Phil and I spent the first weekend of May in Phoenix with our two daughters there, Kim and Karma, and their families. It's always a joy to see them, Kim's husband, Paul, and our five precious grandchildren!

Above is our oldest grandchild, Antonio, who just turned eleven!

Raquel is eight years old, and our family artist! She has nine pieces of art displayed online at http://www.artsonia.com/. Artsonia cooperates nationally with schools, providing a place online to display paintings, drawings and all sorts of artwork done by the children of each particular school. Various articles such as tote bags, cups, cutting boards, mouse pads, luggage tags, etc., can then be purchased adorned with one's choice of artwork. A percentage of the proceeds goes to the child's school.

Lalo will turn three years old in October.

JJ is big sister to JP, who is a 2008 Leap Year baby!

JP

Phil and I flew to London last Friday evening, May 9th, in order to spend the weekend there. This was the first picture I took on the trip, the United 777's wing with the rising sun beyond, and I took it very early Saturday morning, May 10th, as we neared our destination.

As we did a bit of circling prior to landing at Heathrow Airport outside London (our flight was arriving early!), I took this picture of some fields of rapeseed, which appear to be in the process of blossoming. When the rapeseed is in full bloom, the fields are brilliant yellow against the green grass and green trees. Absolutely beautiful.

Heathrow's new control tower. I love this stuff! ha

Departing Heathrow Airport, May 12th, for our flight home to Chicago

The County Hall Marriott with the London Eye located adjacent to the hotel.

Our room was located on the top floor over near the Eye, and with a balcony where we could sit and wave to the people in the Eye "capsules." :-)

We spent a brief but wonderful weekend relaxing, reading, and eating chocolate- (Myrna) or raisin-filled (Phil) croissants! How much more wonderful can life get???

PJ, in what we call "jammies" (per my dear friend, Joanna), relaxing on hotel balcony

PJ eating a sandwich using the room service plate cover as his plate. :-)

Additional hotel balconies to the right of our room's balcony.

What an awesome sight! The Parliament and Big Ben, London. If we sat on our balcony of County Hall Marriott, located right on the Thames River, and turned our eyes to the left, this was our view! (If we turned our eyes to the right, we saw the London Eye.)
Parliament, Big Ben, with the late afternoon sun reflecting on Big Ben

Twilight, and the lights outside Parliament and Big Ben had just come on

Evening view of Parliament and Big Ben from hotel balcony

Phil took this beautiful shot of the London Eye while out on a brief errand Sunday afternoon.

Phil also took this photo of the Eye with the sun in the very center of the orb.

Pedestrian activity on the "promenade" in front of the County Hall Marriott, as well as the base and loading area for the London Eye. Photo taken from our balcony on the front side of the hotel.

Shot of the Eye from our hotel balcony

I *love* this kind of picture!! I moved the camera slightly while taking a picture of an Eye "capsule" at night. :-)

Shot of airplane and London Eye "capsule" taken from hotel balcony

Another plane later in the afternoon with darkening skies

I *love* sky trails, such as the picture above and below :-)

What appears to be a quarter moon over London, May 11, 2008

I was shocked to discover that I have not added to my blog since October! However, we've had an "interesting" late fall/early winter with travels, and with some knee issues on my part. I'm glad to finally be adding some photos today, and hope you'll enjoy what I'm posting. After the Christmas photos, there will also be some taken at Thanksgiving in San Francisco.

Christmas, 2007, doesn't seem that long ago, but was actually two weeks ago now. Phil and I traveled to Phoenix this year in order to be with our two daughters who live there and their families.

The photo above: dear sweet Paulie (Kim's husband) doing what he does so well, that of holding and/or playing with a niece or two nephews when he isn't cuddling his own little JJ. In this instance, Lalo is settled snugly in Paulie's lap, playing with the lid of a food container. :-)
Our two granddaughters, Raquel and JJ
Paulie and Antonio checking out a toy
There's a princess underneath that Princess shower cape! :-)
Phil, Karma and Kimmer Dec. 27th at Kim's home

Thursday evening, 12/27, Kim graciously hosted 18 of us at her home and served us all spaghetti pie, a family favorite! A great joy for us was a visit by our dear friend, Carole, and her husband, Bill. They live in Montana but were spending Christmas vacation in Sedona. How we loved seeing them and having such a wonderful evening...and meal!

Karma, pictured above with Carole, was about 3 years old when Carole began working for Phil when he was Controller at Friendship Village of Schaumburg, IL.
Bill and Carole
Bill and Carole's daughter and her friend joined us also. :-)
The Corens girls, all prettied up Christmas day....
...and JJ sported a fancy hairdo, thanks to her mommy.

Thanksgiving 2007 was special for us, in that we had family from Florida, Tennessee, Illinois and Arizona join us in San Francisco for that very special time. The arrivals and departures of those who came varied, but Phil and I were able to enjoy having all three of our daughters and their families, as well as my brother, his friend, one of my sisters and her son with us.

Above, from left to right: Nephew Christopher, PJW, my sister Teecie, MKW, Inez with my brother Bob, Kim, Paul and JJ (in her beautiful lavender silk Chinese dress).
Myrna and Teecie
Inez and Bob
Christopher and Teecie

Phil and our oldest grandchild, Antonio, enjoying their ice cream cones at Ghirardelli Square.
Phil and Antonio enjoying PHIL'S ice cream cone, ten years earlier in Phoenix!

(Just had to include this one!) :-)

Out to dinner Saturday evening, Ghirardelli Square area. Karma, her three children, and Aimee.
The Corenses in a hollowed-out Redwood tree, Muir Woods
Teecie holding a beautiful, large leaf - Muir Woods
A stop at a favorite location - overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge
The Corenses, MKW, Teecie, and Christopher

Christopher and Teecie pausing to reflect on the magnanimous

surroundings of Muir Woods.

Bob photographing Inez with an enormous Redwood as "backdrop."
I took the above photo and the two below when some of us took a ride along the California coast, Route 1. It's impossible to take a 'bad' photo!