A Visit with Jaxson

After getting back from AZ, Linda was in need of William fix,  Luckily, Suzanne had a Doctor’s appointment (everything was great) and she wanted Linda to babysit if possible.  The question was how was Linda going to get out there, or would John be left behind without a car.  Linda saw a Pechanga bus go by on the highway, and she wondered if the bus serviced Orange County.  She called, and guess what? It picks up everyday at Laguna Woods at 7:45 AM, and returns at 5:30 PM.  You know us old people like to contribute to the economy! So she arranged for a one way trip to Pechanga, met Matt and took his car(our truck) to Suzanne & William’s home. Then Suzanne took her car into Temecula for the appointment, and picked up Matt after work.  How about that for quick thinking on Linda’s part.  Then I went out to see Jaxson on Saturday just so he wouldn’t forget me (how could he).

 

Linda had a great time with William.  And she had a nice visit with Suzanne, and spent some so-so time with Matt.  William always gets the most attention, as he deserves.

For more pictures of William Jaxson click on the following link:

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

Landscaping Update

If you remember last June I wrote in a post titled “Under the Weather” I talked about some of the landscaping change we’re making around the condo.  Well we’re finally making progress.

The roses are planted.

We did some transplanting and added a Meyer Lemon tree to the slope on the side of the house.

It already has some blooms on it.  We should have lemons by next spring.  Perfect timing.  We moved some plants to create a pathway to the water facet.

There was a beautiful evergreen plant that produced blue flowers. We still don’t know the official name of the plant.  However, every time it started to bloom, the gardeners would trim it back.  So moving it so it will spill down the slope will allow the flower to bloom completely.  It’s just behind the hanging plants.

So now I all need is some pavers to the get cleanly to the facet, and build a trellis to the left of the roses behind the Heavenly Bamboo.  A good post holiday project.  I’ll keep you informed of our progress.

Laguna Sunsets

Linda went off to AZ to help Jeni out, (and to get away from me), leaving Pearl and me to fend for ourselves.  I had a few commitments including working in the PC Workshop, the Camera Lab, assisting in a Windows 7 class, and attending a volunteer dinner and taking pictures.  I also got the car serviced and bought new tires.  Linda now thinks she should go away more often!

The weather was cool and unsettled all week, and on Saturday afternoon we had a break in the weather, but an interesting cloud layer.  I thought that it could create a pretty sunset, so I fed  Pearl and headed for Laguna Beach, and Heilser Park in particular.  The park is just north of downtown Laguna Beach and includes a promenade on the bluff above the beach, and stairways down to the beach.  There are many rocky areas and tide pools to explore and picnic areas for groups and families.

Here’s the view when I got there.

It seems that many photographers had the same idea.

And the kids were playing in the surf.

And of course there was a beautiful sunset.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures.  I know I enjoyed taking them.

Little Hummers

We’ve put a couple of hummingbird feeders here at our condo.  We had a regular bird feeder up for a while, but they asked us to take it down for a while to keep the rodents away.

For more information on hummingbird, see this article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hummingbird

When we put our first feeder up, we had a dominate male that chased all the other birds away.  So we got a larger feeder so that he wouldn’t be able to dominate anymore.  Well, we got a lot of hummers! At times there’s 12 different birds trying to feed at the same time.  Here’s our first feeder:

And our second larger feeder:

Now we’re having to fill the feeders twice a day! We’re always looking for a sale on sugar, and having to boil syrup every night.  But we enjoy watching their antics and we can hear them buzzing trying to get to the feeders.

I haven’t had much success getting good photos of the hummers.  They fly to fast and can be out of focus quickly.  Here’s the best ones I’ve taken so far:

I can’t seem to get the bird to pop out of the background.  I’ll keep trying, it gives me a good assignment.

Come visit us and enjoy our flying circus!

A Horse Show-Sort Of

On Sat. the stables here at Laguna Woods Village scheduled a horse show.  It was going to have precision riding, and drill teams on horseback.  We thought that our nieces, Iris & Violet would enjoy the show.  The only problem was that started at 9:00am.  So Linda solved the problem by having a sleepover at our house.  We picked up the girls around 6:00pm and headed back to our humble abode.  After dinner, and a movie the girls had a bubble bath and settled down for the night.

While we were sleeping we had a surprise.  It rained! I thought it never rained in California, at least in October.  I remember many drippy Halloweens when the kids were young and we lived in Oregon.  Somehow I was always the one accompanying the kids while Linda stayed home and handed out the candy.  It really wasn’t so bad because some of the neighbors handed out adult treats (brandy) to help us wet parents survive.

After an early breakfast we made it over to the stables by 8:45.  The only problem was that the show was cancelled because of the muddy conditions that could have injured the horses.  The best laid plans. . . .

We did visit some of the horses that were being groomed by their owners.  Rusty seemed to really like Linda!

Since the horse show was off, we decided to visit a local park.  Luckily we brought some towels to wipe down the play equipment.  I think the girls had more fun at the park than they would have had a the horse show.

