Aiden - NO WORDS NEEDED!

Kayaking Fun

Another day in paradise.

Just a few photos of Joni with friends.  Karen, Tonya and Clarissa enjoyed a great day on the Indian River (inter coastal).

We kayaked out to an island in the middle of the river.  We brought our lunch and had a picnic.

After finding a tarzan rope hanging from a tree on the island, we had a blast swinging our over the water.  Wish I had gotten some pictures of that!  It was hysterical!

A Monster on the Beach

What is this?  A monster!

We were walking the beach one day and came upon this monster.  A smelly one at that!

Our daughter in law's parents, June and Joe, came down to visit the kids and we invited them to stay with us at Ocean Resorts.  While out walking we came upon this THING!

We had a few thoughts.....  a whale,  a manatee, a walrus?????

After posting pictures of it on our tennis court bulletin board, we got a few opinions!

How about a whale with it's head cut off!    Someone said that people will cut off the heads of whales for their teeth.  I guess they are valuable.  We don't know if it died after it got beached or it died after and was washed on shore.

Grandparents Galore

Nana, Grandpa Joe and Aiden - SO BIG!

Grandpa Joe and Aiden

Aiden has lots of love from lots of grandparents.

Grandma June, Grandpa Joe and Aiden

Barbara's parents came down for a visit in February. What a lot of fun.  We all played with Aiden consistently. It was like a competition for who could make Aiden laugh and smile the most.

So many grandparents and so much love.

Papa and Aiden

Spouses Tournament Champs

Tennis is big at Ocean Resorts.  Many tournament are held.  We have both in-house tournaments and traveling team matches as well.  When traveling, we compete against other RV/snow bird communities.  We make many new friends with similar interests.

We entered the Ocean Resorts Spouses Tournament again this year. After some great competition, we won this year's event.

We are reigning cast champs, having won the last 3 years in a row.

Winter in Florida

Aiden's New Chair.

We are in Florida for the winter again this year, but this winter is more special than our past winters.  We are able to be with our new grandson Aiden because they have moved to Florida from New York City.

Taking Aiden for a bike ride.

Taking Aiden for a bike ride holds a lot of meaning for Joni.  She is such an avid bike rider and hopes that Aiden will be too.

Aiden with Uncle Chris and Uncle Ken.

We had great Christmas fun.  Having a baby in the house brings so much joy.

Aiden and Papa

Aiden loves Nana

These pictures were taken at Jim and Barbara's house in Boca Raton.

We have had a wonderful season.  Our activities have  been pretty much the same as they were for the past few years.  Tennis, biking, swimming, kayaking, bridge, golf, etc.  Tough life!

I know we haven't posted much lately.  Been busy with Aiden.  We'll try to do better!

Can you tell how much fun we're having?

Delton's Boat

Delton loves to go fishing. But, he's not so keen on fishing from the shore.

So this year he decided to get himself a little fishing boat.  It's a 14 foot aluminum 1972 fishing boat.  Perfect for floating out in the middle of lake and landing some of those huge catfish that are good eating!  He's leaving the boat in Grapevine year round.  We can't pull a car and a boat, behind our motorhome. 

We'll have to have a fish fry next time we're in Grapevine.  You are all invited!

Visit to Aiden

Guess what!  More pictures of Aiden!!!!!!

Big Love

Big Blue Eyes

We are back in Texas for the fall season and as soon as we got back, Joni went to visit her Mom in New Hampshire and then on to Florida to visit Jim, Barbara and Aiden.

Aiden is 6 1/2 months old now.

A Beautiful Family

Pictures are worth a thousand words, so not much needs to be said about her visit.
Nana played with Aiden in the pool.

Nana changed Aiden's diaper.

Nana fed Aiden his cereal and vegetables and fruit.

Deerfield Beach

Nana gave Aiden his bottle.

Nana played with Aiden on the floor.

Nana went to the beach with Aiden, Jim and Barbara.

Nana babysat for Aiden.

Ummmmm Good

Nana hugged and kissed Aiden a whole lot!

Golden, Colorado

Joni was ready to go.

 We moved from the Cherry Creek State Park RV Campground to the Dakota Ridge RV Park in Golden, Colorado.  Dakota Ridge is a lot closer to Ken and the mountains, since it's on the west side of Denver.

