that's a huge compliment.
This is also a good picture of the "mauve" window treatments that we are having alot of discussions about. I like the shades just fine but not the color. Dad thinks they're beautiful and sees no reason why we can't keep them and get new ones to match for the rest of the windows. What do you think? Comments and suggestions are more than welcome!!!

Our bedroom. I brought the valances, shears and bedspread from Brandon. I would love to put something a little more southwest in this room but for now, this works just fine. Dad even makes the bed most mornings but then the reason for that is because he gets up after I do.

My kitchen with Uncle Rich's birthday present sitting on the counter. I have fabric for curtains - just haven't made them yet. They're an ivory background with little terra cotta flowers. Not southwest but they'll serve the purpose til I find something else. Don't really need them for privacy, just to soften things up a bit.

My beautiful wall-hanging that Holly helped me pick out. NOBODY down here has anything like it and I get compliments on these bottles all the time. Everybody wants to know where I found them. They have some pretty colors in them - I love them. Thanks for helping me, Holly.

My worktable/dining table but since we end up eating out more than we should, it's really my desk. I'm in the middle of getting the newsletter ready before we head out on Thursday. Almost finished - just have to redo some things after the proof-reader finished today.

Dads new 32" tv - it's rather nice. Plans are to just take it back and forth between Arizona and South Dakota. Works great!!!

My favorite guy in the whole world relaxing in his new chair. Mine is the smaller one. The green one will go to the man cave soon. It just doesn't go with the rest of the decor but it's nice when we have company. I'd like to maybe get just a small rocker to go there. We'll see.

Well, that's it. We are enjoying our new home, for the most part. Poor dad has spent the whole day trying to fix a water leak from the hot water heater and things have not gone well. A park model is nothing like a house - much more frustrating!!!

There's a morning dove cooing on our front awning. Almost time to start some dinner - hotdogs or rice with raisins???? which should I fix???? I left the decision up to dad.

Have a wonderful week!!!! Love to all of you.

Gramma and MOM

Welcome to #129

Welcome to the Haan Casita #129 in Wagons West. This is the new Welcome sign to our home. Before there was a metal bird and two trees which dad has now transferred to the back lattice wall.

These quail do not come into our area of the park very often but they are very prolific behind Uncle Rich's trailer. I just love to watch them!!

Dad bought this little wagon in Rock Valley this summer. He has gotten LOTS of compliments on it - probably because noone else has one like it. Yesterday I put our little "love birds" out on the seat and we will get some geraniums to put in the back of it as soon as the threat of frost is gone.

Got my swing out and put up some of our southwest art that we had on the front of the other trailer - not sure where to put it on this trailer but there were nails already in these spots so just hung them up. Also put out my new rug - had to put rocks on the corners to take the "curling" out of them for now. What do you think of my beautiful wicker rocker? My friend, Joy who used to live across the street from our old trailer gave it to me when she moved to their apartment. She wanted me to remember her.

The afore-mentioned ugly bird and trees. I think the trees are OK but dad kinda liked the bird so for now, they're all up there. This is the lattice in front of where we park so not too many people see it. Behind the lattice is dad's man cave.

Home, Sweet Home. Please come to visit us - we'd love to have you!!!!!!!

Have a good weekend. Love,

MOM and Gramma

The Haans in Sturgis

I should have put this blog after the following one but I didn't, so here it is. This is the front of the new home in Sturgis. Note the snow on the ground - they've had over 20 inches already this winter. Uncle Rich has his new wooden shoe slippers on that he got from Aunt Henrietta for Christmas.

This is looking west from the front door.

In the middle of their home is an enclosed little atrium with a tree growing in it. Uncle Rich was taking a picture through the atrium of dad waving from the opposite side. It's a cute little thing but not really good for much. I liked it - can't wait to see what Uncle Rich does with it this summer.

R&H are standing in the dining room/family room - on the other side is the living room.

Uncle Rich is standing on the deck with Bear Butte in the background. This is looking east from their kitchen and family room.

This is Bear Butte - the deck in their bedroom also overlooks this butte. It was very pretty the morning we were there with the snow on the butte and the bright sunlite morning.

I still miss them and wish they hadn't moved but since they did, I have to admit its a lovely part of South Dakota.

Love to all,

MOM and Gramma

Arizona - we're here

This was the beginning of our trip to Arizona. We left Sturgis about 9:45 and headed south on this winding road through the Black Hills. The road took us through some lovely hill country, down through Custer and Hot Springs. There we hit Hwy 71 which took us all the way to the southern end of Colorado. All two-lane but nice country - some hills, some grassland and even some snow in South Dakota and then again in Colorado. Luckily all that snow was in the fields and on the hills and none of it was on the road.

This was between Nebraska and Colorado. The sunset that evening was beautiful with all the windmills.

Cross over into Colorado - this is actually southern Colorado and it was very pretty. The mountains off in the distance with the snow on them and the fields were white and a brilliant blue sky.

There was an area where the sage brush in the field added some green to the snow. It was a short road but very pretty.

These are the first saguaros we see when we get to Arizona. Every year I wait and look for them.

Dad put up his "Man Cave" sign on the door to his man cave. He also got a cavewarming gift from Linda D.B. that she made. It says, "Pete's Man Cave" - I'll take a picture of it for next week's blog.

Dad and I have been working hard since we arrived here. We washed the outsides of both trailers, washed all the windows on the new trailer and lots of misc chores. One of these days, we're going to start having fun. Turned the gas on in the trailer this afternoon so I can now do some cooking. Then some friends asked if we'd like to go to "taco night" at the Elks Club. Of course we didn't want to hurt their feelings so we said sure. There were 65 people from the park there this evening. Good food and good conversation.

That's it from sunny Arizona. Have a great weekend.

Love, MOM and Gramma