Kids are gone

Wow, what an awesome couple of days we have had.

Son Ryan and daughter in law Ali, sharing a secret

Our son and his family arrived on Boxing Day, after having a wonderful Christmas with their extended family.

Our smiley little Tristan

They laughed as they told us that everyone just ignored them, and made a bee-line for the kids. Huh, sorry, were you just talking to me ... lol.

Our daughter Alysha giving Tristan his gift

Somehow, Teresa talked our son into staying overnight, rather than making the two hour long drive home.

Teresa and Mya opening presents

Teresa prepared an amazing supper of turkey, gravy, cabbage rolls, perogies, mashed potatoes, dressing, salad, pickles and olives, and etc., etc.   Whew, it was hard work eating it all.

Ali helping Tristan with his present

As usual, Santa out did himself, and everyone received a generous supply of gifts.

Alysha teaching the kids how to dance with Santa

Parting is always difficult, and it was with tears that we waved good-bye to the kids, and returned to our empty condo.

Ryan surrounded in his loot

Hopefully, we will get one more chance to see them before we fly back to Phoenix.

Only 5 more sleeps ...

Merry Christmas !!!

Merry Christmas !!!

Hope this Christmas

is filled with Love, Laughter, 

Friends and Family.

Hugs, Trent and Teresa

Looking a lot like Christmas

Okay, we have been home a week now, and the tree finally made it's appearance this afternoon.

Now, don't get me wrong ... It's not like we have been just lazing around. 

 On the contrary, Teresa spent the first few days shopping until our credit card company finally waved a white flag and conceded their defeat.

With treasures in hand, Teresa then took a full day just to sort out all the gifts, and wrap them.

But do not feel sorry for our gal, because this is pure heaven to her.

I keep asking her if she has had enough, and she just keeps on smiling, and asking me to hand her another ornament.

Of course, part of her tradition, is to play her Boney M, "Greatest Christmas Songs" cd.  This cd gets played from morning until night, I kid you not!!

Teresa is also busy on the phone, making Christmas plans, and going for lunches with her former co-workers.  She loves those girls as much as her own family.

I know you are asking yourselves what my role is in all this.

Simple ... Stay out of her way !!  Beyond helping her get the boxes out of the storage room, and maybe vacuuming up some of the mess, it is usually best for me to watch from a safe distance.

If any of you are married to perfectionists, I am sure you are nodding your head in agreement.

One thing I will admit, it sure is starting to feel like Christmas !!

Christmas Concert

There is nothing that gets us in the Spirit of Christmas quicker than a concert.

Cold !!  Pretty, but cold !!

My niece belongs to the South Saskatchewan Youth Orchestra, and today was their annual Christmas brunch.

Emily's weapon of choice is the violin.

We can't believe how quickly Emily is growing up

This event was held at the premier concert building in all of Regina called the Conexus Arts Centre.

We were offered a delicious choice of ham, bacon, sausages, hash browns, scrambled eggs, fruit, juices and croissants.

Nephew Stephen, sister Holly and me

Shortly after lunch, the musicians were called to the front, and the main part of the attraction took place.

Teresa, our daughter Alysha, and the star Emily

Wow, were they ever good.  Now, no one is ever going to get me confused with one of those experts on classical music, but I know awesome music when it is tickling my ears !!

Emily, Stephen and Alysha

We are so proud of our niece Emily, and her brother Stephen.  Even though Stephen is in the middle of University final exams, he took the time out to support his sister.

My sister Holly, and Teresa
They were friends before Teresa and I were married

I was feeling sorry for Emily when I found out her parents bought her an old, used, violin from Hungary built in 1953, until I found out that that was a good thing ... LOL.

All too soon, it was time to give our hugs and say so long, but we will see them again Christmas day.

With the temperature around -15, and a wind blowing at 20mph, we were frozen just walking back to the car.

How should we warm up.  Teresa was quick to insist a stop at our favourite coffee shop was in order.

Home for the Holidays

Whew, it has been a very busy couple of days. 

