Merry Christmas Family! Happy Birthday Jesus!

One of our favorite family traditions was 'suitcase kids' and whenever we went to the playground at grandma-pa Lukes' dad always had to carry you like 'suitcase kids'!
Christmas 1980 was a special one with all our family at our California house! Jennifer LOVED her play phone! What a cutie!
Thom got started playing 'Santa' very early....delivering a package to great-grandma...his assistant, Grandpa Luke, is in the background getting the next delivery ready :o)
We always laugh at the memories of our Christmas in Montana....dad giving us all a 'driving in the snow demonstration'.....snowmobiles.....sledding down a favorite hill.....snow forts.....Princess Bride....and great times.
Love you all!

Special Christmas Thoughts

As we put up our tree for another year (thanks Thom for being our "tree-master"!) it looks like any other Christmas tree at full glance. But....hanging on this tree are many special memories and reminders of what Christmas is all about, and how special family is!


















This Snoopy ornament is from Dad Luke's collection and hangs on our tree in remembrance of him. It holds precious memories for me because we gave these to him and he always had them sitting on the coffee table. He didn't hang them on his tree because the cats thought it was their personal playground!!















We also have great memories of early years with our two kiddos :o) Those hand-made school ornaments get more precious with each passing year. Interestingly enough, they don't always hold the same memories for you kids as they do for us LOL









But the hand-made kiddo ornaments didn't stop when ours grew up! thank goodness!
These 2 special ornaments were created by our 2 lovely grand-daughters and hang with special honor on Granny and Papa's tree.








Then we have the special places reminders, those places of ministry and memories that remind of us God's love, good friends, and beautiful scenery.

May God richly bless all who travel through our little blog!
Merry Christmas!

Why I Love Walking at the Zoo!

I can expect the unexpected! Who would've thought I'd see 'cow-milking' going on!













Or 'rough-riders' speeding through the bushes










Giant ( and I DO mean giant!) birds! This is a Marabou Stork, and it's wing spread is 7-10 feet! If Hannah stood on her daddy's shoulders, that's how wide this bird's wings would spread!











He was very impressive standing guard on his look-out perch.


























Cactus blooming/growing in the sunrise were a gorgeous surprise as well.

Busy Times

It has been a busy month!
Driving to Star Valley this past Sunday, Granny made the trip alone because Papa was preaching elsewhere. Needless to say, there is new construction on the route, and there is now several miles of 2-way traffic....just like the good old days. My drive home looked something like this!
You can see traffic backed up behind our car as well. Surprisingly it only added about 10 minutes to my total drive time :o)
Granny has also been enjoying going to the zoo to get some walking in. I go in the early morning before the zoo is open to the general public and it's wonderful. I get to see how the zoo-keepers put out treats, snacks, toys, and food for some of the animals...
Granny also got a haircut...changing up the style some, and making it much easier to take care of.
Papa had some surgery on his foot, but we didn't take pictures of that! LOL

Weclome to Open House!

Families and Faculty attending our open house were greeted with one of our famous Monsoon storms. It was a downpour for about 45 minutes, flooding everything and drenching most everyone!
Needless to say, people didn't try to venture down to the music room. I saw about 6 families and had some good visits, but mostly I got some good work time in :0)
By the time I was drivng home, the rain had stopped and we got some incredibly sky colors. This is looking south, and is the moon behind the clouds!

Luna Rodeo

It was a very wet, rainy day in the mountains of AZ. Luna is about 20 miles east of Alpine, AZ.
There were some great monsoon storms while we were there, but they made the rodeo a bit slippery!
In this picture is baby Sterling with daddy Mac, & Grandma Vi.
Lots of camo, (hard to see folks hahah), here is Aunt Debbie, Sterling, Grandma Vi and Dustin's girlfriend. Some of us thought to bring rain gear, some of us didn't.
Zadeea and Chase (he is Dustin's little boy) having a good time with "cowboy toys", a tickely blade of grass. Mac, Dustin, Vi & Linda are in the background.
A stomach bug was being passed around the family, and this day was Aunt Louise's turn, so I took over her camera for the rest of the afternoon. I hope to have some of those pictures soon, and will post them as well, and...we are praying that Papa and Granny don't get the stomach bug again, (we had our turn in Yellowstone!)

Home Again...Home Again..Jiggity Jig!

It's Hard to Beat an AZ sunset - this is on the AZ side of Page, looking out over the Navajo Res.
We did one LONG day of driving to get from Yellowstone to Phx, but it was worth it to wake up in our own bed this morning :o)
Cousin Kayla with her nephew, Sterling Graham. He's 16 months old now, and looks just like his daddy did at that age. We got to visit with Zadeea too, and her mommie and daddie.
Mommie Ada's crown is missing in the picture, but Zadeea, her mom, and her Grandma Louise got to have 'tea' with Belle, and then see a performance of Beauty and the Beast. They had to promise Belle to wear their crowns all the way to the evening performance. Zadeea had a GREAT time!
Scott and I hiked out to Morning Glory Pool, and some buffalos decided to do the same. They just ambled by, it was great.
Here's the 'obligatory' picture by the sign! Old Faithful had just gone off, it didn't disappoint!

