Mother's Day, 2010

Don and I managed to get a picture with all our grandkidlets..6 under 4. Chloe, Mia, Elijah, Lukie, Scarlett, and I'm holding the youngest, Savannah.

All of us mother's, Peggy, Alyssa, me, Diane, Mom, Cari and Shana

My sister's Diane and Peggy and my mom.

We had a BBQ for Mother's day where the men cooked. It was pretty awesome and great food. Joe and Shana and kids, Jim and Alyssa and kids, Cari and Juan and kids, my mom, my 2 sisters, ny nephew Carl, my brother in law Dennis and my brother in law Lee were all here. It was such a fun day and as my mom is now 91, I don't take these days for granted anymore.

Palm Springs

Playing at the park. This is a really neat park called "Ronald Reagan Freedon Park."

Flying kites.

Collecting Easter eggs.

Sage..my grand-dog, he got to come too.

Joe, Shana, Chloe, and Elijah (and also baby ?)

Chloe at the Living Desert petting a goat.

Girls playing in the pool.

Over Spring Break we went to Palm Springs with Joe and Shana, Chloe and Eli and of course Sage. Cari and Juan, Scarlett and Savannah were in San Diego and came up for a day to play with their cousins. While we were there, we got to experience an earthquake. Number 4 for me in my lifetime as a native Californian. This one was very exciting. We, Shana and I, with Chloe in the pool, were out by the pool and our chase lounges were just rocking. We could hear things in the house falling off of shelves. We heard later that it was a 7.2 that was located in Mexico very close to the San Diego border. After the initial quake, at 3:40 on Sunday, we experienced about 3 tremors over the next day and a half. It was really nice to get out of the rain and gloom of northern California for a week.

Merry Christmas and Happy 2010

It was a wonderful and magical Christmas and I hope it was for everyone. It feels like I haven't blogged for a long time but my computer was so slow and tended to freeze (I blamed Norton because it started when I put it on) so I shyed away from pictures but now I have a new lap top so hopefully I can be up and running again.

Christmas Eve we had all the kids and grandkidlets over for a yummy primerib and bakedpotato dinner with all the festive foods to go with it. After cleaning up, Santa Clause (aka Don) came to pass out presents. It was a hoot! Lukie and Mia were having none of it, and very vocally!!! Elijah wasn't real sure but was sticking real close to his mom just in case, which is kinda the norm anyway :), Savannah is only 9 months so she's just watching to see what happens, but Chloe and Scarlett were mesmorized! It was soooo fun. The funniest moment was when Santa asked the girls if they've been naughty or nice and Chloe immediately said, "Scarlett's been naughty." She totally threw her under the bus. We all just cracked up. (as an aside...that's a 3 year old's opinion, her nana's opinion is that she's been perfect all year, hence all the gifts. :) We decided that Santa maybe shouldn't stay too long as we didn't want to tramatize Luke and Mia so next year they might talk to him. Yep...this is going to be a Strassburg family tradition.

Christmas day was a small family dinner with my mom and sister, and my neice, Marila, Don's brother Lee, and Joe and Shana, Chloe and Eli, Cari and Juan, Scarlett and Savannah, and Juan's sister Clara. We were missing my Sister Diane and her husband from Virginia City, Nevada, and my sister's son Carl, who lives in Spain, and my aunt and cousin who live here but my aunt lost her teeth again and they couldn't make it. :) We missed them all! But glad to have my mom again. In all my 57 years I have never missed a Christmas with my mom. She turned 90 this year.

The group that went to Russia - 2009

Don and Eve, Jack and Leona Kofoed from B.C., Kent and Sharon Chappell from New Hampshire, Warren and Sue Wainwright from Calif, Glen and Shirley Spunaugle from Oklahoma, Dennis and Cherry Good from B.C. and Arnie (not in picture) and Marion Lyon from Calif.

Red Square, Lenin's Tomb, St. Basil's

St. Basils, built by Ivan the terrible in the 13th century. It was said that he had the designer's eyes gouged out after it was built so he could never build another cathedral as beautiful. It was pretty awesome. The history here on Red square was amazing.

This is Lenin's tomb. It was locked this day so we couldn't see the body but it's still on display, 85 years after his death.

These are all the Kremlin. This is Red Square.

Russia Pictures

Their everywhere!

Russia

We had a fabulous trip to Russia with 6 other couples, Warren and Sue Wainwright, Arnie and Marion Lyon from California, Glen and Shirley Spunaugle from Oklahoma, Jack and Leona Kofoed, Dennis and Cherry Good from British Coumbia, and Kent and Sharon Chappell from New Hampshire. We were on a river boat cruise that started in St. Petersburg and ended in Moscow with quaint little Russian villages along the Volga river. We crossed Lake Ladoga and Lake Onega which are the two biggest lakes in Europe. One of the Villages, Kizhi, was an island pretty far up north on the Volga. We were warned to stay on the path as they island had a "Viper" problem. Oh yea....I stayed on the path. I fret over the gofer snakes here at home....I definetly was going to stay on that path for vipers. We saw the russian ballet, Swan Lake in St. Petersburg. Don actually only slept through 3/4. The russians have an odd thing they do, they come out and take bows at intermission, Don put on his coat because he thought for sure it's over, he was sooooo dissapointed when he realized that it was just intermission. He kept his coat on well into the 2nd half, wishful thinking I think. We had meeting in St. Petersburg at the sister workers bach and it was very very special to meet that little group of friends. They fed us lunch then we had a little testimony meeting, which was special to hear those Russian testimonies, then we were back to the ship. The sisters were able to spend a little time touring with us when Stephanie was not in school. Moscow was incredible. A huge and mostly wealthy city. 13 million. We met Enid and Lyle Dean who have a condo there and the brother workers and had wed. meeting. The Kremlin and red Square were a once in a life time memory for me. I could have spent a week just sitting there soaking in the history. So much history. We saw the old KGB building. The russians have a saying, the building is the highest place in Russia, from the basement you can see Siberia. :) Russia was not someplace I ever thought I would place high on my places to see list, but we are so glad to have been there. What a country. What an awesome trip!