The Adventures of Grandma and Grandpa

New Years Eve 2012

2012-01-08T19:06:00.000-08:00

This year GMa and I were home with the kids for New Years Eve. It was a fun evening and everyone was supposed to come up with an activity.
We started by playing Bingo, then went on to a message hunt, a"win it in a minute" game, and Wii games. I think it's safe to say everyone had a great time!

It looks like Brooklyn's thinking "Wow, where did the year go"? I agree!

Shawna called a bingo game.

CJ wins @ Bingo (did I mention that there were prizes)?

Bingo in action.

Minute to win it - stacking the cups by removing the papers from between them.

Another MTWI - Bouncing and catching ping pong balls in cups.

GMa trying to bounce pencils into cups in yet another MTWI competition.

Bonnie wins at Bingo!

Intense Wii action.

I don't think CJ and Bon are going to make it to midnight!

Everyone gets ready as midnight approaches.

Out in the street to celebrate! Yea!!!

Is Aubs possessed?

Happy New Year!


That's a good look, Shawn!

Well goodbye to 2011 and hello 2012. It was a good year, but we hope this year will be even better.
It was really nice having everyone home for the holidays, but the peace a quiet is nice too.

Happy New year to all of our family and friends and let's have some great adventures this year!!!!

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-11-24T23:33:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration, as usual. Shawna and Doogle joined us from Las Vegas and Gpa Kelly made the trip from San Marcos. We started the day with a hike @ Daley Ranch, then went home to make dinner. Gma outdid herself cooking and everyone chipped in, including Costco, making pies. Cayden even made a pie (it was very good) and insisted we vote on the best one. He scurried from the dinner table to make ballots, insisting that the Costco pumpkin pie was not eligible.

Hike at Daley Ranch

CJ eyes the turkey

Aubs puts the finishing touches on yummy rolls

Gma smashes potatoes

Table is set

CJ has been talking all week about eating a turkey leg - he got one!

We sit down to eat

The 'finalists' in the pie competition

We had to taste them all - right?

Pie 'sample' plate

Collecting the secret ballots

Counting the votes


Guess who won????

All-in-all it was a terrific day. One thing everyone forgot is the tradition involving the cans of whipped cream. Oh well. Everyone is out getting a jump on shopping and I'm home alone. Kinda nice, actually!

Catching up

2011-11-13T21:51:00.000-08:00

I just downloaded the pictures from my camera and realized I hadn't blogged in awhile, so am taking this opportunity to do a little catching up.

James turned 13 last week so we took a ride up to see him with a few goodies. James is quick to point out that he's a teenager now. I guess he thinks that's a good thing. Oh well!

Overcome with cash

His favorite- angle food cake with strawberries. I really think devil's food would be more appropriate!

Yum!


Go James!

Halloween was another missing blog chapter. It started when we built a doughnut eating apparatus for a party Aunt Shawna was involved in. It seemed pointless to build it and not try it out.
Aubry and CJ celebrated by dressing as The Mad Hatter (Aubs) and, for lack of a better description, plunger man (Cayden). Cayden has this plunger that he likes to play with, no worries, it's never been used for its intended purpose. It was, in fact, a Christmas gift he asked for last year. If there's anything CJ is not short on, it's imagination!

It's a bird, it's a plane, no....it's plunger man!

Bonnie and the kids at the doughnut machine

It's harder than it looks, or so I'm told

Aunt Shawna gives it a test

Plunger man and Miss Aubrey as the mad hatter

Today we celebrated Bonnie's 29th birthday, for the second or third year in a row. Her birthday is actually tomorrow, but she's busy with a softball game. She wanted chicken kabobs, so we BBQ'ed and enjoyed an afternoon clowning around.
Happy Birthday Pook!

Do you think she could eat it in one bite?

Aubrey and G'ma make kabobs

They were yummy!

Opening gifts

I think this family's cuteness comes from their grandpa.....what do you think?

Another good year from the garden!

2011-09-04T17:26:00.000-07:00

We were blessed with another huge crop of just about anything you can think of this year, and it's not over yet.
Besides all the fruit that we have every year, we grew vegetables galore! This worked out nicely as Gma and I have been dieting some, and fruits and veggies are a BIG part of the plan we are on. We have fruit salad nearly every night and it seems as one fades out, another takes it's place.
Vegetables and fruits (besides the fruit trees) grown this year include tomatoes, green beans that we needed to pick every day, snap peas, cucumbers, carrots, beets, radishes, several varieties of squash, onions, watermelon, honeydew Mellon, cantaloupe, and pumpkins. I'm sure I'm forgetting something.
I have a new hydroponic project in which I'm growing lettuce and cabbage that I just started planting. In addition to that I have 2 other hydroponic systems not including the one in the greenhouse. Presently there are pumpkins, watermelons, cucumbers, cantaloupes, tomatoes, and a few other things growing in them. We also just started broccoli and cauliflower for the winter. We have an entire planter dedicated to asparagus, which takes a few years before you can harvest, and should have an ample harvest starting next year.

Honeydews on the vine

Hanging hydroponic unit with a little of everything (including cucumbers and watermelon)!

Lettuce starts from seed

New lettuce and cabbage hydro system

Asparagus - next year!

Carrots, beets, radishes, ???

Lettuce in the new hydro

Pumpkins, cantaloupe, others in hydro on the ground

Cantaloupe blossoms

Yummy!

Our 25 lb watermelon!

Gma cutting a honeydew

Ta Da!

River Trip 2011

2011-08-30T17:16:00.000-07:00

This years river trip to Laughlin was a blast, as usual. It's taken me awhile to blog because each year we take more pictures and this year I had to select from 363.
I hope I chose a little of everything. We found a cool new beach right near the hotel that I'm sure we'll go back to next year. We also took great grandpa Kelly this year and I initiated his first river trip by turning the new boat over on its first run and depositing GGpa in the river. All was well, though, as it was extremely hot and the cool water felt good. I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking.

Getting ready to leave

Aubs and CJ in the car - let's go grandpa!

Gma and Gpa at we hook-up with Scott's family

Our "convoy" at the rest stop outside of Needles. Man was it hot!

Camp Skelly - day one @ Jack Smith Park in Needles

Brooklyn didn't care for the heat much

Gma

Molly trying to keep Brooklyn happy

Scott and family going out for a ride. They also dumped a boat. I still don't know who was more upset - Olivia or Rachel!

Trying to convince Olivia to go for a ride (?)

Skyler chillin'

Scott, Bonnie, and Aubs

Aubs and her Mom

Another view of camp Skelly

GGpa.

James and CJ looking for ????

I guess the found it, or some, or???

Aunt Bonnie takes a turn with Brooklyn

Scott getting a feel for the "road"

Molly going for a spin

Shawna coming in from a ride

Are those gpa's apricots on your face?

Day two - Big Bend Park at Laughlin
This place had a cool little bay where the kids (large and small) could lounge in calmer waters

Aubrey, Olivia, and Brooklyn keeping cool

GGpa and Olivia

Brooklyn and her mommy

Scott keeping cool on a tube

Olivia and Aubs

Rachel and CJ

Gma and Gpa getting ready to tow someone in a tube

Towing Aubrey or Cayden

More towing

Camp Skelly from afar

Gma & Gpa

Aubs tubing

Bryan, Molly, and Shawna swimming out in the bay

Brooklyn brought her own pool

Bonnie and kids going for a ride

Bonnie and CJ on the boat. Just about everyone else in the water. It sure felt good!

Bonnie goofing off

Scott, James, CY and Gpa kicking back

Sky keeping out of the sun (Smart!)

