Happy Holidays (01-04-18)

Yep, that’s just what we had, happy holidays!

Over the last 6 weeks, we have had lots of people come and go, here at the PPP.  Some came for a few days, some stayed the whole 6 weeks, and some came, left, and came back!  Some people brought their rigs and some chose the B&B option and stayed in the house.

Thanksgiving was the first holiday on the horizon…

…and apparently I didn’t get my camera out during the meal because I can’t find any pictures of it!

It was awesome that the weather was warm enough for us to laze by the pool !

We sure kept ourselves very busy. In addition to Teryx rides, swimming, eating, hot tubbing and shopping, we managed to fit in a few games of Farkle.

After Thanksgiving, Paul and I made a trip to Phoenix, in part to buy some necessities at Costco. I love the way the lake looks at sunrise, even though I am not happy being on the road when the sun rises!

Before we knew it, the Christmas crowd arrived- including our daughter Jessica.

Actually, we were lucky enough to have Jess with us for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. I love it when Jess is here at the same time as my friend Carol, since I usually end up with some great pictures of her! Thanks, Carol Dwyer!

When people are staying for more than a day or so we don’t eat all of our meals together, but we are usually happier if we can laugh our way through a group dinner….whether it’s inside…

or out…

What’s that old saying- “many hands make light work”?

With our friends, everyone pitches in and no one is afraid to take over the kitchen, making it very easy to feed so many people!

After a group breakfast Christmas morning we all took some time to relax and to video chat with far away family members..

The day after Christmas is our annual “girls’ day out” which we spend shopping and eating at one of our favorite restaurants.

Lest you think the guys were bored, sitting around waiting for us to return, don’t worry. They took the Teryx out into the desert and spent the afternoon target shooting.

Not coincidently, Girl’s Day Out takes place on Julie’s birthday, and that night we were happy to toast the birthday girl with our margaritas (even though I didn’t quite get her in this picture, haha).

We do like to have a good time, and New Year’s Eve was no exception! Does it say something about our age that we are all happy the “midnight” takes place at 10 pm here in Mountain Standard Time?

Our last night together as a group coincided with the Super Moon, which you can see rising up over our house.

The following day there was a well orchestrated Porter Shuffle, as most of the rigs left, and the remaining ones repositioned themselves.

Being busy with the holidays, we weren’t working on too many projects, but we did manage to get one done.



Soon after Thanksgiving, the weather turned much colder and it wasn’t worth trying to keep the pool warm. Our “pool guy” has been telling us that we really need to drain it and put in fresh water.  The water is so hard here that over time, the minerals build up, and ours was off the charts.

So, sadly, we turned off the heater and freshened the water. We hope to start heating it again when we get back in February.