Fall 2011

 September started out with a wonderful announcement of the forthcoming birth of a new grandchild.

This time it's our youngest son, Chris and his beautiful wife Emily expecting their first in March of 2012.  They surprised us with this news on labor day!  How appropriate.  We found out later in November that it is another precious grandson.  We are so happy and excited for them and us.

My temp job that I thought was going to turn into a permanant position at the eye doctors ended in August due to their financial burdens and the economy.  Then I got another temp position that was supposed to be for just 4 weeks as a medical records clerk for Santa Rosa Orthopaedics.  That was perfect because we had a vacation planned...

On October 14th Richard and I took a trip up to Lake Tahoe and stayed at one of our World Mark resorts.  The weather was perfect the whole time we were there.  We enjoyed finding beaches where we could see the gorgeous clear water of the lake and just walk along being together.  This was the celebration of our 32nd anniversary that happened in July. 

 There is a really fun miniature golf course in South Shore and we had fun playing their 28 hole course.  Richard beat me by one point!

 Our resort was at the summet of 7400 feet as you can see by the ski lift chair I am sitting on.  We loved just having relaxing time together playing games and watching movies in our beautiful resort room and sightseeing around the lake and in South shore.  It was a wonderful celebration.  On Wednesday of that week we left Tahoe and flew from Reno (leaving our car there) to Salt Lake City and gave the rest of the time at the resort to Chris and Em to celebrate their 5th anniversary.  They drove up from Sacramento.

 In Utah we stayed with Jeff and Rachelle in their new home that they are renting.  Much bigger and more fun for their boys with a yard and room to run and play with the cousins.  Better than a condo for a young family. The First day there (we got there around noon) we met John and Noelle and their children and all went up the canyon to Silver Lake.  One of their favorite places in Utah.  It was cold but lots of fun.  We got some great pictures so here is a sampling..

Above is the mirror effect of the lake and the fall colors.

 Jeff and Lucas (age 2) watching the ducks on the lake.

 Rachelle and little Ethan watching Daddy and Lucas.

 Grandma and Papa enjoying being with their Philpott Grandchildren

and Daddy John and Mommy Noelle.

 After we got back we went to the Philpott's new rented home just a block away from where they used to live.  It's a very nice, very large 6 bedroom home with lots of family space as well.  Now all the kids have a room of their own.  This is Jenna and Little Cousin Jude (10 months old).

 On Thursday night the girls did a surprise dinner with a halloween theme.  We had three courses that we got to choose what we received but all the items had halloween names so we didn't know what we were getting and the utensils and napkin were in the mix also.  After each course the table was cleared.  The long and short of it was that the food was good but I wound up eating all of it with my fingers because I got my spoon, fork, and napkin for my second course and nothing to eat at that point.  It was great fun!!!

The next morning we had Ghost Pancakes for breakfast (seen above) also very good!

 That Friday after the Pancakes, we all took off to a fun pumpkin patch.  There was a corn maze that the kids loved as you can see by the smiles on the faces of Michael and Isaiah above.  They ran through it in record time.

 We also took some family pictures with the country setting..

This is the Manns:

Brook, Jude, David and Carter

 The Philpotts

Emma, Jenna, Isaiah, Michael, Noelle, John, and Abigail

 These are the other Manns

Jeff, Ethan, Lucas, and Rachelle

We were behind the camera this time!
We all got pumpkins, even Richard and I and they let us bring them home on the airplane!  I was so happy about that.  They made a nice part of our fall centerpice on the dinning room table.

 We enjoyed watching our family play together. 

Here Uncle John is helping Nephew Carter do a slam dunk in his driveway. 

We love our time in Utah with our family but it always goes by too quickly. 

The weekend after our return was our Church ward Halloween party at a farm of some of our members.

We invited our Sebastopol Grandsons Joshua (left) a friend of his in the middle, and Lucas La Grave (right) 

with their parents Kathleen and Mark.  It is a wonderful fun event and we enjoyed sharing that with them.

After all of that I was extended in my Medical Records job so I was still working full time.