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.