It's been over 3 months since my last post so thought I'd better get back to it and let everyone know I haven't died (at my age that's a real possibility).  No, just been busy having fun.  I must also admit to having had a 'senior moment' (a long one) and not remembering just how to get back on my blog to publish a new 'post'.  (But I figured no one would really be missing me... anyway.)

Let's see... what have I been up to?  Oh yes, I went on a wonderful 4X4 off road trip down in southern Utah at Easter.   It was the 'Hole in the Rock' trail.  This is the trail used by early Mormons when they were sent on what was then called the 'San Juan Mission'.  It was to be a 6 week wagon trip to begin a settlement in the southeast part of Utah (Bluff/Blanding area).  The problem was that no one had ever blazed a trail to that area.  The '6 week' trip turned out to take 6 months.  A hole was blasted in the rock cliffs above the Colorado River and wagons were lowered on ropes.  After traveling by Jeep (with 4-wheel drive and air conditioning) I can't imagine how those people made that trip through such rugged country with wagons.  It really makes one realize how truly 'tough' those folks were.  No one died on the trip and  2 or 3 babies were born along the way because the trip took so much longer than expected.  It's great to get out 'in the wild' now and than.  It is so beautiful and quiet.  It did rain quite hard one night that we were camped and listening to the rain poring down on the sides of our cozy tent was as close to 'roughing it' as I want to get .

I also did some visiting these past few weeks.  I went to Ft. Bless in El Paso, TX to visit my son and his family.  My grand-daughter, Emerson, turned 3 years old this month.  She is sooooooo cute, along with her little brother.  I fly to El Paso from Phoenix (good excuse to visit my Phoenix family members).   While in Phoenix I marked the end of another decade of my life by celebrating my birthday by going to lunch with my three daughters (& some of the grandkids).  Also another grand-daughter, Bridgette, had her 6th birthday while I was in town so I dropped off her birthday present in person and had the fun of watching her use it. (a slip and slide)

This past weekend I flew to Salt Lake City to see my 'baby' do his thing.  Christopher works with the VW Jetta TDI race team and they had a race at the Miller Motorsport Park in Tooele.  I enjoy watching him at work and can't believe he's so 'grown-up' and has so much responsibility.  Seems like he was just a little kid.  I also enjoyed walking around downtown Salt Lake City.  It's such a pretty city.  They're doing a lot of building and modernizing in Salt Lake while still keeping up the old buildings of the City's past.    I stayed at one of my favorite hotels, the Peery Hotel.  It is a classic old-world style hotel that next year will celebrate 100 years of service as a hotel in SLC.   Sunday evening I enjoyed dinner with Chris and another of my grand-daughters, Shaundra, and her husband.  It was fun to see and talk with them and hear about their lives as newly married couples.  Both Chris and Brittney and Shaundra and Darron were married just a year ago. 

Well that about covers the high-lights of the past few months.  Summer is upon us and I'll soon be headed out to the Havasu and the river to play on my SeaDoo.  So unless something really big happens in my life (like my winning the lottery) it will probably be another 3 months before I make another post.  Have a fun summer and see you in the fall (maybe?).

 

What's new?

I try to update this blog a couple of times a month (unless something really big happens, like winning the lottery).  Anyway, here's the latest...  About a week ago I returned from El Paso.  My son, Scott, who is in the Army, received his new command in a 'change of command' ceremony at Ft. Bliss in Texas.  I was happy to be invited to this short but highly ceremonial exercise with soldiers carrying flags and banners, handing them from the old commanding officers to the new commanding officers.  Scott now commands a company of about 200 men and will be overseeing their training as his company prepares for deployment.  Scott has already served several months in Iraq and will now be state side for most of '09 (I hope!).  It was a short trip to El Paso but I will use any excuse to go see my cute grandkids, Emerson and Gunner.  After I returned from TX I spent a few days in Havasu just relaxing.  I returned to California by way of a stop in Joshua Tree where I met up with some friends who were quad riding in the desert.  I decided to drive my Jeep back to Rancho.  I keep my Jeep in Havasu to pull the 'water toys' down to the launch ramp.  By driving it to California it was a chance to 'blow' the dust out.  It usually doesn't make trips of more than a few miles... so 300+ miles was a real stretch.  But all went well and I now 'run' around Rancho in this cute little red Jeep.  I'll stay in California for a week or two.  Then I'll probably go back to Havasu or Joshua Tree or someplace...  I got a call the other day from my youngest son, Christopher, who lives in Virginia with his wife.  He was in California for his work.  He is the lead technician for the VW Jetta racing team.  He was in CA to help with the driver selection.  Their race season will begin in a couple of months so he is very busy.  It was good to hear from him and know that all was well.   That about covers what's going on in my life...  

The holiday decorations are back in their boxes which means we lived though another year.   Good-bye to 2008!  Seems like we were just worrying about Y2K ...  Where does the time go?  I enjoyed the holidays and I hope you did too.  I was able to see and visited with most of my children on my 'Santa Claus' trip to distribute gifts.  With my car loaded with gayly wrapped presents I took off on Christmas Eve after the Reeve family traditional Christmas Eve gathering.  At that gathering I visited with my brother Tom and his daughter, Jessica, and her darling twin boys.  My youngest son, Christopher, and his wife were also there.  Chris and Brittney live in Virginia and were home for the holidays.  So good to see them.  It was not the large group that use to gather on Christmas Eve to celebrate my parents wedding anniversary, but the tradition of gathering the Reeve family does continue...  I drove to Lake Havasu City that evening to put the finishing touches on the last of the Christmas presents and spend the night.  I got up Christmas morning and drove to Phoenix (actually Queen Creek) to have Christmas dinner with two of my daughters (Allison & Jennifer) and their families (it was so fun to see all the grandkids and eat too much yummy food).  I spent the night at Allison's and left the next morning for El Paso, TX (Ft. Bliss) to visit with my son Scott and his family.  I spent a day with Scott, his wife, Kim, and their darling 2 year old daughter Emerson and my newest grandchild, 3 month old, Gunner Scott.  Then back to Phoenix to make my last 'Santa stop' and a visit with my middle daughter and her family (more grandkid fun as she has a 2 year old little boy and a 9 month old daughter).  Being a Grandma is such fun but by the end of my trip I was ready to go back to Havasu and my quite little condo to just relax and enjoy the view of the Lake.  While in Havasu I welcomed a very nice couple from Minnesota (Snow Birds) who will spend 2 or 3 months in my Havasu condo. They were so glad to be out of the snow and below zero temperatures.  

I'm back in Rancho now, after being gone for almost 3 weeks, to take care of those things that can only be put off so long.  Then I'll be going back to Havasu to enjoy the view and relax for a while.  Right now it's nice and sunny (and warm, 88+ yesterday) in California but the weather man says it won't last so when it gets overcast again I'll head back to Arizona to enjoy the clear blue skies and sunshine.   So that's what I've been up to...  Life is Good!   

MY NEW YEARS RESOLUTION

Dec. 27th, 2008

2009 is all but upon us and my New Years resolution is to finally try to be part of the 21st century and have my own blog site.  I have chosen the black background because I am so in the dark about how to do this blogging stuff.   My kids (and even my grandkids) have blog sites and I enjoy keeping up with what's going on in their lives so I decided to join the fun.  Now all can see some of what I'm up to...  Enjoy!