6 great iPhotos Sasha 7 months

Courtney and Shash

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In her daddy's old high chair

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Grandmother and Sasha

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Granddaddy and Sasha

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P1020243 Merry Christmas

        Our family taken at Thanksgiving.   L-R bottom  Brent Souza 12,  (grandson) Carl Knorr  son, Top L-R

Lito Starkweather, Sharon Souza, (daughter) Chelsey Souza 16, Courtney Souza 18, Brittney Souza 23, granddaughters, Ric and Jan, Angel holding Sasha 7 months(not enjoying looking at the sun, andf David Martinez (son).  More pictures of Sasha to come. 

 December 20, 2010

Merry Christmas to all,

We were blessed to have taken a 14 day cruise to the Caribbean and just returned late last night so Christmas cards are not on the way!   Our family was together for the first time in 3 years and we had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Having a baby around is always fun. 

We did have a wonderful time on our trip with beautiful weather in the 80's and sometimes even hot!  We came home to lots of rain but it is good to be home again.  We had never been to the Caribbean so it was a new experience for us and a great Christmas gift.  The people on the islands were most gracious and friendly.  We visited St. Thomas, Antigua, St. Lucia, Barbados, Grenada, Tobago, Aruba and Curcao. 

We had a great year and plan another one next year.  We are signed up to take a cruise through the Panama Canal in October 2011.   It is  our 40th anniversary in May so we are going to celebrate it late but properly.  We have heard many good comments about the Panama Canal.  We will anticipate it most of the year.  

This brings our best to you all for a wondrous and blessed Christmas and happy, healthy year.  

Ric and Jan(ice)

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8 great iPhotos

View from our balcony on ninth floor.

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Another view from our balcony

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Going down the hill towards Salt Lake City

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 Conference Center across from Temple Square

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LDS Temple

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Tabernacle

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Organ in Tabernacle

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Organ and pipes-some 40 of 11,600+. 

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October 20, 2010

Hi,

We just returned from an organ recital at the Mormon Tabernacle. Wow!!  Seeing that big organ, one of the largest in the world, was just great for me.  Reminded of my days in college when I took pipe organ lessons.  He even played one of the Bach Fugues I played in college. (Not my favorite)

We have had a great time here in Utah.  The weather was excellent.  Cold nights and warm days and lots of sunshine.  Couldn't ask for anything better. 

We plan to be home in Live Oak on Saturday eve for a short time and then we will be gone for a week to Oregon.  Home again after that until after the first of the year. 

 

Our best to you all, 

Later. 

Ric and Jan(ice)T

Snowbird, UT

More fall colors

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Here are the yellows.

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7 great iPhotos

Vail, CO view from our condo

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Vail Village-no cars and a neat, unique place to walk and shop

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covered bridge crossing the river into the village

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One of the streets in the village

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Still in the village and some of the fall colorw

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Another walking street

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On the way up the canyon to Snowbird, Utah.  Vivid yellow and red foliage.

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October 17, 2010

Hi all,

We left Vail, CO Friday morning.  We had a great time there and did a lot of walking.  We were about a half mile from the village so we enjoyed walking down the hill to do more walking.  Coming back up wasn't so great but the exercise was great.  We had great weather so it was nice.  The nights were cold and there was frost most mornings but days were nice and warm.

We arrived here at Snowbird, UT which is a ski resort.  No snow thank goodness.  Driving up the canyon we saw an array of colors which were magnificent.  More pictures will follow. Our condo is on the 9th floor and we have a beautiful view of the mountains.  We are about 8,000 ft. up which is about the same as Vail. 

This morning we left early and went into Salt Lake City about 24 miles away.  We went to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir do their weekly radio show.  It was their 2,421 broadcast.  We were right up front and were there for the dress rehearsal at 8:30 AM and for the actual broadcast at 9:30.  It was awesome.  They also telecast it and watching the cameras was fascinating.  We were close to the camera on a pole (whatever it is called) and it was out about 21 feet and he swung it all over.  There were 2 more upstairs on either side and then several men with cameras on shoulders walked around while the choir was singing.  The choir was soooooo good.  

They now sing with a full orchestra which is second to none.  The orchestra has its own concerts too.  There is a new pipe organ with over 11,000 pipes,  and 5 manuals (keyboards).  They have a 30 minute organ concert daily and we plan to go back to one of them this week.  What an inspiring morning.  We left there and walked across the street to the Conference Center.  