We spent more time with Ken.  Hiking, bike riding, eating and just having a good time.

Delton needed a rest

 The Apex Trail was very close to our park.  As a matter of fact, it was walking distance away.  It starts out with a very steep uphill climb without shade, so it was a tough climb.  About 1 1/2 miles in, you arrive at the Enchanted Forest, a heavily wooded, very pretty area.  We hiked Apex one day by ourselves, and with Ken on another day.

The Apex Trail is also a mountain biking trail.  It's amazing to see how the mountain bikers travel over the rocks, tree stumps and tough terrain.  Sorry I didn't get any pictures of that.

Keri, Joni, Delton and Loren

We got to see our nephew, Loren and his family a couple times.
They moved to the Denver/Boulder area recently and are very happy to be in Colorado. Loren is a youth minister at Flatirons Community Church, so we decided to attend a service at Flatirons.  It's a very large church, with services held in an old Walmart.  After renovating the facility, it accommodates the church very well.

Loren and Keri, his wife, have 4 absolutely adorable daughters.  I'm so sorry I didn't get pictures of them, but we did get a picture with Loren and Keri in the lobby of Flatirons Church.  The girls are Abby, Emily, Rachel and Hannah.  It was fun to be around little girls as most of our family is all boys.  

Downtown Golden is a cute little historical town.  Walking along the river one afternoon, we saw some people enjoying kayaking in the river.  They had short river kayaks and were practicing their river techniques.  Sometimes they would tip over and have to right themselves in their kayaks.  A little scary to us.  I think it's called rolling over.  We'll stick to our open white water kayaks - (see previous posts).

 Our walk along the river continued.  Trees were  finally starting to turn.  Too bad we couldn't stay longer and see the Aspens in full fall color.

Strolling by the river

And now we are on our way back to Texas for the fall season.  Looking forward to seeing friends and family.

With Ken in Denver

We left Salida and headed for Denver.  Joni's son Ken lives in the heart of the city, just a few blocks from downtown.

We enjoyed walking to the downtown area from Ken's house and having diner.  We also took a bike ride around a small lake which was close to his house.  See the photo of us with our bikes and the mountains in the background.

Hiking is the best.  From high up on the mountain trails, there are some beautiful views of Denver.  See the picture...though it's a little hazy.

Resting

No matter where you go in Colorado, the mountains and views are wonderful.

View of Denver

We drove to a trail head just west of Boulder one afternoon.  The last few miles of the road were quite rocky, bumpy and very narrow as the road turned into a dirt road where 4 wheel drive vehicles should be used.  It was like 4 wheeling.  We decided to turn around and hike at a different location.  Mostly it was because Joni was getting very nervous, especially when we had a car coming towards us and there wasn't much room to pass each other.  We got very close to the edge........ with a big drop off just a few "inches" from the tires.   Joni was out of her comfort zone.  Ken and Delton thought that was pretty funny.

Our hike turned out to be great as we made our way up along a beautiful waterfalls.  Reaching the top, we found a mountain lake, where we turned around to head back.  What a day!

Playing with our Apples

Some of our time with Ken was spent just chill in out.  Joni and Ken have just gotten some new Apple MacBook Pro computers.  Both of us were still learning how to use them.  There is a learning curve as we change from the PC.  See the photo of us working hard at it!  Actually Joni is taking the picture !!!  iPhones, iPads, and Macs!  Apple is doing well by our family.

Taking a Rest

Biking with Rockies in Background

We discovered a very funny app on our Apples called Photo Booth.  Taking a picture of ourselves, we began to edit the picture.  We used the feature where we were transformed into Aliens!!!!  Aren't we cute!!!!!  We must be very smart.  Our brains swelled!

We also got to visit with our nephew and his family.  Loren and Keri Jones just moved to the Boulder area.  They are so happy to be in Colorado.  Leaving Houston was hard for Keri as she left her family, but they have a love for the mountains and skiing.  It was very welcoming for them to leave the hot hot hot hot Texas summer this year. I think they will have many visitors, so they won't get too lonely.   It's been good to be able to see our family as we travel around the country. Family and friends are everywhere!