Sorry for not letting everyone know we made it home safe and sound, but we have not had a minute to spare until now.

Thursday we flew out of Phoenix via Westjet, and travelling at 550mph, we were in Regina three hours later.

We are very glad we got in on the seat sale, and avoided three days of travelling by car !

Our daughter came right over from work, and we ordered our favourite pizza for supper, and chatted until bedtime.  Oh my, we missed our comfortable and large bed !!

Friday we got up, and Teresa started bringing out Christmas decorations, while I looked in to getting a rental car.

We needed the car today so we could see our .... Grandkids !!

Our little man is now six months old, and we noticed some big changes in him.  He is a lot stronger, and crawls everywhere, only to stop and look back at you with the biggest smile ever !!

Our sweetie, Mya, is nearly three, and always makes us laugh with her cute antics.

We were treated to an amazing pork roast supper with potatoes and gravy and all the other good stuff that goes with it.

Shortly after dessert, we had to say our goodbyes for the 2 1/2 hour drive home.

It was great to see our son and his beautiful wife, and we look forward to spending Christmas with them and our daughter.

Twas the Night Before ...

Is it just me, or does time seem to be going by faster and faster ?

I could swear we just got nicely settled in here, and now we are flying back to Regina tomorrow morning.

Our wonderful friends Ed and Marilyn, have volunteered to take us to Sky Harbor airport.

Today was spent getting everything organized and packed for our three week hiatus.

Then we went to Happy Hour at Ed and Marilyn's, where we visited with everyone and said goodbye to Jesse and Ginger, as they are leaving for Vegas while we are away.

Bob and Janet have agreed to keep an eye out on our rig and car for us.  I gave Bob a set of keys, just in case he manages to get himself in the doghouse, he can at least retreat here.

We sure are blessed to have made such wonderful friends !!

Hanging at Home

It was another cooler day, with temps in the 60's.

We enjoyed a leisurely coffee time, as usual, then got busy around the rig.

Teresa started tidying up, washing and waxing the floors, and doing another load of laundry while I was outside, rolling up the awning, putting the BBQ away, and getting our ornaments put away.

We fly out early Thursday morning, and I think we will suffer from shock because the temperature in Regina is going to be -20C that night !!

Being the great organizer that she is, Teresa has most of our stuff packed and ready to go.

I think she is starting to get a little excited to see those Grandbabies!!

Relaxing Pool Day

The time is just flying by !!  We can't believe we will be flying home in only five more days.

Yesterday we had fun with Bob and Janet.  They had never been to a Costco, so we were happy to take them.

On the way we stopped at our favourite coffee shop called Paradise Bakery.

We enjoyed our coffee and food outside on the patio, while visiting with each other.

I wanted to buy a Kindle, so Bob and I headed to Best Buy, while Teresa and Janet shopped at the Hallmark store.

With our purchases in hand, we headed to Costco.  It was very busy, but we did not get flustered, and instead we just took our time to shop ... and taste the delicious samples they always have.

Bob and Janet concluded that Costco was very similar to Sam's Club, which they are already members of.

Today was forecast to be the last warm day, before cooler weather arrives this week.

With that, Teresa and I played a little tennis, then decided to take advantage of the beautiful day by visiting the gorgeous pool.

We actually had the pool to ourselves at one point.  We stopped and looked around at the mountains, blue skies and palm trees.

We felt very fortunate and a little humbled that we are lucky enough to be doing this at our age.

Later we had a BBQ supper with wine, and read our books.  It wasn't long before Teresa started nodding off, and headed to bed.

With all the exercise and sun today, I will be right behind her !!

Road Trip

When Ed and Marilyn asked us if we would like to come along with them to "exercise" their diesel truck, we said sure without a moment's hesitation.

We headed out on Hwy 60 east for awhile until we turned off at Globe.

This area has a number of small towns that were built around the copper mines in years past.

We were now on Hwy 88, and the scenery was amazing.

