A Short Weekend at the Cabin

We were able to get away for some time at the cabin from Friday evening through Sunday morning.

Kendall feeding the birds.

It didn't take them long to figure out that the food was back.

A very relaxing Saturday. Perfect marshmallows for a S'More snack.

Jake had actually found his way under the covers to take a nap. He loves the warm flannel sheets!

Grace and Kendall sharing a quiet moment.

A new picture frame found a home.

This morning we awoke to snow! It was so pretty coming down. We heard yesterday that there was a winter storm advisory for today. They are expecting 24 inches today! We would have loved to get snowed in there, but responisbiliites pulled us back to reality and we left by 9:30.

Snow on the little evergreen we planted this fall.

Party, Party

No pictures to post today, but we had a busy weekend attending parties.

Friday night was a celebration of 50 years for Kendall's friend Retha and last night was a dinner party with my work team. I'm sorry we're missing Rachel's big bash this evening as she celebrates turning 3.

Today has been rainy and cool. Soup weather! There were lots of dripping umbrellas in the foyer of the church this morning.

New Artwork

Some new art work arrived in the mail recently. I was talking to Julie/Asa as he was creating these pieces. It adds a splash of color to the refrigerator!

Bunko

Last night was another fun filled evening of Bunko, Food and Friends. We try to take a group picture every Christmas. Last month it was here in front of the tree.

Christmas 2007

More Christmas Memories

Here is an eclectic view of some holiday scenes

Emma convincing Phebe to have her nails done too. I gave manicures and pedicures to Emma and Rachel. Girls have to have their nails done for special occasions!

Lunch at The Casselman

Henry and Whitney looking cute at the Bell Ringing New Year's Eve

There was a Winter Storm Advisory when we headed to Pittsburgh the evening before our early AM flight. It was nice to walk across the covered walkway from the hotel to airline check in.

Open house at Aunt Joanna's.

We spent parts of Sunday, Monday and Tuesday at the hospital. We took Mom to the ED Sunday night when she was admitted with pneumonia.

She was able to get some much needed rest and was looking perky when we visited on New Year's Day.

Naomi & Daisy at the book discussion group (Eyes at the Window) that Phebe hosted. There was good attendance of cousins, uncles and aunts for an interesting discussion.

Some time for games of Wii.

Making Potato Candy With Pa

For those of you interested, the Potato Candy recipe is in THE Cookbook. Pa's version doesn't use any potatoes. It is cream, powdered sugar, peanut butter and butter. Emma and Rachel make this with Pa for special occasions. Stirring

Kneading on tippy toes

Gotta keep those hands dusted off!

One final roll

The finished product being plated

Mexican Train

We managed to get in a game of Mexican Train with Dad's brothers and Aunt Annie. Guess who won?? Me!!! Dad, Lorene & Anna
Anna, Lois, Eva Jean & Mom
Harold opening his end of year prize for winning the most Mini-Golf games for 2007

Name That Passenger!

Here's a game for you. Name the passenger that shared isle space with Kendall on our flight back from Pittsburgh today in row 15. Nice guy, travelling with his wife, 2 children and a small dog. I'm not sure what the prize will be, and since I already told Dad, he is disqualified and can't answer!

We have winners! The answer has come from the Weaver clan in IL. It is Lynn Swann of the great Pittsburgh City of Champions era. Here is a link of his speech when he was inducted into the Hall of Fame. http://www.profootballhof.com/history/release.jsp?release_id=425

Christmas Time

We had a wonderful long weekend at the cabin. We packed up the cats and headed out early Saturday morning. We spent some restful days not doing much of anything except opening gifts, reading and sleeping. We found a Christmas Eve service to attend in town. It had the right blend of children being children in a Christmas pageant and beautiful singing.

The tree

There was a bird feeder in my stocking and the birds like it as much as I do. It is hanging off the deck and easy to be seen from the table.

This bird had to do some acrobatics to hang on, but managed.

This size bird seemed to do better.

We came back to town this afternoon to have Christmas dinner at Kendall's cousin Marilyn's. Wonderful friends had just arrived from Illinois - just happen to be Kendall's cousin and Marilyn's sister Marge and her family.

Caroling

In the true spirit of the season we went bundled up in coats, gloves and scarves and headed off to a Christmas party and caroling. OK, so it was only 58, but the wind made it feel really cold! Thank goodness we had hot chocolate to carry with us to help keep us warm as well.

The Happy Couple

Of course Kendall and I are THE happy couple, but last night it was more celebrating of the past 50 years.

Dinner at a nice Italian restaurant

A cookie floating on a sea of creme brulee. A sign of things to come.

Waiting by the fire for the boat to come back to the dock after dinner.

After the ride. I guess it can be considered an Arizona sleigh ride. We were wrapped in blankets and sported winter coats.

Donna and Larry with our Gondolier, Jana, who serenaded us in Italian.

Snow

Kendall's parents arrived on Thursday for a visit. Friday we headed north to spend the night at the cabin.

There was still a dusting of snow from earlier in the week.

The tracks on the door mat were so cute we couldn't disturb them!

We played a few games of Sequence using red and green tiles in honor of Christmas (Kendall's idea). Donna and I won the first game, but the guys came back with a fury and won the next two.

Celebrating 50 years this month.

Saturday night we had the Hesston College men's and women's basketball teams here for pizza and Christmas cookies. 18 pizza, countless dozens of cookies and a good time. Very polite kids. They arrived from snowy Kansas earlier in the day and will be here playing local teams for the next few days.

A Different State of Mind

The weather the past two weeks feels more like I'm living in Illinois or the east coast. This morning was actually cold and foggy. The temperature was in the 40's and there were lots of accidents due to people not knowing how to drive in the fog.

http://www.fox11az.com/news/topstories/stories/kmsb-20071212-apjc-foggymorning.b6658f7.html

Caramel Corn

Another picture of food, what can I say? This afternoon was the first attempt at my mother-in-law's caramel corn. It isn't quite as good as hers, but as Kendall said - "we won't be throwing that out!". It sure made the house smell good.

A Visitor From the Midwest Continued

The annual lighting of the Courthouse was held last evening at 6:00. They had a narration of the real Christmas story and carols intermingled, sung by school children from the county prior to the lighting.

The lights all came on and it was gorgeous! Of course it was a cold 37 degrees with wind too!

Ivan assisted with the fire starter tasks when we got back to the cabin. Then we played Yahtzee and had warm cookies and hot chocolate.

Frost on the car this morning and a bone chilling 24 degrees! My wonderful husband warmed up the car before we headed back to town and church for the first Sunday in Advent.

Kendall and Ivan

A Visitor From the Midwest

This weekend a college friend of Kendall's came for a visit from Goshen.

We greeted him on Friday with LOTS of rain and cooler weather. We had over 2 inches in less than 12 hours, that's almost 1/3 of our annual rainfall in a year!

Yesterday we headed north to the cabin. Ivan checking out a cactus on the way.

We decided to pause on the journey to find out what this compound was. It is nestled in the valley with not much around it and we've never stopped to see what it was. Thanks to binoculars we were able to discern that it was a dairy farm.

In the town of Prescott we were had a late lunch at Kendall's Famous Burgers.