Happy 31st Birthday to Val

Happy Birthday to Valerie!  This is a late post but her birthday was on 12/22.  She's 31 now and it's fun having her live so much closer to us now.  We still need to get together for lunch or dinner but we celebrated on Christmas eve.  Arn and I made cake pops and they turned out great. 

Catherine with a 'C'

 

We lost a gem this month - 12/18/2014.  Catherine with a C, Mom, Gram, passed away peacefully at 96 years old.  We will always love her, miss her and remember all of the fun times we had with her. 
We will think of her daily when Arn says.........'In my humble opinion' which he says frequently. Also when I ask Arn not to do a Shulta Bulta job of something.  Also when I go barefoot in the house I will always remember her warning about getting a cold.  I will always think of her when I see a 'stone front house'.  I'll always see her when I am taking a picture of Arn and watch him look away from the camera and lift his head a little to the sky.  Every time I make her cheesecake we know that it is the best one we've ever tasted. I'll always remember the fun trip I took with her when I was pregnant with Val and we came out to Colorado Springs.  We went to the Garden of the Gods, to the top of Pikes Peak, the Will Rogers Shrine, and even went to the top of the Mother Cabrini Shrine (373 steps).  She even hiked in the Narrows in Zion in her orthopedic looking shoes. We will even think of her when we have a glass of wine, take one sip, and hear her say she was tipsy after one sip.  Rest in Peace, we love you!

The Tree Dec. 2014

This was one of the easiest years to get our Christmas tree.  We left home around noon, went to our secret tree spot, chose the tree, and was on our way home within an hour.  After getting home we had it up and in the stand within 20 min.  It's the best one ever (we say that every year).

Arn's Turkey Pot Pie

He's done it again......Arn made a beautiful turkey pot pie with homemade crust from Thanksgiving leftovers.....It was absolutely delicious!

Thanksgiving 2014

We had a great Thanksgiving this year.  Arn had everything organized when I returned from the cruise.  All of the kids brought food so we only had to make a couple of things.  Catch Phrase was the game of choice.....all in all a nice time.  We checked out Garden of the Gods the next day with Chris and Maren.  We really do need to spend more time there.

Cruisin with Gma (and the Zohourys)

Roatan, Hondouras

The view from my sis's back yard.

Our little vacation spot after we got home from the cruise.

I was able to go on a cruise last week with my mom, my sister, and her family.  We had a good time and it was so nice to be able to spend so much time with them.  We did a lot of relaxing, eating, reading, sleeping, card playing, and people watching.  We cruised out of Tampa and went to Roatan, Hondouras, Costa Maya, Cozumel (didn't stop due to high winds), and Grand Cayman.  Andy was able to do a lot of scuba diving.  The shows at night were fun and entertaining. Gma enjoyed the quality time, eating with the family and the shows each night.  Thank you to Lisa and Nasser.  Needless to say, memories were made....................After we got home we discovered a great beach bar on Clearwater Beach, Frenchies Beach Bar for a great grouper sandwich, and a super deli named The Lucky Dill for a good rueben.  We took a big walk on the Pinellas Trail (rails to trails) and I was able to have lunch with a good friend from nursing school who I hadn't seen for years.  I even was able to swing by Winterhaven and see Jack and Greg.  Jack is 90 now and I'm not sure he'll remember that I was there but it was good to see them.

Jack - Age 90, enjoying his milk and cookies.