The Smith / Lull family Blog

Alaska 2009

2009-07-08T17:32:00.000-07:00

House Headache

2009-06-21T10:03:00.000-07:00

Thought you'd like to see what we've been going through. Thank goodness we are nearing completion!

Hope all is well with all of you. Love Nancy

France Pictures

2009-05-14T17:26:00.000-07:00

I've uploaded our pictures to the following site: http://ourfranceadventures.shutterfly.com/
the password is Faucon. (it is case sensitive)
I went a little crazy taking photos of the beautiful flowers and cool architecture~ sorry! Just skip through those. You can also order prints from here if you see any you want----
...maybe ....Carol and the Mime?

France

2009-05-12T17:24:00.000-07:00

I hope this finds everyone doing well. We had a wonderful time in France.

I will include a few pictures and try to upload the rest to Snapfish or another sight.

We stayed in Carol's cousin's 400 yr old villa in the Rhone Valley of France. Our Villa was in the Village of Facuon. The view from our terrace was of Mount Vateaux, which still had snow on top of it. The Tour De France races over this mountain. We drove up as far as we could but they had the top of the mountain closed ( we assumed it was because of the snow)

Our villa had lots of levels and some low doorways so or heads were sore and scarred most of the week (Note the bandage and scabs below....slow learners!)

We rented a car (lovely limo affectionately named the mighty Picasso)

To acces the parking place for our villa you had to put your side mirrors in and pass through 2 tunnels( staying as close to the left wall as possible).

Our days consisted of adventures to other Villages for market days. It was amazing to see these quaint villages. (Skipper and I kept commenting that if felt like being in Epcot!)

Jeff Carol, Skipper and I went to Nice and Monaco one day. It was beautiful. They were setting up the bleachers for the Grand Prix that will race in Monaco in a few weeks.

It was a great week, and we thought of all of you often.

Meteor Crater

2009-05-09T21:55:00.000-07:00

This weekend we went to see a big hole in the ground and had a good time. From what we learned today, there are about 150 meteor craters on the Earth, two in Australia, three in Russia and some in Africa and all over the place. This one looks huge but does not qualify for being the top 10 largest in the world. They have a museum next to the hole about different stuff about solar system, and other interesting science stuff.

"Gay" Time at the Heritage!!

2009-04-20T15:00:00.001-07:00

We had a wonderful weekend in Hilton Head.

Brian Gay won the tournament. He is the Grandson of a good friend of Maw Maw and Paw Paw's. It was fun to follow someone we felt we had a connection with.

We all spent our days at the tournament and enjoyed dinner together in the evenings.

Holmes and his girlfriend Connor came on Thurs night. and stayed until Sun. We enjoyed having them with us.

Margaret had us for Brunch on Sat. morning, and in usual Margaret style, it was wonderful. Everyone looked so good. Mary, Margaret, Rex, Kip, Rob Rob, Emily...... and we met precious Robert (AKA Rob Rob Rob). He is so cute!

I'm sorry I don't have more pictures to share. We had one camera among us and no memory card for it. These 2 pictures were taken from our cell phones of Holmes and Connor @ Harbour Town after the tournament on Sat.

We are proud of our "walkers" in Jacksonville-- Great Job Stephanie!

House Flowers

2009-03-29T19:22:00.000-07:00

This weekend we decided to take it easy. Marketa slept in both mornings. Getting up every morning at 5.30 am, it is nice to stay in bed a little bit longer on the weekends. Saturday we went to Recreational Equipment Incorporated, a store that sells everything for outdoor activities, such as hiking, biking, camping, water stuff, mountain climbing, etc. Frank has a life time membership back from 1980s, so he has a 20% discount on everything he buys. We got some cool stuff for hiking and camping. Then we went to Walmart. Then, we were trying to find a place where Frank can get a haircut but everywhere was about 30 minute wait time, so we decided that I can cut Frank's hair which I did this morning and I did a really good job. Today, I cleaned the house, Arizona is a dirty place - there is dust in the house all the time, and the two dogs are not really helping the situation either. The pictures with yellow flowers that are growing on the vines on our house. And the middle picture is Frank's garden project, we hope to have tomatoes, onions, bell peppers and we have pretty flowers.

White Tank Mountain Regional Park - Biking

2009-03-22T09:33:00.000-07:00

We decided to go back to the White Tank Mountain Park, this time we took our bikes with us. Frank decided to go on the Sonoran Loop Competitive Track. Frank said that he does not even remember the last time he had his heart rate so high for such a long period of time. The track is one way and once you get on, one has to go all the way around to get out of there. The original plan was to go all the way around but once we got to the first place to get out of there, we very quickly decided to get out of there.

2009-03-17T17:36:00.000-07:00

Happy St. Patricks Day! Everybody knows Ron has projects, but this past weekend he helped me build my knew garden boxes. And tonight I planted my garden -- I may have to call Dad-D-O and get some tips on producing a good crop of tomatoes! Here are some pictures.

