2013 Christmas at Gramma and Grampa's

The western Washington Shultz families gathered around the snack and dinner tables for our annual festive traditions of food, drink, lots of cousin play and, of course, presents.

Julie and the rest of her Bartlett troupe were all smiles as usual for their annual Christmas photo.

Millie (on the floor in the foreground) hung in there in spite of having a tooth extraction in the morning. 

Matt and Bonnie managed to capture their crazy beautiful kids long enough for a group shot.

A little hair maintenance and Anna was off again to play with her cousins.

Got everyone with a smile (almost) and sitting still which was quite a rare event for this wonderful evening.

Condo Rehab

Since returning from Colorado, we have been busy making some changes to the Ocean Shores condo. We are very happy with how it has turned out.

BEFORE

 AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

Visit to the Colorado Shultz Clan

We headed to Colorado to meet up with Lee's son and family at Lathrop State Park just south of Denver.  We got hit with some of the rain that has been in the news but did not see any of the flooding.

 The park was a great place to have a family camp.  Lots of space and a play ground to boot.

 Lee and Zoe could be on America's Got Talent

Zoe and Miles got to drive their dune buggy all over the desert camp.  Great fun!

We finished up the long weekend with a crazy family photo.  Little Miles was not too happy about the fake mustache...it reminded me of a similar blowup we had with Lee in Carson City, NV when he was a kid.....nice to see it all come full circle.

Looking for sun in all the wrong places

We headed out of the gray Washington weather in search of sun and warm temperatures.  What we ran into was a blizzard just outside of San Diego and then this snow/hail storm in downtown Phoenix.  

In fairness to Arizona, it really has been very nice for most of our stay here.  We  connected up with some friends from Easton, WA who have a winter home here.  We had a great barbeque and enjoyed the sunset lighting up the nearby Superstition Mtns.

We paid a quick visit to Millie's 92 year old Aunt Helen who she has not seen since she was 11 (Millie was 11 :))

We made the Jeep happy by taking a 22 mile dirt trail that wound around the hills and valleys just east of  the city.

This desert is much more interesting and vibant than we remembered.  Forests of Saguaro cactus and  many other varieties of plants that we can't name.  No snakes or scorpions this time of year but they are out here somewhere.  We will stay for another week and then head for home.