Olivia

Bringing in a "tuber"

Bryan and Gpa unloading a boat

GGpa going to relax by the water. Was it hot, Dad?

Gma blowing up some toys

Setting up camp Skelly. Who's in charge?

Aubrey watching Brooklyn and olivia. What a helper Aubrey is!

GGpa trying to keep cool

Sky helping to keep Brooklyn amused

Shawna on the new boat. Do you miss purple? I hope not

Lounging in the lagoon

Let's all gather at the water

Bryan and Molly

Shawna reading

Shawna and her blow up boyfriend? No, letting the air out of a tube.

Done for the day

Tootsie pop picture

Checking out of the hotel. I'm sure everyone is looking forward to the long, boring drive home

Brooklyn doesn't care

HOME AGAIN!

SEE YA NEXT YEAR!

Cruise'n

2011-06-08T21:58:00.000-07:00

On May 14th (Grma's birthday), we loaded up and headed to the cruise ship terminal in San Diego (one of my favorite places) and began an 8 day adventure with the Wilson's, Kyle and Larry, and Kyle's brother Todd and his wife Jill. I've actually lost track of the cruises we've been on, and some are better than others, but this was one of the most fun yet.
It's hard to put into words what it is about cruising that's fun, but certainly the people you're with have a great deal to do with it, and we had some good time!
This was a Pacific Coast cruise up the coast to San Francisco (2 days there), Astoria, Oregon, Nanaimo, Victoria, and Vancouver, British Columbia. It wasn't the kind of cruise that we spent a lot of time laying around the pool, but we saw so many great things, it's hard to get it all in.
I've been putting this off, because there's so much to show. Honestly, I tried to use as few pictures as possible, but still ended up with lots. Between the 3 couples, we had 5 cameras and I think we took somewhere in the neighborhood of 600 pictures, so as large as this blog is, it's just a sample, believe me!


Getting ready to leave. The balloon was a happy birthday for Grama, and she had quite a time carting it around.

When we got to the ship, Kyle had arranged a private lounge where we began the feeding frenzy that lasted all week

On the way to San Francisco, Grama was lucky enough to see some whales alongside the ship.

As we approach the Golden Gate Bridge

This was right after we sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a beautiful morning, but was raining by the afternoon.

There apparently are still some hippies in San Francisco.

Preparing to walk across the Golden Gate Bridge (in the rain) 1.7 miles.

Who's afraid of heights? Keep looking straight ahead, Kyle.

I don't want to be "big"!

Rub a dub dub........

Why would anyone want to get out of a perfectly good hot tub and jump into a freezing cold pool? You'll have to ask Larry and Secretariat (Todd)

Kyle and Grama at the cable car stop.

Ridding the cable car was a blast and one of the trips highlights.

They have these cool public restrooms around San Francisco.

Grapa and Secretariat

Grama - can I buy this and take it home to "fix up"?

I've become very good - lol - at taking self timer pictures. This one is funny because it's too far back on the garbage can (the green thing).

Food is always a huge part of a cruise, on and off the ship. Todd and Kyle enjoy some treats @ fisherman's wharf.

towel animals were few this trip, but we enjoyed the ones we got.

Just one of a thousand beautiful sights!

I'm not trying to show thousands of food pictures, but here's Grama on Lobster night.

A tower we climbed in Astoria. I don't remember how many steps, but it was tall!

We enjoy the view from the top.

We rented a car and drove to this place (Mo's) that we heard had "the best clam chowder in the world". It was very good. I think Secretariat had shrimp though. He is not only a very fast race horse, but the king of shrimp eaters!
Todd- the ocean called....it's out of shrimp.

Stopping at a beach park near Mo's, we take pictures from a very pretty place.n

I guess all that shrimp made Todd thirsty. Dogs wait their turn.

On the shore at Nanaimo.

Me & Grama on the beach. Hay stack rock in the background.

Seaplanes coming and going at Nanaimo.

Another great view.

At Butchart Gardens in Vancover, BC. Definitely the highlight of the trip. We took hundreds of pictures. I may create a blog just about this place. Below are just a sampling of pictures, which don't do the place justice.

More food - unusual sorbet in Victoria.

Many hours of cards played (thump-thump) in one of the card rooms. Fun, fun, fun!

Our last breakfast on board. More waffles, Kyle?

Farmers Market in Seattle. We were there only an hour, but definitely want to return to see more.

The Space Needle. I was actually here for the Worlds Fair in 1964 (I think) for which is was built.

It's really hard to say what the best reason to cruise. Food? Friends? I don't know for sure, but I promise to keep looking until I figure it out. Cannot wait until the next cruise!!!

Batter Up!

2011-04-10T21:55:00.001-07:00

In a seamlessly unending series of backyard projects, the latest is a batting cage.
A few Saturdays ago at Cayden's little league game, a company was selling , balls, bats, gloves, and, you guessed it, batting cages. Well using judgment reserved for Grandpas, I arranged to have one shipped to our house.
It's 40' long and 10' wide so I went home to measure first. I knew it was going to be close, but plowed ahead. The first adventure was setting it up.

Cayden surveys box in the garage.

We start by layng 4 - 10'poles to be sure it will fit. I guess it's a little late now.

Then we put the top together.

We now have one one set of legs (10' tall) and the pieces that go across the top.

We nearly gave up for the evening when we couldn't figure how to raise the other side and insert the other 10' legs, but a little Kelly engineering and we came up with a system using 2 x 4's to push it up.

With the frame complete, we unfold the net and install it

Grand Ma takes some hacks

Shawna tries to get her form back from softball days

Aubrey is a natural

Cayden feeds pitching machine

Batter up, Molly

Let me out of here!
We bought the cage from a place called Monkey Sports - no comment please

Well we still haven't selected a 'real' pitching machine yet, but will soon. In the mean time I thing the cage will be getting a big workout as everyone comes home for spring break.
Come on by and hit a few.

Again

2011-03-26T15:47:00.000-07:00

For the 34th time Gma and I celebrated our anniversary.

I got some yummy fruit things to eat. Chocolate is ok, by the way, as long as it's for a good cause! Tonight we'll have food and fun with friends.

Happy anniversary Gma!

Young Women

2011-03-14T19:50:00.001-07:00

As Aubrey is preparing to join the Young Woman's organization at Church, she was able to participate in the fund raiser for camp.
The young women, along with some help from the not-so-young women, put on a spaghetti dinner that turned out to be pretty darn yummy.
Part of the action was both a silent, and a live auction.
Aubs created some very yummy cupcakes that looked like hamburgers and milkshakes. Looks like she's picking up where all the very talented Kelly girls are. Grandpa couldn't help to purchase not one, but two helpings of "burgers".
Good job Aubrey, I think the young women will find you a very useful addition to their group!

By the way, to none of our surprise, Aubrey brought home a straight A report card, including a smattering of A+'s.
She's definitely her mothers girl!!

Better hurry if you want some!

Spring is in the air....

2011-03-03T21:26:00.000-08:00

and that means baseball. I can't believe an entire year has gone by and it's little league time again. Chili Billies, selling candy, working in the snack bar, oh yes, and baseball.

CJ has moved up the "minor B' league this year. You'll see he's a bit taller and looks like a different little guy with a year of experience under his belt.

So off to the first game Wednesday. There are no lights on this field, so until daylight savings starts, they play until they can no longer see. A few other small changes. They keep score (we lost 3-5). I think this is one of the few things Cayden's been in where they actually keep score. Don't want to hurt any one's feelings ya know.

