The awesome power of God!

As we close the year 2007, we can only marvel at the awesome power of God. We have traveled about four thousand miles and have seen the beauty of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, mighty rivers and meandering creeks, the Appalachian, the Rocky and Cascade Mountains, gorgeous sun filled valleys, grape laden hillsides, plains, and deserts. Only God could create this beauty. We also saw the devastation of Mt. St. Helens, the wild fires of southern California, and Hurricane Katrina. The power of God is there also.

Our family has been blessed by the addition of two precious babies, grandson Brayden and granddaughter Addy. The miracle of birth is truly awe inspiring.

With all of these wonders, one must truly believe there is a God. Our thanks to Him for his blessings!

Florida--finally!

We finally got to Florida and promptly got into the Christmas spirit. Cookies it was--lots of sugar cookies and of course, kringla!

Christmas

Having a little one around for Christmas changes things. We also discovered that all toys make noise!

The best presents!

So Brayden was blessed with some wonderful Christmas presents, but wouldn't you know--he'd rather play with my phone and crawl on the box!

Christmas morning

Brayden dressed in his Santa suit trying out the "washable" crayons.

We enjoyed a nice Christmas breakfast with Jason's mom, Caryl.

The Smiths and the Schmidts

At the Beach

The beach was fun and it was a beautiful day. We also took a little time for an afternoon drink.

After Christmas

It's almost back to normal, but I get rides from Grampa. I also crawl as fast as I can.

Cruising and the Cat

Gramma caught me standing still--usually I'm in motion holding onto everything I can to get around on my two legs. I also stand still once I catch the cat!

New Orleans, Louisiana

So much for Texas. We traveled I-10 and went over a lot of bridges that went over a lot of swamp land. We eventually crossed a bridge that went over Lake Pontchatrain (not the really long one across the middle), but, boy, is that a lot of water. Destination--Don and Jackie's house.

There's Don and Jackie in their beautiful house finally refinished two months ago thanks to Hurricane Katrina.

Christmas in New Orleans

We drove the streets to see the Christmas decorations. For a city that has undergone so much, they have certainly gotten into the Christmas spirit.

New Orleans--Hurricane Katrina

A trip to New Orleans leaves not much to the imagination regarding Hurricane Katrina. Everywhere we went there were signs of devastation. There were whole neighborhoods where only one or two houses were inhabited. The rest of the street was an empty slab, or a house with the entire inside gutted, or left the way Katrina left it--swamp grass on the roof and debris everywhere. It was amazing to see a nice neighborhood and there were still FEMA trailers in the front yard with people living in them waiting for their house to be redone.

The first picture is just steps--the house is gone and the lot next door is empty. Don says there were no empty lots in New Orleans. The sign is from the 60 year old owner who just wants his house replaced so he has a place to live. (If you click on the picture you may be able to zoom in to read his whole story.) The second picture is a renovation plan that Brad Pitt is establishing. It looked like hot pink plastic house parts--a roof to put on top of a box. There were solar heating panels. It would be interesting to see the finished product.

New Orleans continued

The New Orleans drive was filled with variety. We saw some beautiful old homes like this Steamboat House, but Katrina spared no neighborhoods and next door to a beautiful home would be an empty lot, a FEMA trailer, or someone's home waiting to be repaired or demolished.

We visited a cemetery and were fascinated by the beautiful crypts, many a hundred years old. Many of them housed six to twelve caskets, some had stained glass windows that were visible through the front grilling.

Our stay was short, but we enjoyed the tour. Thanks to Don and Jackie!

Baytown, just east of Houston, Texas

Well, the weather didn't improve and there was a lot of Texas, but we finally pulled into Connie and Joe's driveway to spend a few days. Their beautiful home is located on Trinity Bay (which is kind of connected to Galveston Bay and then to the Gulf of Mexico).

So off we went to see the sights. After seeing the Alamo, Joe thought we should see where the Texans actually won the battle with Santa Anna, and we visited the San Jacinto Monument. It was an excellent history lesson and the monument with its reflecting pool was really cool.

Busy with Connie and Joe

We had a chance to do some more sight seeing. It was a great trip to Galveston and we even took a ferry ride to get back home.

Connie and Joe seem to like Mitch's Wild Rice Soup really well, so he made a batch--a big batch. We got our bowls, Connie and Joe ate out of the pots!

It was great fun spending time with them and we look forward to seeing them again in the spring

TT Medina Lake, Texas

We never did get a sunny day, but the temp got up to 83 degrees. Oh well. TT Medina Lake is situated in the Texas Hill Country and I'm sure it is beautiful, especially in some other season. The park, however, is really nice and we parked in an alcove of juniper trees. Further down the road the park borders Medina Lake. Even though I didn't get our front yard, the first picture is someone's front yard. There must be 100 deer roaming the campground. (Sorry Shayne and Bryan, they are far to small for hunting fare!)

The Alamo

It was fun visiting the Alamo and seeing the old architecture. The grounds were lovely and there was a lot of history to read and see.

San Antonio

When we finished up at the Alamo we decided to check out a bit of the city. We took a walk on the Riverwalk, a quaint little walkway lined with restaurants, hotels, and businesses. We took a trolley ride to Market Square, a Mexican market area, and had lunch in a very festive Mexican restaurant.

Brayden meets Santa

We are on the move, covering the southwest from Arizona, across New Mexico, and into Texas -- in the rain. That's why I don't have any new pictures. It has been cold and bleak and rainy, but it wasn't bad for driving. Hopefully the sun will peek out tomorrow.

In the meantime, here's a cute Christmas picture of Brayden.

A couple more Addy pictures

Addy, Mattie, Kaiser, and Daddy just playing.

Addy likes the Christmas tree.

New Picture of Addy

Addy has learned to sit up all by herself and she is proud of it.

I-8 Southwestern Arizona

The Lord has definitely created some interesting land. You don't find this in Minnesota!

Besides a lot more sand and sagebrush, there were a lot of dry riverbeds. I imagine the land will look different in few months.

There were also a lot of cattle feed lots. What a good place to pack thousands of cows into a little space and not worry about the smell. We were surprised that many of the lots also were growing there own hay fields.

More of the highway

Then there was a section of land covered with all these black rocks spread out all over and in patches. Where did they come from?

Another part of the landscape was covered with saguaro and cholla cacti--and always mountains in the background. Absolutely amazing.

Considering there is hardly a curve in the highway, there was always plenty to see.

On the move

It's December 2 and time to get on the move. We left Thousand Trails Pio Pico and traveled about 40 miles through once scenic mountainous land. Only now it was all black. The California fires were truly devastating.

Then we traveled another maybe 60 miles of scenic Interstate 8. The above pictures show the rocky mountains. Very unique. When this stretch of highway was completed, the landscape became sand and sagebrush. We were amazed at the number of RVs just camped anyplace to be able to play on the sand dunes.

TT Pio Pico, San Diego, California

Thousand Trails Pio Pico is situated in a little valley between the hills and mountains mostly covered with sage brush. Unfortunately most of the ranges were black from the fires that burned in April 2007 that covered miles all directions from the park. It is a sad sight.

But the backyard...

San Diego, California

We spent a day in San Diego seeing the sights. The Old Town Trolley is a good way of getting a narrated tour of just about all the important parts of the city. The ship was used in the movie "Masters and Commanders", there were fascinating sculptures all over the streets, and the harbor view was from the top of a two mile bridge going out to Coronado Island.