Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay

Watchin' the tide roll away

We're back from a two-week vacation in the U.S., so I don't have much to report vis-a-vis our Mexican adventure. Here are a few  highlights of our trip:

*Stayed in Oceanside, CA. Saw grandchildren Holly and Jacob and took Holly to dinner. Spent some quality time with our son Greg, as well. Greg took us to the airport on 12/24.
*Spent Christmas Eve in transit, including lots of time in the San Diego and Oakland airports.
*Our daughter Rachel's best friend arranged for us to stay that night in Boise after our late arrival. Met the grumpiest cab driver in the northwest. Tipped him well and wished him Merry Christmas.
*Had lots of fun with Rachel and our granddaughters Ariel and Paisley. Granddaughters Ariel and Holly are learning Spanish in school, so we shared stories in Spanish and told them about Mexico. Went to see Mary Poppins with Rachel, Ariel, and Paisley.
*Daughter Ruby Dawn, her husband Roger, and our grandson Scott came through on their way to Utah. At Ruby Dawn's request, I made tamales and lemon meringue pie. We had a good visit. Don went to Boise with them to shop and watch the kids swim in the hotel pool.
*Son Alex and his wife Sharlee and kids Aliyah, Hunter, and Ruby came for a two-day visit. It was super fun to spend time with them. All of the kids are growing up fast.
*Went to church with Rachel and saw quite a few people that we knew from when we lived there. Would like to have spent more time with them and to have seen friends we missed this time around, but quality time with family can't be beat!
*Flew back to San Diego, had breakfast with Greg, and spent New Year's Eve in Yucca Valley, CA. Daughter Julie has arranged for stays for us at the guest quarters of some super nice people who have and board horses, where our granddaughter Lily takes riding lessons. We spent New Year's Eve and the night of January 4th there.
*On New Year's Day, we drove up to Boulder City and spent three nights at our friends' -- Kevin and Tammy Morris. We also visited with our former neighbor, Jean Caler. We saw our doctor, picked up some straggling mail, talked to a friend who was too ill to see us, ran some errands, and talked a lot about when and how we might return to the area.  On January 4th, we returned to Yucca Valley.
*We thoroughly enjoyed time with Julie, Mike, and the kids -- especially Parker and Lily, as Maddie works a lot. We did get to see Maddie's wedding dress and veil (beautiful!), although the wedding isn't likely to happen before March 2020.
*Julie and I Face-timed my daughter Kirsten and granddaughter Katie and the sons-in-law. We got to see our first great-grandchild, Emersyn "Emmy" Isabelle Spurlin (born 12/27/18), who is an absolute doll!
*Don and Parker had dinner and watched a movie.
*Julie and Lily and I went to dinner and did a bit of shopping.
*On January 5th, we drove home to Mexico. We had seen five of our eight children and 11 of our 22 grandchildren, so we batted over .500!

We went to church today and also had a meeting about helping out with some English classes through our church. We're excited about the opportunity to serve.

This afternoon, I took Sofie for a long walk on the beach. I collected a few shells to share with two granddaughters who have expressed interest. Below you will find a photo with my little collection in it. Generally, I photograph instead of collect seashells, but there are exceptions.

Hope you had happy holidays and that 2019 will be a great year for us all, no matter what town or country we call home!

 After they are dinner for the birds, old shellfish turn to butterflies. :-)

 Bright, sunny afternoon at the beach after a night of rain.

Baja Malibu rocks! You gulls agree?