Camping at the Beach

 Cruz dug a bunch of big holes looking for buried treasure.

 A walk to the store brought us right over the railroad tracks. The boys thought it was "freaky" when the commuter train zoomed below us under the bridge. I thought it was "freaky" too!

 You can not find a happier baby boy than Walter. He looked like this the whole time.

 Conway thought he was King of the Mountain. He loved just sitting there for awhile and then suddenly jumping off and rolling into the deep pit around the sand mound. It was hilarious.

 The big boys rested to read and nap after wrestling the waves and rocks.

 Daisy's Mom turned her into a mermaid. Then Daisy proceeded to tell us all her story about how she really wanted to grow some legs but she was trapped in the ocean.

Grandma Burke bought all the little girls matching pink swimsuits. Whenever someone walked by out little group they smiled at all this cuteness playing in front of them.
We missed most of the Giffin clan as they had recitals.... It is getting harder and harder to plan things that all the family can do or go to at the same time. Oh well., but Yeah for our wonderful big crazy family!

My New Traveling Companion

I couldn't resist this handsome fellow! Doe's this mean I can drive in the HOV lane now anytime I want?!! ha-ha.

Catch Up.

I can not believe it has been since April that I last posted! Easter, End of School happenings for my Glamchildren, Moving 3 of my daughters into new houses, vacations, camping on the beach and attending the most awesome book club ever on Coronado Island in CA. were slipped in between working at the AZ Art Alliance Gallery and getting a painting done here and there. The daunting task of going through all of my photo folders makes me tired already, so I will just go ahead and put a big letter L for Loser on my forehead and move on.

I will however, post the one time we got all of the glamkids together (missing 2) one day at the beach. More posts definitely ahead, I've got some fun things in the works! (If you are reading this, thanks for not giving up on me.) ((Oh, and new post on my Art blog too!)) (((AND, if you go to the AZ Art Alliance website, there is a coupon for 25% off items in the gift shop that has an image with my jewelry on it. Wha-Hoo!)))

New York!

This last week, my daughter Hilari and her best friend Laura, Laura's Mom (my best friend) and I went to New York to celebrate Hilari and Laura's 20th Friend-iversary. We had the best time! We were so fortunate that Laura's brother Paul and his beautiful wife Steph gave us the grand tour and led us through less tourist traveled roads to eat where the local foodies dine. FABULOUS!

Our first major stop was the Museum of Modern Art. Wow.

The next day, we went all around the city and as we neared Central Park, we saw a lot of police and this car on it's side with a gun shot right in the front window. I was a little freaked (and excited) and then we found they had just finished filming a movie!

Hilari and I took a day and visited 30 Rock and toured the NBC building. That was fun seeing where Saturday Night Live and some other shows were taped...
And we couldn't resit taking a picture with the Naked Cowboy. (I guess there are a few Naked Cowboys, like Santa... He can't be everywhere at once, so his helpers fill in)

We saw "Mary Poppins". We got some cheap seats at the last minute and we were on the top most balcony. The play was wonderful. At the end, Mary Poppins flew over the floor audience. We couldn't see her and I was a little bummed, but then her head peeked up over our balcony and she was about 12 feet away and smiled right at us as she flew up into the ceiling/sky! Hilari and I were walking to the train station to visit our friends that we had met on a cruise 2 years ago, and we saw fire engines, and a huge blow-up mattress. We looked up and there was a man on top of the building ready to jump! Then we found out it was another movie being filmed. We waited a while to watch him jump, but it was taking too long so we'll have to see it at the movie next year.
We visited Ground Zero. Paul is an architect, so it was so interesting hearing him describe what was going on. I have a photo of myself and three girlfriends from the top of one of the twin towers from my first trip to New York about 20 years ago. It was surreal to think that this is where those buildings once stood and how 9/11 changed everything.
I took this picture looking out of the window at Ground Zero. Look at the shadows of buildings on the glass in front of the other buildings outside. Cool!
Our last day was cloudy and colder. The skyscrapers blended into the heavens.
I can see how people love living in New York. If I could cart my whole family with me, I'd live there for a season and then move on to another wonderful part of the country and so on. But, it looks like it's an Arizona life for me which isn't so bad from October to June!

Halloween Weekend Travel Log

Over the weekend I went to CA with my daughters Brooke and Chelsea and their families. We stayed in Pasadena. On Friday, we took the train to 3 different "countries". First, we stopped in "Little Tokyo". Remi bought a silk parasol. Then we went to "Little Mexico". Remi bought a pink guitar.

and our final stop was "Little China". The kids stood in front of some mannequins. They blended in so well that it was hard to tell who was who! The boys mission was to buy stink bombs. That was definitely not my idea!

On Saturday, the real reason for the whole trip, was out adventure to Disneyland during Halloween time. The Haunted Mansion was turned into "The Nightmare before Christmas" and Space Mountain was turned into a scary alien invasion. It was very crowded, but we had a great time.
It was especially fun for our own "Little Princesses". They got to meet all the "real" princesses and were taught how to curtsy, wave and dance. Fun!

