Snow and Sunshine. Family and Holidays.

Family

Pat and I have spent almost eight weeks enjoying our family and the holidays in Louisville, CO and Tempe, AZ.  During that time, we got to see my Mom (now known, at her request, as GeeGee) meet her first great grandchild;    

GeeGee and Jonah - mutual adoration.

Jonah greets GeeGee at the airport.

celebrated Thanksgiving in Louisville at Sara’s home with her family, my Mom, and Emily;  celebrated an early Christmas with Sara, Drew, and Jonah;

Jonah and Auntie Em.

He's just too cute to resist!

Like all babies, he liked the bows and wrapping paper best.

and enjoyed Christmas Eve,

Phoenix "Zoo Lites"

Christmas Eve with Emily.

Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day with Emily.  Lots of extended time with our daughters which we have missed since both of them left for college years ago.

We arrived in Colorado a day ahead of a significant snow storm.   

It was very cold!

Snow stuck around for about a week and melted just in time to make it easy for us to pick up my Mom and Emily who each flew in to meet Jonah for the first time and to spend the Thanksgiving  holiday with the rest of us.  The weather was actually almost balmy for the holiday weekend.  When we took my Mom and Drew (who was flying to Phoenix for work) to the airport on Tuesday morning, it was almost 60 degrees.  That afternoon a major cold front with snow moved in.  It started snowing around 6 p.m. and temperatures dropped fast and far.  During the next week, nighttime temperatures were between -10 and -15 and daytime temperatures hovered around zero.  Keep in mind; we are living in a RV….not the best insulated thing around!!!  It was VERY cold.  The snow from this storm froze since the temps were so low and was still on the ground when we left in mid-December.  Fortunately, the roads themselves were clear and we had no trouble heading out of Colorado and on to Arizona.

Two five-hundred mile travel days later, we pulled into Tempe….it was 80 degrees and sunny.   

Sunset in the Tempe RV park.

Typical foot wear in Tempe in Dec/Jan.

Not a cloud in the sky! There was a thunder storm with torrential rain that night; every day since then has been clear, with sunny skies and temperatures in the high 60’s to mid-70’s.  Wonderful weather!

Pat and I have had a great time with our family and just relaxing and hanging out.  Coming back to places we’ve already been is always wonderful.  We know where all the stores and restaurants are, which roads to take and which ones to avoid, where the fun places to go are; all of which really adds to our ability to just veg out!  

Jonah watching the bowl game while "driving" his new car!

                                         Have I mentioned that I LOVE being a Grandma?

After family photo shot.

Before leaving for Arizona.

However, we are ready to hit the road again; so tomorrow we are on our way to Texas.  We are going to spend a few days near Luckenbach and then head for South Padre Island and a couple of weeks on the Texas gulf coast.  Then we plan to spend another couple of weeks on the Florida gulf coast followed by about a month on the Atlantic coast near St. Augustine, Florida.  After that, we head (slowly) back west, spending another month in the gulf coast of Mississippi (broken up by a trip to Arizona for baseball spring training (via plane); over a month in Louisiana including about a week in New Orleans; and then a couple of weeks in Texas hill country around San Marcos.  This brings us to the end of May when we plan to head north and west (but haven’t figured out how/where yet).  This is our plan for now; however, we know from our first trip that we are more flexible than we thought we were and our plans will probably change somewhere along the way!

Time to add more states to our "5th" map!