Kelly's Wedding

Last weekend was my niece Kelly’s wedding in downtown Minneapolis. I flew from Phoenix to Minneapolis with no problems except for the very cold hike from the light rail station to the hotel – walked about 6 blocks! My sister Ruth and her son Tom came from Michigan. We explored the skywalk system which is all indoors. Tom and Ruth are in front of the IDS Center, where I worked for a few months! As we walked around we found St. Olaf’s Catholic Church and went to Saturday mass – look at their pipe organ! The wedding, dinner and dance were at the top floor of the Millenium Hotel, which has a fantastic domed roof and gives a view of the skyscrapers downtown! My nighttime pictures are blurry, but here is the beautiful couple – Kelly and Matt. My other niece, Elizabeth and her husband Isaac posed in front of the skyline just at dusk – the view outside was so amazing! My sister and others toasted the happy couple, then the wedding dance commenced. The band was wonderful, the food was awesome and the company was so fun. What a great weekend!

From Lytle Creek, CA to Quartzsite, AZ

Last week found us by Los Angeles. We stayed in a campground by Lytle Creek. The forecast was for torrential rains - signs in our canyon warned of possible flooding and mudslides (typical California). Well, Lytle Creek swelled somewhat as you can see, but it didn't threaten anything, since the rains didn't come as much as predicted. We woke up to a dusting of snow but it quickly melted. Also, the most amazing jet contrail just glowed in the morning light - it has a shadow of some kind! The very bottom picture here shows the contrast of wonderful palm trees and snowy hills all around - very unique to me. After visiting Ron's sisters we traveled on to Quartzsite and set up our spot in the desert. Some of the ocotillo cactus are in leaf, and I caught the first little barrel cactus of the year in bloom! Spring is coming (eventually). Behind Ron you can see some of the campers that dot the Quartzsite valley. Behind me, our camper is way down there on the valley floor - can't you see it by the cactus? The big valley picture is supposedly where gold lays, although Ron hasn't found any of it yet. This weekend I am braced for the big weather change since I am flying to Mpls. for my niece's wedding - it is supposed to be a high of 7 degrees! I will huddle up to the heaters with my family. Maybe I'll be able to get some pictures of my beautiful niece and her man!

After an icy trip from South Dakota to Arizona, we finally arrived at Gold Basin, the first stop on our winter adventure. During the 30’s this area was filled with hopeful miners, the gold nuggets dispersed ages ago throughout the gravel and sands that ran off from the Grand Canyon. The morning dawned cold (low 30’s) and so still you could hear Las Vegas, a good 60 miles away. Here is a Joshua tree in the early morning light. I hiked to the top of a small mountain and got a view all the way to Lake Meade and a view of the valley leading down to the beginning of the Grand Canyon. Supposedly a meteorite zoomed down this valley and scattered fragments, one of which Ron might have found – we will ask John to look at it to determine if it is so. Also here is a picture of a beautiful purple rock which I just can’t identify, although I saw a stringer of it between shale (shist?) layers. What do you think, John and Elizabeth? Ron got busy metal detecting and loves to do this – he gets an adrenaline rush from wondering what the sounds he hears could be. The Joshua trees are so unique, they look a lot like animals and people if you look long enough (maybe I’m getting loopy in the desert!) So with rain the forecast, we decided to go to Los Angeles area to see the family.

Christmas in Sioux Falls area

We spent Christmas with Ron's daughter's family who lives by Sioux Falls. The dogs always greet you when you arrive - it's hard to take their picture, but I succeeded here! Embracing the frigid weather, we walked through the Christmas-tree-lighted park to see the beautiful Sioux Falls, which had special illumination for Christmas. The wind was so cold it took your breath away, but the walk was worth it! I took a picture of the girls and Ron, and another one of Katelynd and Jana. Myra was a trooper, running as if it wasn't cold at all! We had a lovely time visiting. Snow fell quite heavily Christmas Day, so it was definitely a white Christmas! We left early Wednesday for home; the roads were really slippery and the ice fog coated the car antenna so it swayed wildly; the windshield iced up and I tried to clear it with blue juice - a big mistake, it smeared everything up. So anyhow, after some jittery driving in the fog behind the snow plow, we made it to Mitchell in 2 hours, the sun came up and the roads were dry and clear all the way home. Whew! Well, next post will hopefully be from warmer climes! Until then.

Early Christmas

We had Christmas with Sue's kids early this year. So we decorated right after Thanksgiving. Check out the VERY tall tree we axed from the forest!

I decided to try to make a garland out of real pine boughs. I took branches from all 4 Ponderosa pine trees on our land (we don't have very many, I discovered!) and cedar and junipers in the back yard. They had little berries on them so they were awesome. Check out the garland and table decoration I made - all thanks to Martha Stewart's website!

The kids came over and we had awesome steak sandwiches by John and soup; then we opened our gifts and Santa's stockings. At first I could not figure out what the tripod thingy was - can you guess?

The next day it was really snowing - we have about 6 inches. I was chairman of the quilt show and it was well attended despite the snow. I entered my Christmas quilt, finished it just in time! Here it is.

Next post may be from Arizona - we are looking forward to the warm weather!

Kristi and Mike stop by

Saturday Kristi, Ron's daughter, and her family stopped by. They were able to stay and extra day and we went to Wind Cave and Mt. Rushmore. The animals were out and about and it was fun to show them to Yanna - she's the foreign exchange student staying with them. Myra kept wanting to see the tiger, but I think she wanted to see a mountain lion - thank goodness we didn't see one!

Delivering Horses

Last week, Dusty and I went to Great Falls, Montana, to deliver her horses to the trainer. The scenery was beautiful and the weather wasn't too bad (50's, but drizzly). We stopped in a little Victorian-style town for lunch (Dusty is in front of the old hotel) and had German noodle soup - very dumply and good! The sun peeked out just in time to light up some giant wind generators. In the morning the fog covered the valleys and hills and the sunrise turned everything pink. Beautiful!