Late Spring, 2017

Much of our time in April was spent in El Paso. Along with Paul’s brother Tom, we helped their mom settle in to her new apartment at a senior living complex, and put her house on the market. That sentence sounds very simple, but anyone who has gone through this knows that it is a long, stressful process.

Once we could leave for a bit, we bee lined for home, spent one night, and then ran up to Las Vegas to meet up with friends for the Las Vegas Highland Games. Having done our DNA through Ancestry, Paul and I have discovered we are both very “Celtic”.  I am not sure that’s why we enjoy Highland Games, but whatever the reason, enjoy them we do.

Along with the athletic events, there is tons of great music, both bagpipe and non-bagpipe.
One area is set aside for the Clan tents, where you can research your family clan, and buy T-shirts. Paul and I joined the Clan Inebriated Last year, and bought the T shirt this year.  I love their Toast:





Gu Deoch (To Drink)
Gu Cairdean (To Friends)
Gu Spors (to Fun)

Mike and Paul wore their kilts one day, but it was too hot the other day.

A few days later,  the guys moved from Kilts to helmets:

They have now crossed an item off their bucket list.  We spent an afternoon at SpeedVegas, where they took the opportunity to get behind the wheel of a couple of race cars.  They both chose the “American Muscle” package and drove a Shelby Mustang GT and a Corvette.

They don’t just throw you in the car and let you drive, the guys took a short class, learning about the track and also what instructions the coach would be calling out to them so they could make the most of their experience.

It was actually quite fun to watch them out on the track, and I was very glad I wasn’t behind the wheel.

They both topped out at over 150 mph and had a great time. It took a while for the adrenaline to wear off!

May found us at home, for an entire month! As soon as we knew we would be home, we threw out some invitations.

Some of Paul’s fraternity brothers made the trip from

California for a long weekend.

The guys had fun making ice cream, and the women had fun watching them .













The weather has been heating up and we have tried to spend some time on the lake, with both the jet ski, and the newly fixed  jet boat.






















Next up was a surprise visit from our daughter, Jessica.
We had a great, relaxing weekend, although it was too short.










Memorial Day weekend arrived, and so did my cousin Linda and some of her friends.

Memorial Day weekend on the lake is a little dicey. Its very crowded, and there are a lot of boat wakes roughing up the water. The first day out, Paul and I took the Jet ski, but it was so rough, it wasn’t much fun, and then we sucked a hat up into the intake and had to tow it back to the dock.

Luckily Linda and her crew had brought a boat with them so on our second day on the water, we enjoyed sitting back and being passengers, without any responsibility.


















Once June arrived we had one more thing to do before taking off for the summer.  We had a Jeep full of stuff to bring to Paul’s brother in southern California.  We made plans to spend a weekend with them at  their new home. They moved a few months ago, partly to be closer to their grandson, William.



In the morning we watched William play soccer- boy did that bring some  memories from when my kids were young!  He got quite the laugh out of the adults when he wanted to know “ where Uncle Paul’s hair went”.

That evening we went out to dinner with Tom and Sue.  Their new place isn’t too far from the ocean, so after dinner and some dancing, we walked to the beach to watch the sunset.

As a bonus for us, on our way home, we braved the traffic of L.A. to have lunch with  our daughter Jessica and some of her friends.

When this is your forecast, you know its time to get outta Dodge, and once we were home again we wasted no time.

A whirlwind two days was spent putting everything away and prepping the house to be left alone for several months. 
The backyard sure does look empty with everything brought inside!

This year we added another layer of security and some peace of mind for us- cameras.

As soon as we were done packing, and prepping the house, it was Jacks Up and on the road we went!