OK, so getting settled into our new little house has taken loads of time, but we are happy as little clams. We have added another family member, Maggie, our new puppy. She has also taken up loads of our time. That makes 7 of us in our very small house.

Bill and I have discovered (maybe a little late to the party) Facebook, and are having a ball getting reacquainted with old friends and keeping up with new ones. As a matter of fact, that is where we do most of our updating, so if you would like to join us, please consider joining Facebook! I am “Jeanie Graham Campbell” and Bill is “Bill Campbell”, and we are both in the Northern Colorado “network”. That should make it easy to find us. Just send either or both of us a “friend request” and we’ll be on our way!

So we have been in Fort Collins now for 6 months, and have loved every minute of it. We look forward to a long and happy life here.

Hi everyone – We are on a Rocky Mountain High! Obviously, we have been very busy getting settled, and our correspondence has been spotty to say the least. However, I have been better at getting pictures we have taken on our Picasa site, which you can access by clicking on Campbell’s Photo Gallery on the top right corner of our home page. I’ve even put captions on all the pictures, so they kind of tell the story. Here is a picture of our beautiful little home as we drove our truck and fifth-wheel up to the curb on December 4, 2008. It was still snowing as I took the picture.

Funny thing is, we have only had one more day of snow since then! Almost all of the snow has melted from our yard, but there is still plenty around town where the snow stays in the shadows. Tell you one thing, though, Fort Collins is living up to it’s reputation of getting 280+ days of sunshine a year. It has been breathtakingly beautiful and sunny!! Just our kind of weather – cool to cold, with plenty of sun. We can get all bundled up for long walks with Annie, then come home to a nice warm kitchen. We can’t believe our luck to find a place like this.

So, even if I don’t keep up with the blog as often as I’d like, I do usually keep up with the photos, so help yourself to view them.
Happy New Year to all – and come visit some time soon!!!

Here we sit in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. One more night (in Raton, NM), and we will arrive at our little home in Fort Collins, Colorado! There is such a huge mixture of excitement and sorrow as we make this final leg of our trip. We will miss so much of being “on the road”. One of the big things is seeing stuff like this

Bill took this amazing picture of cloud formations just over our heads at our RV park. Being out in the wide open spaces also affords us clear shots like this

Bill got this one of the moon, Venus and Jupiter, which was plain to see with the naked eye last night in Benson, Arizona. This won’t happen again until 2052, when we will be long gone. We are so glad we were able to see it this time!

Our Thanksgiving was spent with Felicia’s husband Wes’s large extended family. We always enjoy seeing the Douwes family, and now we share our new grandson, Thatcher. Here are the happy Grammas (Oma and Nana) and the Grandpas (Opa and Bill).

It was so hard to leave Felicia and Thatcher. We had such a wonderful visit. I guess I just can’t put it into more words than that. Mamas and daughters just bond over babies, ya know? Here is my girl and me with the little man

And finallly, the new family:

I love this picture. It truly conveys how happy they are.

It might be a while until we get another post put up. Getting our rig emptied and our house put together could take quite a while. We will continue to take pictures and try to keep y’all up to date. Heather and the boys are waiting for us. Ethan, who turned 2 on Thanksgiving day, recently broke his leg, poor little guy. We’ll let you know what’s up with all of that, too.

Finally, we are thankful for all of you who read this blog and have told us how much you enjoy it. We will endeavor to keep it going in one form or another. Even if we don’t get anything written, we update our Campbell’s Photo Gallery pretty often. Just click at the top right corner of the home page to see what is new in picture form.

As we head into the holidays, we wish you peace and love.

As happens in many families, each member lives in a different part of the country, for one reason or another. Getting everyone together in one place at the same time can be exceedingly difficult, and sometimes nearly impossible. One of the main reasons Bill and I wanted to live the RV lifestyle was to visit our children and grandchildren as much as we could. The problem, of course, is that while we are bouncing around the country, the other members stay put. Now that we have a new baby in the family, it was high time my son, Aaron, made the trek to Northern California to visit his sister and meet his nephew.

Here is Aaron meeting Thatcher for the first time. That look on Thatcher’s face says it all – “Hi Tio Aaron, happy to meet you!”
I hadn’t seen both of my kids at the same time since Felicia’s wedding two years ago. Aaron was unable to bring his son, Brando, with him this time. Brando turned 3 on October 16th. We were so sorry that we weren’t able to be there, but maybe we can get there next year. Still, it was definitely a family weekend, and we made the most of it. Saturday we all drove up to Mill Valley to my niece Wendy’s house. She, her husband, Adam, and their daughter, Laura, were exemplary hosts. Adam cooked a proper English lunch for us and a fine time was had by all. On the way up, Bill and I picked up my sister Cathi at her house in Redwood City. The weather was a picture postcard perfect day. After we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge, we pulled off at a vista point and took this picture.

We actually took more, and you can see them, if you like, in our Campbell’s Photo Gallery link on the right side of the page. After lunch, we just had to get the whole family together for a picture.

Cathi and I couldn’t have been happier getting our kids together after all these years. The last time Cathi had seen Aaron was at a Graham Family reunion in 1995. Wendy and Aaron had never met! What a great day.

Sunday, Bill and I had Felicia, Aaron and Thatcher over for dinner. I figured, while I had them both here, I would give them their Christmas presents a little early. Now that they both have a child of their own, they should have some pictures of themselves when they were kids. I scanned a ton of pictures from the old family photo albums and had them printed into books. It was a huge undertaking, and it got to be a bit of an obsession, but they turned out really well. Here they are looking at their books and remembering their childhoods.

It was a gift to ME to see their faces and to hear their memories. Another picture perfect day.

Aaron put on the charm with Thatcher and got him to smile and giggle just by eating an apple. Aren’t babies just the best things on earth?

Monday, we granted another wish of Aaron’s to eat at the Old Spaghetti Factory. It had been a family tradition to have birthday dinners there. When they were little, Felicia would order a Shirley Temple and Aaron would have a Roy Rogers to drink. Being in the nostalgic mood, they ordered them again!

Naturally, Aaron had to add his tough-guy look, while Felicia has retained her perky look.

On Aaron’s departure day, I got a great picture of Felicia’s dogs with Aaron. We are all major animal lovers, and Aaron had a grand time with Jack and Chico.

This visit will need to last me for quite a while, I’m sure. But for the time being, my heart is singing and all is right with the world. Thank you, Felicia and Aaron, for making me a very happy Mama.

As most will know, Gilroy, California, is the “garlic capital of the world”. Our RV park is approximately 17.61 miles from Gilroy, HOWEVER, at 6:00 am, depending on which way the wind is blowing, Gilroy and it’s famed garlic fields might as well be right next door.

It is a testament to the vegetable also known as the “stinking rose”, that one can never forget the scent, nor escape it. Do people who live here for years ever NOT smell it? As much as we love the flavor of garlic, in moderation, we are just as happy to leave our park in 10 days (and counting). Perhaps when we return to Northern California, we will try to get a place a little farther away from Gilroy.