Happy Holidays 2018,
We celebrated our 37th anniversary on January 3 with a nearby hike. We are enjoying Tucson! During the year, we visited UA campus often, going to a Wynton Marsalis concert, seeing plays The King and I and The Book of Mormon, the Tucson Book Festival, Homecoming Football game, private tour of the Native American pottery collection at Arizona State Museum, Assad Brothers guitar concert, and a lot more. We attended the Tucson International Mariachi Festival at Casino Del Sol, watching children’s mariachi bands for hours. We went to the Wa:k Pow Wow at San Xavier Mission, the Tucson Rodeo Parade, Biosphere 2, Tucson Museum of Art, hiked to see petroglyphs in various places, drove up to Mount Lemmon, visited galleries, and the Tucson Zoo. We visited Kitt Peak and stayed overnight at Rancho De La Osa.
Lulu spent several days in Dallas in February, with Whitney and Brian’s families, and seeing friend Linda’s first grandbaby. In May, we flew to London, staying with Claire. Lulu attended the Chelsea Flower Show. We met friends Nico and Neil for lunch in Wimbledon. We celebrated Papa’s 72nd birthday with a tea party in London and rented a thatched cottage in Norfolk with Claire’s family joining us. We flew to Verona, Italy, visiting a pasta factory with a UA Study Abroad class, where we had a 10 course lunch, and enjoyed the city sights. We took the train from Verona to Orvieto, staying for two weeks, experiencing the Corpus Domini Festival, in its 754th year. We enjoyed several lunches with our friend, Alba, while in Orvieto. We visited Etruscan ruins with another UA Study Abroad group, several hill towns of Umbria, and picnicked in the Val d’Orcia, the most beautiful landscape of Italy!
After returning from Italy in mid June, Emerson & Colby stayed a week with us. They attended a nearby day camp and we took field trips in the afternoons. Their favorite was sitting under the Campbell/Rillito Bridge as thousands of bats flew out at sunset. We drove to Colorado on July 2, with an overnight in Santa Fe along the way. Our four children, their significant others, and six grandchildren joined us for July 4 week at Bear Lodge in Breckenridge. It was a joyful time! We took the long way home, visiting Mesa Verde, Valley of the Gods, and Monument Valley.
In early August we took a 12 day trip. We visited Audrey’s family in Chicago, flew to Kentucky for a few days with Lulu’s parents, enjoying walks and a fun dinner with cousin Dickie and Susan, and drove to North Carolina for a visit with cousin Jane and husband, Fred. They beautifully renovated Aunt Rhea’s home. We loved sitting on their porch overlooking Jones Creek! In late August, we drove up to Sedona to spend a day with Lulu’s childhood friend Pam and her husband Kenith, visiting AZ for the first time. We visited Lynne in San Antonio in March, May, July, and November for her 96th birthday.
In September/October, we went on two short car trips, the first to northern Arizona to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, driving along the spectacular Vermillion Cliffs. We took a boat tour on Lake Powell, visited Antelope Canyon, and Sedona again. On the second car trip, we visited northern New Mexico, spending a day in Chaco Canyon, a day at Acoma Pueblo, and watching the early morning mass ascension at the Albuquerque Balloon Festival. Wow! We spent two weeks in early November with Audrey’s family in Chicago. Brrr! We celebrated Thanksgiving in Texas with Claire, Whitney, Brian, and their families.
Claire’s family moved from London to Phoenix during the summer. We are fortunate to see them every few weeks, for an overnight or a meal together. Lulu is still blogging and hiking. Papa bikes several times per week and works on leather projects. We continue to stay in touch with several of our Boys & Girls Club kids. Two graduated from college in 2018, two are married, and most others are in college. We got together in May for an Italian dinner, and we see each of them over meals every few weeks.
We are grateful for every day of 2018 and look forward to a happy 2019! We wish you a very happy holiday season!
