We are settling in to our Arizona Home

We had a lovely trip from BC to Arizona. We had a quick visit with Brian in Victoria before we arrived at the ferry terminal.

  Brian is wearing glasses now and I think they look particularly handsome on him!
 We seemed to be right ahead of the bad weather which everyone was worried we were having to deal with! When we got off the Blackball Ferry in Port Angeles, Customs pulled us over and did a very thorough search of our truck and trailer. Of course they never found anything of concern so it really was no big deal. Doug and I figured we were due for a check anyway!

 When we arrived in Nevada, the weather was so gorgeous, we decided to spend a couple of days camping in one of our favorite State parks: Valley of the Fire, it is about 20 miles north of Las Vegas. We have a favorite camping spot and we were lucky again it was vacant. Our little toy hauler trailer we bought last spring in Tucson it working out perfectly for us. It was such a pleasure to camp the whole way down. I just have a thing about motels and the potential for bed bugs!!

 What a pleasure to get up the next morning and have coffee outside in just shorts and a tank top. I was in seventh heaven!

 I spent a good part of the first day we were there just soaking up the sun and reading a book. Both Doug and I were pretty tired after all the work of closing up the Brown's Bay house and then 3 days of driving.

 The second day we did our touring around of the park and hiking in to the various rock formations. It is an absolutely gorgeous state park with tons of hiking trails and opportunities for fantastic pictures.

 Of course I had to have the requisite picture behind the park sign!

 The little finches were so cute in the mesquite bushes around our campsite. Every time you came outside with food, they were immediately there waiting for handouts. There would be so many on the little bush, it looked like a Christmas tree covered in ornaments.

We had a campfire and sat out looking at the multitude of stars and all the satellites. Of course, prior to that we had a beautiful sunset.

Here I am sitting out on the patio at our Apache Junction house, having my morning coffee. The weather has been lovely since we've been here. We did have some pretty good rain showers twice but always in the evenings. It saved us from having to water all our shrubs and trees.I was amazed at how much our fruit trees and all our shrubs have grown in the 6 months we were gone. We had to get our park landscape company to come right away and manicure all the greenery as it was out of control! Everything looks lovely now. Our orange trees are loaded with oranges which should be ripe by mid to the end of December. I was disappointed to find I didn't have any lemons this year but Hector (landscape fellow) told me the type of lemon tree I have only produces every second year. The lemon tree which I planted last fall, has doubled in size though

 Much to Doug's chagrin, the first thing I did the day after we arrived was to pull down the old "90's" style curtains in the living/dining rooms. They went right to the dumpster! I can't believe I tolerated them all last winter but I just wasn't sure what my colour scheme was going to be so had to wait. I had Doug busy filling holes in the wall from the old drapery rods and installing the new.

 The place even looked better with no drapes!

 My new drapes, I just love them, we are now in the 21st century!!

 No rest for the wicked (that's Doug) around here! As soon as he finished that, I had him busy installing a central vacuum system for me. We brought it with us from home as Sears had a tremendous sale and I just couldn't refuse! With all the dust we get around here, a central vac will be a god send in keeping my allergies at bay! Of course I couldn't let Doug do all the work so I decided it was time to finish all the painting projects off now that I have chosen my colour scheme.

 My first projects were the laundry room and the main bathroom. I wanted to keep my colors fairly neutral so I went with a toasted wheat paint color. I think it looks great. Doug is still shaking his head that we have only been here 5 days and we have new curtains up, the bathroom and laundry room painted, a central vacuum installed, shrubs all trimmed and the list goes on. You would think after nearly 40 years of marriage, he would have it figured out that when I get on a roll, look out!

 This is the completed bathroom

I love the color, looks very serene. I am going to take a couple of days off as we are going ATVing with Ann & Trent on Friday and then we have garage sales on Saturday and Sunday. I need to get over to Home Depot for more pain to paint one wall in the dining room, the kitchen, bedroom hallway and one wall at the front entrance. Those pictures will come.....

I am back going to exercises twice a week but this year, the personal trainer is leading the class in our sister park just a mile down the road so it is so much closer for me. It feels so good to get back exercising with a group! Well enough for now...