Yellowstone Adventures

This is the second of 2 new blogs.  Be sure to see the previous blog with pics of Ryan & Ashley's baby shower.   Here are five of the six cute grandkids - in Sunday best!


The next day, Ryan and Ashley had to return to AZ, but the rest of the family traveled up to Yellowstone for a few days.   Geysers, hiking, animal sitings!

Showered

Ryan and Ashley came up to Utah to visit family and friends - and be the guests of honor at their baby shower given by Ashley's mom.  Here are some photos of the day.

Great picnic dinner.  Nice to see Ryan's old friends from high school days.

Cute cake! We all decorated onesies for the new baby.  Fun gifts!  The whole family was there.  Good thing there was a playground just outside. 

This is Dallas?

Can you believe this is Dallas?  Where is the dry desert?  The drought?

 

 
Went to Dallas for work and Ken joined me for the weekend.   We enjoyed some Texas BBQ and rode the trolley around the city.  I was expecting Dallas to be a dry desert.  Instead, I found out it is very green with trees, birds, and water everywhere.

 

Found this great place for Texas BBQ!  Lots of character and tasty BBQ sauce!

 


 









On a more serious note, we also saw the JFK sites in Dallas.  It's hard to believe these events happened almost 50 years ago now.  Still lots of theories about what really happened and lots of people around this place to tell you what they think about it.  My impression was that the area with the grassy knoll and all was much smaller than I expected.  I've seen it so many times on TV and movies over the years, but in person it's just a small place with such a large impact.  The 6th floor Museum in the former book depository building is well done and well worth seeing. Although this brings back sad memories from my childhood,  I'm glad I finally saw it in person.

Book Depository building - On the second from top floor in the corner is the infamous window.

Grassy knoll.   X's in the road mark the spot.  Notice the fence to the left of the white structure, under the trees.  This is where the 2nd gunman is said to have been.



 



Suspicious person behind the fence.

 

Moving on..... we took a trolley ride on the vintage city trolley car with a nice old conductor.  On the whole, Dallas seemed nice, new, clean and green.  Where are those Cowboys and oil wells I heard about?

More ships or umbrellas?

White sand, crystal blue water, tropical fish, sunny skies, bright umbrellas, warm breezes - all part of the Caribbean Cruise 2012 - St. Marteen, St. Thomas, Grand Turk, Bahamas.

Trouble in Tucson

My sister Carolyn came with us for a short visit in Tucson. It was great to have her there. We enjoyed the sun, visiting with the kids, taking walks on desert trails with prickly pear cactus, saguaros, and avoiding the jumping chollas. Here we are cooling off by Kevin's pool with Lindsey.


Unfortunately, the fun was cut short by an epidemic of 24 hour stomach flu. First the kids all got it, one by one they fell like dominos. Then, even though she did her best to avoid all exposure, my sister could not resist the bug. I'm afraid her last day in Tucson is one she will not remember with fondness. She was a good sport though and fortunately felt better by the time we left for the airport for the trip home. Thanks for coming down Carolyn! It was so fun to spend time with you!

More photos .........













Love those saguaros.















At Collin's soccer game, when everyone was happily unaware that the flu bug would strike later that afternoon.
















At Ryan and Ashley's house. It was fun to talk with them about their expected addition to the family, coming in September!!

From the Redwood Forest....

I was in San Francisco for business last week, so Ken, Suzy and family came up and we spent the weekend with Ken's parents. It was great to see some family in the area. We even made it over by the coast to see some redwoods. I'd forgotten how pretty the redwood groves are. I wouldn't mind taking another trip there soon!

Ken's dad is 93 and his mom is 88. Here's a 4 generation photo.












Suzy with grandma & grandpa and the kids.


















Redwood Trees.