National Trumpet Competition, March, '10 Fairfax VA

Right after Ron’s brother and mother left, we flew to Washington DC for 2 nights to hear granddaughter Natalie - or to hope to hear her (IF she made the final cut ) at the National Trumpet Competition. We arrived Saturday afternoon; she had played the semi-finals Friday morning and was to learn the results Saturday – a long time to wait, huh? and there would not have been time for us to hear the results first and then plan to come, so we just came on up anyway - got good price for the tickets, hoping that she would place in the final 3 and thus play again, but even if not, at least to come and support her….
…and…. she made the final three so we got to hear her Sunday morning and she WON first place AGAIN! so we were pretty excited. We got such a good video from up front with our little Cannon camera. BUT…you would not believe it - her mute squeaked a whole lot when she put it in - and it really shows up in the recording – the look on her face!! The weekend was so much fun! Hear the Youtube recording from her webpage http://www.nataliedungey.com/ . This is a picture of Natalie and her dad, our son.

We returned to Weston that Monday for another week, then went to Wyndham Cypress Palms in Orlando for two nights, using Wyndham points. This is a picture of the large pond outside the balcony. We like this resort; it's quiet and pretty and the pools are usually not crowded. We needed the 2 extra days because of flight prices and schedules, before flying to Seattle to celebrate Joan's father's 93rd birthday, as well as to visit her mother and do our taxes. Hmmmm, sure do spend a lot of time on taxes at this time of year, huh? And of course, we have to carry all that paperwork….not the least hardest part is remembering where everything is – is it in the van on the East coast, in the storeroom in Seattle or the storeroom in Ohio. Oh yes, make a list, and the lists sometimes get changed as Joan finds another handy spot in the WRONG plastic Rubbermaid bin at the last minutes of packing up!

Vacation Village at Bonaventure, Weston FL March 2010

This is one of our favorite places, even though it is not on the beach. 30 miles inland from Ft Lauderdale, it is a large complex, with many buildings and pools. From Seattle, we flew back to Daytona where we had left our car with a friend and drove to Vacation Village at Bonaventure. We had exchanged into a 1 BD through RCI for 3 weeks. Then, we found out that Ron’s brother and mother could join us one week, using his mother’s II deposit. We checked with the resort in December and they worked out that their 1 BD could be attached to ours as a lockout, even though it required some switching around due to the different check-on buildings for the 2 exchange companies. But the staff was super and it worked out well. The unit was beautiful and on the 5th floor for nice views. Ron did his mother’s taxes for her then, too. See photos of the unit at http://www2.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=4458423009/a=22435551_22435551/

What about holidays?

Since we have been going to Seattle for both major holidays every year (Thanksgiving and Christmas), we wondered if maybe we ought not to next year. The problem is that one grandchild has a birthday at Thanksgiving time and another at Christmas week, so we don’t feel that we could go to one and not the other. We mentioned that one night and the kids’ faces fell. Our son told us, “The kids love to have you come,” so “Okay!” We are hoping to stay the whole month of December then in 2010, through Thanksgiving and Christmas.