A Busy, Busy December!

Placerville, CA
Elks Lodge


Between all the usual annual doctor, dentist and eye appointments we spent a lot of time visiting with family and friends.

Our oldest, Ryan, recently got engaged and we had a dinner with him and Diana and got to meet her parents in San Jose.

 

Diana's parents own a couple of Korean restaurants in the Bay Area so the next night they invited us over to one of their restaurants for a special meal. Her parents are wonderful and the food amazing!  There was so much and some of it prepared special just for us, not on their menu.

Pretty black squirrel.

We stayed several days in San Jose so we had extra days to visit.  First I had breakfast out with my good friend, Amy.

Then it was off to lunch with Brian.

Another visit with my high school friends, Debbie and Chris.  I really miss these two!  Some other friends were sick so we didn't get to see everyone we wanted.

 

 

Back at my parents I came across some pictures of my Dad when he was in the Navy.

He was actually out to sea when I was born.  When he returned and got off the ship a reporter snapped a picture of him meeting me for the first time.

 

 Our handsome Dad!

There is a nearby casino we visited with my parents and my Mom was playing this slot machine.  Wow, I guess it's the R-Rated section.  What language!  :-)

Back in Placerville it was busy visiting more friends.  Tina and John (above) are with us at the Elks Lodge as they just sold their home and are now Fulltimers too!  Happy for them!

Rene, me, Steve, Ron and John photobombing in the background.

Tina put on a get-together for local Fulltimers through RVillage.  It's like facebook for RVers.  It was a great turnout and we met several new people.

 

 We also spent some time with Jim and Jenny at Out of Bounds Brewery.  Steve loved their hazy IPAs.

 We did a little geocaching and came across a pond with some swans.

 While out walking with Tina we came across this sign.  We didn't see any Vikings though.

Now that all the smoke is gone we have been enjoying beautiful skies and sunsets.

Our third time in an escape room and we had a blast with my sister and an old friend we grew up with, Ken and his wife Alma.  We escaped with just seconds to spare. (Alma was on the wrong side of Ken!)

Our kids decided that instead of presents we'd rent a cabin in Tahoe for the weekend.  We got lucky with the weather and the snow storm held out until the afternoon.  After we left they received FEET of snow!

This was before the storm.  They really get a lot of snow up here.

Tahoe in the far distance coming up over Echo Pass, just over 7000 feet.

 I'm glad we didn't get the Jammie memo!  They looked adorable though!

Ryan, Shane, Brennan and Kaylee having a little sibling fun.

Diana (Ryan's fiancé), Alex (Brennan's girlfriend) and Jenna (Shane's girlfriend).

We had a feast!  Lobster, crab, shrimp, steak, potatoes, salad and so much more!  We also celebrated Ryan's 31st birthday while we were there.

  

 Hurley with his Daddy, Ryan.

 

We also had fun playing Bocce in the snow and ice.

 We left Tahoe Christmas Eve Day and headed home for Christmas with the rest of the family.

 

 

 Our daughter, Kaylee, Me and my Mom.

  
We had our favorite ravioli from Lucca's in San Francisco that our son picked up for us.  I made the meatballs.  There was ham and other yummy side dishes too.

 Everyone here but my sister who was with her family in San Jose.  John and Tina joined us too.

 

                                                                             Kevin, Judy, Tina, John, Steve, Me and Kris.

 A new brewery opened up.  That makes 3 just in the area of our small town.  Hwy 50 Brewery had some great pizza but Steve did not care for the beer.

       

 And for New Years....

 

 We had dinner out with John and Tina.  They had a special dinner for the night.  Tina and I had the Schnitzel and the guys had the Lamb Shank.  It was delicious!

   

 After dinner, John and Tina decided to head back to the Elks and relax.  The temps were very cold and it was very windy.  We went on to my brothers for their annual bonfire and fun.

At least the wind died down and my brothers friend showed us that if you put a small shovel of coals under your seat it really keeps your buns warm!  Nice!  We all had a Happy New Year.

And for the rest of our friends and family we couldn't be with:

 

Happy New Year!!