Beet Salad

Last night Papa and I had this beet salad for dinner.  It was really good!

• 1/4 cup Hidden Valley® Original Ranch® Dressing
• 1 tablespoons each prepared mustard & honey
• 1/2 tablespoon cider vinegar
• 4 cups fresh greens, washed
• 2-3 large beets, cooked, peeled and sliced
• 1 can (11 ounces) mandarin oranges, drained
• 2 cups sliced baked chicken
• 1/2 cup sliced red onion
• Avocado, peeled and sliced
• Optional, dry roasted pumpkin or sunflower seeds or toasted walnuts

Directions

In a small bowl, add the Hidden Valley® Original Ranch® Dressing, mustard, honey, and vinegar, and stir until well blended. Chill covered until ready to serve.

In a large bowl, layer the greens, beets, oranges, chicken, and onion.
Garnish with the seeds or nuts.

Center for Creative Photography

I treated myself to some time at the Center for Creative Photography on the campus of the University of Arizona yesterday.   I particularly enjoyed the exhibit Ansel Adams: Arizona and the West, which includes nearly forty works pulled from the Ansel Adams Archive at the Center.

The Center for Creative Photography is an archive and research center. They retain the archives of Ansel Adams and other great 20th-century photographers—over fifty archives in all.  Ansel Adams had a special connection to Arizona, the most significant being his 1975 decision to co-found, with Dr. John Schaefer, the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona, and place his 

entire photographic collection and archive in their care.  You can see 2664 pieces of Ansel Adams work at http://ccp.uair.arizona.edu/item/4538.

Handprint Art

Over the Christmas holidays, I had wonderful cooperation from everyone to do a 

handprint painting.  Dan painted a "wash" finish over the canvas.  Then one by one, 

we dipped our hands in paint and put them on the canvas.  The resulting one of a kind 

painting is now hanging in the breakfast room of our Tucson home.

Happy Birthday Audrey!

Today is daughter Audrey's 29th Birthday!  Happy Birthday, Little Audrey!  

Through the years...

Becoming a Cowgirl

 

Becoming a cowgirl has to start somewhere!  Granddaughter Emerson came to the ranch for the first time on January 2.  She came in the corral to make a new friend!

Quick Trip to New Mexico

Papa and I made a two day trip to New Mexico to pick up some things we need on the ranch.  It seemed a long drive as Papa drove the truck, pulling a horse trailer.  We made stops along the way that were particularly memorable.  We ate lunch at the Buckhorn Tavern, famed for their Throw Down with Bobby Flay.  We drove through the Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge and saw thousands of Canadian snow geese and lots of sand hill cranes.  Their constant clucking was an incredible sound! We overnighted in Mesilla, a Spanish town settled in 1594, with many of the original buildings still intact.  The doorways of New Mexico are distinctive with their ristras, strands of dried chilies.

Web MD

As I have osteoporosis, I met with a fitness trainer over the past week.  She recommended webMD.com to me as a place for all kinds of health information.  It's a fount of information!  From healthy living to nutrition to parenting and pregnancy, there is so much!  Check it out!

Organizing Photos

As time has passed, photography has changed dramatically.  I have been organizing old photos.  

What fun to remember the moments captured.  A few favorites...Papa as butler at Audrey's 7th birthday party, Claire and Whitney with cats in the backyard in Dallas, a sailing trip in the Grenadines, in Paris, and at our vacation home in Patagonia.  So many wonderful memories!

Time for Ourselves

I have spent three days in Tucson, taking some time for myself.  I had an hour session with a personal trainer, focusing on exercises to improve my bone strength, hoping to avoid some of the harmful effects of my osteoporosis.  I took a two hour photography class one night.  I had a one hour and forty five minute pedicure.  That was nice!  A gift from Whitney.  Then last night, I watched the Tucson Memorial Service for the victims of Saturday's massacre.  The words that have stuck with me:

“It’s important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we are talking
with each other in a way that heals, not a way that wounds.” 

"We recognize our own mortality, and are reminded that in the fleeting time we have on this earth, what matters is not wealth, or status, or power, or fame – but rather, how well we have loved,
and what small part we have played in bettering the lives of others."

"All of us – we should do everything we can to make sure this country
lives up to our children's expectations."

Favorite Family Photo

There are many family memories made over the past thirty years.  We are lucky when we happen to get those memories on film.  One of the most precious of those memories is from a trip we took to Florida when the girls were preschoolers.  They were fishing with Papa on a dock near where we were staying in St. Petersburg.  Papa got a pound of bait and was baiting the hooks one after the other, as small fish were biting as soon as the girls dropped the line in the water.  

Each of them was so excited.  A wonderful moment caught on film!

Grandchildren

All grandparents think their grandchildren are the cutest ever.
Mine are too!

Life

Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass... life is dancing in the rain.

Christmas 2010 Photos

We had a wonderful time with daughters Audrey, Claire, and Whitney and their families, 

and Papa's sister, Mary, over the Christmas holidays in Tucson. 

30th Anniversary

Today is Papa's and my 30th Anniversary.  We are grateful for this wonderful life we've shared and continue to enjoy.  We celebrated our Anniversary over brunch with our girls and their families at the Arizona Inn, where we had our wedding reception 30 years ago.  It was special, and all the more so as our sons-in-law picked up the tab for our brunch.  Thank you Dan, Corey, and David!