Sycamore Canyon - Parsons Trail

2009-03-14T20:27:00.000-07:00

After driving about 79 miles north I17, we took an exit towards Sycamore Canyon. Driving on unpaved road, we realized how smart a choice we made buying Jeep. The last few miles in the car were quite adventurous. The trail dropped 200 feet into the canyon from the trailhead in first 150 yards. Then, we had to cross a creek twice, jumping on stones and bouncing log. The water was beautiful crystal clear, with several deep pools that one could jump into from the low cliffs. We saw our first Arizona fish - largemouth bass and interestingly colored butterflies. The trail took many interesting terms over different terain with caves, cliffs, trees and beautiful creek. Round trip was about 7 miles and took us about 4 hours. This was a beautiful hike that we will probably repeat and possibly camp out sometimes.

White Tank Mountain Regional Park

2009-03-07T20:02:00.000-08:00

Today was the first serious hiking day. We decided to go to White Tank Mountain Regional Park, about 20 miles west of our house. The first trail seemed to be very easy, nice wide trails, no elevation, smile on our faces. The weather was great, we were both full of energy, so we decided to hike another trail. As we were going Marketa decided to go on another trail, the one that on the map was saying: "Warning - Hazardous Section - Hikers must use caution". Well, right now I know what they meant. We ended up going up over the top of the mountain, walking on fairly narrow trails, if somebody would fall off the side, the person would have a nice long fall down and would not survive. Suddenly the smiles on our faces changed into sweat. As we were getting close to the top of the mountain, the trail signs disappeared and we went the wrong way. On the way up, we met a guy who gave us bad advice which got us off the trail. Therefore, we decided to get back on the original trail we came on and head back to the car. We walked about 15 miles. Clearly, tonight, we realized that living in Florida and not walking anywhere got us out of shape. The mountains are all around Phoenix, therefore, next week, we are planning a trip to mountains again, this time we'll go up north. It's time to get back in shape.

Tonto National Forest

2009-03-06T17:55:00.000-08:00

Our second weekend in Phoenix we decided to explore the areas around the city. We drove about one hour east of the city to Tonto National Forest to see Canyon Lake. It was very interesting to see the different nature around here.

Biltmore Lake

2009-03-05T05:03:00.001-08:00

I didn't realize the lake was so big. It's beautiful! Frank, are there any fish in it?

Biltmore Lake View

2009-03-04T18:22:00.000-08:00

Just posting a few pictures of the area around the house where we walk our dogs. The dogs absolutely love it, so many different and new smells.

Working Hard

2009-03-03T20:26:00.000-08:00

Took my roommate Stephen out to Cassique, the golf course I work at, to try out the fishing. We had a great time and left the fish biting!

Greetings From the Yankees!!

2009-03-03T18:12:00.000-08:00

Ispent the weekend with girlfriends at Edisto Beach. We had a great time, and good weather. We arrived home on Sunday afternoon in the pouring rain which quickly turned to sleet and snow Sunday evening. Trout was amazed with the snow and kept going out on the deck to "eat the snow"! Sunday evening was so pretty. The snow flakes were HUGE and it's so quiet when it's snowing. We took Trout on a walk and took these pictures. As we returned home to download them, we heard a BOOM, and our power went out. We scrambled to find candles & flashlights. I slept on the floor in the kitchen so we could keep our fireplace going that night. As days passed, the "adventure" turned to frustration. This morning it was 18 degrees and we STILL did not have power!! MawMaw and Paw Paw were planning to come on Tues and quickly decided that sunny FL was calling them to stay! Can't say that I blame them!!!

I'm happy to report that our power finally returned this evening. A lesson that we are all SO SPOILED. Just a flip of the switch makes such a difference!!

Hope all is well with our loved ones in the sunny SOUTH!

Linda

2009-03-01T12:20:00.000-08:00

Just figured this out - I think! Hope to figure out how to add photos too.

History of Phoenix

2009-02-28T15:17:00.000-08:00

Today, Feb 28, 2009, Frank and I decided to visit the Museum of History to learn something more about Phoenix. Bellow are few pictures.

2009-02-09T17:20:00.000-08:00

Dinner at Fleet Landing with Garrett. Caught spot tail limit.

Spreading the Word!

2009-02-07T18:17:00.001-08:00

OKAY, I'm checking out the mechanics of this while TROUTHILL sleeps at my feet. I look forward to your updates!

Welcome 2009

2009-02-07T17:50:00.000-08:00

Welome Family! This will be our attempt to connect and be in touch via Cyber space! Everyone is encouraged to post updates often. We will look forward to photos, & comments from all.

As we begin our Blog, we are all facing new trials/ and beginnings. Let's share our jouney!

I will be enoying the Ringling Brothers Circus tonmorrow with my freind Debis' grandsons, I'm sure I'll have stories to share!

We look forward to our new venture.

Welcome To

2009-02-07T17:49:00.001-08:00