A Visit to Pechanga

While we were staying at Wilderness Lakes, we visited our son Matt at his employer, Pechanga Resort & Casino. The lobby of the hotel was all decked out for the Holidays.

The main reason we visited was to have lunch with Matt(he bought). But while we were there, Matt got John a cart and showed us the new golf course, Journey, and the clubhouse. Here's the lobby of the clubhouse, overlooking the 1st tee and the 18th green.

Outside of the lobby and the restaurant is a beautiful deck for public or private functions. Some of the oak trees are over 100 years old.

And here's the view from the deck overlooking the dry wash.

The resort has also completely upgraded their spa. If you're in the Temecula area make sure you stop. It's even worth a special trip!

Valerie Turns 30

Our niece Valerie turned 30 this month. Her husband Rick decided to throw a surprise party for her with her friends & relatives. He decided on a novel theme-Bowling. So he rented a room in the local bowling alley, some lanes, food & good beverages. It sounded a bit off the wall, but it worked out terrific!

Here's everyone waiting for the birthday girl to arrive. Luckily the food was served or there might have been a mutiny. The food was good, all sorts of hand munchies from veggies to pizza.



Fashionably late, but still surprised, here's Val as she entered the party room.

Rick really pulled it off-a nice surprise party.

One of the elements of the party was a magician. Before Val & Rick arrived he entertained the kids and some of the adults. Then it Val's turn to be his able bodied assistant. She did very well with the rings, putting them together and taking them apart. Or did the magician do it all?

As befitting a bowling party, most of the party took to the lanes. A lot of them were rusty, some got better after a few beverages. This is Val's sister Tiffanie showing great form. I don't remember what her top score was. I think it was in the high 70s.

After everyone finished bowling, Val got to blow out her candles and everyone had some ice cream cake. Some of us wore more than we ate, but we all had fun.

A special thank you to Tiffanie, Donna, and Linda for helping Rick surprise Val and making sure everyone had a good time.

If you would like to see all of the pictures from the party, please click here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/winequest/ValSBirthday#

We Visit Our Friends in Turlock

We made a quick trip back to Turlock the last week of October. We took the Pilot and left the MoHo in the driveway at Linda's Mother's house. Our good friends and old neighbors Jean and Dave Drayer offered us the use of their pool house again, which gave us a great base of operations.

We spent the week visiting our great friends that we miss so much. Gary & Rosemarie Sanders, Bob & Kathy Whitehead, Gary & Connie Weimer, Marty & Brenda Zuidvaart, & Kevin & Linda Brynes. We had many meals, great conversations, played games, and even went to the new Gallo Center for choral performance.

And John went to the cancer Doctor and got a clean bill of health. In fact, instead of visiting the Doctor every 6 months, now John has to go every 12 months. The works real well for us because we're planning to leave AZ in April and head East without going back for more checkups.

I did get one picture of Linda and her friends at a lunch at the tea room. Everyone looks really happy to see Linda again!

We'll probably make at least one more trip to Turlock before we head East. We can't go a whole year without visiting our friend in person.

Chase's Baptism

We were honored to attend Chase's Baptism on October 26. The baptism was right at the beginning of the service, and John was able to get some good photos with his new camera. Here's one with the parents, sponsors, and Pastor giving the blessing. Chase let everyone know he was there, and wanted to be the center of attention.

After the service we were able to get some posed pictures of Chase, his parents, and the sponsors. Notice how Chase is all relaxed. It's amazing how some food helps calm the little ones.

After the service we all headed back to Michael & Katie's house to celebrate. There was an abundance of food and drink. It was a beautiful day, so we spread out to the backyard and socialized. Here's Grandma Donna with Iris and Chase.

And here's Great Grandma (GeGe) with Val's youngest, Violet.

And finally, here's everyone's favorite Aunt with Chase on his special day.

It was a great day of celebration, and a chance for all of us attending to remember how important Baptism is.

For more pictures please click on the following link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/winequest/ChaseSBaptism#