A sad end to the missing hikers story, but closure for their families

I have a couple of sad stories today...

First, the young couple that went missing from Joshua Tree National Park have been found, their bodies in an embrace, not far from the trail that they were on.  The young man's father has been out every weekend for 3 months assisting searchers and looking for his son.  At least now the family has some closure.  They were both only 20 years old.  I remember that a couple of days after they went missing, the park got a lot of rainfall and the search dogs couldn't find their scent.  Search parties went out for a long time after that, but the rains washed away any scent or tracks.

Here's a link to one of the stories:    http://www.kesq.com/news/female-missing-hikers-family-releases-first-public-statement/640045977

The second story involves a young man who was a student of mine...let's see..29 years ago.  I remember Garrett in 4th grade...small, skinny, lithe, with a smile that lit up his whole face.  We called him, "Taco" back then.  His sister, who is 2 years older than him, often came into my room and I had to shoo her out!  He was a friendly, outgoing boy then and when he grew up, he started his own trucking business and moved out of the valley to Missouri.  When the California fires started, Garrett was involved as a firefighter.  He was always looking for ways to help people.

Unfortunately, he was driving a water truck at 7 a.m. one morning, assisting with the firefighting efforts,  and it overturned on the Oakville Grade (a HORRIBLE, winding road), and was killed. Once I saw his name on the Facebook story, I broke into tears.  This was a decent, honorable young man who was assisting the firefighting effort.  I ran into Garrett a couple of times because his godmother was boarding my horse at that time.  He was a fine young man.

Here is his story on the local news:     http://www.kesq.com/news/firefighter-originally-from-mecca-dies-in-wine-country-fires/639920253

We had an absolutely beautiful, gorgeous, bright sunrise this morning and I would like to think this was Garrett shining down from the heavens.  RIP young man.  Why do the good die so young?

So, it is with a heavy heart that I begin this day...
Take care and give your loved ones a hug today.
~Cheryl Ann~

I FINALLY got a day off! Yahooie!

Well, I FINALLY got a day off!  I counted back and I have either been babysitting, running up to the horses, or driving to Temecula for a baseball game now for 6 days straight.  PHEW!

I'm going to clean up my craft room/sewing room/office this morning.  I BARELY have room to sit down at my laptop!  I've been throwing stuff in here for 2 weeks!!!!!  NO PHOTOS...I'm sure you would faint from the MESS!

I went out and cleaned out and then refilled all my hummingbird feeders this morning.  Let's see...I have 8 of them!  Little buggers didn't have any fresh food and that isn't good for them.  I scrubbed them ALL with soap, rinsed them, and added fresh sugar water. The little guys sure are BUSY! 

I need to still go out and add water to the fountain out front and to the bird bowls.  We have a Cooper's hawk that now enjoys coming every morning, soaking his/her feet, and having a nice look around.  I didn't realize how far they can swivel their head!  Amazing!!!

Anyway, while of course I dearly LOVE the grandchildren, I DO need a break every now and then!  I have a 2 day break, then back to babysitting.  Ugh.  One of our local libraries is having its annual BOOK SALE tomorrow morning, and I'm GOING!  Come ____ or high water!!!!

Here are some pics of the little monsters:

 Helping mommie put the tomatoes in the bowl.  No, she did NOT have that knife!

 Wearing his mac & cheese, I see!

This kid CLIMBS everywhere!  Last night he climbed up onto one of the bar stool chairs, opened up his mother's laptop, and started banging on it!  NO, NO!  You literally CANNOT take your eyes off him for a second!  I was washing dishes and to my HORROR, he had climbed up into his high chair at one point!  I guess he was hungry!  Another time he was too quiet...yup...he and the dog were sharing dog food.  Another time he closed the pantry door and was rearranging all the food items in there!  ACK!  The only time I can rest is when HE is taking a nap.  Thank goodness he still takes naps!

Reality sets in...sigh...

I read with interest Al's post today and had to reflect on our situation...

Here's the link to Al's post:   http://thebayfieldbunch.com/2017

We both retired a year ago.  We have done 2 trips since then:  One last October to the eastern Sierra Nevada and one this August to the Mogollon Rim in Arizona.  THAT'S IT.  PERIOD.

Hmmm.....

We seem to be tied down now by babysitting duties.  We have 5 grandkids:  our daughter has a 4 year old and an 18 month old.  Our son has an 8 year old, a 2 year old, and a baby.  So, Saturdays we either go to the 4 year old's soccer games or the 8 year old's baseball games (evening).  PLUS, if our daughter's kids get sick (like that past week), WE have to babysit them.  I am now fighting something in my head and chest, thanks to the little man!!!