The Tabernacle holds 4,000 people and the conference center's auditorium holds 21,000.  This is where they perform the Christmas show.  Last year they had a request for a million tickets and only had 88,000 available.  This year David Archuleta from America Idol will be performing at the Christmas show with the choir.  We have always enjoyed seeing it on TV.  The conference center is new.  We were in SLC about 20 years ago and heard the choir but only with the organ, no orchestra.  So things are changing and growing in Salt Lake City. 

We left there and attended the Salt Lake Unity Church downtown.  It was a great service.  It was a very inspirational morning.  One of the best on our trip. 

That is what we have been up to.  How about you?

Take care and thanks to those who have written. 

Hugs and good health to you. Enjoy-life is good. 

Mom, Dad, Grandmother and Granddaddy, Ric and Jan(ice)

3 great iPhotos

The tree with the most color at the conference center. 

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Ric shopping!

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Big garage sale. 

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7 great iPhotos

Typical town in Maryland with close houses, porches and chairs and very close to street. 

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Gazebo where we attended concerts on Sunday evenings in August

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View from our apartment and across the street where the large warehouse is located.

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Zigler Hall which houses guests, the office and dining room.  Walked this sidewalk many times each day. 

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Old Main where we lived and houses 4 floors of guests.

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Front door of our apartment.

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October 3, 2010

Hi all, 

I am writing this from Richmond, IN where we are spending the night.  Tomorrow we will tour Bethany, the Church of the Brethren's seminary before we drive on to Illinois.  It was somewhat of a dreary day today with some rain but never too hard.  We did have quite a few cross winds, however. Today has been cold, our first one, and we had the heater on in the car all day. Seemed strange. 

We left New Windsor yesterday morning after breakfast. We  had a beautiful, warm, sunny traveling day.  We drove to western PA. where we spent the night at Washington. We happened upon a couple of garage sales and had to stop.  Ric does like them and I tag along.  We had a little room left in the back of our car but we did not fill it.  So we can make some more stops along the way.  We happened to be on hwy. 40 which is a 2 lane road which lends itself to better sight seeing and opportunities to stop.

Before we left Maryland, we did get to see the movie, Eat, Pray, Love which was very picturesque.  Having been to Italy it reminded us of some of the gorgeous scenery.  We have not been to Tuscany and it really makes me want to go there.  It was a good movie and I have the book at home which I now must read.  

It feels good to be heading west.  We are making a slow trip across so it will be relaxing and enjoyable. 

We trust this finds you happy, healthy and living each day to the fullest. 

Thanks for writing.  We always appreciate hearing from you.

Love and hugs, 

Mom and Dad

Ric and Jan(ice)

8 great iPhotos

In front of visitor's center, Lancaster, PA   Love the tree

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Amish farmer hauling corn

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Amish school in session

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Drying tobacco

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Amish farm-notice laundry on line drying

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 Hauling bales of alfalfa

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Tobacco

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 Tobacco

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September 19, 2010

Hi all, 

A couple of weeks ago we took an overnight trip to Lancaster County, PA and here are just a few sights that we saw.   

This was the first time that I saw any tobacco in the area.  It might have been there but we had never seen it growing or drying in a barn.  

We also saw another Amish schoolhouse with the children playing outside but I did not want to take their picture out of respect for them.   They looked cute in their dresses and suits.  It was fun just driving on the back roads and seeing the farms.  

We went to Roots Market which is open only on Tuesdays and it covers many acres.  It is a very big farmers market with mostly local grown fruit and vegetables.  There are several large buildings with commercial items.  Several meat type deli's and I had my first Lebanon bologna.  Hmmmmmmmmmmmm!  Different from any bologna I have eaten.  They also have auctions there, and even a large flea market.  You name it, they have it.  But it was fun to walk around and see everything.  I was even able to buy Watkins Vanilla which I think is the best. (my mother's influence)

Last week on our days off we went to Fairfax, VA to see our chiropractor there.  We have gone to him every year we have been here.  We then spent the night at Andrews Air Force Base in the brand new Presidential Inn.  It was very nice and looking out our window all we could see were trees and no cars.  Hard to believe we were in the middle of a large metropolitan area.  There was much road and building construction on base.  In fact, there was a lot of road work being done all across the US.  Stimulus money being well spent as far as we could tell. 

