The Joys of Retirement Production Company

Sedona was a great place for us to meet!  4 generations from 4 states

Four generations. all 3 granddaughters, 2 granddaughters- in-law, 2 daughters and a step step daughter, and even a great granddaughter! 

So that may take some explanation!  Here are the 4 generations

Sorry, this took a while,  cuz I had to have the picture on one device,  so I could see it at the same time!   On the sofa,  Bernadette,  (Carlee’s friend),  Carlee,(Laura’s youngest), Kaila,  Trey’s wife,  so my granddaughter-in-law, then me, and to my left Laura and Kara, Malik’s special lady.  On the back of the sofa,  Emma (Liz’s oldest) then Zuriah who turns 9 next week,  Trey’s and Kaila’s daughter, Laura’s grand baby and my Great Granddaughter) and Poppy, Mark’s daughter,  with Aunt Liz.   Next to her is Jenna…. I call her my step step daughter.   She grew up with the kids when her mom married my ex. Don. Both her biological parents  are gone and since she grew up with the kids,  we include her in all family events.   Whew!  Took a bit to get all those labels in there!

Here are some of our fun activities

sunset views!

meals!  always important

everyone chipped in,  prepared a meal, Lasagna,  eggplant parm,  and tacos!  Plus, our 1 meal out all together,   brunch to celebrated Zuriah’s 9th birthday at a restaurant where she could order anything!  She has strict meal requirements,  but organic vegan fits her perfectly!

Of course,  there were lots of games

still more to come!

Greetings Travel lovers!

2025 was a big year for us and 2026 looks to be busy too!

This year for my birthday,  we traveled to Greece.   I celebrated in Crete, for about 10 days,   then we traveled to Malta to explore for another 10 days.  

Our trip was designed around a cruise of the Nile,  so our next destination,  the end of February,  was Cairo Egypt

We visited many temples and tombs,  and had a wonderful cruise.   After, we extended our trip to Jordan and Petra.

We continued our trip in Turkey,  with a10 day private tour

And ended with a tour of Transylvania,  Romania,  and cruise up the Danube in Eastern Europe to Budapest.  

There will be more pictures of this 10 week adventure earlier in our blog.  

Three times we visited Nebraska this year,  for track,  taking out youngest 2 grand to visit Aunt Liz,  and for football in the fall.  unfortunately,  Tucker, our football player, broke his arm in the first part of the season and we ended up just visiting. But on out summer visit we got to visit Walker at the ranch where he works as a hunting and fishing guide! 

In October about 25 of our Chorale traveled with us to Nashville to sing with 500 others in a tribute to Sandi Patty.   What a fun trip that was!

We topped off the year with a quick trip to Texas.   We were able to see our friends the Rutans sing their Christmas concert in Fort Worth, then had a visit with Rebecca and Joel and Trey, Kaila, and Zuriah in Austin.

For Christmas,  Emmett and I treated the  California family to Chinese banquet!  quite a year!

2026 will be a busy year too, and we start with a quick weekend visit for each of us,  but with our respective families.   Emmett is visiting his cousin Bert,  while I, and 10 other ladies in our family gather in Sedona for a girls weekend!  stay tuned for some wild adventures there.

here are some is the sights as I flew into Flagstaff,  right over Sedona

here is most of us

We took a bit of a detour,  flying home thru Istanbul,  but we made it.   April 6 and 7 were Travel days.   We found a great points deal so we took it!  Business class all the way.

Flying over the Polar route, along the way. Over Canada and the west.

The recap,  70 days, (10 weeks), 22 flights,  24 different beds (BnB, Hotel/cave, and ship), 11 countries (Greece, Malta, with a quick touch down and layover in Italy, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey. Romania. Bulgaria,  Serbia,  Croatia,  and Hungary) on 3 continents, ( Africa, Asia, and Europe).  and 2 cruises!  We walked 189+ miles, give or take a few!  A Great trip.   Thanks for hanging in with us and following our adventure.   See you for the next one…. in a couple weeks!😉

At Liszt airport,  one last goodbye

There are a bunch of whimsical mini statues all over Budapest! The artistic antics of Mihály Kolodko, a guerilla sculptor, a Ukrainian citizen with Hungarian origins, who began surreptitiously placing these around it city,  unannounced.   Today they are even on Google Maps!  We had fun searching some of them out and walking the city to photograph them.   3 miles later,  plus a couple public transportation trips,  here are our findings.

https://budapestflow.com/hidden-mini-statues-budapest/

Kolodko’s first miniature statue was from the cartoon show A Nagy Ho-ho-ho Horgász” (“The Big Ho-Ho Angler”)  character Főkukac, a happy little worm who is no longer bait. He sits overlooking the river! 

It was a fun treasure hunt,  and good exercise.   There were a few large bronze stairs around a well!  Here are 3 we photographed.

The last one!  At Lizst airport in Budapest

We took the metro down to Vorosmarty Ter, where an Easter market was happening for dinner.   We found the public transport is free for seniors!  So we are taking advantage!

There, we found these 2 singing and playing this instrument

A little walking around and we found 1 of the little sculptures, hidden around the city.   Tomorrow we will hunt for a few more! 

Views around the city,  this woman I know we saw 10 years ago,  on the same corner!

Our last official tour in Budapest, we joined the noon tour of the beautiful Parliament building.

Inside,  it is even more spectacular

While we are sightseeing in Budapest. PM Netanyahu of Israel is visiting with PM Orban on Hungary.   We see flags and blue lights on the chain bridges

In a poignant memorial,  the 2 Prime Ministers placed flowers at the memorial of the Shoes on the Danube

1000s off Hungarian Jews, almost 600,000, we’re killed by the Hungarian Nazi party on WW II, many lines up on the river bank,  told to remove their shoes, which were considered more valuable than the people,  and shot.  The memorial shoes all sizes including children’s shoes,  and is a horrifying reminder of the cruelty of the Fascist regime.

PM Orban has agreed to remove Hungary from the ICC, the international Criminal Court,  which has put an arrest warrant out for Netanyahu for his response to the October 7 massacre.  The ICC  neglects the fact that the killings of 1000s of Israelis was an unprovoked,  brutal, vicious,  invasion of Israel by Hamas.   It is good to see nations standing by Israel after this horrible attack on its people.

Our day on our own in Budapest,  we wanted to do this palace, so we booked our own tour (@ 1/3 the cost of the Viking excursion) worth Get your guide.   It was a favorite of the Austra-Hungarian Queen Elizabeth,  with of Emperor Franz Joseph, known as Sisi.  We have visited her palace in Vienna, Austria, Schöenbrun.

We learned it was much more than that,  a Palace of an aristrocratic family before Sisi and Franz Joseph owned it, the Andrassy family,  who were prominant in the development of the Austria Hungarian dynasty and a famous Budapest family.

We cruised in at dawn,  and disembarked our cruise by 9 for a city tour of Budapest.   First we traveled to the Buda party and the Mathias Cathedral and the Fisherman’s Bastion with the fabulous view of Pest

Mathias church

After a drive we arrived at the market for lunch and shopping

Our opted for the Hungarian Dinner and folk music show for dinner tonight.   Food was delicious,  music was lively and the dancers were having a great time