March 2019

12 December 2014

The year ends with an exciting month in December. To begin with, staying in Bullhead City, AZ for the month of December was supposed to be a break from the winter. Well it was cold, windy and even had snow. However, it was better than the bitter cold of Idaho Falls, ID.

My big mistake this month was to leave the car door open while backing out the drive way. CRUNCH! I bent it and had to have it replaced. While it was in the garage Dawn and I flew to Phoenix to be with Monica and family for her graduation. She obtained her MBA from WA Carey business school at Arizona State University.

When we returned to Bullhead City, AZ three days later the car was repaired and we left Thursday night to spend Christmas in California.

We stayed in Bakersfield the first night before arriving at Wayne and Robyn Lau’s home. We spent a couple of days with Kesler before he left for Utah.

We arrived just in time for the annual Sacramento Santa Run just before Christmas.

Just the right amount of time to cut down a Christmas tree and have lunch with Ben, Rebecca and Sage before we went to the movies with Indy to see “Night at the Museum II.

We had a wonderful meal with “Big” Wayne’s family Christmas eve, then spent the Christmas morning with Indy and parents. It was a great time. Robyn prepared a delicious meal of prime rib with all the trimmings.

I needed to mention that Robyn had given us a pass to the Auburn Valley Golf Course for Christmas. So, we took Indy and carted around the beautiful course while playing golf on the only day it did not rain before Christmas.

Later that week Dawn and I visited our friends in Yuba City, CA. First we visited Marilyn Frerish, then had lunch with Pat Skidmore, and after wards drove to Sutter to visit with the Knorrs. Betty has had a recent surgery and was feeling weak. Lastly, we visited with Dawn’s good friend Kathy Glassco.

Robyn had given us tickets to see the “Jersey Boys” in Las Vegas on Tuesday so we left Grass Valley on Saturday and stayed in Reno one night before driving to Wellington to visit with Jerry Shorter and Judy his wife. Then on Sunday night we stayed in Bishop, CA at the El Dorado motel. The next day we did something crazy. We took highway 168 across the dessert to Death Valley some 78 miles. The pavement ended at 25 miles so we drove across very rough and dusty roads to Scotty’s Castle. This was the first time we had been there. The next stop was Ryolite to see the glass house. Passing through Beaty, NV (where Dawn graduated from high school), we finally arrived in Las Vegas. After driving through the nightmare maze of the strip we finally parked our car Harrahs hotel. Then on Monday we transferred to the Flamingo hotel where we stayed and walked to see the “Jersey Boys” at the Paris hotel. All in all it was a delightful time.

We are glad to be back to Bullhead City, NV and just before the new year the Mariners arrived with sick kids to spend a day of two. Roxy was really sick with the flu and then Monica came down ill and finally Burton got sick while here. Adam stayed well and we had a great time at the shooting range and an outing to Oatman mining town. The Mariners left early because of the flu. It was still good to see the family.

Now that December is over and the new year on its way there are many new things we have to look forward to. Looking back on the 2014 year, I can say it was a good year. We are making plans for the year 2015 and will go over those plans in the first blog for the new year. I can say family is the most important part of our lives. I love my wife dearly and our kids and grand kids. I wish for good health and a strong testimony of the gospel to carry us through the rest of our lives.