Hi Grandpa George

There he is in the picture on top...Rachel...how do I paint???

Once I learn how to insert a picture and then if I can remember how Rachel taught me to "paint" I will insert a picture and put a circle around a man dressed in light coloured (for my Canadian friends) clothes. His name is Grandpa George.

As Justine and I were waiting to get into the Rozengaarde Gardens to see the beautiful tulips there was a family behind us and the kids all called out "Hi Grandpa George" G.G. was already inside and waiting for them by a post. He heard them, took off his hat and waved it at the kids and had a big smile on his face.

He certainly wasn't young and it made me wonder how many more "Hi Grandpa George"s he would hear. It does come to an end...

I love being Nanna. I love my Hayden, Kayla, Lily, Maria, Eden and now little Cooper. I don't know how many more, if any, that there may be and that doesn't matter to me. I love them and I hope that I have many many more years to watch them grow. I'm being selfish but I want more than seeing them get their drivers licenses...I want graduations and weddings and great grandchildren!

I miss my Dad. I miss Wilhelmina. I miss Toni. It does come to an end.

I'm loving every minute.

Tulip Festival Mt Vernon Style

now I have to figure out how to move pictures....Meredith...Rachel!!!???

This morning Justine said, "I want to go to the Tulip Festival" Well, of course I want to go too and I have for years so I jumped right on that. We have some pictures but I don't know how to insert them with my new computer....I'll work on it.

It really makes me want to buy tulips but with the Lawmower Men and goats around here I don't think I should bother. I should just go to the Tulip Festival more often.

New addition to the Family

On Monday evening Meredith our oldest daughter who is staying with us came upstairs and informed us that she was having some dicomfort.....What is discomfort....Anyways it turns out that this dicomfort was the beginnings of labor. You got it...she was having child #2.....we know that this one would be a boy, but his name was still up in the air. They hadn't chosen a name. BUT Nana (Lisette has given baby X a nick name. During the Olympics we saw some speed skaters and one was from North Korea. His last name was Kwak....So that is what we named the baby.....Baby Kwak.

By midnight Meredith and Husband Marco were at the hospital and admitted. By 1:06 AM on Tuesday the 6th Baby Kwak was with us.....Meredith can give you more details.....I don't want to know. Talk about quick...lets get it done and over with....It sounded like bad pain was for maybe 5 minutes once water was broke.

So introducing the newest member to the family Marco Cooper Tobias Munoz weighing in at 7Lbs 9oz and 21" long.

While mom, dad, and new brother were in the hospital Maria was at home with Nana. Not feeling well and wanting to be held all the time. During one of the moments where she felt better Maria made her way to this spot.

Here Maria's favorite spot in the Kitchen....When ever someone opens the refridgerator door this is where she goes right away. She is eating some sliced ham here.

Maria was happy to see her mom and dad when they got home......she is a little leary of her little brother....thats more because she isn't feeling good.

Gilbert AZ Another Side Trip

So we spent the last week in Arizona. Yup we bought another house.

This one is maybe a 5 minute drive to the Phoenix/Mesa Gateway Airport. A nice quiet neighborhood and close to all the amenities you might want. Besides enjoying the sunny weather there....this time we had to work hard all week. From early morning till late in the evening. We had to accomplish a lot of things. Things we did were: install new door knobs on all interior doors, new light fixtures, new ceiling fans for in the bedrooms, all new faucets throughout the house, painting of some areas allowing us to get toilets in place, cleaning of the pool, trimming and weed removal on the landscaping, repair of the airconditioning unit, ordering of new blinds (for ones that were missing), buying and install of new appliances, scheduling of painter and the ordering of new carpet. With all that we were doing there was not too much time to play. We had a great time taking care of all these things in a short time.

Our friends Mike and Chris Taggart (Realestate Agent also) helped us by leading us in the right direction refering people to use and providing us with tools to use. We did bring some on the plane, but the get heavy real fast.

We spent the last couple of hours on Friday enjoying the sun and the pool, then it was off to the Airport and off we went homeward bound.
Sometimes its hard to come home when we come to the cloudy,windy and rainy weather that is often here in the Pacific northwest
Here we are just getting on the freeway in Bellingham heading home.....Hmm 4 hours ago we were sitting by the pool.

Another New Beach

Today we found a new Beach. This one has a little different use. Its a beach that the turtles come to for feeding. We have been told that sometimes there are more than a hundred turtles during a 15 minute period. popping their heads shells or fins out of the water. We saw 4 this morning in a short time.
Beach entrance The reason we didn't see anymore was these guys. A father and son collecting their net they had put out the night before to catch Lobsters. Their presence prevented more turtles from coming in to shore to feed.

Here they have collected their net and are ready to head home. They caught some stuff but they didn't say what.

In order to see the most turtles we needed to be there at the beach by sunrise. It was a beautiful sunrise.Oh oh...what do we have here....Lisette doing her salute to the sun.... Wait I may be mistaken.....Oh yes it is the anti aging exercises. These exercises wake up the skin making it feel alive

You slap your arms up and down, you swing your arms

And you put your fingers in your ears and then presto you take them out

Now that one confuses me.....Its just waked...I tried the class and laughed thru most of it

But I do see how it can wake the senses.

Only two more sleeps

We are winding down this month long vacation and will have to go home after two more lseeps...sad I kniow...
We started the day off right with going to the airport 48 hours in advance a getting an exit row seat on the airplane!!! Yeah for nice Alaska employees who shall remain nameless because she wasn't supposed to do that. We sooo apreciate the extra leg room.
Breakfast at our favorite Hanalima Bakery. We both tried something different, chili cheese omlette with rice and a breakfast burrito we are getting smarter...we both only ate half!
Up to Annini Beach for more snorkeling and again we saw turtles along with the wonderful fish. I was amazed that I saw a couple

Napali Coast Hike

Karen looks like she might not be totally convinced that this hike is the right thing to do...Mark??? You start out hiking straight up, pretty much right away...

But you get rewarded quickly with a view of Ke'e Beach below you...Karen looks like she's afraid to fall off the cliff...right down to the beach!The waves were really calm today so we saw people snorkeling.

Up the trail again, using the roots as steps...

Me and my honey...oops wrong guy!

What a view of the Napoli Coast...

There we go, I have the right honey now...
What a wonderful hike to share with friends...

more views along the path...for me the downhill parts are a real challenge so I have to remember that all the up have to come back down. I walk really close behind Toyke so when I have to take those steps that make my knee hurt I hold onto his back.

It sure is nice to be able to do it, even if it does hurt.

Toy ke and I went about half way to the beach, that was enough knowing that I would have to go on all the "downs" going back. Mark and Karen kept going and made it all the way to the beach. They have some great pictures of it. It's actually covered in big rocks, no sand.

We went back to Ke'e beach and did some snorkeling, reading and fed corn chips to the chickens...they ate right out of my hand... If I was good at this blogging stuff I would circle the two people that are inbetween the palm trees and say, that's Toyke and I. Pugmires took this picture and Toyke zoomed in on it and yup, it really is us!