Beginning Plans to Start Home

As we head into our third month away from home, we are beginning to make plans to return. A bit earlier than usual, but we want to be home by the last week in March...

Brian and Sheila are definitely moving to Seattle, and they will be with us the first week of April to house-hunt and for Sheila to begin her new job at Boeing so of course we want to be home when they are there. We need to get there a few days before they because I think the driveway is pretty well blocked with tree limbs from winter storms.

Are we excited about their move? YES! I don't think we ever believed or hoped that three of our four children would be living nearby; now if we could just uproot Keith and Janet:)

We have been engaged in the usual wintertime activities of sleeping in, reading, and socializing. Our "Wisconsin Mafia" group here in the park has grown to about ten couples so we are a good-sized happy hour bunch. Karen and Rod have been here for about three weeks and we have been out and about with them on occasion.

Spragues will be leaving when we do, so we are taking a look at a route home that will give us something to see and do but avoid snow. Right now, it looks like we will spend the first night on the desert and then go on to Las Vegas for a day or two, then to Tecopa Hot Springs and Death Valley. It has been several years since we visited Death Valley, and there is certainly more to see. Then we are considering Sequoia National Park before going on to the the Sacramento area with a day spent in San Jose. From there we will be homeward bound.

We toured Shamrock Dairy recently where they are milking 10,000+ cows twice a day and have another 7,000 plus heifers on the property. It was an amazingly clean, well-managed operation. The cows lounge in perfectly pristine dry enclosures dining on a special diet of mixed ingredients including cotton seeds, and are ushered off to the spa for hoof and health maintenance. The milking parlor is a continuous stream of cows coming and going at the rate of 200 every 12 minutes. "You can take the girl out of the farm, but you can't take the farm out of the girl."

Wedding plans continue. I have been appalled at the dress styles I have been seeing for MoB dresses, but I did find one yesterday that will be satisfactory unless I find something else that I absolutely fall in love with. Colleen says she is going into panic mode since the date is less than four months away; June 24 sounded so far off last November. We are excited and looking forwad to it.

I have been up for two hours and all I have accomplished is coffee, this blog, and lots of computer time. Ciao