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We are still alive..will do a post soon.

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On the road!!

Had a fun weekend at Thumperpond in Ottertail, MN at the annual resorters conference.  Got to see a lot of our friends from back in our resort days – a lot of good laughs, good food and so interesting to hear about the new ideas and issues in the resort business.

This morning we are heading for TX, will be stopping in Topeka, KS this evening, Altus, OK Thursday evening and should be at the house in Mission Friday afternoon late.  Bob’s niece Jenny and her husband Mike have recently moved back to the states from England and are now stationed at Altus air force base.  They are also expecting the first child any day and we haven’t seen them since June of 2009.  Will be fun catching up with them over dinner.

Take care and will keep you posted along the way.

Finally–an update for Summer 2012

 

Grant 3 and Caleb 4	And Little Brother Keegan 6 months
Our Only grand daughter Rya 3
	Owen 11 months

We spent most of the summer in the area with our kids and grandkids – helping out with daycare when needed.  They are growing so fast and it’s fun seeing their individual personalities develop.

We spent several weekends with our dancing friends at festivals in New Prague, MN,Clarissa, MN, Stump Lake, ND, Bird Island, MN, Brandon, MN,  Bechyn, MN and Litomysl, MN.  These are always fun – camping and getting together with a lot of people we only see during the summer along with connecting with some of our TX friends.Gary and Marjorie and our bunch in Stump Lake

In June we celebrated our 35th wedding anniversary and retirement with a party and dance at Roscoe, MN.  Had music all afternoon, followed by dinner- had a great time with about 200 friends and relatives!

Vicky continues to work part time for the one of the Minnesota resort associations so we had a few meetings to attend in the northern part of the state.  This weekend is their fall Resorters Conference in Ottertail so we’ll be heading up to that early Sunday morning thru Tuesday.

In September we were in Chicago to celebrate with Vicky’s brother and wife their 40th wedding anniversary.  Shortly after that we were in New Orleans for an insurance conference.  I’m on the board for a fraternal life insurance company in St Paul and we get to attend the annual conference at various locations around the country.  We had great meetings and a fun time at the grand party.

When we are not traveling around we hang out an RV park new New London.  There’s a number of retired couples that spend the summer there along with some permanent residents – a great bunch of people and we have our daily happy hour, potlucks, fish frys, casino runs, garage sale runs and whatever else comes up.  The annual fishing contest resulted in the awards you see in the picture below – and a whole lot of fun!!!

We will be heading to TX Wednesday morning – will be there for a couple weeks..  Coming back to MN for grand kid birthday parties, Thanksgiving and meetings for both Vicky and myself and we will celebrate Christmas with our family on Dec 15 – flying back to TX on Dec 17 for the rest of the winter.

So life continues to be good.  maybe we’ll have more to blog about when we head south!

We are still alive–in retirement!!!

Wow it’s been a while and we are getting grief for not keeping this updated to I guess I better get back in the routine of blogging!

Retirement has been great – not sure how we had time to work while we were working. We’ve gotten quite comfortable with it just one problem though and that is keeping track of the day of the month.  Still know what day of the week it is so haven’t lost it all yet.

We had a great winter in TX – did a lot of the regular activities but also got a bit more involved in the community and helping with activities which was fun.  We got back to MN at the end of March – both Vicky and I had a couple of meetings for our part time jobs in the first weeks of April, had baptism for grandson Owen, Kelly and Blake’s first.  sponsors Auntie Kristin and Jeff.

On April 20th our fifth grandchild Keegan was born.  Darin and Bethany had their 3rd boy.  .

This will be a busy family.          

Our only grand daughter Rya is growing like a weed and likes spending time with “her” grandma!  Her mom and dad were very busy with school so she has spend some time with us.

We also celebrated Bob’s mothers 84th birthday so we got to see his sisters and many of the nieces and nephews on that side of the family.

