Birthday Girl, Family, Friends, Post COVID Gathering

  Celebrating Life, Love and Friends 

2021

This was a special day for us on so many levels.   We traveled for nearly 3 weeks then came home to getting ready for 52 of our closest friends and much loved family. As we gathered in our backyard the message we were receiving wasn't clear.....during the party.   Yes, we celebrated my birthday.  But we also celebrated each one of YOU.  

This girl right here....loving life at Medicare age!

Many of you know we had contemplated moving out of California.  But this day God showed us he had a different plan for us.  The message we were being given is that our lives are here.  Our joy, love, foundations, roots and connections are right in our own backyard.  

Thank you for such a clear message.  We both get teary eyed when we think about the love that was shared and the message we received.  We ARE home.  Thank you Jesus.  

The game organizer and my sister.

The Zaske's who we cherish to the ends of the earth. 

The Abrush's.  Lovely as always.  

My Quicks!  Thank you for helping clean up and to Jayce for being my greeter!  Love being the grand-aunt and uncle of these amazing kids.   Tooty Ta Da!  

Sissy and her Geo

Karen, Joe and Pam.  When you have new neighbors move in it is always kinda stressful.  This family right here is AMAZING.  

Joe and Nanette, we love you!

Doing life with this group is such a gift.  Each of you bring such joy and love to us daily!  

Danny, Debbie and Karen.  Love this family.

More loved family.  We are so blessed for each of you in our lives.

Thursday mornings are just not the same with out you ladies!  Love to you from us.

You two right here....wow.  No words except love you.

The Wolfe Pac.  Mama and Papa Wolfe.  Life sure got sweeter the day we met you. Yosemite soon!

Evie, Jayce and Gail.  Retirement looks great on you Gail. 

Love you both

 The food was amazing!  It smelled so good when Rica's was cooking it.  Looks like it was getting eaten too.

My sweet daughter in law.  

LOL, Robert, Robert, Robert. .....Mom and Pop's love you to the ends of the earth and back again.

Bob, you fill our life with so much love and joy.  

The calm before the celebrations! 

A special thank you to Jayce (greeter), Yaiden (photographer),  DeeDee (game organizer), Evie, Tooty Ta Da.   The biggest thank you to my husband for making me a better person and being the best half of me.  

 

Lake Tahoe, Twin Falls Idaho, Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Badlands, Wind Cave, Glacier, Mount Rainer, Crater Lake

 Pre Retirement Adventures 

June 7-25, 2021

       There are so many celebrations this month.  First off we celebrate 40/37, 40 years together, 37 married. We have Father's Day, Romeo's 14th birthday (he's been a great cat), my 65th birthday, my brothers 64th birthday, my nephew's 19th birthday, our grandson's 21st birthday and many others I'm sure I've not mentioned. 

        This is our third travel vacation since last October.  After this one we have two more planned for the year and I'm excited! This trip we've been to Nevada, Idaho, Wyoming, South Dakota, Montana, Washington, Oregon and of course home California. 

        The National Parks we've checked off our list this trip are, Yellowstone National Park, Wind Cave National Park, Badlands National Park, Glacier National Park, Grand Tetons, Crater Lake National Park, and Mount Rainer National Park. 

        We've seen a moose, 8 bear (black and grizzly mixed), bison galore including a nursery, and so many dear, antelope, and elk we stopped counting.  

        We  traveled over 4700 miles and have seen gas prices from 2.87-4.13 per gallon. The land is so different in every part of the USA.  It went from flat, and dusty to elevations of 9,200 ft and lush greens  with blue-green lakes and rivers that I've only seen in movies.

 

 Here are a few pictures of the thousands we took. 

First Stop-Lake Tahoe, Nevada

     

 The sights of Lake Tahoe

A bird carrying a snake to its nest. Osprey or Eagle?

He needs no introduction!

We stayed at Zepher Cove and

did a lake cruise on this boat.  It was informative and fun.  Who knew there were rock formations below the water...not I.  

Next stop Idaho: Twin Falls and Shoshone Falls

Contemplating the Road and Retirement

It was surprising to us to drive through a town, make a turn and after driving a few feet we were at the falls.  I never expected them to be just "over there"....

