Our Newest Family Member

On Thursday night, (October 13th), the newest member of our family arrived !!    I am so pleased to introduced to everyone my new great-granddaughter,  Miss Autumn Raine Long.   She was born @ 11:43pm.   6lbs, 7 oz,  19 inches.  She has black wavy hair and hazel eyes.   She has very long fingers, (going to be a piano player), and long toes.

 As you can probably tell by the look on my face - she is the most beautiful baby girl in the world.  Everyone thinks grandparents are wonderful, but only the best grand parents get to be called GREAT-grandparents !!

I think Dave is pretty happy with this little girl also.  She snuggles into him so contently - everyone loves his warmth.  She looks so tiny next to him.   Welcome to our family little Autumn.  You are going to be so loved with so many grandparents.

Potatoes Harvested

Some of Dave's co-workers have been asking him about our potatoes that we've been growing and how they are doing.  Some of my friends have also emailed and said why don't you put a photo of your potatoes on the blog so we can see what they look like when you dig them up.  OK - here is the 5th and last harvest that we dug up.  We have have some pretty good eating for only have a few potatoes planted.  Dave has that big monster in the basket earmarked with his name.  I guess I need to chop him up quick for dinner.    OH - by the way remember those old cucumber seeds that I planted, these are some of the last of the harvest off the vines.  I gave a small bag of cukes away to our puppy sitter and a small bag to one of the security guards at work, and we have been eating cucumbers everynight for the last 2 weeks.  Not bad for old seeds that I just threw out in the garden.  They didn't cost us anything!!  And we have lots of little pinky size cukes on the vines - as long as the frost doesn't get them, I will keep picking them.

S J O R

This year Dave decided that as part of his  birthday gift, he wanted to attend a smooth jazz concert in Sedona, Arizona.  It was the SEDONA JAZZ ON THE ROCKS - (S J O R), held the weekend of October 7th and 8th.  So, we left late Thursday afternoon and drove down to Page, Arizona and spent the night, then got up  and drove the couple of hours into Sedona.  Dave has been to Sedona several times, but this was my first trip.

The first thing we did when we arrived into town was go to the Arizona Pink Jeep Tours.  This company has been in business for 51 years, and if you ever get the chance to go to Sedona you have to do the Pink Jeep tour, it is so worth the trip.  They have several different tours packages that you can sign up for and they are a blast.  We did the Diamondback Gulch tour, which was about 3 hours - but some of them are all day tours if you are that adventurous.

The terrain was both breath taking, sometimes a little dangerous, very rugged and only reachable by our 4X4 tour jeep, always thrilling, and sometimes heart pounding as you looked down over the side of the ravines and up the side of the cliffs.

The scenery was breath taking, and being the high desert terrain very much like South Western Utah.  But still very lovely to look at.  Our tour guide did not disappoint one bit.

 At one stop in the tour, Mike the tour guide / driver, pulled over and pointed out the prickly pear cactus and described the fruit and got out and cut one of the fruit off the plant, brought it back to the jeep, opened it up and showed us how delicious it was.  He told us the different restaurants in town that served prickly pear ice cream, Magarita's,and  jellies and jams with their breakfast items.  The prickly pear has a taste that is a cross between a cherry and a strawberry.  It is very sweet but very good.  At lunchtime we made sure to have some.

As you can see, our little jeep was very trustworthy and could easily maneuver any terrain, no matter what the incline.

Even rocks did not deter our path !!

And when we stopped for photos, the sights were glorious for the eye to behold.

That afternoon, we checked into the Junipine Resort, and we were able to sit and watch the Oak Creek off of our bedroom deck.  Dave was wishing that there was a bed on the deck, so he could sleep to the sound of the creek.  It was such a contrast to the desert we had just been through. 

That evening and all day Saturday, we listened to Smooth Jazz artists.  The cool autumn air and the warm sun made for a great weekend.  My favorite smooth jazz artist, Dave Koz was featured on Friday night and Dave's favorite smooth jazz artist, Mindi Abair, was featured on Saturday.  Along with many other artists, (Los Lobos, The Rippingtons, Maxi Priest, Jeff Golub, Hiroshima, Sahnas Brothers, Billy Mitchell, Will Donato, Isaac Valenzuela, Tony Exum Jr. andd The Rhythm Keepers).  Probably the most exciting surprise was on Saturday when Mindi announced that Dave Koz has stayed over and was going to do a special number on stage with her.  Dave and I have been to a lot of Mindi's concerts and Dave's concerts and never have they played together.  It was great to hear them both play their saxophones together.  And to hear Jeff Golub on stage with Mindi so soon after losing his eyesight was amazing.  The venue was so great, (the lighting was horrible, the microphones didn't always work, the food vendors weren't all that great, the golf course grounds weren't that well taken care of), but the music made up for it.  And we were back home by 8:30 on Sunday, so we weren't too tired and worn out.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVE - Hope you enjoyed it, I did.

September Birthdays

Dave and I both celebrate our birthdays in September, and this year, (Sept 16th), Josh brought the boys over to Tucanos Brazilian Restaurant at The Gateway Shopping Center, downtown.  Dave and I have enjoyed many a fine meal there with out of town business associates and we always have a good meal and good times.  This was the first visit for Josh and the boys.  Trevor's girlfriend Audra joined us for the evening.  Everyone ate so much, that I thought I was going to have to stick a pin in the guys to give them some relief.  They really enjoyed the food.  They just kept eating, and eating, and eating.

Then the waiters showed up with the drums and tambourine to sing happy birthday to Dave and I.  Dave and I stood up and gave it all we had.  We were not ones to miss out on a chance to totally embarrass our grandsons.   Dave clapped, and I shook the tambourine high and proudly as we both danced around the chairs laughing to the beat of the drums and the singing.

As you can see by Trevor and Audra's face, they didn't quite know how to take grandma and grandpa's dancing and carrying on.  Then they realized it was all in fun and just an act, and they started laughing and joining in on the fun also.

Ian of course had a good time with the celebration.  He loves a good party!   Of course in just a few weeks, it will be his 13th birthday and he will get his turn to dance and party.  He loves to play it up also, just like his grandma.  Anything for attention, right Ian?

Josh just kept on eating, he said it left more food for him as long was we were up dancing and having fun.   Before we left, everyone filled out birthday cards, so that next year they could all get a free meal on their birthday.  They all agreed that Tucanos is so much better than any other Brazilian restaurant in town and they definitely want to come back again.   Everyone had a good time, and ate way too much food.  We were all sorry that Shelle wasn't feeling well enough to join us.  She missed out on a good time, and lots of laughs.