The kids also pitch about 1/2 of the game. That definitely is going to effect the time of the game! Lot's of walks too.

Anyway it will be lot's of fun and we're all looking forward to the season.

Go Red Sox!!!

I pledge allegiance to the flag.........

The roar of the crowd (?)

Play ball!

First at bat

Running to first

Cayden and Sam Huntzinger going over strategy

See ya at the park!

"V" Day

2011-02-14T11:42:00.001-08:00

Well it's that time of year again. Gma got her usual shipment of Sherries Berries (stop by for one if you're close enough -LOL)
Gma got me a duck kind of thing for out in the yard.
We're going to have a scrumptious dinner with some fresh shark a Friend of mine caught yesterday.
Bet you wish you were here.
Hope everyone had a great day!

Gpa kissing the duck thing

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!!

Baby Brooklyn Visits (and Molly & Bryan too)

2011-01-24T19:39:00.000-08:00

So Brooklyn woke up one day last week and said "Mom.....Dad.....I'm sick of living my whole life (all 3 weeks of it) in the cold and snow in Indiana" "Take me to grandma and granpa's house in sunny southern California!"
And so they did. We heard that Brooklyn travels very well and made nary a peep the whole way on the plane!
Bonnie and the kids were the only ones yet to meet Brooklyn and they were soooo excited! They went to the airport to pick them up and I don't think Bonnie set her down for several hours.
Anyway,Bryan had to go back to work, but Molly and Brooklyn are hanging here for a couple of weeks more and, as you can see, everyone is enjoying the visit.

We're sooooo excited!

Cousin CJ loves to hold Brooklyn.

Bath time

A little warmer please!!

Welcome to California, Brooklyn!!!!!

Blessing Baby Brooklyn

2011-01-18T19:46:00.000-08:00

So, we got Jim on an airplane and went to see our new grandbaby Brooklyn Noel. She is gorgeous as you can see. It was a fun trip. We were there for her blessing along with Bryan's parents, Jeff and Mary.

Brooklyn was a great baby and let her daddy say all kinds of wonderful things about her. She is truly loved by lots of people.

While we were in Indiana, we decided to get out while we could and see some sites. The sites being The Indianapolis Speedway. Funny story, Molly worked in a grocery store a couple of years ago almost right next door to the Speedway and was talking to us one Sunday and told us how very busy and noisy it was cuz there was "some kind of big race" going on. You mean the Indianapolis 500? Ya I think that is it. Really Molly!

We also hit the local Mug n' Bun. Homemade rootbeer and burgers. They have expanded the Mug n' Bun and now you can sit down inside and order. They actually make your food across the parking lot at the original outdoor restaurant and walk your food over to you. Interesting.

On the last day, Jim was going buggy being couped up in the house because of the snow so he decided to have him and Mols make a snowman. It was a fun and productive endeavor.

We loved Molly and Bryans hospitality and will miss them and Brooklyn terribly but they
will be here the end of the month. Can't beat being in the airline industry when you live across the country.

Ho, Ho, Ho !

2010-12-12T18:49:00.000-08:00

How do I get into these things? Again Gpa was asked to be Santa at our Ward Christmas party.

I don't think it was as bad for me as it was for some of the kids, though.

I had some interesting requests, the most unusual was a little girl that wanted a real monkey. Of course Santa told her he'd get her one. Promising the kids that they'll get whatever they ask for is just my little way of punishing the parents for making me do this.

Happy little girl?

Not really!

Who is this guy really?

A little old for Santa don't you think CJ?

Been good little girl? Want some candy?

Ho Ho Ho
Merry Christmas!

Up, up, and away..........

2010-12-05T18:40:00.000-08:00

There is absolutely no truth to the rumor that Skelly Electric bought a bucket truck this year just so grandpa could use it to hang the Christmas lights, but it certainly did come in handy!

We were a week late this year because of technical difficulties, so I think that this was the first year since we lived here that none of the kids were home to help.

So that in itself might be reason enough to enlist the aid of the truck.

I think we spent more times taking pictures and giving rides than actually hanging lights, but I didn't miss dragging the big yellow ladder around!

Grandma and I got through it and the house looks quite festive!

Merry Christmas!

Eight is great!

2010-10-05T20:03:00.001-07:00

Along with getting baptized, turning eight also gave CJ the opportunity to become a Cub Scout. Nobody was sure how he would like this, but as it turned out, he really enjoys it.

One of the first activities he was involved with was the "rain gutter regatta".

This is kind of like a pinewood derby for water. You build a little sailboat from a kit, then they're raced, two at a time, in a 10' piece of rain gutter. Propulsion is provided by blowing on the sail as you walk along side the boat. A little trickier than it sounds.

CJ received the kit about a week before the event. Building the boat, he learned how to sand, paint, and assemble the parts. A pirate theme was chosen, and the little ship was christened "CJ's Locker" You know, like Davey Jones Locker. No? Oh well.

After sanding and painting, a bunch of pirate decals were placed before a final coat of clear lacquer was applied. Lastly, a "secret" coating was applied to help the "Locker" cut thru the water.

After all was complete, we located an old piece of gutter and set up a test course in the back yard.

It worked!!!

The following day was the big race. There were some really neat boats there, but none better than Cayden's! He really did a good job on it!

After several heats, all boats were declared winners.

Much fun was had by all.

The kit

CJ gets started. Love that smile!

Sanding with "the mouse" sander.

A little instruction.

Preparing to apply decals.

G'Ma helps with the tricky decal application, but Cayden got the hang of it soon.

Final coat of paint.

Filling the test course.

It floats!

Racers on the course. Cayden is in background.

Thar she (or he) blows!

First place with a proud mama!

Group shot of racers.

Mom shows off CJ's locker

We're looking forward to the pinewood derby!

You know you're in trouble when.....

2010-10-04T20:06:00.000-07:00

you come home and one of your power tools is in the driveway, plugged in, and you know that only your wife and daughters are home.

The moral to this story is, just because you've seen someone operate something doesn't mean you know how to use it. I was worried when I saw it sitting out, but the real story is that when I went to put it away, there was a giant broken piece of aluminum sitting next to it. From behind me I hear grandma say "we didn't do it!". "I mean this happened, but we didn't do anything to cause this". Huh?

Scary.

It seems somehow "someone" caused the blade of the saw (now ruined), to hit the fence (the broken part), something I not only can't understand how it happened, but have been unable to duplicate (with the power off, of course!).

Lucky someone didn't lose and eye, or a finger, or???

I still have yet to hear what the flying piece of metal hit.

Broken fence

Shrapnel

Broken washer that holds blade in place.

Ruined, and expensive, blade. See the missing tooth?

Hope grandma doesn't come home some day and see her sewing machine out on my workbench - plugged in!

A mind of its own

2010-09-12T15:40:00.000-07:00

I guess I was bored, but have been thinking about this for sometime and guess I figured a lazy Sunday afternoon might be a good time to get it out of my system.

Plus, and this is a weird omen, or something. The T.V. is on and there was just a commercial about sending Toyota a story about your car, or something like that. I’m not sure this is what they had in mind, but maybe I’ll send it to them. Recently, like two years ago, Gma and I bought a Toyota Prius. The reason for this is gas was headed to like $5.00 a gallon and we just signed up a couple of jobs in Los Angeles and figured it would pay for itself.

Well you know how that works. We no sooner said こんにちは to the Prius and the price of gas started to come down. I guess that’s the story of my life, so I figure the world owes me for bringing down the price of gas. Please make your donation check to……., oh well.

This is in no way a knock on the Prius. Just want to point out some idiosyncrasies.

