ALOHA!!!!

Seems hard to believe that the days have gone so quickly. C&R hopped the plane Saturday morning in Grand Forks and started the long trek to their home on Oahu. The flight was long as they had a diversion in San Francisco.....it was supposed to be a direct flight. I'm sure they will be so happy to feel that warm air again. It was great having them in Grand Forks and I know they enjoyed their time with R's family in Fargo.

A Very Merry Christmas

We are sharing Rob and Carrie with Rob's Family, who very conveniently live in Fargo. They were with us for Christmas Eve and with them for Christmas Day. Rob had a Razor Li'l Copter so they had to practice flying and landing it. You can see Rob landed it in Carrie's hand. I guess we would expect he could do that!! We took our traditional Christmas Eve drive through the neighborhoods to see the lights. We came to the conclusion lots of people didn't participate this year. Maybe the cold weather discouraged people from doing that job (or they are going green). The best part of the season was having Rob & Carrie home. They will be hopping a plane on Saturday morning for warmer weather.

From Our House to Yours

I thought I would send a greeting from our living room. We haven't bought a real tree in many years so this year I decided it was time to do that! Well, I'm sure this beautiful frazer fir is left over from 2006 Christmas because it is dropping needles fast and furious. I wonder if there will be any left by December 25th! No matter, we still are enjoying it. Merry Christmas to you.

Christmas Scenes

We enjoy the beautiful scenes at Christmas. Most of these pictures were taken at the Conservatory in St. Paul. This Santa was at Southdale Shopping Center. Notice the tears!

Welcome Home, Carrie

Even the neighbor's dog wanted to welcome Carrie to Grand Forks. You can see him first watching her, then coming across the street and finally greeting her. We are excited to have her here too. We are trying to arrange more snow for Rob's arrival so he can help shovel snow too.

From Hawai'i to North Dakota!

We are so excited to welcome Rob and Carrie to North Dakota. They are so used to scenery, so we are providing some for them this time. Carrie arrives first and a few days later Rob arrives! She keeps saying she is looking forward to it. Yeah, right!!!

Actually, it is very beautiful. I wish you could see the snowflakes. As you can see from the picnic table, we have gotten several inches and it is still coming down.

It's beginning to look a lot like........

Recently we spent some time at the Inn at Maple Crossing. It was beautiful with the snow coming down outside and the Christmas decorations on the inside. Made for a very cozy setting! Thanks to Nancy and Jim for providing this wonderful place.

Thanksgiving in the City

We decided to get out of Dodge for a couple days over Thanksgiving. We spent Thanksgiving night downtown Minneapolis. For some reason the man at the hotel desk decided we needed to be upgraded and upgrade he did! We got a beautiful corner room on the 27th floor of the Marriott with huge windows on 2 sides of the room. I have to show some pictures of that room and the view from the room at sunset. Marilyn's dream is to live high above a city so this was really fun for her. We walked across the street to a nice restaurant for a turkey dinner. Friday morning we walked the downtown skyway to lots of stores, enjoyed the Christmas decorations and had a nice lunch on the 12th floor of Macy's. Vic had to snap a few pictures of the decorations in the City Center.

Sandhill Cranes

Thanks Dennis and Ruth for sending these great pictures. Vic wishes he would have taken them, but he didn't. Click below and Enjoy!

http://groverphoto.phanfare.com/slideshow.aspx?username=groverphoto&album_id=304621

Not Much Happening in North Dakota on a Saturday afternoon

We are sitting in the sunroom watching these late fall visitors. Vic has a love-hate relationship with the squirrels. He can't bare to harm them but they seem to enjoy getting under the sunroom and chewing the cables. He catches them in a cage and then takes them across the river to Minnesota. It is so much fun watching them take off when the cage door opens and they realize they are free! We're pretty sure they don't know how to swim, and we hope they haven't figured out that the river will soon be frozen.

May the Bird of Paradise Fly Up Your Nose

Does anyone know this strange man??

Ernest Tubb sang that song back in the dark ages. Thought the words were funny - maybe you were curious too......

May the bird of paradise fly up your nose

One fine day as I was a-walkin' down the street
Spied a beggar man with rags upon his feet
Took a penny from my pocket
In his tin cup I did drop it
I heard him say as I made my retreat

The laundry man is really on his toes
Found a hundred-dollar bill among my clothes
When he called me I came a-runnin'
Gave him back his dime for phonin'
I heard him sayin' as I turned to go

I was way behind one day to catch the train
Taxi driver said "We'll make it just the same"
The speed cop made it with us
And as he wrote out the ticket
I stood by politely a-waitin' for my change

"May the bird of paradise fly up your nose"
"May an elephant caress you with his toes"
"May your wife be plagued with runners in her hose"
"May the bird of paradise fly up your nose"

Good Bye Hawai'i

About noon on Tuesday we headed for Waikiki Beach. Wanted to have lunch at Duke's (it's located right next to the pink Royal Hawaiian Hotel) and walk on the beach. We also went to the International Market and walked along the shops at Waikiki Beach Walk. I picked out a ring at Cartier's but all I got was a picture. Guess we didn't have high enough limit on our Visa Card. Got some air pictures of Waikiki as we headed to Minneapolis. We had a wonderful time and appreciated the time with Rob, Carrie and the Luiken Family. Thank you very much - yes, we will hurry back as soon as possible.

Last Day in Kailua

Late this morning we decided to go to a beach and have a picnic lunch. We stopped at a store to buy some lunch items and while we were inside Vic found a little river with lots of wildlife. We went to a beach where you can see Chinaman's Hat and Turtle Island (the Marine base). You can actually wade out to Chinaman's Hat, but we didn't try it. We took a walk on the beach, ate our lunch and watched the people enjoying the water. There are many of these quaint little roadside stands that sell fresh fruit and vegetables. This afternoon Carrie and Marilyn walked to the market to buy some things for dinner. It is so nice because C&R can walk to many shops, several grocery stores and restaurants. They have a wonderful location.....and on top of that they can walk a few minutes to the beach.