A little trip to Roosevelt

We always enjoy our little trips to our place at Roosevelt. Spring is so nice down there. Our pomegranate tree is all in bloom, we have about 30 apricots on our little tree, and the wind doesn't blow, so LaVerl loves being outdoors working around the place.
The trumpet vine bush is also in bloom as is the rose bush.

We always have a little work do to while we are there. This was our project last time. We had to replace this wall after the water damage from the water line leaking in the ceiling of the kitchen. We like it better and think it adds more character to the place. We just used the leftover wood from the bunkhouse. Its rough and rustic, but that's OK with us.

This was our project this time. What is it??

This is a corroded water cooler pad! We have never changed them since we've had the place, so they were full of chunk from the hard water! They were so heavy, LaVerl could hardly get them down off the roof by himself! We had to pound and hammer on the panels to get the hard water deposits off of them. We hauled off 2 heavy trash bags full! I can't believe the cooler even worked!

Here's the nice finished product! Now when we turn it on it smells like aspen wood instead of the musty, wet, yucky smell! I hope you kids appreciate all your dad's hard work when you turn it on when you're there! We have almost as much fun working and fixing things as we do playing. However, we do enjoy taking our new (to us) boat out on the lake!

This is a great little fishing boat as well as a party deck. We can fit quite a few people and we hope to have lots of fun on the lake. It was sad to say good-bye to the Ol' Blue J, but she's just not running good anymore! We had to put her "out to pasture" literally thats where she is, out in our field in Eagar. LaVerl is hoping to do a little work and try to sell her, but really, who wants a 36 year old boat!!?

Tami Graduates from ASU!

I know Tami posted about this on her blog, but I want to post about her achievement on our blog too. We are so proud of her, it was hard taking online classes while also taking care of this little guy! Baby Blake takes alot of time, but she was able to do both!So on Friday, May 13th, Tami received her Bachelors Degree in Psychology from ASU!!

We were actually at her graduation, however between all four of us that were there watching, (LaVerl, me, Bret & Ryne) we missed seeing her receive her diploma!! She said she turned around and waved at us and none of us were watching her! And that is because she forgot to take her phone and we never could find her in that huge crowd! Then afterwards we walked all over outside looking for her and never did find her! She found Ryne walking to their car!
Afterwards, we met up at IHOP for a little breakfast! Kind of a tradition-we did the same thing when Bret graduated.

Being the practical people that we are, her Dad got her a t-shirt, something that would last, all those pretty flowers die! SO- GOOD JOB TAMI!!

Kaemon's Kindergarten Graduation

Today we dressed up and went to Kaemon's graduation. They did a nice program about all the things they've learned this year, sang songs and Kaemon did great on his speaking part. We hope this isn't Kaemon's greatest life achievement. Then we changed and went to a crawfish boil.

Kaemon the Soccer Player

Today Kaemon had his second soccer game (the first I was able to attend). The first game he scored 2 goals. Today he scored his teams only goal. He threw his hands in the air in celebration after his shot hit the goalie's hands and then went into the goal. It's pretty crazy watching my son play his first organized sport. He only cried twice. The first was when he was on the ground and got kicked in the face with the ball. The second was at halftime because they were losing by a couple goals. So here are

The fans...The team...The star!




The postgame handshakes

Trip to "N'awlins"

We had a great time visiting New Orleans, Mark is a great tour guide! Everyday was an adventure! We loved seeing our grandkids, especially this new little guy, Bolden Leo Crosby!
He's pretty cute! Very strong and alert for only being 1 week old!
This is a typical pose of Zallen, he loves his fingers! He doesn't say anything, but can communicate really well, by pointing and grunting! He's adorable!
This was our first taste of Creole food! What a treat! Its called a "Boil". They cook lots of crawfish, shrimp, sausage, potatoes, garlic, mushrooms, corn, etc all together with some great seasonings and to make it all better- its all you can eat!!
It takes awhile to peel everything, but they loved it!! The two plates on the sides are what was left from the middle plate!
Mark & Holly have such a sweet little family! 4 really cute, adorable kids!
Our first day in New Orleans Mark took us to and alligator ranch. It was so interesting!
They go into the swamps and collect the eggs, they have a 90% hatch rate. They grow them for the leather mostly. This is a picture of a rare white alligator!
Kaemon had fun being able to handle these baby alligators who had their mouths taped for safety purposes!

Here's some scenes from our adventures!

There is this moss growing all over the trees there!
Milea loved eating this doughnut/soppapilla type of dessert they sell down in the French Quarter. They are covered with lots of powdered sugar!
Actually, they are called 'beignets" and we all liked them!


Of course we had to ride the streetcar down St. Charles street! It was a great way to see lots of the city sites!

New Orleans is famous for all their spicy sauces and we got to sample lots of them!
This was one of the statue guys that stand still and don't move for hours! He was amazing!
We had a famous 'Muffuletta" for lunch, its this huge bun with spicy meats, and a wonderful olive type mixture for a relish. We cut it in fourths and all had plenty!
On every corner was someone entertaining the crowd, trying to get a few dollars in their bucket! This guy was a magician and he was unbelievable! We were really impressed. They also had musicians, puppets, dancers, etc. It was fun walking down the streets!

I didn't get any pictures posted of our second day, we took a steamboat ride down the Mississippi on the Natchez!
Our 3rd day we got up at 4am to be down at the dock to go out fishing! Kaemon was so excited to be able to go! It was a little chilly that morning!
Mark had some friends that had gone out with 'Captain Jason' and had good luck, and we did too. We caught some fish and had a great time.

LaVerl won the prize for catching the most unusual things! He caught this oyster, a couple of crabs, and the most catfish!
I caught pretty big drum fish! When he tapped on him, the fish would make a drum noise!
We all thought we were catching some red fish, they were all over 16 inches, but then Mark caught this really big one! He caught two in a row! Twice the size of our others ones.

We caught 16 fish and several that got away and were very happy about our day. The other Captains didn't have as much luck!
Mark pleased with his catch! We had a little fish fry later!

Our last day we went on a tour of one of New Orleans famous cemeteries! This one was really old, but still in use. Because the water level is so high, everyone is buried above ground.

We had a great time seeing where Mark & Holly live, the Naval Base is really nice! We ate tons of great food, enjoyed seeing and playing with the grandkids, and of course, getting to see ...

BABY BOLDEN CROSBY!!!