Winter in Minnesota means find a waterpark!

Cold weather just won't quit this year here in Minnesota, so we headed off to a waterpark with Daniel, Meghan, Brooklyn, Preston and Sean Patrick. What fun! It was snowing outside and we were slashing in the water inside! Yeah!

There were lots of places just right for little boys to walk and play!

And Brooklyn had a friend from her preschool come to the same waterpark, so they enjoyed the hot tub together. (Well, we ALL enjoyed the hot tub!)

Sean Patrick didn't get any water action this year but he enjoyed a good nap with all the water noise in the background.

We had to improvise a table for our pizza party in our motel room. It worked just great!

Good friends last forever

One highlight of our trip to Arizona was a stop in Tucson to see my dear friend Elizabeth!

Time doesn't erase the bond we share. How wonderful.

We could have talked all afternoon. Time flew by!

Now we look forward to Elizabeth coming to Minnesota to enjoy our fabulous summer weather. (Of course, if she wants to get a good dose of winter weather, that's okay too!)

Thanks for the visit, Elizabeth.

More reasons to visit Sedona...

Just a few more reasons to put "visit Sedona" on your "to do" list...

Dear friends - with an interesting twist...

Here are two pictures of dear friends of ours from our days in Westchester county, New York in the early to mid-1970's. Both couples are now living in Phoenix and we enjoyed our visit with them. The picture above is of our friends Sonja and Astor; the picture below is of our friends Magny and Sverre. (For the record, Astor and Magny are brother and sister.) We learned something quite interesting during our visit - and that was that both Sonja and Wally had traveled to Norway in the summer of 1947 on the ship Stavangerfjord as children. Could it have been the same time? Sonja remembered that they arrived in Norway on the King's birthday and there were lots of flags. Well, I came home and looked through family items to discover an old photo album Wally's sister Irene had kept of this family trip and it said "arrived in Norway on the King's birthday - lots of flags!" They were on the same ship in 1947 for the long voyage!!! But wait...

wait, there is more! I also found a passenger ship list booklet for the return voyage in July of 1948. I read through the whole list of names looking to see if perhaps Sonja was on the return voyage as she had come back with her family the following year like Wally and his family. No, no Sonja on that ship but ..... there was MAGNY! Wally and Magny were on the same ship (again, the Stavangerfjord) sailing out of Oslo on July 16, 1948 (via Kristiansand, Stavanger & Bergen.) If you were on this ship, let us know!! You just never know! To think we've been friends since the 1970's and just know realized how close their paths crossed in 1947 & 1948.

p.s. Many thanks to both Astor & Sonja and Sverre & Magny for the nice visits!

Tea in Tucson

Many of you know how much I love tea - and all the things along with tea, like a good scone. Well, how lucky we were to go to a Tea Room in Tucson and enjoy a delicious (and properly brewed) pot of tea and a scone! (Though I'm not so sure about those tea bags being so proper!)

The best part of tea time, though, was enjoying it with loved ones. Here we are with Norman, Martha, Ardy and Art. (Wally was the photographer which is why he isn't in the picture!)

This is what it's all about...

As great as the warm weather was, as great as the location, accommodations and food was, nothing was better then being with family. Here is a great picture of the Berge siblings together.
And then we add the spouses. We treasure all the great times we have together!! Where is the next vacation? It's time to get the next generations along too... anyone have any great ideas of when and where?

Hiking and smiling

It was a short hike to a great view of Cathedral rock...

Ardy and Hope relaxing in the sunshine....

Betty Jo and Martha - what's with the glasses in their shirts? Clever....

WHAT? Judy and Candis in the snow??? Yup, we drove up to the top of Oak Creek canyon for a great view, but brrrr.... good thing some of us had jackets in the trunk!

Not everyone had jackets - but they were smart enough to find a blanket to share!

Bonding over food....

We did a lot of eating together! This was breakfast at "The Coffee Pot"..

And lunch in Jerome at "The Asylum" ( it had been one, once!)...

And breakfast in the condo.... this table was exclusively the Berge siblings!....

And this Valentine's meal at Shugrue's in Sedona - what a view! (and the food and service was tremendous!)

And every kitchen has its cooks.... but this little kitchen had LOTS of cooks! From left to right is Mrs. Berge, Mrs. Berge, Mrs. Berge, Mrs. Berge, Mrs. Berge and Mrs. Berge-Olson!

Sedona condo

What a sweet condo! Jarle did great securing for us a 3 bedroom, den, living room/dining area condo for 4 couples. Jarle & Judy had a 2 bedroom condo for themselves and another couple, in the same complex, so we were all close together.

Everything was fabulous; this is the view from our grand bathroom into our bedroom. There were 3 bathrooms like this in the condo. Each one had a wonderful jacuzzi tub along with a fine shower.

Here's a view from the kitchen to the dining area and the living room. There was a balcony on the front and on the back side of the condo.

Here is the living room area; it had a nice flat tv - and so did each bedroom room and the den, for a total of 5 large flat tv's.

Ah... this needs no explanation!

Sedona scenes

It's hard to describe the beauty of Sedona - these few pictures don't come close to capturing the majesty of the rock formations. (Not to mention the nice temperatures!) Here I am in front of Cathedral rock, a very famous formation. It was a wonderful vacation and these are just a few of the pictures for now...

This picture is also Cathedral rock, only from the other side (and taken on a different day.) Apparently, this is one of the most photographed spots in America.

I took this picture of Cathedral rock capturing the reflection in this still pool of water.

Here's another scene of Cathedral rock that I thought came out great.

More pictures to follow tomorrow.

Gone to be with family!

Hi and Goodbye to all my blogger friends... we are heading to Arizona to enjoy some good family time with these wonderful sister-in-laws of mine (Betty Jo is missing in the picture but she'll be there too!)

And the brother-in-laws (and Phil will be there too...)
We just might celebrate ALL our birthdays again like we did the last time we gathered together!

See you all later this month.... it will be quiet on this blog!

Growing fast

Here is Sean Patrick in the playgym that I purchased almost 5 years ago ... I didn't realize how many babies would be enjoying it! Isn't Sean filling out?

I can't believe how big Preston is now! Here are the two brothers together... before we know it they will be close in size. Hard to believe, isn't it?

Oh goodness, isn't this too cute? Joe Cool Preston.

Another project?

Good bye tile....
Messy, messy, messy....

Good time!

Good food.....

Good friends.... (we had a contest for homecoming king & queen, thus the crowns...)

Good games!! Wow, was that fun!

Getting ready for the game

Here we are getting ready for the big game! Every year we enjoyed the SuperBowl with our Sunday evening Bible study friends. Last year Wally rigged up "stadium seating" in the family room, if you remember. This year we had to do something else... so we purchased a new TV that temporarily is in the living room (only for today) and Wally built these cute little half-circle tables for the dining room level seating (only for today). We will have a contest to see who gets to sit in the two leather chairs (5o yard line seating). There will be new winners each quarter.

Wally is trying out the good seats.

Now, let's just hope it's a good game. Or at least that the commercials are funny!

My handyman/honeyman

Oh Honey, said I, in my sweetest voice.... would it be easy... not too hard... to take out our sink in the powder room and replace it. You know, take it out, pop in a new one? Oh, no, not too hard, said he. Well, after the purchase of a new sink, a new formica top, a new design and a new faucet... here we are! Just in time for our company tonight and our company tomorrow!

Isn't he a honeyman/handyman?