As I'm writing this Christmas Letter Blog it is snowing hard outside. I love it here when it snows. It is so beautiful, especially with the evergreen trees heavy with the snow. It looks like we will be lucky this year and have a White Christmas after all.
And now for news of some of the years events. For more information about each one be sure to check out my blog: www.knotaklu.blogspot.com and for Mona and my travels in the motorhome, our other blog: www.monamark.blogspot.com
Unfortunately, Mona was still working in January when it was time for the annual snowbird trip south. Here's my camp just north of Lake Havasu City. It was pretty much my standard trip with stops along the Oregon Coast, visiting my brother in Palm Springs, the ham convention near Quartzsite Arizona, kayaking the Colorado River, etc.
This year the Seattle Seahawks made it again to the Superbowl. Since it was held in Phoenix I decided to go there for a couple of days and take in some of the festivities. Downtown Phoenix was Superbowl Central. It's amazing how crazy fans are.
Here we are at my annual trip to help with branding on my Son-In-Law family's ranch in Montana. While Mona enjoyed the experience, I'm pretty sure it won't be an annual event for her. For me though, being a city boy, I really enjoy the work and the opportunity to help out. The meal they serve to those who help is worth the trip by itself.
I told Mona that when she retired we would take the motor home up to Alaska and visit her life long best friend, Vickie, who lives in Homer. Mona retired in May and we took off shortly afterwards for close to 3 months traveling up, back and around Alaska. Mona and Vicky had a birthday party together with Vickie's two grand daughters, Amelia and Greta, in attendance.
Mona refers to Vickie's son and daughter as her "God Children". That's them on the ends, Lyra and Laeil with Rob, Lyra's husband in the middle with their two daughters.
I have this thing about going to Alaska and spending a couple of weeks inside Denali National Park at the only campground inside the park. I just love it there.
Unfortunately we had to hurry home due it illnesses in both our families along with some friends. Usually we would seek out some special and unique places to camp. We both would much rather not stay in a crowded campground or, heaven forbid, an RV Park. In our rush to get home we thought any old rest area would do. To our delight we spent one night just off the highway alongside this lake. Not bad.
Another night, in fact the only night we stopped after it was dark, we ended up driving into a residential area in British Columbia. We we so tired that we just pulled off into this wide area next to some newly constructed homes. To our surprise, this was the view we woke up too. We figured God was rewarding us for hurrying home.
Again, for more on our Alaska trip check out our other blog: www.monamark.blogspot.com
Shortly after we got back I had surgery on my shoulder which pretty much limited my activities for a while.
Mona and Doug, her "Ex", had their retirement parties on consecutive days so their kids, Max and Lucy, could attend. I was really impressed with how both of them, Mona and Doug, are respected by their respective working associates.
No Christmas Letter would be complete without showing off the grand kids, Saray, Raif, and little Celine.
Raif played in a touch football league for 5 year olds. OMG is was fun. Raif scored on these running play. Once though he tried to get away from an opponent by doing a "Russel Wilson" spin and heading off the wrong direction. It didn't work but was sure funny.
And my girls watching the game.
I'll blog on Christmas later so you will just have to stay tuned.
Happy Holidays from those of us in North Idaho.
2 comments:
Merry Christmas!
Hi, Mark,
I just found your post on the Yahoo forum about your frame extension failure. The same thing just happened to me this week -- sheered. Would you mind if we exchanged emails? My email address is santhony2003 at hotmail dot com. Thank you, Suzanne
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