Dear Friends & Family,
Thanksgiving, Black Friday & Cyber Monday have all passed & Christmas is almost upon us once again.We don’t have any snow, of course, here in Mesa or any terribly cold weather, but rest assured, the decorations are out in full force & the Christmas music has been playing in the stores since mid-November.
2010 was a good
year for us. We had lots of fun & happy times mixed with some sadness. We had a good first winter here at Silveridge doing lots of things & making lots of new friends. We arrived home in mid-Apr. & I flew to Edmonton for a few days to see my mum as she wasn’t doing very well & we had a trip to Australia planned in June to visit our new grandson. Yes, for those of you who don’t already know, Lesley Anne gave birth to a beautiful baby boy on Mar. 27. Samuel Thomas is his name & he is absolutely delightful. Do I sound like the doting grandmother??I returned home from Edmonton & commenced cleaning out the RV while Ron worked on the outside. What a job! but we got it all spic & span, then we flew off to Australia for a m
onth to see our new grandson & meet Brendan’s family. We had such a good time with Brendan, Lesley Anne & little Samuel. We managed to fit in a couple of trips with them. One, for just a weekend to see how Samuel would adjust to traveling & a different routine & the other trip, which was longer, was to the Barossa Wine Valley & the river lands. We met some family friends & had just a wonderful time. Brendan’s family showed us a good time too. We had chatted many times on the computer & by phone, so it was nice to finally meet them.We then flew over to New Zealand to spend a couple of weeks with Jennifer & Dave. It was fun seeing where they live & meeting some of their friends. We also did a week long trip with them up the west coast to the northern part of the south island & down the eastern coast back to Christchurch. We managed to visit many wineries on that trip too. We had super weather in both Australia & New Zealand considering it was winter there.
We were home a week when we had a call from my brother in Sherwood Park that my mum had passed away, so we hopped on a plane & flew to Edmonton for her funeral. She was 96 when she passed away so she had a good long life, but I do miss her a lot.
We had 2 lots of company come to visit us. Paul & Gail Caracas from Kelowna, who we met in Mesa & Donna & Vaughn Rollins from Ont., who we also met in Mesa. Both couples spend their winters in the same park as we do.
It wasn’t too long
before Oct. rolled around & on the Thanksgiving weekend we flew to Saskatoon to attend the wedding of Chad Nicholson, who is the son of long time friends, Ken and Gail Nicholson. When we returned home, it was time to get the RV ready for our trip back to Mesa. We left on Oct. 15 & spent 2 weeks getting down here. On the way we visited with family & friends. We also got in a couple of golf games on our way down.We arrived at Silveridge in Mesa on Nov 1 & had a nice welcome from our neighbours Rick & Judy Winters & Byron & Marlene Nate. We have gotten back to our routines here in the park. I belong to one of the quilting clubs & we meet twice a week to sew & chat. I go to the gym in the mornings to work off some of the good food we consume & I golf once a week with Ron, Paul & Gail & Gord & Carol Rose. Gord is also giving me lessons & I think I am slowly improving.
Ron keeps busy golfing 4 times a week & fixing up the golf cart we bought so I can get my sewing stuff to the sewing room. We also enjoy going to a couple of different dinner th
eatres here which put on some excellent productions. And of course, there are the dinners & parties with friends in the park. Some friends from Nebraska are coming to visit in Dec., friends from home are coming for the month of Jan., we are planning to drive to San Antonio in early Feb. to visit our friends there, then some other friends from home are coming down the last 2 weeks of Feb., so we will be busy. Before we know it, it will be time to say goodbye to everyone here & return home.We have Christmas lights on the golf cart & around the RV, so it is looking quite festive in site 666. We wish everyone a very Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year.
With love from
Ron & Gail
Click on Picture to enlarge -- Picture titles below
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rtbrown@mars.arc.com
Pictures - Top to Bottom
1. Samuel Thomas Reed at 7 months in Adelaide Australia
2. Our Site #666 at Silveridge Resort in Mesa. Note the lights on our golf cart
3. This is a party at our friends, Gail and Paul Caracas. They have a Park Model and just finished a renovation to their Arizona Room so we had a PARTY !!! Gail and Paul are first with their daughter Julie behind Paul. You can just see Gail and I but Byron and Marlene Nate along with Carol and Gordon Rose are behind us.
4. This is our arrival party organized by our good friends and neighbours Byron and Marlene Nate. Byron is on the right side with Marlene behind him. The other couple Rick and Judy Winter are from Edmonton and grew up just a few doors from Gail !!!! The Winters have become very good friends and just live across the street here. Rick, Byron and Paul are all part of our golfing group.
5. When I am not golfing I am usually cooking steaks on the BB
