Springtime in the Desert and Spring Fling

It is spring time in the desert - a beautiful time of blooming cactus and wild flowers.  I stole both of these pictures from friends but it shows what beauty we have here in Arizona.  My daughter says that Arizona is nothing but brown, and barren.  WRONG!!!!

 Every year in March our park has their last big fling.  There is a catered meal, entertainment and usually dancing for those who choose to do so.  This year's theme was Senior Prom - several couples came all dressed up - this was about as good as it got for the Haan's but we did look pretty classy.

 Our dear friends, Cal and Delores from Minnesota:

 Some of our best buds:  Gary and Nancy

 Our new next-door neighbor with her dress from her favorite store - GWI.  She is also from Minnesota and we have enjoyed having her next door to us.

 Tucson and card playing friends:  Rod & Bonnie from Minnesota.  Gee maybe we should just move to Minnesota where a lot of our friends seem to live in the summer.

Better get with the program.  I am supposed to be clearing my things out of the mancave so Peter can start putting storage things in.  Always sad to see him doing that but it has to come sooner or later.  Off to Washington on Sunday afternoon.

Have a terrific week!!!!   Just as an added note;  Our wonderful, dear, sweet, loving granddaughter had her FINAL exam for Nurse's Training this morning.  She is truly one in a million!!!  Love you, Miss Holly!!!

Love to all:
Gramma and MOM

Tuesday Bagels and Coffee

Every Tuesday morning at 7:30, the Sweet Chicks from our park meet for coffee and goodies at Panera Bread.  Sometimes we have bagels; sometimes we have Bear Claws or Pecan Carmel Rolls or Egg Sandwiches or Scones or whatever...................... and coffee.

There can be anywhere from 8 ladies to over 20 and we have a wonderful two hours of fellowship and finding out all kinds of things about each other.  My dear husband says that we gossip but we don't.  I have found that this group of ladies have a lot better things to talk about and share than gossip.  In fact, if you want to hear the gossip of the park, just go to the Rooster's Breakfast which is also Tuesday morning but at 7:00am or to men's coffee.

We often don't leave until 9:30 and occasionally even a little later.  I have come to really enjoy their ladies and their friendships.

I have to finish some bookwork for a committee that I'm a part of here in the park and then I'm going to start on some fun projects.  Right now, we are planning to leave the park either the 15th (after church) or the 16th of April.  Then the adventure begins.  Will tell you about in my next blog.  Have a good week everyone.

Love to all,

Gramma and MOM 

A very dear friend of mine has been telling me that I am waaaay overdue for a posting and I must agree with her.  It's not that my life is not interesting; it's because I haven't taken any pictures and without pictures, blogs just aren't as interesting.

About a month ago, Linda invited me to Tohono Chul Park because she had a showing of her pottery.  Since I believe her to be the most talented potter ever and I love her work, I had to go.  It's also a lovely park with lots of southwest flora.

I didn't take any pictures of Linda's work - I actually don't think they like you to take pictures at a "show" but I did take my camera along and took several pictures to use in my card making.  Here are some of them:

These are prickly pear cactus and in another couple of weeks, they will be loaded with blooms.  There are yellow and various shades of pink/magenta and they are beautiful.  I will try very hard to take more pictures and post them.

 These are Organ Pipe cactus and are very large.

 There was a rug weaver there and I did take a picture of these rugs hung over a fence.  They were so colorful - I love them but I have no where to display here in our home in Tucson.  So I just admire them from afar.  The colors were amazing!!

Well, that's it for today.  Hope you're all having a wonderful week.  It's beautiful here today - in the lower 70's but the high 80's are coming on Thursday for the foreseeable future - good thing my central air works well!!!

Love to all,
Gramma and MOM

Merry Christmas

I realize it has been a long time since you have seen me on this blog, but ......... well, I'm not really sure why it has been so long.  

I feel a need to write now and let you all know how blessed we feel.  This was our first Christmas in Arizona and it did feel a bit strange having no snow or cold weather for the holiday.  Our dear friend, Will DeBoer, said we would get used to it.  We met them for a Christmas breakfast at a historic hotel downtown Tucson for breakfast and we had NO heavy coats, gloves or scarves!!!

The first thing we noticed on Christmas morning as we were driving downtown Tucson was that there was no traffic - no car or foot traffic.  It was almost completely deserted.  It was actually fun driving around. 

Will and Linda had invited us to meet them for breakfast.  It was a lovely three hours with great food, a beautiful atmosphere and dear friends.

Thanks, Linda for letting me steal your pictures.

At 4:00 we had a Christmas dinner at our clubhouse.  The park furnishes the ham and we all bring dishes for our table of 16.  I believe we had 7 tables of 16 people at each table.  We brought a chocolate truffle for dessert and it sure looked good.  The food was great and the company fun.

Here are some pictures of our patio and street all decked out for the holidays:

 Christmas Eve we all put out luminaries and residents of the park went caroling to some of the older residents.  It was really pretty when they were all lit.

 Our front door

We didn't have a Christmas tree - just a light-up wreath.

