A VISIT WITH SON # 2 AND HIS FAMILY 10/20 - 11/03/ 2011

We arrived at Russian River Thousand Trails Preserve on 10.20 and will leave 11/03.  While here, we have spent a portion of nearly every day with our #2 son and his family who live about 35 miles from here.  They also have joined us for a dinner and one grandchild for a sleepover.  During this time we have been very busy with activities together.  Some of the activities included:
Dinner at our trailer,

 Using Grandpa as a wild Disneyland ride,

 Seeing who can kill Grandpa first,

 Seein how long Grandpa can remain in his base position,

 Teaching Grandma about backyard weeds that can talk,

 Visiting a Pumpkin Patch Farm and getting a ride with Grandma Mule,

 Seein who can get farthest from Grandpa when he tries to take a picture,

 Visiting with some fellow full time RV'ers we made friends with a couple years ago,

 Taking naps (Well at least The Hulk did),

 Soccer practice,

 Farm animal visits,

 Bananas' soccer game,

Superman's soccer game (He's the redhead making the awesome kick),

 Being king and Queen Grandparents,

 Wincing at #2 son's activities with his kids,

 Visits to the TT Preserve dilapidated playground,

 An evening at their Ward Halloween Carnival and Chili Cook-Off,

 Watching Bananas be Lady Guinevere,

 More wincing,

 Stll more wincing,

 Rock throwing at Russian River,

  And exercising our right to put our mouth on the drinking fountain and collect all the germs we can.

Been a good time!

GOT NOSE? 10/8/2011

 Nothing needs saying.

GRANDMA THE MEASURING STICK 10/6/2011

 Do you remember when you were kids and you thought you were really tall when you measured up against Grandma?  Ann's turn!  Superman and Bananas have discovered they are getting closer to Grandma's size!

GRANDMA THE PUSHER 10/24/2011

For the last two weeks we have been at Jared and Angi's in the Bay area of California we have been privileged to go retrieve Superman and Bananas from school many times.  It is a short 1/2 mile walk from their home.  Sometimes we take The Hulk and Oranges with us and while we wait for big brother and big sister, we play on the playground.

  Grandma is a good pusher.

 Grandpa is a good picture taker of the deal going down.

 Her customers are always very satisfied!

GRANDMA'S GOT A YARN TO TELL 10/29/11

Grandma has has made a white blessing blanket for each of our sons' families with children. Another goal of hers is to make a comforter for each of her grandchildren.  She is making them in order from oldest to youngest and just finished Bananas'.

 She has worked really hard on this blanket, having to take it undone several times to do it perfectly.

But. now it is finished!

 And she presented it to Bananas while we were here visiting #2 son's family.

 It sure is warm and soft!

 There will be a picture of the two of them and the blanket added soon as Grandpa forgot to take one at the presentation.

LAKE OF THE SPRINGS TO RUSSIAN RIVER 10/19-20/2011

We completely enjoyed our stay at Lake of the Springs Thousand Trails Preserve near Yuba City, CA these last 2 weeks.  While here, we have entertained special guests like those pictured below and a skunk and a few feral cats.

 We also went to church with and spent most of the sabbath with Helen and her family at their house about an hour's drive from our place.  Helen is one of the daughters of some of our dear friends from Medford from our own child rearing years.  Now Helen and her great husband, Tyler, are raising their own crew.  Thanks Helen for a wonderful day and the introduction to some great cowboy chili and cowboy caviar!!

 We also spent most days walking, exercising, internetting,and reading.  Ann paid bills and Wayne got half of the trailer waxed, after first using rubbing compound to remove the road grime and oxidized paint from this last couple years of traveling.  The other half will have to wait until another place where we have good weather and a little time not visiting people and places.

 We hated to leave our little sanctuary on top of the hill (see the picture below) on October 19th, but we were anxious to get on our horse to head to Russian River Thousand Trails Preserve near Cloverdale, CA.  There we will be able to spend some time with our #2 son's family.  Good times comin'!

