The Book of Love!

Intro:
Before we begin this jaunt, I just need to tell you that George Dog the Cat loves Michelle (for her hair!)
Chapter 1:
My little girl, Megan, is going to have a baby. Uhh, welcome to a whole new world! We are sitting by the Yellowstone, eating lunch with Scott and Megs decided to go play with Gus for a bit! She is so cute.

Megs and I went out to breakfast at Ihop a little while back, look at her sweet face and glow!
And here we are, shopping at ShopCo in Billings. She decided to be my little 4th of July firework, but begged me not to buy that bag for her! (I loved it! I have a yellow one just like it! lol)

Be healthy, sweety, I love you!

Chapter 2:
Once upon a time, in a far away land, I had this student that talked me into starting a blog. She was known in the blog world as DIP. Since that time, she has gotten too busy to blog or even do much online, so I took it upon myself to let you know what her world is like since those glory days!

Dip graduated from high school and now lives in her little corner of the world until she goes to cake decorating school in Chicago. She runs the cutest little candy store inside her mother's Ben Franklin shop.
She has an incredible assortment of candy, anything you want...laffy taffy, sixlets, whatever!
But the BEST thing she has are these darling candy bouquets she makes!
She'll put in whatever type of candy you want, and then some!
YOU GO, GIRL!
What a great start in her career! She's doing pretty dang good at it, too!
Here are some shots inside her mom's Ben Franklin store. I love it. She sells EVERYTHING!

And sometimes, there are sewing classes, too!
And here is my lovely redheaded friend, Brenda. I just love her!

And here is my favorite Grouchy Girl Naughty TT!
Chapter 3:
Next we will shuffle off to Buffalo...Wyoming...where we had an improvised family get-together.

These 4 lovely ladies are Pennie's granddaughters, my great nieces. We have 11 great grandkids in our family, 10 are girls!
Madison (4) Mikayla (2) Katie (11) Mariah (14).

This is a birthday dinner and also the day mom got home from the hospital.
Here is Jolene and Ed enjoying some family time.

Lynetta, Pennie's daughter, the oldest of the grand children, Ed and Lynetta's husband, Doug.

And yet, another visitor! Here are some of mom and Pennie's flowers with an interesting visitor...see it?

He was HUGE. And his little tongue, when completely protruding, was about as long as his body!
And of course her beautiful flowers...!

Here is momma, enjoying some fried chicken and company the day she got out of the hospital. The house was full the whole day! She faired very well. Love you, momma!
Thanks mom and Pennie for hosting! I had a wonderful visit...again!

Chapter 4:
What is a summer without a little float trip on the Yellowstone? How about 1 1/2 hour, 6.3 mile leg? Sounded good to us!

Below, you will see Captain Scott, 1st Mate Ellie, Pinky Hat Niece Janie, 1st Mother Carol and taking the picture is Father Dick.
Ahh, there is Dick, a wonderful father-in-law, father, husband and grandfather. I think he looks a little like Edward Abby. He's a very educated outdoorsman and very fine artist.
Janie is a very intelliegent young lady going into 4th grade. She takes piano lessons and does very, very well. On this trip, she bounced around and swam at least half of the trip!

And there is Carol and Gus, thoroughly enjoying the relaxing float and warm sunshine. We saw lots of water foul and a few deer on the edge. Carol is a remarkable woman who likes to believe she and her family are simply "normal". I can't tell you how nice it is to have a normal mother-in-law. She knits, sews, keeps a clean house and graduated with a teaching degree from the same university that I did!
Squint your eyes and over on the shore...those white dots...are pelicans. I know, I could have made them closer, but i wanted you to see the large river and the rimrocks we floated beneath.
Yes, a diamond-back rattle snake. We saw this on the highway. Unfortunately, he had been run over and was dying, that is why he is so fattened up...blood and fluids from internal hemorrhaging. I know most hate snakes and are a little freaky about them, but they are an important necessary part of our environment. Like spiders, they really are the good guys!
Conclusion:
And of course, I'm ending with a picture of George Dog, the Cat.
He's a good guy, and so is Gus Bob!

When in Arizona, we headed to Tucson!

Rubye and I packed our bags and headed to Tucson to see Dr. John,

the countryside and the symphony orchestra. What a lovely time we had! We started by going out to dinner where Dr. John had gone several times with his mother...yummy authentic Mexican chow!



Dr. John was busy during the day teaching non-music teachers how to incorporate the arts in their classroom to assist in learning the given content. I went one day, and it was great. One evening, his friend came over to visit and run through SUMMERTIME to be performed on the last day...

This gentleman with the accordian is a dance instructor. In the session I attended, he taught us how to hip-hop dance...it was so much fun. I want to take dance classes, now!

So on the following day while Dr. John was wrapping up the teaching session, Rubye and I drove (and drove and drove, and started over and asked the nice police officers for instructions) and drove to Mount Lemmon in the Catalina Mountains. It was interesting how the terrain changed with the elevation. We got up to 9000 feet.

(can you see the highway, below?)
Then the 3 of us loaded up our stuff and headed down to the bird sanctuary at Patagonia, Arizona...about 40 miles (or less) from the Mexican border. We walked about 3 miles. It was a lush mecca in the desert because of the cutest little stream that runs through it, providing lush grass and trees for their homes. How cool that the trail was named after us!
We walked in the hot sun and finally found it!
And Rubye enjoyed a hatful of water on her head (carried to her by Dr. John!)
It was mighty refreshing, I did it, too!
Can you see the cutie sitting on the limb above? Besides the birdies, we saw other beauties on our walk...

Bird of paradise bush...one of my favorites!

Blossoms on the cactus...

Cute little whitish-blue flowers...
Fast little lizards ALL OVER THE PLACE...
and a lovely butterfly.
It was a great walk. We had packed our lunch and really enjoyed the day!

One of the highlights of the trip and my musical experience was going to the Tucson Pops Symphony that performs free of charge in the park. Here's Dr. John, principal clarinetist (and member of the TSO for almost 40 years!) practicing on his back porch...
Some of the music was incredibly tough! So he practiced while RJ and I drank coffee!
And off we went. Here is the amphitheatre and about 1/4 of the audience. Some get there at 4:30 in the afternoon to ensure good seats for the 7:00 performance!

So here we are patiently waiting for the concert to start. Dr. John bought us fried chicken picnic to eat while sitting there and we had a yummy dinner. Rubye bought us lemonade to go with it. Yum, yum. Before you know it, the announcer was on stage and there before us the awesome pops symphony.

Can you find Dr. John? I made it easy for you...

(Hee-hee, dang cute glasses on his head!)

They played some schmultzy Beach Boys songs, a Stevie Wonder medley, a TOUGH Paul Creston piece and some others that moved me...

And sometimes, they played while 2 professional MIMES were on stage, and that was cool!

The next morning, before heading back to Wickenburg, we went to the CONGRESS, a wonderful historic hotel/restaurant. Shortly thereafter, we walked to a cool used music store. Here is great collection in one of the windows...

Is that cute and nostalgic, or what?
This store is about the whole block, 3 stories and PACKED so full of used music everything...amps, lights, guitars, whatever.

This is just a glimpse of 1/4 of the bottom floor. The top floor reminded me of a nursing home or hospice...the last place for the instruments, all stacked up, never to be played again...it was sad to me.

Okay, so the trip to Tucson was great. We also drove up to a hoity toity resort that evening, went to the coolest used bookstore, had lots of laughs and visits and on and on.
Thanks Dr. John and Rubye! It was great!
(btw, Dr. John is the best dang teacher I've ever had and the best clarinetist/saxophonist/recorderist I've ever heard!) luv ya!