August at the Beach

I was uploading photos from my point and shoot, and wanted to share these cuties: My daughter Chelsea's two little girls LOVE playing in the sand. Here is Carma. That darling smile of hers is beaming 99.7% of every day. She has the happiest disposition. (Although her cousins have suffered from her .3% bite that can leave a mark. I do have to say, those tasty chomps are less and less frequent now a days.) And Pearl couldn't be happier when playing with an empty water bottle to swish the sand to and fro, here and there. The "there" part unfortunately is usually the eye of the closest adult setting next to her. Pearl is still a "Mommy's Girl", but she is venturing out to the rest of the family.

And this photo is a rarity. BOTH girls fast asleep, breathing to the rushing sounds of the waves bringing the tide closer and closer to our spot on the beach. There is nothing lovelier than watching children nap on the warm sand. Although I do have to say that the girls and I took turns laying in the sun while we placed smooth HOT rocks on each other's backs. The heat penetrated your deepest muscles, now that was NICE!!!

On my vacation, I saw a HUGE PELICAN!

Jacqueline Onassis put Mykonos on the map as one of the most popular of the Aegean islands... but "Petros" the pelican has made his mark too. I had read about "Petros" and was thrilled that we got the chance to see him. I guess he was wounded and is now the town pet. He just walks all over, in and around the narrow walkways within Mykonos.

I found the restaurant that we ate at in one of my books about Greece.

I, of course chose the Greek Salad. YUMMMM!!!!

We also shared the cucumber dip and fresh bread. Wow!!!!!!!

This is our view from the table where we were seated. Myconos is also famous for it's windmills...
and charming white churches. In fact all the buildings were painted white. It was magical.
Last but now least is a photo of a small vendor selling fresh vegetables and flowers.

I still can't believe I was there.

On my vacation, I saw ANCIENT RUINS!

Okay, I found a somewhat decent picture of me and here I am standing in front of the back side of the Parthenon. There has been a lot of renovation here since my last visit 10 years ago. They say that in 15 years it will be restored to the state that one will be able to walk inside. I'm keeping that in my calendar!

Here are Brooke and Hilari standing in front of The Caryatides. It is amazing to think that these beautiful monuments started to be built in 437 B.C.!

This view is from on top of the Acropolis looking over the city of Athens.

Our tour continued with a drive through Athens. We saw Hadrian's Arch, the Temple of Zeus and many important buildings of the Greek government along the way. We then stopped at a jewelry shop. The whole bus of people tried to cram into this one little shop, so Brooke and I went across the street into this little market. We finally found some safety pins to buy that we needed for our "toga party" later in the week. I enjoyed browsing in the markets so much more that the shops that sought out "tourists".

That night on the ship we did a little karaoke. This is the Yarmis family. We met at dinner as we were seated at a table for ten. At first we thought "oh no" but within the first ten minutes our table was laughing and we became good friends. We even did things together on the ship! I loved seeing all the wonderful sites on our trip, but the most fun was hanging out with the girls and my mom and our new friends.

I didn't get a picture of Brooke singing for some reason. Anyway, the host asked her to be in the "Royal Caribbean's Got Talent". She blew them away!

On my vacation, I saw GUYS IN SPEDOS!

During the times of day when we were not at port, we sampled the various activities that are offered on the cruise ship. There were two swimmimg pools and four jacuzzis AND since the percentage of cruise quests were European, most men wore very small spedos. ("not that there is anything wrong with that"... aka Seinfeld) This view is taken while sitting in the very top Bar area that is non-smoking. During the day it was empty and my Mom and I relaxed there a bit.

My Mom also gave me two dollars to play at the slot machines. I was down to one nickle when I got a jackpot! I won $2.50 and paid my Mom back the $2. and proceeded to lose the rest. It was fun and the nickle slots didn't make me feel guilty for "gambling" ("not that there is anything wrong with that" either)

Each day when we came back from a shore excursion, a towel animal was waiting for us.

Below is the Monkey that was taken down right away because it was too freaky...those eyes and all. (I might have a problem with inanimate objects looking at me.....)

Here we are walking back to the ship from a day of touring. I have been on bigger and smaller cruise ships before. I thought this one was very nice. They even had a Ben and Jerry's!

( We posed this way so that our bodies would twist and create an illusion of "thinness"...need I mention again that there was a Ben and Jerry's?)

On my vacation, I saw a PALACE!

Our third day of our cruise took us to Corfu, Greece. We toured the Achilleion Palace in the village of Gastouri. It was built high on a mountain top and the view below was so beautiful...all green and the Ionian Sea in the distance. There were several statues all along the garden path surrounding the Palace. I would hang out there all day if I could.

Inside the Palace were wonderful works of art. These were "modern" of course as they were painted in early 1900's.

Below are these freakish plaster angels on the wall that seemed to watch you as you walked around the room. They kind of creeped us out.
After this we went to an overlook to see "Mouse Island" and then we stopped in the old quarter of Corfu Town. We shopped and stopped to eat at a cafe. All the tables and chairs outside were painted a sea foam green. (I'd show you a picture of the place, but we all look too fat to show you. I downloaded roughly 600 photos so obviously I don't look good in any of them so vanity keeps them locked in my hard drive.)

This was my fabulous lunch... a typical Greek salad. I could eat one everyday!!!

Of course, another market scene. I have this fascination with the shapes and colors of fruit and vegetables. This whole trip gave me ideas and inspirations for future paintings and I look forward to spending time in my studio.