Marching Along in Time to the Music

Sunday morning, Suzy's pain level is such that we do not feel we can search out a Church and attend Mass. (Suzy has an appointment for her bimonthly epidural for pain tomorrow.) So we are sitting in the motorhome, listening to our iPod's playlist of religious and inspirational music, and later we'll view a Readers Digest film called "How Great Thou Art," showing wonderful videos of the splendor of His Creation, accompanied by appropriate music. And we will march to that music.

Snow covered mountains -- This is Mount Rainier.

 

Mount Hood with blooming fruit trees




Cascading waterfalls. This is Upper Mesa Falls in Idaho.



More Upper Mesa Falls.



Animals, large and small. This elk is at Niobrara Wildlife Refuge in Nebraska.



Animals large and small. A Giant Mesquite Bug.



Animals and plants together -- at Burney Falls in California.




This Tiger Lily tried to kill me -- another story for another time.



Cactus flowers - another example of God's wonderful creation.

 The other music we are marching to in this stage of Our Life on Wheels is family togetherness. We've been celebrating familt since we arrived here in Carson City a week and a half ago. A week ago Wednesday we ate dinner with daughter Kathie, her husband Shawn, grandson Sam, granddaughter Renee with her husband Adam, and of course great grandson Darren, at a nearby casino.

Darren and his Mommy

Thursday we drove with all the family, this time adding daughter Deb and her pal Albert, to Reno to witness Kathie's Senior Scholar presentation. 

Our Senior Scholar

That was followed by a dessert treat at U-Swirl, a delightful serve-yourself yogurt frenzy. Dozens of flavors of sort-frozen yogurt, topped with choice of syrups and other toppings. You paid by the weight of your serving.

Friday morning, we joined some of the family for breakfast at a restaurant. Friday night we once again drove to Reno for Kathie's actual graduation. Most of the family was in town, and we had dinner at Macaroni Grill. Because it started at 8:00am Saturday, Suzy and I stayed in a motel nearby, while the rest of the family returned to Carson City. Following the graduation we gathered with all the family and many of their friends at Shawn and Kathie's home for the celebration party. More food!


The proud, happy and relieved graduate

Kathie received so many flowers, she shared some with her Mom.

Sunday, lunch with Deb and Albert at Chili's. Monday and Tuesday were recuperation days. Wednesday we did laundry at Kathie's house, while Suzy practiced the piano and prepared a ham dinner, complete with a potato and cheese casserole.

Thursday Suzy and I went to Renee and Adam's house for dinner. Adam is a grill master; he prepared a special ball-tip beef roast, accompanied by broccoli with cheese sauce. We brought dessert and a nice bread.

Darren loves broccoli!

Friday was errand day -- new batteries for Big Red, Suzy got her blood test, and we did a little shopping.

Saturday, we visited Kathie and Shawn, who had Darren for the weekend, so Mommy and Daddy could have time to do "just-us-two" things for a couple of days.

After a pleasant afternoon in their back yard watching Darren play, we went out to dinner at Two Guys from Italy, a delightful if somewhat pricey restaurant in Minden. As members of AARP, we had been able to purchase (for about $5) a $50 Restaurant.com discount at Two Guys. We were able to have a wonderful dinner for five of us plus Darren for a lot less than the menu price!


At 18 months, Darren prefers to eat with a fork.





Although he also uses fingers!

To follow up, we stopped at Tahoe Ridge Winery's tasting room, bistro and gift shop. Shawn and Kathie paid for the tasting, and bought us two Tahoe Ridge glasses for our collection!


We need to treat these glasses gently in our motorhome.


Today all the family is gathering at Adam and Renee's to go out to another dinner, this time to celebrate my birthday, and we'll feast on "naked burritos." We'll find out what that's about as we finish this day in ... Our Life on Wheels!