First of all there is a back-up camera to see where you’re going (not so strange), but also a back-up alarm. Now this is not so unusual in itself. There have been back-up alarms on construction equipment, garbage trucks, and things like that for years. What makes the Prius unusual is that the alarm in on the inside of the car, not the outside. I guess I don’t fully understand the Japanese, but I guess in Japan, the fact that objects in the windshield get smaller as you back up is just not clear enough of an indication of the direction of travel.

This is doubly strange because many times when you back up, the car makes no noise, as there is enough energy in the batteries to allow it to move without the engine starting. I’ve backed up several times and noticed surprised people getting out of the way as the car silently backs out of a parking space. Perhaps some Toyota engineer is a descent of an ancestor who helped plan the sneak attack on Pear Harbor. Who knows. Now a way around this would be to open the windows and turn up the radio, or perhaps lower the window and scream, “Look out!” as one begins to back up.

The backing up issue would not, in itself, be enough to examine the quirks of the Prius, after all, anyone can make a mistake.

An even more interesting characteristic to the car is the navigation system. This is really a very cool feature, but on occasion can reveal the vehicles secret personality.

There is a very cool button on the steering wheel when, after being pushed, asks what you want. No, not 3 wishes (that would really be cool!), but for a “command”.

The most used command we use is the word “Home”, and this will usually (depending on background noise, invoke directions to our house). Very handy if you’re in unfamiliar territory, like downtown in a large city. But as I mentioned, this can depend on background noise. We have become used to exchanges like “Home” (us) then “Searching for banks” (car), or “Home”, then “Pardon” (the car is very polite, a Japanese trait for sure).

Imagine if these were built in Detroit. “Home” – “say what?” “Home” I said, a little irritated. “You better chill honkey, less I dump your skinny a** someplace in the hood where you never get home from!” Scary, but could happen.

Last week Gma and I went downtown on a date for some Italian food. Imagine our surprise when on the way home, the car blurted out “searching for French restaurants”

First of all, if the Prius had any brains at all, it would realize that we were still quite full of pasta and bread. Secondly, if the car wanted to stop for a snack, I would have thougt it more natural for “Searching for sushi bars”. So that left me guessing some.

I’ve come to realize that the Prius has the ability to cause us some real grief, so we’ll be real good about keeping the oil changed and the car washed!

I said "Hamburgers!"

Home

River Trip 2010

2010-08-08T18:37:00.001-07:00

The 2010 version of the Kelly river trip to Laughlin Nevada was a "big splash", as usual.
A good time was had by all as we played on the river for 1 1/2 days. I think everyone had their fill of sun, water, food, boating, and family fun. No major incidents. Some blisters from too much wave runnering (next year we'll get some gloves). A dead boat battery - seems like there's never a completely problem free trip.
I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Bonnie, Aubrey, and CJ head out on the river.

And safely back.

Sorry CJ, maybe next year (or the next).

Mom, Shawna, and Molly cool off in the tubes.

My girls showing off their pink hats.

Mom and Shawna pump up a tube.

Shawna headed to the water.

Brian and CJ.

Skyler was old enough to go out by himself this year.

Cooling off and gabbing.

James kicks back.

Rachel and Olivia play in the water.

Gma and I were picking up some last minute supplies when we ran across these pink hats. Each of the girls got one and we had fun with them, except for Bonnie, who hated them.

Olivia and Aubrey "in the pink"

Bonnie and Aubs cool off in the tubes.

James and CJ clowning it up. Doesn't look like they had much fun.

Gma and Bonnie "tubing it".

Bonnie relaxes.

Time to go home.
See ya next year!

Shawna's Castle

2010-07-19T20:27:00.001-07:00

Ever since Shawna moved into her Las Vegas digs last month, Gma and I have been trying to get over and add a few home touches. We finally got the chance and made a quick, two night dash, leaving Friday morning.

After we got to Shawna's, we made the first of 3 trips to Home Depot. Not bad, really. The last trip was just for some picture hanging hooks.

We dumped our purchase at the house and went downtown to our favorite buffet at the Main Street Station. It was Friday, and that meant it was seafood buffet. Shawna was soooo excited. After standing in line for 1 1/2 hours and she doesn't like seafood. Oh well, there was plenty to eat and we did.

After playing some penny slots, we headed home for some much needed rest.

Early the next morning, we got after it.

We installed 4 ceiling fans, including dimmers and speed controls. We fixed the dishwasher (plugged it in), hung two towel bar things, replaced the doorbell, transformer (and diode - ask Shawna), hung a curtain rod, fixed a toilet, hung a picture, and replaced two other light fixtures.

We also hung some peg board and a broom holder in the garage.

We didn't get to a few back yard projects and decided to save them for the winter.

We also decorated the living room with new furniture (he he he).

Unloading from Home Depot.

Gma assembles a fan.

Shawna works on a fan.

Gma gives Shawna advice (?).

Well done!

The girls take a break.

New dining room fixture.

Pegboard in garage.

Completed fan.

Doogle helped when he could.

New living room ensemble.

New picture.

Curtain rod.

We created a PILE of trash!

Shawna and Doogle relax in the new living room!

A Memorial Day

2010-06-08T07:35:00.001-07:00

Sunday May 30th, the Kelly clan was fortunate to all gather at Gma's & Gpa's to celebrate Memorial Day. We decided to have our celebration on Sunday as Molly, Bryan, and Shawna had to travel on Monday.
Molly and Bryan got the prize for traveling the farthest, followed by Shawna, then Scott, Rachel and family.
Great grandPa Kelly and his friend Mary also attended, along with a few assorted friends of the kids.
All-in-all it was a great crowd. We really love having theses gatherings and having everyone together. Good thing Bryan and Molly can travel so easily or I'm sure we wouldn't see them at many of our gatherings.
There was much swimming, game playing, visiting, and, of course, food. I really think that's why everyone really comes!
Scott BBQ'ed ribs and chicken, and there were ton's of side dishes, drinks and desserts.

Molly, Shawna, Gma & Gpa start the day with a yummy breakfast.

CJ helps Molly make fruit salad

Skyler doing what he loves best

Bryan in the pool. Well halfway, anyway!

Ladderball - always fun!

Seems like there's more reading going on around here theses days.

Scott - master of the BBQ.

Then - master of the pool. Did you know James could fly?

Rachel & Olivia enjoy some quiet time.

Bonnie bought a volleyball that had a rope on it when it came out of the box, so we made a tether ball out of it.

Who invited Jack to the party?

The girls never miss a photo opp.

Always the teacher, Shawna helps Aubrey with a school project. Beter get an 'A'!

Then everyone helps.

Shawna (and Doogle) head home.

Happy Birthday Grandma!

2010-05-14T20:28:00.000-07:00

Good things (and bananas) come in bunches. GM's birthday comes very quickly after mothers day, in fact, when the stars are aligned just right, they actually occur on the same day!
Well not this year. We had a few days between mothers day and the birthday to prepare our traditional GM birthday celebration.
Know one remembers how it started, but for years now the tradition is to get TONS of Chinese food and then have presents and cake. It's weird because it is usually the only day of the year that we get take-out Chinese food. By the way - do you know what they call Chinese food in China? See the end of the blog for the answer.
The party actually started at CJ's little league game, where besides getting 3 hits, he started a triple play by catching a fly ball and throwing out the first of two base runners that couldn't get back to base.
We then went home and waited for Bonnie to show up with the food and cake.

The small box of Chinese food arrives.

Bonnie set a cute table.

What to eat first?

It's all so yummy!

Everyone digging in.