We are now holding up in or 5th wheel getting ready for our anniversary and retirement party on June 2nd, putting together pictures, flowers meal plans and etc.  Will be fun to seen everyone.  After that we will be on our summer trek – traveling to Polka fests and visiting family and friends – looking forward to be “On the Road Again”.

Back in TX

Kristin and Kari got us to the airport about 10:30 on Wednesday, we got checked in in record time, got something to eat and had a couple hours to wait for our flight to Atlanta and then McAllen.  Minneapolis airport was surprisingly quiet but while waiting we met two couples – one also on their way to McAllen and the other on their way to Costa Rica.  We had a lot of laughs in the two hours we waited for our flight.  Bob and Qwen have been coming to the valley for 38 years, they are from Duluth and the other couple owns a resort just south of Duluth.  So we had something in common with both and the conversations really flowed for a couple hours.

Our layover was only 30 minutes in Atlanta so we were a little concerned about making our connection and were told our luggage probably wouldn’t make the transfer.  The luggage part wasn’t a concern since we had most everything we needed at the house but if we missed the connection we knew we’d probably be spending the night in Atlanta.  Well, we got into Atlanta about 20 minutes early, rode the tram to the other terminal and found our gate.  According to the monitor the flight to McAllen was about ready to board so yeh – we made it. 

After about 15 minutes they announced that they were waiting for the pilot and crew. They must have rounded up a crew from somewhere – we heard one flight attendant say she was scheduled to go to DesMoines and now was on her way to McAllen – we did get into McAllen on time!  Lloyd and Myron were there to pick us up but we waited for nearly an hour for our luggage.  Guess there was a problem with the luggage system  - the McAllen airport is not that big and I think most people were ready to walk around the back of the building and pick up their own bags from the tarmack!

Got to the house about 9 – just in time for a late happy hour.

Our first day back in TX was a rather lazy day.  Was up early getting a few things organized around the house and stuff put away.  Was off to the grocery store shortly after 8 and returned home with a gazillion little white bags.  HEB stores use the smallest bags and puts only 3-5 items in a bag. We have several mesh bags so we need to remember to take this with us and leave the plastic bags at the store.

After that we headed over to DonWest market to pick up fresh fruits and veggies.  Since only the produce stand is open on Thursdays that didn’t take long and we were home in an hour – just in time for a nap.  Guess  a week of retirement parties, Christmas celebrations, working our last day at the bank and the anticipation of getting here really wiped us out as we both slept for over an hour.

Went to happy hour, dinner and cards at some friends house at 4 but we were home by 7:30 and I was in bed before 9. Was up at 5:30 but I guess if I get tired, I can just take another nap today – isn’t that what retirement is all about?

Day three of retirement here we come!

Just About There!! Done Working That Is!!

But first we celebrated Christmas with our kids and grandkids.  The crew was here Christmas Eve day – had a great time eating and refreshments and watching the four munchkins above as they opened their gifts and just generally be kids – laughing, running, jumping, screaming – well that was the speed of the oldest three, little Owen pretty much just did what he does best – sleep! 

Tomorrow will be our last day at the bank.  Will be Vicky’s last working day and I will work thru the month of January remotely from TX.  We will be flying back to TX on Wednesday.

So the last few days have been kinda strange – packing up here at the home of friends where we have been staying since we returned to MN in late October and thinking our about when we return next spring and not going to work.  We’ll do just fine I’m sure but it will be a big change. Being able to see the grand kids more and help watch them when we can and do some more traveling in the 5er.

We did have a busy week before Christmas – some type of party every night Monday thru Thursday and then had another steriod injection Friday morning for the pinch nerve issue, which by the way is much better finally. 

So got decorations all back in storage, house cleaned up, bags packed for the flight Wednesday and one more day of work and we are out of here!!!  Texas here we come – warm it up please –

the weather here in MN has been unseasonable warm – no snow for Christmas although the lakes are frozen and the ice fisherman are out – vehicles going out on the ice today and the temps are in the 40’s – !!!!!

Take Care – next update will be from Sunny TX.