June 2023

We started the month off with a 2 day camping trip with the Nordstroms and Lyons at Granite Flat in Truckee. Always a fun group and nice to get away. Of course, it meant a few more games of “64”.

With all of the winter snow starting to melt, we decided to head down to Yosemite for a quick tour of the valley. We spent the night in the Elks’ campground in Merced then got up at 4am for an early start. We got to the gate by 6am and made a whole tour of the valley, stopping for lots of pictures. We ate breakfast in the van at Curry Village and were back out on our way home by 9. We had heard that the crowds in the valley are outrageous by 9 so we missed all of that. And, yes, the waterfalls and river are incredibly gorgeous. Well worth the trip. We also tested the A/C unit and it worked but we found out that the fridge needs to be off when we use it or we blow the system. Good to know.

Rog finished up with physical therapy and started back up with Aikido. Back to a 5 day a week schedule with Wed and Sun off. He was sore for about a week but he is back in the swing.

Blooms went to Virginia for a week’s vacation and we got to take care of Scout. While he was here, we had a deer visit the backyard, just like last year. He's going to expect deer every time he comes. This deer got spooked when we tried to steer him out and ran right through my tomato container. He got the five foot tower caught in his antlers and somehow managed to squeeze between the van and the garage without damaging anything. He was able to rid himself of the tower and plants at the curb and th en wandered in the meridian for a while quite dazed. Rog finished raising the back fence the next day. Ryan and Beth came over for dinner to help Pops celebrate Father's Day. They spent most of the time watching both the Indy/Wisconsin race and F1/Canada. Fun day. At the end of the month, Jim and Sue spent a few days at the Kings’ before heading out on a cruise to Alaska. Micki and Brian had all of us over for dinner and asked Beth, Michelle and I to bring the main dish. So we had a salad bar with more toppings and goodies than I have ever seen. Something for everyone. Then on cruise day, Rog and I drove Jim and Sue to SF to catch the Princess Ruby. Our friend, Sue Duda was on the same cruise but we were able to meet Jerry in El Cerrito for lunch. It has been years since we have seen him so there was a lot of catching up to do.

At the end of the month, Karissa asked me to help her organize her bedroom. Michelle had spent 2 days repainting it and half of her stuff was downstairs in the office and the rest was in a pie in the middle of her room. We spent four hours going through everything and she ended up filling four bags for Goodwill and 2 for the trash. Now she gets to decorate.

The month was absolutely gorgeous. Nice cool 80’s for almost the entire month. Only the last two days were at 100, We enjoyed every minute of it.