A wonderful birthday week celebration

West Quest '23 - Days 8-14

Monday, 10 June 2023

Greetings Family and Friends,

This past week we were hunkered down at my Dad and step-Mom’s home in Oracle, Arizona trying to get a respite from this brutal heat wave. We would not have even bothered to RV across this part of the country in June and July except that we really wanted to be there for my Dad’s 94th birthday on July 2nd.

We figured celebrating 94 years could not possibly fit into one day, so we decided it would be a birthday WEEK!

Sunday July 2 — Dad’s actual birthday:

Monday July 3 at a surprise birthday at a friend’s house:

Tuesday, July 4 just chillin’ out:

Wednesday, July 5 still smiling:

Thursday, July 6 — Day four of this wonderful week:

During lunch at home

And a special birthday dinner at Fleming’s

And since I just celebrated my 60th on June 7th, I got a special desert too!

You might be wondering how Maddie and Skipper are holding up to all this celebrating. Well, here’s Skipper when we came home from dinner:

Friday, July 7 was my night to make dinner for everyone:

Saturday, July 8 was some more just chillin’ around the house:

Here’s Dad and Sandy watching some baby quail running around the backyard:

Yesterday, Sunday July 9, we said our goodbye’s after a wonderful week-long birthday celebration. It was bittersweet, but what wonderful memories we will have from this visit. We love you Dad and Sandy!

If you made it this far, you know I’m super proud of my Dad and happy to have followed in his footsteps by also serving in the United States Navy. This wonderful video titled Soaring to New Heights with the F9F-8 Cougar feat. RADM Bill Gureck, USN (Ret) came out last year about my Dad’s time flying as a Blue Angel. It’s worth a watch.