Our Home As We Now Know It!

Grandma & Grandpa Luke had so many amazing things, but now a bunch of them are packed up and living in our house. We are slowly going through things, but it will take quite a while!
It's actually a LITTLE clearer than this now, but not a bunch! I am grateful to have time to go through these things again, SLOWLY, and really think about what they are, what they meant to our family, and how we should save, display, or share them with others.
I am especially enjoying the garden fountain that was in their patio for many years. In fact, it was the subject of a one of Grandma's paintings. Uncle Randy has the painting, Papa and Granny have the fountain!

Now THAT'S Art!

Most folks that knew Grandpa and Grandma Luke KNEW that SHE was an accomplished artist, but Grandpa Luke rarely spoke of his own work. I will post some of Grandma's later, but here are some of my favorite Don Luke originals!
The Leaf now lives with Thom
Haystack Rock in Washington--Papa andI are the proud owners of this one
The Shipwreck is going home to Washington to live with Uncle Scott
Seagulls MIGHT be making its way to Montana, we're waiting to see.

Final Performance

Finishing out the year with a bang! Puppet team did what I lovingly call an
"in-house field trip". I pull them for the entire day and we perform for my music classes plus other classes that accept our invitation. We pulled off NINE shows from 8:55-3:00 -- quite a day! Managed to devour 6 pizzas as well LOL
The team is holding many of the props from our black-light skit, Rainbow Fish. I'm thinking of heading out west for our black-light next year......the one topic we really haven't explored yet.
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Thanks For the Memories! 81 Years, 364 days

We said goodbye to Grandpa Luke/Dad Friday night at 11:14pm, AZ time, 45 minutes before his 82nd birthday. He was a GREAT dad, a SUPER grandpa, and a VERY SPECIAL Great-Grandpa to Hannah, Cailyn, and little-one-yet-to-be-named :o)
I'm sure I will have more pics and things to share at a later date, we are all still 'processing' this experience. We covet your prayers!

A Cowboy and His Trusty ......Toshiba??

It was Papa's turn to lead a VBS clinic, and I must say he travels much lighter than Granny!
He also travels much farther! This VBS clinic was in Snowflake.....and it lived up to it's name!
We enjoyed an absolutely gorgeous drive through every AZ terrain you would want.
But my favorite part of this drive was definitely the snow :o) We have truly had 'In Like a Lion Out Like a Lamb March' weather this year, and this part of the state had just received another dusting of snow a day or two before we drove through.

Dusty Twales....

Dusty Twales prefers naps on his'tack' to working the range! One VBS Clinic down, about 4 to go LOL Had a great time at the first one, love, love, love the music and enjoying the western/dude ranch theme, Saddle Ridge Ranch.
Amazing what folks will do for VBS! We pulled together this 'rock' band, complete with Willie Nelson braids and a jug. Little guy really rocked out to the music, but of course he had NO idea who Willie Nelson is!

We've Come Full Circle

I can't believe it's been a year already....and time for VBS again! It is a 'dude ranch' theme this year, hence the "Roy Rogers" cowboy shirt and steer in the background. I 're-purposed' my hanging backdrops ....moving them from the outback of Australia to the hills and plains of Colorado.
My straw bale was a little anemic, but with the few extra props it served its decorative purpose.
I needed a different style campfire this year.....looks a little scary....was supposed to look like embers. Note to self: NEVER put halogen plant lights under a plastic pompom!
Jen & Thom - any chance you recognize the blue coffeepot? I used to warm your bottles in it when we were in Williams LOL

Casa Grande Ruins

This weekend we joined another couple and ventured down about 40 miles to visit a famous ruin, Casa Grande, which means Big House. The protective roof was not part of the original structure...LOL....it was added to protect the building from further erosion.
This is believed to be a building used for worship. You can walk right up to it now, you just can't go inside. You are able to see where the building has been reinforced throughout to keep it in tact. There was a complete village surrounding this structure at one time, and the village was surrounded by a 7-foot mud/clay wall. It has been compared to Stonehenge in that the building contains several holes at different levels, like the one pictured below. They are strategically placed for the sun or moon to shine through on each of the equinox days, PLUS one set for an astrological occurrence that happened only every 18 1/2 years! How'd they KNOW that???
We were surprised to find that we were visiting on the weekend of the Annual Indian Music Fest, so we were serenaded the entire time we were there.

It was a bit ethereal to hear live Native American music as we toured the ruins. I captured a short clip to try and share the experience with you....