Ange and Marie

Hello to All:

We have exciting news. Brianna is expecting a girl around June 20th. This will be our first great grandchild. They just moved into a nice three bedroom house in Serena which is near the polo field. Our first house was in Serena which we left in 1955 when we moved to the Russell Ranch. It is a nice small residential area. She plans to work right up to the end if all goes well, so far everything is on go.

Going backwards, we had a nice week with Marla Sue at Thanksgiving. Devin's family had us for turkey dinner with all the trimmings. The fall colors in the area were right on. The grapes were outstanding as well as lots of different trees. Devin and Karen took us to Sonoma to show us some of the vineyards that are owned by his employer, Foley Farms. There was wine tasting at Sebastiani and lunch at the Old Hotel in Sonoma. The ride over and back was breathtaking. Devin and Karen are expecting in July so there will be two new babies in the family. Their son just turned four on Valentines day. A few days after we returned home we took off for Mammoth to get it checked over and ready for winter. We had not been up since June. Rents are slow so we can tell the economy has hit the vacationers.

Christmas was quiet. Now that the grandchildren are all grown up it is not as exciting. Carolyn did a nice job cooking and she always has their home decorated to a tee. Sorry to say we did not even have a tree this year. It didn't seem like we were here much in December.

Danielle is back from her internship on an organic farm in Port Hadlock, Washington. She has spent some time with her aunt in Los Angeles and is now back in Santa Barbara working at a restaurant in Carpinteria. She wants to save up some money, then do another internship at another farm somewhere else. She really seemed to enjoy what she was doing.

On April 21 we are flying to New York for a couple of nights then flying on to Bergen to join a Grand Norwegian Coastal Voyage on a mail boat. This is how we are going to celebrate our 65th wedding anniversary. We go as far at the Russian border and back to Bergen with 18 port-of-calls. This is a trip we thought we could still do at our age.

Ange had total knee surgery on September 29 and is doing just fine. He is still limping but I suppose he always will due to his drop foot from his back surgery in 1979. His doctor wants him to get a certain brace for his shoe but he is too stubborn to give in. He is riding the exercise bike everyday and still doing some work in the orchard. You can't keep him down. As for Marie, she keeps on going. She, Carolyn and a group of ski ladies are going to Mammoth on the 28th for five nights. It is our ladies annual winter trip. Carolyn will snowboard and one other lady will ski. The rest have retired but we do go out to lunch on the mountain one day, a matinee if it is a good one, shop, read, eat, drink, play cards, games, etc. keeps us busy.

We understand there could be a reunion in Florida in June. We are on the border line in attending so will just wait and see how things materialize. Enjoy this spring. It is a beautiful time of the year.

Our love to all, Marie & Ange