Ethel Buttonwillow 5 Weeks Old (Dec. 10, 2012)

Although Ethel turned 6 weeks yesterday, I only have 5 week photos...Look at that face!!!

Ethel Buttonwillow Yokley

I can't believe it!  We will be Basset Hound owners soon after Christmas.  Ashlee & Gilbert's Basset Hounds, Buster and Molly are the proud parents of 7 puppies!  We have chosen this little cutie below.  Can anyone say, "PUPPY BREATH?"

 

Ashlee took this cute photo!!

Celebrating Maycin's 10th!!!

Cliff and I are so blessed by this young man. He is kind, considerate, respectful, personable, imaginative, helpful and has a fabulous sense of humor. He is a fantastic artist and his passion is bug hunting! He is a great kid all around and I hope if you have not met this young man yet, that you will someday.

Maycin turns 10 years old on the 20th of December, 2012. Below is a sample of Maycin's artwork and a photo of himself enjoying his birthday cake for his party, celebrating a little early.

 

 

WE LOVE YA, MAYCIN!  HAPPY 10TH!!

Camping...it's a beautiful thing!

Yes, we went camping again...the day after Thanksgiving.  We surely are grateful for being able to do so.  Again, we camped Eastman.  Below is a picture of a red barn we pass every time we drive to Eastman Lake.  I always wanted to get a photo of it, but sometimes it's just hard to capture it going 50 MPH.  But, I liked how this one turned out.

 

 

 

We had clear skies for nice night photography, blue sky for nice macro shots of the trees, and big boulders for background shots of portraits...well, kind of!

 

 

We were also pleasantly surprised with folks we met at Eastman last Easter, Chief and Vercie.  When seeing us coming, Chief said, "There's Odessa!"  It's nice to be remembered!  Chief and Vercie are really good people and we enjoyed visiting with them again.

 

 

Our environment, weather and company was a beautiful thing!

Thanksgiving 2012

We have so many things to be thankful for...family, church family, good health, plenty of food and clean water, warm beds to sleep in, employment, vehicles to get us to our jobs, vacations, puppies...  Ashlee and Gilbert hosted Thanksgiving again this year and Gilbert pretty much prepared the whole Thanksgiving meal!  It was so good and really nice for us to be the guests.  Besides a lot of eating, we also got a lot of visiting in, dancing, playing with puppies...who could ask for anything more?  Blessed!

The photo below doesn't have everyone in it...

...but click on the link below to see the video that does have everyone in it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdm-EhHQy3k

Wow! Faith in Humanity After All!!

I'm not even going to go into the whole story as it's way too long.  But, do you remember when I told you that I lost my Smart Phone in August, in Yosemite National Park, 3 months ago?  Well, there are good people out there and my phone was returned to me!  A man and his daughters found it, probably the same day I lost it, where I dropped it along side a vista point.  His college age daughter put it in the side pocket of the vehicle door and was ordered to find the owner and return it on their return home from Yosemite.  Well, everyone forgot about it and it wasn't until he and his other high school daughter were on an errand and she needed a tissue, thinking she would find one in the door pocket, but found my phone instead.  It had been there for 3 months.  So the man looked up a good 3rd party # in my contacts which happened to be named "Church".  He googled the phone # and found our church name.  Then googled the church name and found our website, and compared the phone #, and found that is was one in the same.  Then he used our church email to ask if anyone in our congregation lost a phone in Yosemite and I received the email, because I am our church's secretary.  Talk about funny!!  Anyway, after a few emails back and forth my phone was returned, fully functional, and I'm grateful for good people out there!

 

 

 

To read the story about losing my phone, go to:

 

http://lifecaughtcontinues.blogspot.com/2012/08/yosemite-beautiful.html

Pumpkin Patch Kids

Near the end of October, we were blessed to have Corry home from Germany and his girlfriend, Lauren, and her daughter, Ariana, here for a visit!  FUN times at the pumpkin patch below!

 

 

Cliff and I always feel so blessed by our children, significant others and grandchildren...and grand-puppies (not picture)!  Our times together seem to always bring a lot of food, fun and fellowship together.  We wouldn't trade it for the world!!!

 

We are really looking forward to celebrating Jesus birthday together this year.  So, so blessed!!!

October...Camping Eastman Lake

Will we ever get tired of camping Eastman Lake?  Maybe!  But who can argue with it's clean, friendly and quiet ambiance?  Not I!  The only complaint I would have is that it's not a campground for me in the dead of summer (unless you have AC in your RV).

When camping Eastman, Cliff and I often drive to the other side to the day-use area.  This time when we did, we were pleasantly surprised to see a Roadrunner!  We didn't even know that Roadrunners were indigenous to the area.  Later after reading material about Eastman, we found out, yes indeed, they are!

During one of the evenings there, I was taking night shots, something I'm learning about in photography.  While doing so, I found 4 eyes watching me and it pretty much creeped me out!!  I had heard there were bob cats in the area and had often walked through camp.  However, after shining my flashlight on the critters, I found that they were raccoons instead and they moved on after they realized I was not.

 

 

Odessa at night...

 

 

Weekend camping get-aways are our way of relaxing and renewing.  We totally recommend it!!