Emily New York

Ready to go . . . Emily got the royal treatment from the JetBlue captain before departure.

Emily is ready for a ride on "Blue Kid in Town"

Joleen and Em at Miss Liberty

Emily poses at Carlo's Bakery . . . home of the Cake Boss

Emily New York

The Cake Boss

Took a trip to Hoboken on PATH to find Carlo's Bake Shop. The two hour wait to get in the home of the "Cake Boss" was avoided by Grandpa finding the ramp (shown in the background) and asking the door man how long before we could get in. The door man immediately got the ramp for us and we went right in. Lucky Day

Family Weekend

We spent a wonderful weekend visiting with family in closest proximity to our home in Nevada. Melanie's
Aunt Diane and Uncle Ed live in Lincoln, CA and their daughter Becky and her husband Mario and 4month old son Kamden live in Cool, CA. We visited, ate, toured and generally had a great time. Uncle Ed took us for a spin in his plane.

Melanie is ready for take-off. The American River near Cool, CA

Spying on the Spy Planes. U-2's parked at Beale AFB, CA.

The Family - In Cool

Family Photo - Aunt Diane (Grammi), Mario (Dad), Cousin Becky (Mom) , Kamden (a Cool little dude) Uncle Ed (Grampi)

Kamden with his Grandpa . . . . or Grandpa with his Kamden

The road to Cool, California from the air.

Arizona Hales

Here they are. The Arizona Hales kids . . . . clockwise starting on the left . . . . Marlee, Porter, Sawyer, Macy, Addison and Sadie

Addison is serious about helping Uncle Joel fix his special salad for dinner.

Macy, Chelsea with Sawyer's help, Marlee and Porter concentrating on a rousing game on the Wii.

Sawyer, aka Soy Sauce, loves to watch "Happy Feet" between play times.

Christmas Eve at Joleen and Dave's

Ten of the grandkids are gathered at Dave and Joleen's for Christmas Eve.

Cousins

Jorja, Ty and Ben watching the Christmas Story . . . enjoying the evening

Jared and Shelby as Nash trys on his new pj's

Snowy day at Mystic Hot Springs

Modeling a Christmas outfit

Joel on stage at Mystic

A cold and snowy Christmas season.

Christmas Eve - 2010

Getting to open a gift of two on Christmas Eve

Ben goes for it !

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

To get to New York City, we first traveled to the Sacramento airport via I-80 and over Donner Pass, after a chains-required snowstorm. Slow, but absolutely beautiful.

We viewed the first part of the Macy's Parade from the 46th floor of our hotel. The view straight down was interesting, but the balloons seemed rather small. We then went down to street level at Times Square. Caught "Spidey" as he passed us on his way to the finish line.

This Smurf was cheery and playing to the crowd, including this good looking chick from Nevada.

Our only Christmas Market visit this year was to an indoor Christmas Market at Grand Central Station.

New York City at Thanksgiving

Melanie found a spot to rest after chasing the wheelchair around the streets of New York. Her new salon of choice is Devachan Salon for Curly Girls.

John and his buddies keeping an eye on the 3.5 million parade goers at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

Melanie remembering Nate on Thanksgiving Day in front of the W New York, Times Square.

Remembering Nate on his 26th birthday

On November 28, Nate's 26th Birthday, we drove across the Golden Gate to Muir Woods to comemerate Nate's birthday.

At Muir Woods, at a beautiful setting near a redwood tree with a cave in the base (Nate loved exploring caves) Melanie is celebrating Nate's life. An emotional day to say the least.