Visitors!

Denisa's sister, Connie and her husband Joe had been visiting southern Arizona to celebrate one of their grandson's 6th birthday.  (Happy Birthday Max!)  It was a mere 1100 miles to stop by Mission, Texas, for a short visit.  So they jumped in the car at 4:00 a.m. in Arizona, and arrived here at 9:00 p.m.  What a day on the road!

We showed Connie and Joe how real retired people enjoy the warm weather in South Texas, and we really enjoyed having them around for a few days.  We played lots of cards, and they made friends with the people that scoop the ice cream here at the resort.  Connie enjoyed the zumba class we attended together, and she was a faithful participant every morning at exercise class.

We have to include the iconic retired pictures for this post.  We hadn't tried out the shuffleboard courts yet, but we found that it was a fun game!  We played three different games, and changed up partners for each one.  Denisa is thinking about joining the professional shuffleboard circuit, as she went undefeated for the evening.  Of course, she won't be playing cards professionally, as she didn't win a game of cards the entire time they were here.

When they packed for their trip to Arizona, it was 18 degrees at their home in Oklahoma.  So my sister didn't even pack any short sleeve blouses.  Her children will be amused to hear this detail, since they will recognize that she owns a purple blouse just like the one she is wearing in the picture. This one, however, is from Denisa's limited wardrobe.  You can tell that we are sisters when you look at our closets and we have more than one twin blouse.

Here is a picture of our shuffleboard challengers.  I actually should have taken a picture of Joe picking an orange or tangerine.  He said that this was the first time in his entire life that he could remember picking a piece of fruit straight off a tree!

Here's Mark showing some awesome shuffleboard form!

There is never a shortage of entertainment at the resort.  So if one tires of shuffleboard, ice cream, and playing cards, there is plenty of music going on.  Pictured below is our favorite visiting group so far--Cross Strung.  

They play lots of stringed instruments and sing, and put on a great show.  Sometimes they even share the same instrument, with one person fingering the chords with their left hand and strumming the strings of another instrument with their right hand.  I wish we would have gotten a picture of the five of them standing close together with each person "helping" to play two different instruments--and it all sounded good!  I also wish we had a picture of all of them fitting into the motorhome they travel together in.  They have ten people (with another baby on the way) living in that motorhome!  When I start to complain about the lack of storage space for clothes in our motorhome, I need to remind myself of this family!

Connie and Joe left us on Saturday morning--trying to hurry home to Edmond, Oklahoma before the ice storm hit there on Sunday.  I'm not sure that they made the right call.  Shouldn't you stay here in warm south Texas until that cold weather is over, instead of rushing home before it starts?