Thanksgiving Day 2009 at The Greenwood Home

Thanksgiving Dinner 2009

In this first picture, Mom sits next to the yummy Thanksgiving turkey. We had a dinner complete with all the trimmings: Turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, hot rolls with butter, cranberries, pickles, candied yams, pumpkin pie, ice cream, and apple spice dump cake.

Debi and Gary brought Debi's 95-year old mother-in-law, Lillian Ramsey Franklin, to the celebration. Lisa and Kyleigh, Bryan, Anna, and Sammy also attended. (Notice Dad and Mom's new TV in the background and the Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy things in the corner.)

Gary dons his pilgrim hat and shirt as Kyleigh models the paper bag Native American Indian costume she made for school. (Mom made the pilgrim costume for Dad to wear on Halloween, and Gary was a good sport to put it on for the picture.)

It's not Halloween, Debi--it's Thanksgiving!

While they were at Heritage School's Halloween Carnival this past October, Debi had mentioned to Lisa that she thought it would be really cute to have a new Halloween costume for next year--Raggedy Ann and a matching Raggedy Andy costume for Gary to wear. Imagine Debi's surprise to see two new costumes sitting on the rocking chair in the corner of the living room. Mom was more than happy to comply and Debi was happy to model the costume. It even comes complete with a red wig! Thanks, Mom!

Dumont Dunes: Thanksgiving Break 2009

Dumont Dunes: Thanksgiving Week 2009

The Whitings, Doyles (and Joan's sister and family), Smiths, Stevensons, and Fultons enjoyed a few days at Dumont Dunes riding quads and just relaxing. The weather was nice, the winds were mostly calm, and there was a nice campfire each night.

Bishop Dan Stevenson and his grandson, "Little Dan" riding on a quad.

You might as well just accept the fact that you will need to be towed out of the sand when you go to Dumont Dunes! This picture shows Cheryl Smith being pulled out.

"Hang on! It's an earthquake!"

On Tuesday night, Gary ad Debi went to bed late after sitting out by the fire with everyone. (Earlier that night, thanks to Paula and Steve's TV and satellite dish, we even watched the finale of "Dancing With the Stars" and got to see Donny Osmond win the "mirror ball trophy"!) We were in bed, reading the scriptures, when we felt a terrible jolt. Gary warned, "Hang on--it's an earthquake!" We waited for the aftershock, but there wasn't one, so we threw on our coats and walked outside, expecting to see everyone else asking, "Did you feel that?" Imagine our surprise when no one peeked out of their trailer door! However, Kurt Doyle and his friend, Dalton, came running over--they were still out by the campfire. Our trailer's front jack had split the piece of board it was sitting on, and then the leg of the jack had sunk into the sand! The entire front of our trailer had fallen about 18-24 inches! Look carefully at the picture above to see how the front end is lower than the rest of the trailer. It took quite a bit of digging and placing of boards under the front jack to bring us back level.



The next morning, we were nice and level and had no more problems with the jack. Gary is going to devise a better plank for the jack legs to sit on for future camping trips.

Scotty's Castle: Trip to Death Valley

We went to Death Valley to celebrate our 11th wedding anniversary!

Debi had always wanted to see "Scotty's Castle" (actually named "Death Valley Ranch") and since we both had the entire week off for the Thanksgiving Break, we decided to go to Death Valley.

We first went to Dumont Dunes on Sunday night and parked our 5th wheel trailer there. We had made arrangements with some other families from church to meet at Dumont to enjoy the beautiful desert dunes and ride our quads.

The next morning (around 11:00 a.m.) we took the "short" drive to Death Valley and Scotty's Castle. Neither of us had checked a map, but the town of Baker, California boasts that it is the "Gateway to Death Valley". We had noticed a highway sign that read "Death Valley Junction....30 miles", so we assumed that we'd be there in half an hour, take the tour, and be back before dark. WRONG! "Death Valley Junction" is NOT "Death Valley". It is just an interchange that leads to Death Valley. We got to "Furnace Creek Visitor's Center" and toured the small visitor's center that explained about Death Valley's history. Then, it took us another hour to get to Scotty's Castle! We arrived at the castle around 3:00 p.m. and took the 3:45 p.m. tour of the basement and generator building, and bought tickets for the final tour of the day--5:00 p.m. We ended back at Dumont Dunes around 9:00 p.m. Everyone was really worried about us. We were out of cell range, so we couldn't call to let them know we were okay. We really enjoyed seeing the castle and hearing the story of "Scotty" and his association with Mr. and Mrs. Johnson. We discovered that Mr. Johnson earned about $750,000 annually back in the 1920s, so he was able to afford the castle and use it as a vacation home. We took about 100 pictures, but we will post just five more, so as not to bore you!

This was Gary's favorite part of the tour--Mr. Johnson's gun rack!

This is Mrs. Johnson's dining room table displayed with Italian flatware that bears the crest of the Death Valley Ranch, with a "J" and an "S" on either side (for Johnson and Scott.) Look closely at the edge of the plate--it is curled up. Scotty told visitors that the dishes had curled up in the heat of Death Valley.



The beautiful upstairs music room has a pipe organ with 1,121 pipes ranging in size from 16' to just a few inches. In the 1920s, it cost Mr. Johnson over $50,000 to purchase, transport, and install the pipe organ. At the end of the tour, the guide pushes a button and the organ plays Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor".



This picture shows Debi standing on a bridge over the swimming pool that never was finished. It is estimated that the pool would have held over one million gallons of water, had it been completed. There was even an underwater viewing area in the basement of the castle.



Gary stands on the same bridge over the pool area. The front entrance to "Death Valley Ranch" is up the stairs behind him. Happy 11th Wedding Anniversary to us! Here's a link to the National Park Service's webpage about Death Valley:
http://www.nps.gov/deva/historyculture/scottys-castle.htm

Electrical and Plumbing Lines in the Master Bathroom

Electrical and plumbing lines continue to be installed.  This is a picture from the master bathroom area.  You are looking through a wall and are seeing the PEX tubing (hot and cold lines) for the master bathroom shower.  We are having dual showerheads, a rainshower, and four body sprays.  (Also, a sprayer on a hose that you can use when you sit down to shave your legs!)

Landscaping: A Rock "Retaining" Wall

Gary and the Kayser boys went "rock hunting" and brought home these great rocks to make a "retaining" wall.  It isn't technically a supporting wall, but it will help hold the dirt on the hillside so that we can plant more Rosemary on it.  Gary and the Kayser boys will continue the wall around the corner of the hillside in another week or so.