Back Home at Wilderness Lakes

WOW what a week we have had!  I hardly know where to start to share all that we did.  As I said before, we were looking forward to a very busy week.  It was so great to see Joan on Thursday.  Friday morning Cindy came over to see us, and also because she wanted to buy a couple magnetic bracelets.   After she had left, we cleaned house and did a couple loads of laundry before getting showered and dressed for our anniversary evening in the lodge.  That makes 33 amazing years of wedded bliss for us.  No regrets!  The musical duo that played that night were Theresa & Parks Wilson, aka Breakaway.  They are wonderful musicians and beloved friends as well.
Theresa I apologize that I didn't get a better picture, but I was just too busy having fun to notice that not all the pictures were good.  She has been having a lot of pain in her wrist since she fell a few months back, so I went out to the motorhome and made her two bracelets for her right wrist before we had dinner.
Ron & Sherrie got us the table 
reservation, and joined us that night.  They are really great friends, and we had a FANTASTIC evening of dinner, dancing and conversation with them.  They have been married 52 years........I guess they must have gotten married before they were even 10 years old.  Thanks again for the bottle of wine and the great fun evening.  We danced our feet off, but still felt pretty good.  Thanks to the magnetic jewelry.  So amazing what they have done for us.  We slept late the next morning, then did a few errands.  We got back in time to go into the lodge for their Saturday burgers.............didn't seem quite as good as I remembered.  Alas, things do change.  The rest of Saturday was pretty quiet.  We enjoyed spending the day with our furry kids.

Sunday morning we went to church.  It is always great to see Pastor Paul and his wife Aiko, and the rest of our church family.  We were sorry to hear we had missed the visit a couple weeks ago when Al & Judy had been here from South Dakota.  Ingrid rode back to the lodge with us so she could come to Pizza Sunday.  

Pastor Paul & Aiko also came, and I thought I got their picture too, but now I see that I didn't......so sorry.
   
Below is a picture of Connie Perkins, aka Fancy.  She and her husband are part of the group known as the Elks Clowns, who perform at many events and raise money for Elk charities.  
They had been at the Garden Grove Strawberry Festival this weekend.  They are an great group of people, and may God bless them for the good work they do.

 Here's a group shot of some of the many people that were here at the lodge to dance to the country music we were enjoying.  As you can see, Ron and Sherrie were having a good time too.  She's a great dancer, even when she doesn't know the line dance the others are doing.

I didn't catch the name of the band, but they were very good, and did all the songs we wanted to dance to.

I think they only took one break the whole afternoon.

Here's a shot of Marla Greer and Fred Wantz.  They had just returned from a trip to the Grand Canyon.  We used to be in a Good Sam camping club with Fred, and happily have remained close friends after we left the club.  He is a very active 82 years old, and a really marvelous person.  We met Marla when I joined the Emblem club many years ago.  Emblem club is an organization for women (and now a few men) that have an affiliation with the Elks Lodge.  Most, but not all of the women, are wives of Elk members.  The club helps to support the lodge, and carries on its own charitable projects.  Marla has been a member even longer than I have.....and she is also an Elk member now.  She is a very beautiful woman of a certain age (not to be mentioned by me of course) who is also very active and artistic. 
This beautiful painting of an Elk was done by Marla, and she donated it to the lodge many years ago.  It still hangs in the East Room for all to enjoy.  I am very honored and proud to have a lighthouse painting she did for us before we retired.  It hangs on the wall of our bedroom in the motorhome.  I also have a painting of a Yorkshire Terrier she did that looks very much like the Yorkie we used to have, named Mitzi.  After the Pizza party ended, Fred & Marla came out to spend some time with us in the RV.  It had been much too long since we had seen them, so it was great to visit and get caught up.

Monday we invited Ron & Sherrie over to our RV for a BBQ.  They brought wonderful steaks, and I did the French Fries, salad and corn on the cob, and for dessert we had yummy home made ice cream that Jim had made.  We played Mexican Train before dinner, and Rummy Kube after dinner.  It was another fantastic day!!!!!  I'm so glad you folks were able to spend the day with us.

Tuesday we left early to go to Imperial Auto to get the new Shocks put on the RV.  We were astonished by how much they improved the ride coming down to Wilderness Lakes.  We got all set up yesterday afternoon, but decided to wait until today to put up the new screen room because it was just too hot to work outside.

 Here is a view from outside.  It is not attached to the RV or to the awning.  It has magnetic door closures on the front and back, but the dogs can walk right through them, so Millie has to be on a leash while inside it.

For this one I got closer to show them sitting inside the screen room.

 Back in the house later......I think Millie wanted to go back outside.  Now Tony is here with his wonder dog Woody for a visit.  Life is grand and we are so blessed to be able to live in our RV and see the wonderful places we go to, and to spend time with all the incredible people we meet in our travels.  While we were at the lodge, our very wonderful friend Robert came over and unscrambled some of the garbage I had on my computer, and found a way into my Western Digital hard drive so now I can again access all the pictures (and the memories associated with the pictures) that we had stored on it.  Thanks again so much Robert.  You are amazing!!!! 
I hope you all had a wonderful weekend, and remember to enjoy each day.  It's a gift, that why it's called the present.  The past is history, and the future is a mystery, so please, please enjoy each day fully, and realize how blessed we all are to be living in this great country.  Bye now!!!!!