Christmas 2009

It was a great blessing to have all three of my sons and Emily as well as Rikki, her mom and brother here for Christmas. We had dinner then opened gifts. Everyone was pleased and thankful. This was Kru's first Christmas to actually unwrap presents. He had a blast. We went to Sea World the day before. Notice Tony riding with Kru on a pink pig. Our city has a traveling Santa that stopped in our neighborhood. Emily sat in Santa's lap and told him what she wanted without any prodding this year.

Our Trip to PennyPickles Museum

Emily and I love to go to the PennyPickles Museum in Temecula (the next town over). We have been there three times and still find it fasinating. This time we also walked around town and looked at other shops and had dinner. We have a pretty good time together.

June's Visit

My sister came for a visit last month. She is such a sweet soul. I had to leave while she was here and go to my father-in-laws funeral so I didn't get to spend as much time with her as I would have liked. She came on Thursday and left on Tuesday. My sister, like myself, works way too much but she is happier that way. While she was here she planted trees for me in the backyard, put up wire mesh to keep Emily's escape artist dog in, painted my spare bedroom (it is no longer neon pink), planted greenery at my entrance, power washed and scraped my deck outside my bedroom and painted it and put up security pins in my sliding glass doors. She is just simply amazing. I told her she had a place to stay anytime. Thank you June.
Here are some after pics:

Dress-up Night

Emily wanted to us to dress up and go out to eat. We had bunches of fun.

Ed Minich

My father-in-law Ed Minich passed away Thursday, November 12th. He was a most wonderful man and Emily and I will miss him very much. Here is a tribute video his son Dave put together.


Here are a couple of my favorite pictures of him and Emily

Oh and by the way....

I am going to be Grandma again. Yeah! Rikki (the best daughter-in-law I could ever hope for) is 5 weeks along.

Catalina Cruise

Emily and I went on a 4 day cruise with Tony, Rikki, Kru and Debbie (Rikki's mom) Oct. 26th to the 30th. We went on a Carnival ship stopping at Catalina and Ensenada, Mexico. The cruise ship, entertainment, food, work out facility, everything was great. I liked Catalina, not impressed with Ensenada although Emily really enjoyed getting to ride up front with the buggy driver as we took a small tour on a horse and wagon. Emily loves cruising. She made a few friends on the ship and went with them for the 'Princess Party' which consisted of a spa day.

In Catalina, I stumbled across a fantasic Art Gallery that featured an artist by the name of Ruth Mayer . I love the way she catches light. One of my favorites is 'Walk on Water'. It depicts Jesus walking on the water but looking from under the water up.

It is nice not cooking or cleaning and just relaxing but it is even nicer to come back home. I love home. Here are some of my favorite pictures of the trip: