Back at Buckskin

It's January, and time again for our 3rd annual trip to Buckskin State Park, located on the Colorado River, just north of Parker, Arizona.  This time, one of our friends from church joined our group.  He just got into RVing last year after Don and I kept talking about how much fun we've had on our excursions.  

From left to right are the rigs for Jerry and Sandy, us, Gary and Doris, and Norm's trailer is at the far right of the picture. 

Norm took a moment to relax with his little dog, Jazzy.  She was perfectly happy snuggled in his arms.

And she was right by his side when he brought out the appetizers he made!  If her tongue had been a bit longer, I think I would have passed on the hors d' oeurves!

We all felt lucky as we headed out for a hike on Friday the 13th.  At our age, the best we can hope for is to make it all the way there and back!  Norm looks a bit worried.....maybe he's wondering why the rest of us are smiling.....

Doris is still smiling as she heads up the first hill, behind Jerry.  As usual, I am lagging behind, taking pictures along the way.

Does this pose remind you of the song, "Lean on Me"?  We were all thankful for the strategically placed benches along the 2 mile "walk".  I have to say walk, rather than hike.  Sandy will not go on hikes, so we have to be really careful on how we talk about our short jaunts.  Looks like she might be having second thoughts about our desert hike...err...walk.

There are a lot more hills to climb at this point.

The last part of the loop has a much easier path, thank goodness!

 Afterwards, Jerry is hard at work, making one of his famous peach cobblers in his Dutch oven.

 "Camping" to us means you don't have to cook all your meals over an open fire.  For this meal, we used   charcoal for the Dutch oven, a propane grill for the brats and an electric skillet to saute the mushrooms and onions.  We are truly equal opportunity users!

The purple sky and pink clouds are reflected in the calm water of the Colorado River.

Time to go sledding!

The Lord blessed us abundantly with snow before Christmas! Just a short trudge through the drifts of snow there was a perfect sledding hill almost directly behind Ken and Lisa's house. It was definitely more fun going down than climbing back up the steep incline, as you can see from the picture below. It did become easier as we made "steps" or should I say indentations into the hillside as we hiked/fumbled/trudged our way back to the top.

The pictures are more or less self-explanatory, revealing that some of us were directionally challenged, while others went headfirst into a bank of snow. In many of the pictures you'll see Jake, Bret and Kim's dog. He was constantly racing up and down the hill looking to retrieve his green tennis ball and almost got run over by sledders numerous times. It's a good thing he is quick! We had races, wipe-outs, rollovers and Nate even managed to find a cactus plant to run into at the end of one of his runs.

Time to take our sleds and head back to Ken and Lisa's house, we can come back again tomorrow!

Christmas in Parker!

For 3 days, we were all at Ken and Lisa's home in Parker. Their 5 bedroom, 5 bath home was big enough for the 8 adults and 5 grandchildren, plus 2 resident cats and one doggy visitor.

Besides playing in the snow, you may wonder what we did during that time. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words: Heidi cleaned her glasses after being hit with a snowball,
and Kyla cried "Uncle" as Grandpa pushed her face in the snow.
We had a snow fight in the back yard . We couldn't make snowballs since it was too powdery. Trying to make a snowball was like trying to nail jello to the wall.
Nate took time to pet Fred, one of the two cats who put up with the rest of us.
The "tweens" retreated to a bedroom upstairs, not to be seen for hours on end. They were fine with that until...
the little brother/cousin came in and started bugging them. This sure reminded me of Bret and his two sisters!
Even though Glen is not a cat lover, Fred didn't mind and promptly claimed his place while Glen sat on the couch.
Kyla and Nate spent time in the basement workout room with the DS and the Game box. That meant there were two floors between them and the older girls (no sibling squabbles).
Ken pitched snowballs at the squirrels who were persistent in going after the food in the bird feeders.
A lot of time was spent in the kitchen: eating, snacking, preparing food, cleaning up and starting all over again about an hour later.
Lisa put out peanuts for the jays on the back porch.
One of them was really thankful for the nice selection! The Pinon Jays and Blue Jays really love the nuts.
We went out to play in the snow Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. This is only part of the boots left in the basement! All sorts of sizes and colors!
Nate held his nose as Don applied glue to his arm and shoulder. Nate had run into a cactus while sledding and this got out all the needles, even though it was cold and stinky!
Numerous puzzles were completed. Both Glen and Ken are really good at putting the pieces together. They have a lot more patience than Don and I put together.
We wore Zebra hats and
Monkey socks!
We played cards and games. Heidi and Tatum were team one,
Lisa, Kyla and Nate were team two, and
Kim and Hailey were team three! It was a wonderful time for us to be with all of our children and grandchildren during this blessed season.