Into the family room for presents. Bonnie and the kids did a "beach theme" of gifts.

GM received a folding beach chair with a big pocket in the back for goodies. The whole thing folds up into a neat back pack. Which was also filled with beach related goodies (and some salad dressing from CJ - go figure).

Aubs and mom watch from the safety of the couch. CJ runs amuck.

Some of GM's goodies.

By the way, Grandpa is taking Grandma to see Elton John in concert. Of course, none of the kids know who he is.

Thanks and group hugs.

Yummy cake!

Answer to joke "food" - I'm a going to be a great custodian some day (ask GM about that one)

Mothers Day

2010-05-09T19:17:00.001-07:00

Mothers day this year actually started on Friday when GM received 2 dozen Sherry's Berries.

Yum!

This year GP decided to give GM breakfast, not in bed (kinda hard on a waterbed), but on the little balcony outside the bedroom. Last summer GM hauled a little table and chair set her friend Kyle was getting rid of up to the balcony.

So GP got up early and made breakfast for GM and took it out to the balcony

GM munched on eggs, Bagel, strawberries (from the garden, of course), and orange juice.

She declared it yummy and ate most of it.

After Church, Bonnie and the kids came for an early dinner. We enjoyed BBQ chicken, corn on the cob, and other assorted yummies.

While dinner finished cooking, we retired to the family room for presents. It's always especially fun to see the things the kids made for their mom.

GM and Bonnie got some nifty things. GM was especially thankful for the neat picture that required each of the kids to submit their portion of it to Bonnie, who assembled it here.

Good job guys!

GM also received flowers from the kiddos, which she also really liked.

GM shares her Berries with Aubs & CJ.

GP prepares GM's breakfast.

GM enjoying breakfast.

The flowers are also from the yard.

Aubrey shucks corn for dinner.

Aubrey brings presents to the family room.

GM and Bon survey the loot.

Flowers CJ made at Church.

Aubs watches from the safety of the couch.

CJ explains the card he made to his mom. "No mom, you have to open this part first......."

GM opens her picture.

As Molly would say "Ta Da"

GM's flowers.

All in all, I'd say it was a really good day. Time to gear up for GM's birthday, which is this Friday, then Aubs, then....... Wow, there sure is a lot going on around here.

I'm sure I'll be blogging at you soon.

Summer Daze?

2010-04-25T21:44:00.001-07:00

No, not yet. But a beautiful spring Sunday afternoon that seemed like a summer day. Shawna was in town visiting, along with Doogle, so after Church, Bonnie and the kids came over to hang out and it turned into a summer like day.

Grandma catches a few rays.

Bonnie catches up on some reading.

Shawna and CJ break out the ladder ball game.

GM cleans up after dinner - yummy enchiladas. Like her new polka dot apron?

Doogle looks for someone to play with. We decided he really likes playing in the yard!

Aubrey gets in on the reading thing.

Bonnie and Shawna. Are they having a reading race?

CJ watched "Pirates of the Caribbean" during dinner and is now a pirate. It's only a matter of time before he ends up in the pool.

It starts cooling off, but Bonnies on a streak and breaks out a blanket.

Everyone ends up in the spa.

After a trip to Dairy Queen to take advantage of the last day of the Blizzard sale (GM got 6 and put them in the freezer).
Shawna and Doogle crash.
What a great day! I can't wait for summer!

A leg to stand on

2010-04-04T17:37:00.000-07:00

For a long time after we moved into the house we have now lived in for, I think, about 24 years, we called it the "new house".
I think that's because when we were building it, we'd be running back and forth between the "new house" and the "old house".
I guess now it should be the "old house" and the "really old house.
Anyway, when we moved in here I built a fort / playhouse / fort thing for the kids. I didn't really build it to last forever, not forecasting grandchildren at that age. Well it still gets lots of use. In a previous blog you can see CJ shooting his paintball gun from it (Shawna too).

As I said, I didn't really build it to last forever. I used old temporary power poles I had (untreated 6 x 6's , for you men). I dug holes and poured concrete around the poles. Not something you would normally do, thinking I'd get 15 years or so out of it, then tear it down.

The other day I was out in the yard and happened to glance in as I sometimes do (you never know what CJ might have going on in there. I won't go into the bathroom he and James made in there from an old automatic dog watering dish. It's customary to check for things like that, or unexploded ordinance, stuff like that).

Anyway, as I walked by something didn't look right somehow. The building seemed to be leaning or something.

The next step was to saw the leg of. This is appropriate because a lot of what goes on in here is pirate play, so it's only fitting that the fort end up with a peg leg.

I looked at it closely, as it was obviously leaning, so I poked a small pipe under the leg, and where it should have been solid, it went right through like there was nothing there.
The next pictures show what I found when I jacked the building up. There was nothing there!

The next step was to saw the leg off. This was especially appropriate because a lot of the play here involves pirates, so it was only fitting that the fort end up with a "peg leg".

The picture at the top is the new leg we made at work by welding a bracket onto a length of 2 1/2" galvanized pipe.

Next I had to dig and vacuum out all the dirt and old wood and junk to create a place for the new leg. Kinda like a root canal for a building.
You can see the fort is resting on large blocks of wood. It made me a little nervous working under it. Funny thing is (hahaha) we had an earthquake later in the afternoon. Sure wouldn't have wanted to be under it then!
I didn't want to end up with my own peg leg!

I then bolted the new leg into place. No small task as it was heavy.

Then poured the concrete around it.

All thats left is to cover the concrete and paint the new leg green.
Think I should check the other 3 legs? Na, I just watch for "the lean"
I hope I get some new grandkids to make this all worth while!

33 years and counting

2010-03-28T16:07:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, my friend Larry gave a talk in Church. It was around his and Kyles anniversary. I don't remember how many years it was, but he commented that it only seemed like 5 minutes..........................underwater!
I guess I'd be smart, and perhaps that insight is one of the reasons we've been together this long, and not comment on that.
Anyway, we had a nice day. We received flowers from the kiddos (thanks kiddos)
Mom has wanted to see the Hollywood Bowl, and I was able to kill 2 birds with one stone by getting tickets to see the Eagles (one of her favorite bands) there April 20th.
I got us a room up there so we won't have to drive home after the concert that night.
She said we're going on a cruise in October.
Any way. I love you gma and here's to another 5 minutes underwater!

The roar of the food, the smell of the crowd....

2010-02-24T05:16:00.000-08:00

Well either I've been lazy, or there hasn't been much to blog about lately. I guess a little of each is close to the truth.

We've been busy at work, so I guess that takes most of our energy, but with all the rain, there hasn't been that much to do outdoors.

Anyway, I usually let the mom blog about the grand kids activities, but I'll make an exception here. I got "invited" to help coach CJ's little league team (his first year playing). It's been fun, but the rain has slowed it down. We had our first game last Friday and he did great.

Here's a little movie of the opening day thingy. Sorry it's a little shaky.

Sorry, it's at the bottom and I don't know how to move it up.

On another note....

In my continuing efforts to keep grandma spoiled, I had a giant box of chocolate dipped strawberries delivered to her on (or near) Valentines Day. It's a safe gift because I'm not a huge lover of strawberries, except to grow them, of course.

I guess I've come a long way since the day I made the plywood Valentine that hangs on the wall at home. It was a last minute inspiration that I cut out of a scrap of plywood on a job one day. It was so long ago, Molly & Shawna were not born yet and I had to add the bottom little heart a year or two later to include them

Hydro Update

2009-12-12T18:18:00.000-08:00

Well it's been just about a month since we planted the first hydroponic plants in the greenhouse and LOOK! Red strawberries! I planted 10 more plants today and didn't realize how big the first ones had grown until I saw them side-by-side.