We drove by Roosevelt Lake with a dam, Apache Lake, and Canyon Lake.

The road was pretty darn good most of the way, but suddenly it turned into gravel, and it was very washboardy !!

Poor Ed ... the switchbacks and sharp corners had him cranking the steering wheel all the way to the left, then to the right, then back to the left again !!

However, Ed took that all in stride, and didn't seem fazed at all.
The road was so narrow, that if we met oncoming traffic, someone would have to pull over at a wide spot, and let the other one pass.

When we weren't taking photos, we were all busily chatting about our families and future travel plans.  We are planning to take a cruise with them next winter ... ( Jan/14)

We are getting very excited about the cruise, after hearing their descriptions of what we can expect.

After four hours of "oohing" and "aawing" over this beautiful part of the world, we were back to civilization with empty stomachs.

We ended up trying a new place called The Feedbag, which we found to provide a pretty good meal at a reasonable price.

Back at home we settled in for some reading and relaxing, but Teresa finally put her book down when I couldn't stop talking about how much fun we had with our friends !!

Relaxing Day

Let's see, Saturday we did some chores around the rig, and Teresa spent some time at the laundromat.

Yesterday, we were up and out the door pretty early to have breakfast and pick up a few items from the Mesa Market that we needed before we fly home for Christmas in less than two weeks.

We bought a few items for ourselves, and for Christmas presents, but my favorite purchase was a couple of hiking poles.

Unfortunately, after poking Teresa with it a few times to hurry her along while we were shopping, they soon were in her possession for the rest of the morning ... lol.

With that shopping adventure complete, we rushed home to make our next engagement.

We went with Ed and Marilyn, and Jesse and Ginger to see the movie "Flight" with Denzel Washington.

This time it was Bob and Janet's turn to play nurse and patient, so they had to miss out.

We really enjoyed the movie, although it was not what we thought it would be.

After the movie, and a huge tub of popcorn, we mentioned to our friends that we were going to pick up a few items from Walmart before returning home.

That was the understatement of the year !!

On the way to Walmart, Teresa wanted to stop at the Staples store.

On the way to the Staples store, she spied a Hallmark Store.

After these stores, we went to Best Buy, Beall's Outlet Store, and to wrap it up, we went for some groceries at Fry's.

Whew, those couple of items turned into a major shopping spree that saw us getting home at 7:30 pm, hungry and tired.

This morning, we laughed over coffee time, saying we better slow down on the shopping, because we had clothes and bags stuffed into every corner of the rig, with the leftovers displayed all over the couch.

Just then our phone rang, and it was Ed asking if we wanted to go shopping at the huge San Tan Village Mall. 

Believe it or not, Teresa said she was shopped out, but we sure felt bad giving up a chance to spend time with these amazing friends.

For the rest of the day, we just relaxed and read, giving us, and our credit cards, a much needed rest !!

Silly Mountain Hike

Teresa and I wanted to get some exercise in today, and thought why not enjoy the beautiful outdoors with a hike, rather than inside the fitness centre.

Silly Mountain is only a couple of minutes from our resort, and is a popular hiking spot.  For some reason, we never took the time to check this one out.

We wondered how it got it's name, but nothing on the signage gave any clues.

Near the base is a botanical garden, with all the popular desert plants identified.

We were pleasantly surprised to find out that we could get a good workout on these paths.

In fact, one of the paths is called "The Huff n Puff" trail.

After getting our hearts pumping, we took the short drive home, and got all cleaned up for a happy hour at an excellent Mexican restaurant called Los Gringos Loco.

They have great prices on drinks and meals, from 2pm until 5pm.

Bob and Janet, along with Ed and Marilyn were with us,  but unfortunately, Ginger was not feeling well, so Jesse stayed home to nurse her back to health.

We had a great time as always, and really enjoyed the offerings.  I am sure we will be back again.

We really did not need to eat supper, so Teresa headed off to do more laundry, leaving me alone to get into my usual mischief.

Sure hope Ginger is feeling better soon, so the gang can be reunited.