Happy Early Birthday, Grampa

Ever since we began coming to Wagons West, Dad has admired these "Dutch" patio lights. He has talked about getting one but just never did because they are a little spendy. A gentleman in his 80's here in the park makes them, soooooooooooooooo one day I just figured, what the heck, I'm going to get one for dad's birthday.
Well, through a long set of circumstances, I ended up having to tell him about it and of course, he wanted to put his lamp up right away. We think it looks wonderful - in fact so wonderful that we bought one for DeAnn - thought it would go with the entire theme of Lynden. What do you all think?

That's it for today!! Have a good weekend ahead.

Love, MOM and Gramma

Trip to Yuma

Thursday morning we headed out to Yuma to visit Dad and Uncle Rich's cousin, Teunis and his wife, Gloria. They moved to Yuma from Burnsville last October and were anxious to have company in their new home. They had two extra guestrooms so we stayed with them. I loved this fence in the front of their house and it had two moveable gates for access to the yard. Other than that, it was a nice home but not unique in any way.

Gloria is a GREAT cook - she fixed us a Mexican cold soup appetizer that had tomatoes, onions, baby shrimp, pieces of fish and I don't know what else. I really liked it - dad, of course, passed but Rich and Henrietta both ate theirs. I did notice the second day they took ice cream rather than the appetizer stuff.


On Friday we went to Mexico which is always an experience. Uncle Rich liked "haggling" with the locals - neither dad nor I do. It wasn't even really fun to look at things because as soon as you showed even a hint of interest, they were all over you to buy things. We bought two bottles or liquor and two bottles of "poop" pills as dad and Uncle Rich called them.

It was a nice trip with good company but next year when we go, I want to see the Nat'l prison museum and the lettuce and vegetable fields and we can skip Mexico. I was surprised as how clean Mexico was compared to the times we've gone south of Tucson.

Isn't this a fine group of Haan/Scheer cousins??

We stopped in Gila Bend at a store we'd been to once before and they were in the process of selling out so I got this big piece of southwest art. I'd been wanting something really big for this wall and I found it. Dad wanted two smaller pieces but I talked him into this one. If you go back a few blogs, you'll see a before picture with two trees and a bird. The two chairs and table we bought from our next door neighbor lady at the garage sales. I really like this area and we have lunch out here often.

See dad's new little friend - he received it in the mail from a very special person. Thank you!!! It looks really cute.

Well, that's it for this week. Cindy and her boys and Brenda and her family are arriving on Wednesday and Thursday so it will be a busy week. Tonight we're celebrating Henrietta's birthday and their anniversary. Tomorrow night we're invited to friends for supper and Thursday night is potluck at the club house - man oh man, no cooking for several days. What a life!!!

Have a super duper week. Love to you all

Gramma and MOM

Tucson Guests

Dad went along with Uncle Jerry and Aunt Bonnie to the Pima Air Museum. It's been several years since we've been there. I stayed home to work on the newsletter. They took a walking tour, the trolley tour and the boneyards tour and ended up spending most of the day there. From what I heard, they all had a good time, except they couldn't find a place to eat. Next time they'll take a picnic lunch along.

Tombstone is one of my favorite touristy places around but I think I'm the only one who thinks that. Dad nor Marv or Judy were as impressed as I am. I think it's just a fun place to hang out.

Here's the Sabino Canyon trolley which I also like. However, I do like to get off and on and ride and up and down the canyon.

DeAnn, once again here are a few pics of the Arizona dessert - BEAUTIFUL!!! I never get tired of looking at these magnificent cacti. I need to take some more pictures of our mountains because I also love looking at them and I can even sit in my chair and see them through the window.

Guess my friend, Gayl, needed to scratch her arm and couldn't hold her cup at the same time. She had just lost her shuffleboard game and was sitting all by herself across the court.

Have a great day!!! Love to you all

Gramma and MOM

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