2018 Holiday Letter

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!

 

In Phoenix with Claire and Whitney

Whitney is attending a conference in Phoenix this week.  She flew in this morning, so Papa and I picked her up, then drove to a Postino’s restaurant to meet Claire and Mary for lunch.  We all chatted up a storm!  After lunch, Claire, Whitney and I went on a hike.  I loved every moment!

Dinosaur Valley State Park and More Fire

With lots of talking going on, we took our time getting out the door this morning.  We drove to Glen Rose to Dinosaur Valley State Park to look for dinosaur footprints in the Paluxy River.  We hiked for a couple of hours and found several tracks.  We stopped for lunch in Glen Rose at Hammond’s Barbecue, then back to our house in Alvarado for the afternoon.  The kids had a great time building another fire!  We stayed outside in the yard the rest of the afternoon, talking and keeping the fire stoked, with Claire, Whitney and I taking a walk on the property, Greta and Emerson feeding the horses, and Papa telling stories about Noah’s Ark.  It was wonderful family time.

Thanksgiving Day with Fire

We woke up to a cool morning in Alvarado, so after breakfast, the grandkids went out to build a fire.  They stuck with the fire all day!  They added branches, logs, and leaves until dinner time.  They smelled of smoke and there was one burned finger, but they had a great day making fire!  There were a couple of breaks to feed horses.  The rest of us cooked and talked and walked.  Thanksgiving Dinner was a feast!  We lingered at the table and took turns sharing what we are grateful for.  We love our family!

 

Thanksgiving Week in Texas

Papa and I flew to San Antonio on Monday, to spend a couple of days with Lynne.  We pulled out her Christmas decorations and decorated her apartment!  We enjoyed every moment and it was quite festive.  We enjoyed time with Lynne, eating meals and talking.  It was a nice visit.

We flew to Dallas this morning, rented a car, and drove to Alvarado, where we’ve rented a house in the country.  Claire, Whitney, and Brian, with their families, will be joining us later today.  Claire found the house on Homeaway a few months ago.  The house on Coyote Creek is spacious and has room to roam outside, with four horses grazing.  We’re looking forward to everyone’s arrival!

Whitney arrived by 4.  Brian wasn't far behind, so we started preparing dinner plus pies for Thanksgiving.  Greta helped with all the pies!  Claire arrived before 7.  We were so happy to see everyone!

Hiking in Sabino Canyon

Claire, Emerson, Colby, and I hiked 3 miles in Sabino Canyon this morning.  The creek was running, cottonwood tree leaves were turning, and it was a beautiful day!

Tucson Zoo Visit

Claire, Emerson, and Colby met us at the Tucson Zoo on Sunday at 11.  The weather was perfect, sunny and in the 70’s, for the animals to be active and at their best.  We had a picnic and fed the ducks in Reid Park.  What fun!