Also, here's a tomato that the guy at the nursery gave me because it was the end of the season and it was not looking very good. Maybe I should go pay him for it.

I dug up a bell pepper and hot pepper from the front yard that started failing because of the season change. They're also doing very well.

Not enough to do anything with yet, but there will be as things get going!

First four ripe (almost) strawberries.

Tomato

Bell pepper (left) hot pepper (right)

"Baby" bell peppers

Happy Hydroponics

2009-11-18T19:28:00.000-08:00

A few years back, I bought a little greenhouse for the backyard without much thought as to what I was going to do with it. A year or so ago a new store opened in a nearby city catering to people growing plants hydroponically. This involves growing plants without dirt. I was familiar with this, as I had done some electrical work years ago on some HP farms and even had a little one bucket system 10 years ago or so, but never really did much with it.

So after visiting the new store I got fired up and proceeded to plan and build my system. Well honestly, I started it over a year ago, but time constraints somehow always seem to enter into these kind of projects. I finally got to the point where I had so much invested in it was afraid GM might start getting on me about it. So the last few weeks have been spent making many trips to the HP store and, of course, Home Depot. Things finally got to the point where I was able to plant my first plants - strawberries, which I'm not really fond of, but thought it would be cool to have fresh strawberries and tomatoes throughout the winter.

Here's how it works in a nutshell.

Inside the greenhouse, I built a stand that holds 6" water pipe in which I drilled holes that hold little pots that have slots cut into them.

The pots are filled with a growing medium (no, not a young fortune teller) , in this case these red, round rock-like thingies (Not what they're really called).

Several times a day, liquid nutrient is pumped from a reservoir, through the pipes and back to the reservoir. The nutrient solution is made by adding some of the stuff in these 2 green jugs, along with some stuff to adjust the ph of the solution and 25 gallons of water. This must be replaced every week, but the old stuff goes on the plants around the house, so isn't really wasted.

Mixing the "stuff" the first time.

The pipe system.

This is the tank that holds the nutrients. It sits below ground level outside the greenhouse so that the nutrient can drain back in by gravity.

Heres some of the pots and a newly planted strawberry.

The plants have about doubled in size in the 10 or 12 days since I planted them, and several have small berries and blossoms on them. I waited to post this until I was sure it was working and I guess it is. You can see there is still more to do, but I hope to plant some peppers and a few other things this weekend. There won't be any berries for Thanksgiving, but by Christmas???? Maybe. I sure hope that they are good. I haven't figured it out yet, but I think the first crop is going to cost about $25.00 per berry. Oh well.

I hope there is stuff to taste if you ever visit.

Kyle & Larry River Trip

2009-10-13T19:15:00.001-07:00

Well we thought we'd try to squeeze one more trip to the river in this year. That would make two. Not a very good year for getting away, but we've been blessed with lots of work and I can't complain about that.

With our friends Larry & Kyle Wilson in tow, we threw all our stuff in the truck after Church Sunday and headed to Laughlin.

It's a little late in the year for the river, as was evidenced by the lack of people there. It was cloudy, but warm and the water was cool, but not too cold, so we enjoyed a good day of "wave running" around. Nothing broke down, except a boat cover which disintegrated on the way out of town, so that was good for a change.

Getting ready to leave

This picture does not do justice to what we saw. This was a worker at a roadside rest way out on US 40. I'm not sure what he was trying to accomplish, but he would drag this rake oh so slowly for a while, then pick it up and go back and start over. Words cannot describe how slow he was moving and how little he was getting done. Must be a State employee. I'll think of this when I'm paying my taxes next year!

Kyle on the phone Monday morning. I don't know how I happened to catch her on the phone. Just lucky I guess.

Larry waiting for Kyle. I guess he's used to it by the look on his face.

Lee waiting for Kyle.

First part of every "river day". Getting gas and ice (and snacks. Very important. Snacks)

Me taking a picture of Lee taking a picture of Larry. This happens a lot.

Almost in the water, a self timer job. Came out pretty good, I'd say.

Another self timer

Nice hair GP!

A bird resting on "New Blue"

On the sand bar for a snack

Why we keep coming back to this area. It's beautiful in Topok Gorge!

Larry doing the robot (I think)

Larry's new $2.50 shoes. Kyle got pink ones!

There's only one reason GM would get in this cold water. You figure it out.

Larry doing handstands. I think he said there's some reason he can eat more by doing this. I didn't think it was worth the try.

Rest stop on the way home. Lot's of pictures we were not able to get, mostly with GM's new friend in the casino. You'll need to ask her about it.

Lot's of fun, food, and friends! Bye river till nxt year. I think we need to find a MUCH larger boat for our next trip!

40 1/2th Reunion

2009-10-10T16:03:00.000-07:00

No, you're not having a flashback. Yes I did previously blog about my 40th HS reunion. It was, in fact, my first blog. The first reunion was held a fair distance from where our school was. I think that, plus the fact that the word didn't get out very well, compelled the folks that organized it to try again. So this reunion was held closer to where we went to school, and was held at a restaurant owned by my good friend and the quarterback of our football team, Dale Yoshihara. I believe that there were about 75 here as opposed to 35 or so at the first one.

It was fun seeing old friends again. Some of my best HS buddies that couldn't attend the first reunion were there and we had fun catching up.
1969 Saga (Yearbook)

GP's Yearbook Picture

First stop - food, of course!

GM and I have gotten pretty good at using the timer to take the pictures we use to immortalize our trips

Well, I guess we still need some practice! I thought the picture was already taken and was rushing to the camera to see if it came out o.k.

I'm glad GM is getting a good laugh out of this!

This is in front of the hotel where we stayed and Dale's restaurant was just upstairs from there. Very handy!

Dale's place

Horse's overies - very yummy!

My good friend Gil Sakima and his wife Yvonne. Gil was a very special friend of mine in school. We, of course, played football together, as well as cooking chicken for the Colonel (you know the one). Gil and I lost touch for several years and spent some great time, although not nearly enough, trying to catch up. It was great to see him and to meet Yvonne.

Me and "cartwheel lady" You'll need to ask GM about that!

Dick Ames and date.
GM & GP
Mike Flood. One of my all time favorite HS friends. He used to clip newspaper articles about floods and hang them on his bedroom wall. "Flood forces hundreds to flee" stuff like that. He was all league as our center on the football team.
He's one of the funniest guys I knew. We were on the 'Lance Staff' (school paper) together, as well as Dale & Gil. We spent many hours abusing our press passes. In fact, our mantra was "forgive us our press passes." (I guess you had to be there). He's now retired and plays golf almost every day. Good job buddy!

Dale & Vicki
Dale will be down soon to visit a daughter he has @ UCSD. Also a Lance Staffer. Quarterback of our team senior year. I love Dales sense of humor. He's quiet, but really funny.
Great job on the food Buddy!
GP trying to remember how he knows someone
Yvonne, GP & GM at dinner.
Rex Mosley - 2nd string QB.

I love the expression on Gilbert's face. There were lots of these looks. "Yea, I'm sure I remember you" "Well, your name, anyway!"
Mike & Dale
Dick, Dale, GP & Gil Sunday morning after breakfast.
Before we drove home Sunday, GM made me go on about a million mile walk. Like our pink outfits?
We stopped at Morro bay for a yummy fish dinner. A little out of the way, but worth it.
One of the few pictures of me from HS.
As head of the drum section (Sophomore). And no Kyle , it's not the gay marching band.