We have only eleven more days here at New Windsor Conference Center and then our "work" will be finished for the time being.  It is a good feeling to be a volunteer.  We plan to leave on Oct. 1.  We will slowly make our way across the US on interstate 70 and 50.  We had some timeshare points we needed to use or lose by Oct. 31 so we are staying in Vail, CO a week and then in Snowbird, UT a week.  We will be home by Oct. 23 or 24 for a few days and then we are going to Rockaway Beach, OR for a week.  Another timeshare week we had to use. Then we will be home early Nov. for a while.  At least through Christmas.  Right now we just feel like being home for a while. 

We left our motorhome in Seattle and at some point we have to get it back to CA. 

We trust this finds you well and enjoying life.  We are. 

Thanks for your notes.  It is ALWAYS good to hear from you.  

Love and hugs to you all, 

Mom and Dad

Ric and Jan(ice)

8 great iPhotos Sept 2010

Great Falls National Park Potomac River, Virginia side

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this shows about a third of the picnic grounds in the park

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Maryland side of Great Falls 

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Opening the gates by hand to the canal for the boat to go through

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Donkeys pulling the boat

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Maryland side of Potomac River

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Canoe going over rapids/falls

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Sept. 14,  2010

Hi, 

I am very much behind with our pictures and adventures.  Great Falls National Park was a great place to go and we did it in two days.  We went to the Va side first and the next morning we went to the Maryland side.  It is in the Wa DC area.  The scenery was beautiful and we learned a lot about the Potomac River and the history of the canals. The river was too rocky in this area and since it was used for transportation, it was decided to put a canal on the VA side. The first canal even had locks but was used only 26 years, until 1826.  George Washington was very involved in this.  Va owned its side and MD owned its side but Maryland had the water rights. There was a document that was written at Mount Vernon concerning who had what rights and is used to this day when there are disputes about the river. Recently a case went to the supreme court and it was decided according to the document.  It was actually written before the constitution. 

In 1828, ground was broken for the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal which was on the MD side of the canal just across from the other one.  It had many locks with massive stonework and miles of canals, but before it was finished, the railroad took over transportation and the canal was never completed.  We saw some of what was built and they now have a boat ride down the canal as is evidenced in the pictures.  It finally closed in 1924.  It ran 184 miles along the Potomac River and had put many to work for many years. It was a very interesting day to see how thing once were on the river. 

That is all for now and I will send more pictures soon. 

Our best to you and we enjoy your responses.

Ric and Jan(ice)

6 great iPhotos

Columbus  Ohio Capitol building

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Neat theater across from capitol

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Across from German restaurant where we ate in Germantown, Columbus

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Schmidt's Sausage Haus

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August 14, 2010

Hi all,

We spent our last nights on the road in Columbus, Ohio and have now been here in New Windsor, Md for 2 weeks.  All in all it was a very pleasant trip, however, long.  We did see some new places along which were interesting. 

We are here working for the months of August and September.  So far, we have not been as busy as usual.  The economy has hit everywhere I think.  Some days we are very busy and some days not.  Today we are not and our busiest times are usually weekends,  

Tonight we are invited to Ed and Brenda Palsgroves new condo. (I know some of you know them.)  He is head of buildings and grounds here and has been for a long time.  They lived here on the grounds until recently and moved a little further out in the country.  So they are having a dessert  open house tonight to which we have been invited.  Sounds like fun and it will be nice to get away for a bit

They have needed rain here desperately this summer and we have had two doozy storms in two weeks.  The one this Wednesday was a really scary one .  So different from California storms.  We heard the the weather warning on TV for several hours before it hit and then came the wind, rain, thunder and lightening.  We ever had a tornado warning for this county,  It lasted an hour or so and then was gone to the southeast and several hours later when the Ravens were playing the Panthers, it hit Baltimore, which is about 45 miles SE of here. You could see the stands begin to thin out as the storm hit!  But the Ravens won!!  It brought a lot of rain so the lawns and flowers are watered for a while.  It has also cooled off since then.  It was very hot and humid before the storm. 

SERRV, a non profit organization which is housed here at the Center, has been having one of their big sales of the year.  All goods were sold at 75% off so it has been fun to shop.  Things are from 36 different countries all over the world. They have volunteers who come in daily from all over the east and have lunch in our dining hall,.  This week we had  6 come and stay overnight in our building.  It is interesting to meet people from all walks of life.  Most of them are retired and just want to do something of service to others.  

Take care and drop us a line when you can.  It is great hearing from you. 

Love and our best to you all.

Ric and Jan(ice)