Journey to Alaska and back!

Our journey to Alaska, via Issaquah to visit with Melinda and Joaquin and kids, started on Memorial Monday, 5/31/ bright and early.   We headed to BV to hook up with Jeff and Sandy Dunn to continue our travels via Wyoming with an overnight stay at Homewood Suites in Rock Springs, WY.

We were in a huge 2 bedroom suite with complimentary BBQ hamburgers and byob!  Breakfast was wonderful, and we got an early start to Stanley, ID.

Idaho was probably the most beautiful area, with our travels taking us via very scenic highways!

The third night we were in Moses Lake, WA at the Moses Lake Inn, with only 2 1/2 hours to Melinda's!

The really funny part is that we ended up following Melinda, kids , and a car full of balloons on the way to here house.   Once she got there, she immediately closed the garage door... odd?   However, the fun surprise is that she had 63 balloons hanging throughout the home in a surprise celebration of Ron's birthday!!  What a fabulous surprise!!

Ron's Birthday!

Ron, my wonderful husband, turns 63 tomorrow, the 30th!   One year away from a State park pass at half price!   Today we had John, Carol, Rachel and Marla over and had a fun time visiting Territory days and returning with tired feet!   We had a bar b que of stuffed chicken breasts... stuffed with goat cheese, Basil, and dried tomotoes.. Very Good!   After everyone left we took a short (2 hour) nap!   Well needless to say we are still up at 1;00 am!  Very unusual for us early birds to bed.  Wonder if we will sleep late tomorrow... doubtful! 

Tomorrow Heather, Keith, Jake, Ryan and Tyler are coming down to share in their Papa's birthday.   They are off to Albania the 5th of June, so that will be great to see them ahead of time.    Will add pictures when I get them... heard that before, so will try to steal some soon!

Trinidad... almost! May 22nd

We had planned a fun weekend with our friends in Trinidad, but the wind was so ferocious that we decided just to drive down for a fun Lobster pot boil at the group campground in Trinidad.    Our Cougar had to stay home, but we had a fun time.  It was terribly windy, with a camp stove totally blowing off of the picnic table!   Crystal and Dave planned this party and there were tons of our friends there!   The dinner consisted of Lobster, King Crab, corn on the cob, sausages, potatoes, etc, which was just jumped onto plastic table clothes.   The hard part was trying to make sure the food did not blow away!!   Ron drove us back that evening.   It only took an hour and a half, so about the same as going to Heather and Keith's!
Will introduce pictures when I have them.... See ya!!

Cherry Creek State Park May 13th to the 16th

We always heard Cherry Creek State Park was a great place to camp... but in the middle of Denver????  You must be crazy!  HOWEVER...we took the Cougar to Cherry Creek on Thursday afternoon and had the unique opportunity to meet Melinda, Cruz , and Mia there while setting up the Cougar!  Cruz and Mia helped push the buttons and see the crunched up 5th wheel turn into a wonderfully spacious home.   The park has a beautiful swim beach complete with a large sandy area.   There are tons of room around the full hook up campsites, and lots of things to do.  Thursday evening John and Carol came over for drinks and dinner... in that order.   Had a fun, fun time also!  Friday evening Melinda, Cruz and Mia came over for Salmon and steaks, and we had a great time despite the wind and rain!   Saturday morning we headed to Aunt Jerry's and Uncle Gary's to do the stampin party, then we rejoined again in the afternoon with Carol and John for a fun steak and salmon dinner again.  Saturday evening we had to move to a primitive site... ( no electricity)   We survived... thanks for asking... lol   We just love entertaining!   In fact we can turn my 'office' into a Happy Hour buffet in no time flat!!  We are planning on going back to Cherry Creek while the kids are here for a wedding, that way we won't be far away.    And yes, you can have too much fun!  See ya,.... oh and more pics to follow... someday!

Lathrop State Park with Friends

We got the Cougar on Cinco de Mayo, then headed to Lathrop State Park, just West of Walsenburg for Mother's Day weekend.   The truck pulled the Cougar great!  Coming home it was really windy, so not quite as much fun.  Thanks to Lucky and Dave for plunging ahead on the way home and reporting the wind conditions!  We had side winds gusting up to 50 miles an hour heading home on Monday.. but we made it and so did they.. Thanks God!

We had so much fun remembering how to use a trailer with wheels and that we could actually go places!!  Exciting!   The fun part was on Monday I got to use my new 'office' and it worked out great!  