All-in-all a very fun trip. Lot's of driving - 1000 miles from Sat morning to Sunday night.

Word is, this is going to became an annual event. GM made it pretty clear we won't be going next year (or the year after), but I hope to get back soon just to visit with friends.

Terrorist Training Camp

2009-09-07T19:05:00.001-07:00

For Cayden's 7th birthday, his mom thought it would be a great idea to arm him with a paintball gun. I guess its the modern day version of "Christmas Story", where Ralphie Parker wants only one thing for Christmas: "an official Red Ryder carbine-action 200-shot range model air rifle with a compass in the stock, and this thing which tells time."
In 2009, we're putting a high powered device that, using compressed C02 cylinders, chucks small, but hard, balls of paint at anything a 7 year old might decide to point it at. Mom, what were you thinking? Well at least it doesn't have a thing that tells time.

Anyway, we planned a nice Labor Day BBQ in the back yard, but between the people that didn't show up, and the people that left early, we found ourselves with not much to do by about 6:00 pm.

So we decided to go out into the yard and 'chuck' some paintballs.

I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Getting "Ammo"
Heading to 'The Range"
Shooting 'Bad Guys' (An old piece of plywood) from the window of the fort.
Pointers for (or from) Aubrey.

People were scared.
Shawna takes aim from the fort roof.
Aubrey takes out a villain.
Police helicopter circling above (Really!)
Bad guys (and everyone else) BEWARE!

Finally! Football is near!

2009-08-25T20:58:00.000-07:00

Tonight was the night for the ritual lamping of the Escondido High football scoreboard! For the last several years (I guess since the stadium was completed), GP and his good friend Larry Wilson take the tallest step ladder that Skelly Electric owns and change the burned out lamps in the scoreboard. It's really a labor of love and not as difficult as we try to make it seem, but tonight seemed special. It was a picture perfect evening in Escondido, the team was practicing, and football, after a long winter, is finally almost here.
I helped build this stadium about 10 years ago and it is truly the finest HS football stadium in the county. It was such a beautiful evening, I couldn't help taking a few pictures. If you love HS football, you've gotta love this place!
We (the team, that is) are looking forward to a spectacular season, as we have a world class running back, and a large group of very talented young men. Among them is Riley Wilson, Larry's son, who will start at safety and wide receiver this year.
Go get 'em Riley!

GO COUGARS!

Setting sun reflects off lights

Not that Wilson

View from press box

Looks good!

River Trip(ing)

2009-08-11T20:44:00.000-07:00

Well, picking up from where I left off in "River Trip Prep" below, I suppose everyone is breathlessly waiting to find out what happened. Well there was no time to get the new engine installed (it's still in the box), so GP bought a new boat. No divorce (yet).

New Boat

So the "13 marauders" (we really need a name for our group) worked cleaning, gathering, packing, buying (always buying) then went of in 3 cars and trucks, towing 3 boats, on the 5 hour drive to the river. We arrived Wed afternoon and immediately put boats in the water and soon realized that whatever it took to get there was worth it.
We played almost till dark and began the 45 min drive to Laughlin. We checked into our $10.00-a-night rooms, which were great, by the way, and headed to the buffet, as all were ravenous, and macked on prime rib, fried chicken and ice cream.
I think all were whipped and headed to bed, at least GM & GP did.
The following morning it was back to the buffet, the gas station, and the store for snacks and ice, then headed off for another day in the sun (and the wind, as it turned out). All spent hours boating, napping, swimming, and eating the day away.
Camp Skelly was decimated by a semi violent wind storm, which tried to destroy our new pop up shelter (of course parts are on order), but couldn't hold us back. Late in the afternoon, Scott thought it was just the right time to drag some of the kids around in a tube, and CJ enjoyed that the most, proclaiming "That was awesome!"

We got back to the hotel even later that night and everone went their own way for dinner and I'm sure to early bed as everyone was really pooped this time'

We arose the next morning and after one last trip to the buffet, headed home. Except for a little excitement changing a flat trailer tire (which Scott slept through) the return trip was uneventful, but long.
We took way too many pictures, and it was hard to decide which ones to post here, but there's lots to see, so enjoy!

Camp Skelly (after the wind)

Home again!

Planter project

2009-07-27T19:41:00.000-07:00

On a recent trip to the Del Mar fair, GM and I saw some cedar wood planters that we thought would be fun to have. And perhaps necessary, as I have found that there is a phenomenon that occurs as you get older whereby the ground beneath you is actually farther than it was when you' were younger. Honest! It's true, you'll see. So by having some of these planters, you can garden without actually bending over. Of course I had to bend over 10 or 12 thousand times to build it, but that doesn't count.

Anyway, I went on-line and found some planters (www.simplyplanters.com/search/index.cfm?Ntt=cedar&Ntk=all&source=googleaw&kwid=Cedar planters&tid=exact), but after looking at the pictures, decided to just build one from scratch. Men are like that. It's the same thing like asking for directions. Men get tools, buy wood and stuff, and can quite easily create an inferior product for 2 or 3 times the cost of what you could have bought it for. Not including the cost of all the tools we need.

So being a man who takes pride in adhearing to the whole man code, I made 3 trips to the lumber yard and Home Depot (of course) to gather the required materials (men are hunters and gatherers!). I did not actually know what all the materials were, of course, as I didn't want to waste precious time making a plan (another man code).

Anyway, I had some time to kill Sunday after Church and thought I'd get started. Well despite it being 100° outside, all-in-all it went rather smoothly and I actually completed it (well sort of, I want to add a shelf underneath, but.....)

GM and I went to the Home Depot and purchased the planting mix Monday (today) and, after finding a place to put the thing, which I had not given any previous thought to (another man thing), planted some beets. GM loves beets and has already consumed the batch she recently canned.

All's well that ends well, just don't ask me for the plans!

River Trip Prep

2009-07-21T12:23:00.000-07:00

Well I guess gas is cheap enough that we can take the wave runners to the river this year (at least according to GM).
So yesterday Doug (from work) and I began the hours and hours of time it takes to get all that stuff ready for a one day trip.

So the first thing we realized was all 3 boats needed new batteries, so off to N.C. Yamaha for $300.00 worth of batteries.

Then a defect was found in the steering cable of everyone's "favorite" boat and a mail order replacement wast quickly ordered (a mere $150.00)
Hopefully it will get here in time to install.

The final straw was figuring out that the problem we've been having with one of the red boats will require the engine to be rebuilt ($$$ undetermined at this blogging)
We're not sure if we (Doug) can accomplish that before the trip, which led us to the obvious male conclusion.

Stay tuned to see if the cost of divorce also needs to be calculated into the price of this trip............

Holy Moly! Who are all these people?

2009-07-08T19:02:00.001-07:00

The Kelly house was a mass of people(GM counted around 40, but they wouldn't stop moving long enough to be sure!) on Saturday, July 4th.
As most Kelly events it seemed to center on food. There was tons of hot dogs, hamburgers, BBQ chicken, and all the fixin's. I'm still eating hamburgers, but told GM that the one at lunch today was the last one for me. Lot's of yummy deserts, led by a couple of huge mud pie things that Gail made. (We're still eating that too!).
The pool was full of kids all day, along with Tate, who couldn't seem to get enough of the water.

I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Too Cute!

Bonnie looking good

Pool Fun!