Later in the afternoon we dropped them off at their Grandmother’s, Linda’s sister Donna.  We had a great time with the girls and we hope they enjoyed it too.

Iris’ 4th Birthday

First off, here’s a recent photo of William Jaxson:

We can never have enough pictures.

Our niece Iris turned 4 this month:

We decided to take her out on Friday to celebrate.  We had lunch at Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlor.  For those of you old enough to remember, Farrell’s was a favorite place when our kids were growing up.  It started in Portland, OR, and eventually grew to 130 locations across the US.  But Marriott bought out the chain from the original owners and slowly the restaurants started closing.  By 1990 there was only a couple left.  In 2009 a new company bought the concept and started a new Farrell’s with the first one opening here in Mission Viejo.  It’s exactly like the old parlors, but the prices have gone up considerably.  But the fun is still there.  We shared a pretty good lunch of a Patty Melt and a Toasted Cheese sandwich.  Then with much fanfare, they brought Iris her Birthday sundae.  It was a little to much noise for Iris, but when things calmed down, we managed to eat it.

 

After lunch we went back to Laguna Woods Village to visit the horses at the stables.  This is the only adult community that I know of that has stables for the residents to have horses, but maintains some for the residents to ride.  Last time Iris was a little nervous around the big horses, but this time she actually petted some.

After the visit to the stables, we went to the local Pumpkin Patch at the Laguna Hills Mall.  They had it set up really nice with rides, and a lot of, well, pumpkins.  These must be good money makers.  We were there on a Friday and it was really busy.  And families were really spending the money.  We started on the pony ride, which was just like the one I use to ride when I was 5 in Crestline when we were on vacation.

After that it was a ride on the train, some individual rides, and we checked out the pumpkins.

After all of the activities, we went back to the condo where Linda & Iris worked on a bracelet together.

 

 

 

It was a fun day and we sure enjoyed our time with Iris.  On the way back to her parents she fell asleep in the car, the same way our kids used to after a fun day.  It brought back a lot of precious memories for us, and we’re looking forward to spending time like this with Jaxson.

After the weekend, Linda went out to spend some time with Suzanne & Jaxson while I stayed home with Pearl.  I can see a lot of days coming like that in the future.  First I was replaced with Pearl, and now it’s Jaxson. 

It’s Been a Busy Week

Here’s a new picture of William.

If you look close you can see the train on his PJs.  I wonder where he got that??

On Wednesday, Linda, her Mom Lois, and her Sister Donna when to the hospital to meet William.  Oh, and they also visited Suzanne and Matt.  He’s doing very well, even thought he lost a little weight.  I wish I could lose some, but I guess I’m to old.  Or maybe I eat too much.

On Thursday William dragged his parents home.  He’s just like his Grandpa, he can’t stand staying in a hospital very long.  Linda and I checked with Direct Buy and the nursery furniture was delivered to their Anaheim Hills store that morning.  We jumped in the truck and picked up the crib, dresser, and bookcase and ran them out to Hemet to surprise the kids.  Of course it was rush hour through the Santa Ana Canyon on the worst freeway in L.A., the 91.  It took us 21/2 hours to get out to Hemet.  Of course we didn’t need to deliver the furniture that quickly, but it gave us an excuse to visit William. 

After dinner Matt and I hauled it upstairs.  It gave me a good chance to test my hip, and it passed with flying colors.  I can do just about anything now.  The furniture looked great in the nursery, and now Matt can put together the crib to finish up.  I’ll take some pictures when everything is complete.

We had a scare when we got home.  Pearl had a very bad night with a lot of diarrhea.  On Friday she hardly got out of bed.  We were thinking the worst, but then she started feeling better and hopefully she will continue to stronger.  We know we have a terrible decision to make in the near future, but we want to wait as long as possible.

That brings you up to date through Friday.  I’ll try to blog more often as interesting things happen.

The Newest Addition to the Family

After what seems to have been a long time, really only 9 months, Linda & I are proud to announce the newest addition to our family, William Jackson Huber.  He’s the son of Matthew & Suzanne, and he entered the world at a whooping 9lb. 7oz.

The labor started on Sunday night, and by Monday evening it had not progressed as planned.  The Doctor decided that the solution was to implement a C-Section to bring the baby into the world.  And after a quick procedure, young William was born.

 

And here’s the proud Father with his son.

 

 

And here’s the exhausted Mother.

 

She put in a long night and day, but the reward was worth it! Here’s the new Grandmother with William. 

And here’s Grandpa, looking a little unsure of himself. Notice how calm he looks in his Grandpa arms!

 

And how about Aunt Jeni!

 

Do you think she happy! It’s a very exciting time and we’re enjoy every minute of it.  

If you want to see all of the pictures the posted up on the Picasa site at the following URL:

http://picasaweb.google.com/winequest/LittleDude?authkey=Gv1sRgCJeh4o-74qbHfQ#

Linda & I want to thank everyone of the great comments that have been emailed to us.