 October 19th, we stopped in Marysville, CA to resupply on food and fuel, then drove on to Clear Lake, CA where we spent the night in Camp Wal-Mart.  While there we parked next to and visited with a couple that now live in Anaheim, but were from Argentina.  They are a married couple that competes in Tango competitions.  They were fascinating to visit with and swap "On The Road" stories.
That evening we were also approached by a young man asking for assistance in getting something to eat.  He obviously wanted money, but we gave him food.  We were severely disappointed when we watched him walk away and throw the food on the ground about 25 yards from our trailer.  I guess he must not have been very hungry, eh?  Frustrating, but the food we gave him was his to do with as he decided best for his situation.
The next morning as we were driving towards Cloverdale, we noticed huge English Walnut orchards along the road.  We came to a place where the trees were discharging their load of fruit onto the roadside side of the fence.  We spent an hour or so harvesting that which was going to waste.  We did not go into the orchard, but harvested that which was between the fence and the road.

 Our bounteous was two buckets of walnuts ready to preserve for the winter.  We remembered that about this time last year, a little south of here, we were blessed with the same type of opportunity that provided walnuts for us for the next couple months.  We felt blessed!

 Since our #3 son has begun preparing to shoot a film about a shale pit where he will be using a tractor and since we have been helping him find one, we have seen more tractors than we ever thought existed.  You know the drill...... you don't notice any black Chevy trucks on the road until you buy one...then you see them everywhere!
The tractor he will use in the film, he has nic-named, "BIG BERTHA". Well today as we drove we saw Big Birtha's MAMA!!  This beautiful work of man was parked along the side the road and it made us think of Bertha, so we had to stop and take a picture!!

 Finally, after a leisurely, stopping a lot, drive, we arrived at Russian River Thousand Trails Preserve about 2:00 PM.  We found a spot, set up camp and sat out our chairs. We read and watched the passers by for a couple hours before we even unhitched and set up the trailer.  You can see our walnuts by the chairs.  We spread them out on the picnic table and two TV trays to dry some in the fading afternoon sun.

 So, here we are and here we will stay, in space A-14, for the next two weeks.  During this time we will spend a lot of time with our nearby residing  #2 son's family and their four children, attend a couple soccer games, do Halloween with them, celebrate Ann's 75th birthday and play with grand kids.  Maybe we might even get the rest of the trailer waxed?????  Here through Nov. 3 or so.

A QUICK TRIP TO UTAH 10/7-10/2011

While parked in Lake of the Springs, we left our trailer and drove our truck to Provo, Utah to spend the weekend with Kevin and Megan for the blessing of Pineapple.  We had some rain in the preserve the two days previous to our departure and found that it fell as snow in the Cascades we went through on our way east.

 It made for a beautiful drive through the mountains for the first 80 miles of our trip.

 We drove part way there and spent the night in Wells, Nevada and then arrived Saturday at Lehi, Utah where we spent the evening at Megan's parent's beautiful new home with lots of her family that came in from all over the country to be there for the blessing of Pineapple.
Naturally, there were ample arms to hold Pineapple, mainly the two grandmothers and one great grandmother, as you see in the next three pictures.

  And of course Batman, being two, had to do all he could to change the focus from little sister to himself.  He was quite good at it......

 ...much to the amusement of us all.  Grandpa McGhie always finds joy in his family!

 We were well fed by Megan's brother and sister-in-law, Derek and Hannah.  They were in charge of dinner that night.  We were fed original Korean dishes.  Yummy!!!  Hannah is from Korea and is quite the good cook!!

 It seems as though every family gathering has its traditions.  With the McGhies, it is back massages.

 With the Cowleys, it is Kevin wanting to wrestle his mother.  He is much more gentle than he used to be!!

We stayed the night in dive of a motel because it was homecoming night for BYU and every room in town was taken.  We had to drive south and find the first place that had a room.  Oh well, it was just for one night.  The next morning we were witnesses to a hit and run accident in the parking lot. 
But, we later had a good time at church and Pineapple's blessing.  Afterwards, the family all gathered for pictures to document the event.

Us and them.

After church, we went back to Megan's folks house for lunch and more time together.  We then left about 4:30 PM and drove west to Wells, where we spent the night again.  We slept 10 hours!  Then Monday, we drove the rest of the way home to our trailer, spent the night and the next morning, moved the trailer to a better site, on the hill with a better view and better cell phone service.
This is the view out our front door.

Out the front door and to the rear.

Out the front door and to the front of the trailer.  There was a severe forest fire here 15 years ago and the brush is just starting to grow back and a few trees are beginning to take hold.  It is so quiet here that the noisiest time is in the evening when the crickets start to chirp.  We love it in this spot.

We will be here until Oct 19.  Then we will head west to Santa Rosa area to visit more family!