We hope your Christmas was as blessed as ours.  Love to you all,

Gramma and MOM

Washington State

We arrived in Washington state the evening of July 4th.  Washington does not take nearly as long to cross as Montana. 

Can you believe these Washingtonians put blankets around their hay bales?  I'm not sure if they're trying to protect them from snow, rain or the cold.  Lots of hay fields in eastern Washington.

 We were buzzing along the freeway and see this sign for George, Washington.  Very creative

 This is one of the most picturesque areas along the trip from South Dakota to Washington.  You come down a hill and you see this bridge that crosses the Columbia River. When we moved the Hoekstra's from Iowa to Washington, coming down this hill was the only traffic backup we encountered.  Guess what it was?  They were cleaning the highway at the bottom of the hill just before the bridge. 

Someday I would like to take a river cruise on the Columbia River - it is such a beautiful area.

 A wonderful SURPRISE - we could see this majestic mountain off in the distance and realized that it was Mount Rainer.  We have only see this mountain from the air because it's usually in the clouds - it was gorgeous and we were rather excited.  Mount Rainer is south of Seattle and we were looking at it from eastern Washington.  The beauty that God provides for us to enjoy!!!

 Even a couple more barns.....

 a wind farm with the mountains in the background...

 smoke rising from the trees and mountains - Peter said he especially likes to see this

 When we got over the Snoqualmie Pass, we encountered a traffic back-up.  FORTUNATELY it was in the lane going east - I'm sure it was at least 20 miles long.  Luckily our lane was smooth sailing.  After we turned off the freeway, there was also a backup on the little two-lane highway we like to take to avoid Seattle but once again, our lane going north was just fine.

 our lane

 Almost to Lynden.  They have these enormous marshmallows here - can't imagine making a s'more with one of these.

Well, we're here.  When we drove into the Hiemstra Hideaway, we were pleasantly surprised with how beautiful the cottage looked.  They had been working very hard to get it painted and all spruced up.  Maybe I'll have pictures of the cottage next week.

Have a good weekend coming up.
Love to all,
Gramma and MOM

Going to Washington

I decided that I was soooooooooooooo far behind on my blog that I would start with last week and then possibly go back to the beginning of summer and then back again to the present.  Got all that?

We left Brandon about 12:15 last Wednesday heading for Sturgis.  Spent the evening and Thursday morning with Rich and Henrietta.  Had a nice time as we usually do.  If their home sells quickly, which we hope it does, it would have been the last time we were in Sturgis.  Left Sturgis about 10:15 on Thursday morning and took the "shortcut" through Wyoming.  It's supposed to save us about 100 miles but it certainly didn't save us any time this trip.  But considering that we left SD late, had several construction zones and just the extra time of going on 2-lane roads, we were OK with it.  Got to Billings, MT and had to make the decision of going on to Bozeman (another 130 miles) or just stopping early and staying in Billings.  We chose the second.  Left again Friday morning and put in a long (630 miles) and went all the way to Ritzville, WA.  Montana is such a diverse, beautiful state and I always take lots of pictures and they just stay on my camera.  This year I decided to focus on old barns.  Here's a sample of what we saw last Friday driving along.

Barns are interesting and my camera does not do them justice but this is the best I can do from my car window going down the freeway at 70mph.

This next picture is not a barn, of course, but just one of the many goody snacks we devoured during the day.  Snacks are good for you, we've decided and indulged in them frequently.

Saturday we traveled from Ritzville to Lynden.  More on that later.  Hope you're all staying cool in the Midwest.  Washington is in the mid 70's to low 80's but a cool breeze and lots of sunshine. 

Love to all
Gramma and MOM

Spring Fling

Every year our park has a big end-of-the year party called the Spring Fling.  They have a catered meal, entertainment all around a theme.  This year's theme was Lotza Lotza - that meant lots of anything.  It was a good time and the entertainment was a Buddy Holly impersonator.  Now, I know you girls probably do not know who Buddy Holly is but dad and I certainly do and we loved it.

I made dad's shirt for him - it was lots of 50-50 loosing raffle tickets.  Every Thursday morning at coffee and donuts, you can buy 3 tickets for $2 and then you can win $10.  Half of the money goes to the Rec Committee and the other half is paid out.  I actually won a couple weeks ago - I usually win once every couple of years; there are some people who win 6 or 7 times a year.  I just figure it's my contribution to the park.

Dad's shirt turned out really cute except he kept loosing his tickets as the evening wore on.

 Marv and Judy had lotza color and mismatched outfits. Notice Marv's socks match his hat. Now if he'd only smiled!!!  Pretty cute

 Notice Gary's shorts on OVER his blue jeans.  He never wears shorts except maybe once every 10 years if he happens to go swimming.

 This was our entertainment:

 He received a huge standing ovation and then he came back and played another couple of songs for us.  He came early for happy hour at the pool and stayed to visit with people after his performance.

Note:  dad's long hair.  He has not cut it since we arrived down here and doesn't intend to cut it til we get home??????  I sent his barber a note and asked if she would consider flying down to "clean him up".

Have a great week!!!  We're starting to pack - a little.

Love to all,
Gramma and MOM