Link to the History of the Falls

Shoshone Falls

Shoshone Falls 

There was only about half the water that normally falls from the rocks.  

The beige rock to the right  generally has water flowing over it too when the water is not so low.

Snake River 

Shoshone in Black and White

Twin Falls Idaho
Just down the street from Shoshone is Twin Falls Idaho.

History of Twin Falls, are there two? 

Are the Falls Twins?

Get pictures of Twin Falls from Jerry

Perrine Memorial Bridge (not my photo)

We did drive over it. 

Fun Facts of Perrine Memorial Bridge

Next Stop Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

The wild life there is amazing!

The sites of Yellowstone are breathtaking.  We spent 3 days in the park and plan to come back to paint and rest.  Here are a few of my favorites photos of the hundreds taken.

Old Faithful

Tip:  go to view after 5pm.  NO CROWD. Easy Parking

Absolutely Old Faithful! Love this man.  40 years together now.

Hot Springs.  Sulfur smell is really strong.

The Largest Geyser in Yellowstone is not Old Faithful!

North of Old Faithful, in the Norris Geyser Basin, lies Steamboat, the world's largest active geyser. While Old Faithful can spew streams of boiling water over 100 feet in theair, Steamboat can top 300 feet.

Steamboat Geyser

This is a precious picture of father teaching his son to fly fish. There were tons of men fly fishing in Yellowstone. 

Heading out to go through Yellowstone one last time this trip....

caption should be what?

The Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming

This was our lunch view.  Amazing!

The creation God made is so pleasing!  

We were sung to at one of our cabins.  

The road out of the Rocky Mountains on to South Dakota

We didn't go into the caves here, it was hot and tons of people. The land and surrounding topography was amazing. 

 Mount Rushmore, South Dakota

Crazy Horse.  

At Crazy Horse they had just resurfaced the parking lot and the smell was so nauseating (and when I already had an upset stomach yikes) we couldn't stay and explore. 

Deadwood, South Dakota

Deadwood is an adorable little town.  I was disappointed to not see more things like the saloon reenacted.  Instead there are tons of commercial shops.  A street reenactment was fun to watch.  And we stood in the place where Wild Bill was shot. 

The Badlands National Park

This is another amazing site that I never would have guessed in a million years was "over there", from wide open spaces to wowa this!

Just look at this picture and see the amazement here...2.97!

MONTANA

The big sky 

It was a surprise to find this little beauty!  The site was amazing to view.  It looked like it could be a whole day of exploring here.  We did a simple, unexpected drive through. 

There were fields of rolled bales of hay and fields of square  bales of hay.  I wonder why the variation.

Google search never fails to answer...

Why do they do that? Farmers often bale hay in large round bales instead of small square bales because they require less labor to baleand move than small square bales. The shape of round bales enables them to be stored outside, something you would never do with square bales.

I was so happy to leave this cabin.  I was up and out with stuff on the porch in less then 10 minutes!  It was windy, dusty, unfriendly and not at all comfortable. Jerry said this is the biggest grin he'd seen in days (remember the nausea...it lasted a few days)

These are airplanes bodies being transported on a train.  Double transportation?

Outside our cabin at Glacier and it was beautiful.  Happy girl now.  We could have stayed at this cabin for a week and not gotten tired of the atmosphere here.  

The Road to the Sun drive was partly closed due to snow plus you had to get a ticket several days ahead of time to travel the open part between 8-5.  We went into the park after 5 and traveled most of the open roads.  Lots and lots of traffic, full pull outs and not a lot of places to stop and take in the scene but sure was beautiful none the less. 

The water was so amazingly clear.

An oil train.

Mt. Rainer

Everything was like lush tropical forest.  I looked for banana slugs but never saw even one. 

Crater Lake

Last stop before home

The color of the lake is a blue color I've never seen before!   We could only go around part of the lake and it was amazing. There was a snow on a lot of the roadside.

They rake the forest in Oregon.

Mt Shasta

If you made it this far, thank you for looking at a few of our pictures from the most amazing trip ever!