I'm only 65.  Hubby is 67.  However, I've had pneumonia...let's see... 5x.  I had it 3x one school year, and then twice after that.  My lungs are SHOT.  I used to get bronchitis each year after the pneumonia.  I haven't had it yet this fall and next week we will get our flu shots.

I'm not complaining.  Frankly, I enjoy staying home and working on my journals.  I hardly ever take photos anymore.  MAYBE next week we can get to Oak Glen or the Whitewater Preserve...???

How are you doing?
~Cheryl Ann~

Family FUN at the Living Desert Reserve

I met our daughter and her family in the parking lot this morning at 8:30.  Can you believe it...they forgot their stroller?  Not to worry, you can donate money and borrow one from the Living Desert, so they did.  It was a nice one.  Little Man could sit in it with his little legs out and see everything.  Of course, he spent most of the morning crawling in and out of it and at one point, he sat on the cement by the zebras and got out his water bottle for a drink!  It was either we met this morning or they wouldn't be able to meet for some weeks, so off I went.  Hubby stayed home because he just awoke a few minutes before I was supposed to leave.  We all had FUN and the young ones were EXHAUSTED!

Who says I can't WEAR THEM OUT?

 Father and son...

 The kids got to see ALL 5 giraffes this morning!

 Learning which is the correct way to sit in the stroller!

 Trying to get on the warthog sculpture...He finally made it!

 Mother and daughter...

 I told you he got thirsty and... TIRED!  He fell asleep as soon as his parents put him in his car seat for the drive home to Indio.

Bye, bye!

A good time was had by all!   :-)  And, we ran into our son's best friend there with his son, who is about the same size as our granddaughter!  They apparently come every Sunday morning, so I guess I'll start walking up there on Sunday mornings so I can run into Aaron and Levi again!

More Arizona photos

More photos from last August that I just uploaded:

 Looking west from the Mogollon Rim, which is on top of the mountains.

See...lots of standing water!

Pictures from Arizona

I finally got around to uploading the photos on my camera and there were 219 of them, including some from our trip to the Mogollon Rim this summer.  FINALLY!  I went with our daughter and her family to the Living Desert Reserve today and took my camera along, so I had a ton of photos from that visit!

I've been TRYING to get a decent photo of a logging truck FOR YEARS and finally, upon spotting one at the General Crook overlook, I handed my camera to hubby and told him to "go for it".  The results are here, along with some other photos from the Rim.  There had been so much water up there that it was standing in the meadows!  Amazing!  From drought to deluge in a year!

 Logging truck, Mogollon Rim.

 Woods Canyon Lake, one of our FAVORITE places in Arizona! 

Old age is creeping up on us!

Al, over at Travels with the Bayfield Bunch wrote an interesting post last Saturday

http://thebayfieldbunch.com/2017/09/dealing-with-realities-of-aging-in.html?showComment=1507011258651#c1975459907768025361

about traveling.  I do all the driving now because hubby gets dizzy.  After a day out, however, I am exhausted for the next day or even two!!!  That's NO FUN!  Nowadays we only go out to visit the kids & grandkids, but that is a pretty full schedule!  The 4 year old granddaughter has soccer on Saturday mornings and the 8 year old grandson in Temecula has baseball games on Tuesday afternoon.  He won't be going tomorrow as he already has a cold!  We DID drive to Arizona in August for 4 nights and it took me 1 whole day to recover the 7 hours' drive there.  We managed to find an Air B&B home that was pet friendly, so we were able to take our dog with us.  We stayed in Overgaard, up on the Mogollon Rim.  She had a blast smelling all the wonderful and new smells and one morning I looked out and saw a coyote across the street!  I found a quilting shop and an antique shop that had some items I wanted, so I bought them.  Hubby was content to stay in the cabin. 

Other than that, we haven't ventured out much.  We DO want to get up to Oak Glen shortly during apple season (midweek, of course) and maybe down to Julian.  However, Julian is an all-day trip.  The Whitewater Preserve is only about 25 minutes away and the sycamores will be turning soon.

Saturday we ARE going to the Living Desert with our daughter and her two kids (ages 4 and 1).  Then, Sunday we might drive to Temecula to see our son and his 3 kids...depending on how tired we are from Saturday!  So, you see our situation? 

We BOTH take afternoon naps every day now and Saturday I went up to check on the horses and to be there to give the shoer his check.  Unfortunately, Gigondas, my big red thoroughbred mare, stepped on my right foot and wouldn't GET OFF!!!!!!!!   I had to scream at her and hit her to get her to move (I guess she was comfortable on my foot!).  I even had my steel toed boots on and it still hurt like....the dickens!  It is now completely black & blue.

OY!
Please take care.
~Cheryl Ann~
P.S.  I just finished journals #20 and 21 and 22 and I'm almost done with #23 and I have 3 more in the works!   :-)