A bountiful harvest

2009-06-29T20:36:00.001-07:00

In spite of the fact that the apricots and plums decided to take the year off, our yard is again providing us with tons of yummy eats this year.
GM made a large fruit salad last week and every thing in it came from our yard. Somehow we broke the 'Bonnie rule' by having something crunchy in it (apples), but that's ok with us.
Besides the satisfaction of being able to provide for ourselves, we really enjoy toiling in the yard and reaping the harvest.

Our salad contained strawberries, blueberries, some unknown wild berries that volunteer each season (blackberries?), apples (sorry Bon), oranges, and tangerines.
We have tons of tomatoes, and other veggies including onions, peppers (green & hot), broccoli, asparagus, brussel sprouts, zucchini, green beans, and snap peas (I think I got it all).
In addition to the stuff mentioned above in the fruit salad, we've planted honey dew, water melon, cantaloupe, and pumpkins.
When Shawna got here, we all spent some time in the yard harvesting goodies.

YUM!

Our trip to Monterey

2009-06-28T20:39:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, we took off for a few days using GP's (see above) 40th High School reunion as an excuse for a get-a-way. We blew Escondido on a Thursday afternoon, drove to LA to check on a job there (does that make the trip a tax write-off?), and ate lunch at a famous place we saw on "Sandwich Paradise" (GM loves the Food Paradise Series on the Travel channel !)
This is copied from the food paradise web site:

Phillipe The Original Los Angeles, CA The East Coast claims most of the oldest and best delis in the country, but the West Coast boasts one of America's oldest sandwiches, the French dip. Established in 1908, Philippe The Original is one of the oldest and best-known restaurants in SoCal. What you may not know is that this delicious treat was a happy accident. One day, the restaurant's owner, Phillipe Mathieu was making a sandwich and inadvertently dropped the sliced French roll into a roasting pan filled with juice, still hot from the oven. The patron accepted the sandwich anyway, and a star was born!

It was very yummy and proved to be only the first of many, many food stops!

After lunch we drove to Santa Barbara where we walked , walked, walked (GM loves to walk).

We enjoyed a snack of shrimp in a cool little restaurant out on a pier.

We drove thru town on the way to our hotel and decided that we really liked Santa Barbara!

The beach and downtown areas have much t see and do. We noticed that the train station was close enough to walk to some of the motels and I'm sure it will be a future return trip.

We ate dinner at Chucks Steak House, which used to have a place in Escondido, and eating there brought back lot's of memories.

Our hotel there was neat, but they had a free little breakfast thing where GM selected a good looking little muffin thing that turned out to be the worst thing ever! It was like someone rolled some dirt into a ball and baked it! Oh well.

With that taste in our mouths, we jumped into the car and started up the coast along highway 1.

This is without a doubt one of the worlds most scenic drives. We stopped several times to walk, look at sea lions and stuff, and of course----eat.

The picture at the top of our blog page was a self-timer picture (we got good at that) taken at a little restaurant we stopped at along highway 1.

We arrived at Monterey in the afternoon where we checked into the coolest hotel we ever stayed at! I splurged a little when I was making reservations on-line and GM allowed me, grudgingly, to spend a little more on a room than we usually do (you know,...we'll leave the light on for you....)

There was a little surprise there when we found out that the hotel had no place to park and you had to valet park all the time you're there, but how can you go wrong when there's a Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory store directly across the street from your hotel entrance!

Our hotel was right on cannery row, an historic part of Monterey you may have read about in John Steinbeck's book of the same title.

There is much to do and see there. There's a cool walk and bike path between cannery row and fisherman's wharf, about a mile. Needless to say, we made that trek several times. The wharf had a bunch of restaurants, most of which offered free samples of clam chowder out in front of their stores to entice you to come in. There was all kinds of food was there, including lots of great sourdough bread. Since we were only there for a few meals, we had to carefully choose where we ate. We did good., however.

We started to eat at Bubba Gumps, but it was too busy.

Here's a picture of the bench out front.

We ended up eating here and it was great!

There was a neat little Cinnamon bun place out in front, and we also got free breakfast in bed each morning.

I guess I need to get away from the food aspect, which we obviously enjoy, and talk about some other things we did.
Mom always wanted (which I never knew) a caricture painting and we had one made of us on fisherman's wharf.

We also took a short glass bottom boat ride in the harbor, saw lots of seals, birds, etc.

Sat afternoon, we left for the 45 minute drive to the reunion site. Getting our car out of the parking garage turned out to be one of only a few bleak spots on the trip (The other being leaving some cherries we bought at a roadside stand behind in the frig in our room).

I won't go into detail except to say that it made me think, perhaps because we were on our way to the reunion, of the thing that 'they' always told us in high school, which is, "you won't go anywhere in life without your HS diploma". Well I figured out where some of those people without diplomas ended up. They're members of the PPLAA (professional parking lot attendants of America). I don't really think even a HS diploma could have helped those idiots.

Anyway, GM restrained me from doing anything foolish and we sped on, now late, to the reunion.

The reunion was everything I knew it would be and less.

It was put on at a place a couple of hours from where I went to school, so the attendance was poor. It was put on by a classmate that I didn't know in school who is the marketing director at the country club where the event was held, so you figure it out. Anyway, the 2 people that I really went to see where there and I had a great time hooking up with them.

One of them was the quarterback of our football team. I went to school with a lot of Japanese kids and our coach used to say if he could find a Japanese fullback, he could have a Kamikaze backfield, as I was the only 'white guy'. Sorry coach.

Boy, the people there looked old! I hardly fit in!

Did I mention that the room wasn't large enough for everyone, so GM and I sat at a table out in the driveway? Dale and Vicki came out and sat with us so it ended up being fine.

The rest of our trip was uneventful as we sadly left Sunday morning for the long, boring drive home. We did pass a huge field of broccoli growing which I wish I would have been able to take a picture of for CJ, as that's his favorite food.

Well that's about it till next time!

Second first blog

2009-06-28T20:12:00.000-07:00

There are not many things in life that you get a second chance at, but apparently blogging isn't one of them. Those of you that saw my first feeble attempt at blogging will notice that the first attempt went to blog heaven (or ???) and has been replaced with my second feeble attempt. This one should be much better as my world class blogging daughter, Shawna, is home for the summer to help. She may tell you she's mostly here to watch Aubrey and CJ, but that's just a cover, as she's here to:
1) Have breakfasts on Saturday mornings with dad.
2) Help grandma and grandpa with their blogs.

So I'll restate what I said in the FFA blog (first feeble attempt) by saying that this blog will be mostly about the the exciting lives of grandma and grandpa as they travel, explore, cruise, and eat their way through life.
We won't write so much about the kids and grand kids because that's their job, and although grandpa (now GP) takes lot's of pictures, I'll let the people in those pictures tell their own stories.
That said, we may not write often, but usually after special things that happen in our lives. We have lot's of little fun things planned, so check back often!

Our First Blog!

2009-06-16T20:43:00.000-07:00

We decided that it was so much fun reading every one's blogs that we'd try it ourselves.

We'll attempt to chronicle the adventures of Grandma and Grandpa Kelly as they work, play, cruise, travel, visit and eat their way through life.

We'll start our first entry by describing the little trip we just returned from.

The excuse for this trip (we'll usually try to have one) was to go to Grandpa's 40th H.S. reunion.

Good thing we found some other fun things to do or the trip would pretty much have been a bust!

We started out Thursday morning by driving to Los Angeles to check on our job there. While there, we traveled a few blocks to a famous restaurant that we say on "Sandwich Paradise"( one of Grandma's favorite shows). We had yummy french dip sandwiches, which turned out to be the beginning of a 4 day eat fest!

We traveled to Santa Barbara and discovered that it's a great spot, to which we'd like to return.