Four Trailers took their maiden voyage that weekend.  Bonnie and Paul had their 17' Casita which was adorable,  Tracy had a brand new adorable 18' trailer... quite a Martini hut!  Jan and Paul had a new motor home with garage in tow!   Pretty cozy, even had a king size bed!!  Fourth but not last was ours, and we really enjoyed it!  There were others there, including Dave and Lucky, Brad and Kathryn, Bret, Cheryl, Steve and puppies, Chris and Jim, Bart and Carol, Sharon and Gary, and Michelle!   What a fun time!  Pictures will follow when I get them transferred... See ya!

New Cougar!

I thought we should start this blog to tell about our travels in the future, and mostly so we can remember! We just went through quite a week.. Ron went to Camping World to buy a part for the Princess's toilet ( our other motor home). While there.... he decided to look at trailers.. Why not, can't hurt.... lol

So a few days later, we both went to Camping World to look. We found a wonderful 5th wheel, that our '95 F150 was borderline on pulling. Monday we called my favorite car salesman , Mike Nero, and asked if he could find a truck for us. Ron hates to go truck shopping, so thought this might make it easier.

A few hours later he found a perfect fit for us! In the meantime, Ron took his '95 to Don, his transmission friend, which proceeded to to tell us the '95 could pull it, but probably for only 30 miles!

We looked at the 2006 F250 Diesel and took it immediately to Don, and he test drove it and found it to be a fine truck, which could pull up to 16,000 lbs. The nice part of all this is we got it for a really good price due to a mess up on the website. We were able to buy it for the price they would give a potential buyer, trading it in at 'rough' trade price. About 8,000 under priced... nice for us and they honored the price due to my buying 5 previous cars from them. Good idea!

Well, now we have a beautiful new truck, but we needed a hitch. Ron took the truck to Dee's RV on Tuesday, and found a perfect hitch. Also he took a quick look around the lot and found a trailer I should probably look at.... So... after work, we went down to Dee's and looked at the trailer. Oh my gosh it was perfect!! So, if Dee could work magic, take our TrailLite, Alpha and clear our note, we would possible get it. Dee did even better and took 8,000 off the Cougar 5th wheel! So here is the question on Wednesday morning while Gene and Ron were bringing the Alpha back from BV. "Where do we take the Alpha? Camping World or Dee's?"

I went down to Dee's that morning to confirm the numbers, called Ron up and said excitedly " Take it to Dee's!"

Note my new "office!"   The desk is even left handed!

Below is the link to my Picasa in case you want to see some more pictures... This is one of my first blogs... as you can tell... lol  Bye for now!


!http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=sharonplace&target=ALBUM&id=5466648366870366641&authkey=Gv1sRgCNrFrvLazODKxQE&feat=email

2009 Christmas Pictures of our Family

Sharon and I hope all of you will have a Merry Christmas and a Happy Holiday season!!

Our lives are full of blessings! We are very cognizant that we are more fortunate than most people, and we do not take for granted the many blessings we enjoy which we do not deserve.

Without a doubt, however, our number one blessing is our family!!! We love each of them and are so grateful they are all in good health and are doing so well.

Here is a snapshot of each of our kids and their families.



Curtis and Heather Burke and Schuyler (6), Morgan (4) and Graydon (2) continue to love sailing and being involved in sports. Ron enjoyed watching Heather play soccer and was glad he wasn't playing against those gals! Curtis works at Dell and Heather is a full-time mom.




In this picture (left to right) are Morgan, Graydon and Schuyler.





Keith and Heather Johnson and Jacob (9), Ryan (8) and Tyler (almost 7) are very much involved in the private school which the boys attend, and are also very active in their church. Keith works at i-Behavior and Heather teaches school and drives a school bus.




Bryan and Kristall Burke and Sawyer (3) and Emerson (2 months) are having their lives defined right now with Emerson as she gets used to the world. Kristall tries to find time to work on her film scripts, but Emerson keeps interrupting her! Bryan works for Progressive Insurance and Kristall is a full-time mom.




Joaquin and Melinda Flores and Cruz (5) and Mia (almost 3) are having a great time exploring the Pacific Northwest, since they just moved there a month ago. Joaquin works for Avaya and was just recently transferred which is why they get to explore new territory. Melinda is also a full-time mom.



John and Janiece Dickson and JD (2) are having fun watching JD grow up and trying to stay at least two steps ahead of him. John works for LD Systems and Janiece works for The Woodlands Home Association.

We wish each of you a safe and fulfilling New Year, and hope our paths will cross in the near future.