L&L visit (day#2)

On Friday, right after I finished work, we headed to Riverside for the day. 

Because of the Mission Inn, the city of Riverside has adopted the symbol of the rain cross and the mission bell as it's motif. We saw this symbol everywhere in the city.

 The Mission Inn was our destination that afternoon. We have visited this historic place so many times and on so many occasions, and seen it decorated in many ways. This time we saw it in a its spring beauty.

Gorgeous flowers

These Macaws are iconic symbols of the original birds Napoleon and Josephine

 Our guests had to try out President Taft's chair.

 We peaked into the courtyard where a beautiful outdoor restaurant is located.

 This clock in the corner of that plaza has a turn-table that rotates every fifteen minutes. In the past, we have only seen the bear, but this time the table was actually running and we also saw the hunter and

While the men were busy checking out a machine shop, the ladies took the tour of the hotel. this was the first time that we heard and saw so many of the fun details, including some of these excellent murals on the walls in the hotel lobby.

 We also saw this beautiful little chapel that is built into one of the walls of the hotel.

 The chapel was patterned after European cathedrals.

We were forbidden from taking pictures inside the chapel, but we saw this tapestry of the interior of the chapel in the hotel store. The alter was a gold-plated structure that was purchased by Mr Miller and shipped from Mexico in fourteen crates.

 The hotel was built in many stages, with many different styles. As Mr Miller travel the world, he would purchase interesting materials and ship them back to be used in adding on another section of the hotel.

 This section contained a Japanese temple.

A fascinating circular design of hotel rooms

 We were so thankful for a warm, sunny day.

 We enjoyed a delicious dinner at a nearby restaurant. 

 A giant chair, or really small people?

 Fountains on the downtown plaza

 A very impressive statue on the plaza.

 We stayed until the evening, then enjoyed a wonderful trip back home.

L&L Visit (day 1)

 A month ago, our friends L&L stopped by for a few days to visit. (They were on their way back to the midwest after spending a week in Hawaii). That first afternoon we visited the Nixon Library.

 The guys loved the cars...

 This photo was out-of focus, but was such a good one of them that I had to post it anyway!

 We were blessed with clear and sunny weather the first few days they were with us. Our time at the Library was short, but we enjoyed every minute of it.

 Next we showed them some of the sights of town, including an oil pump right in the middle of the city!

 A view from one of the vistas close to a park where we live

A kumquat tree, laden with fruit. 

Celebrating grandkids and more

We had a weekend without any guests, so we went to see our sons and their families. When we arrived at M&B's house, the girls were sleeping. As father and son were visiting, I looked around the living room and saw the playhouse that my grandfather had made about thirty years ago. Once again, I was just amazed at the intricate detail included! (Actually, my mother made the easy chairs and sofa pictured above.)

That table and chairs are about 4-5 inches in height! (My grandfather was close to 90 yrs old when he did this project). I feel very blessed that my little grand-daughters are able to enjoy playing with this fun dollhouse. Thanks so much to Jim's sister for arranging the shipment of this heirloom!

We finally woke up the little girls so that we could play with them for a short time before we headed back home.

Daddy was home alone with the girls that afternoon, so he had their close attention, especially when they noticed that he had the ipad out!

 As we drove across the city to our other son's home, we looked up at the beautiful mountains.

Lots of snow up there!

Little boy had lots of toys to show us!

Since we had to miss J's birthday party, we gave him his gift when we arrived.

He's growing up so fast! It seems impossible that just five years ago our lives changed so much when we became grandparents for the first time. We are so thankful that we have lived close enough by so that we could see this big boy growing up. Next year he starts kindergarten...wow!

Tickle time is such fun!

Such a blessing that mom is such a good teacher...

...big boy loved showing us his reading skills. 

What a Saturday we had--it's always a great joy to see our kids and their families.

More Cousins

The following weekend Jim's cousin and wife came to visit for several days. We had such a wonderful time together! 

Even though they live in the Seattle area, we had to make a trip to our favorite beach.

Fortunately, we had a beautiful sunny day at the beach.

Cousins

Relaxing at the beach.

We stayed at the beach until sunset, then drove back home to a delicious meal at a great restaurant. We had such a fun time together and a wonderfully relaxing afternoon.

While E&M were visiting us, we were caring for our son's dog. On Saturday afternoon, we decided that the dog (and we) needed some major exercise...

...so we headed to a beautiful park that we have in the middle of our fair city.

The park has a little man-made lake that is stocked with fish, so it was fun to watch all the little and big fishermen.

There are also alot of horse trails around and close by the park. Sammy really bristled when he encountered these "big dogs" but he settled down and finally enjoyed the long walk with us. 

We really appreciate having these lovely parks with all the tall trees and green grass--especially being surrounded by so much concrete and asphalt.