YEAR IN REVIEW
2019 was a good year for us. The weather not so much. This year the spring, the summer and fall all were horrible weather wise making it harder to get things done, golf and relax. Cold , windy and a lots of rain. In fact during July, August and Sept we had 77 days of rain. Having said that we still had time to fit in a lot of golf. I quit my job as a Golf Marshall at Heatherglen as they removed the ease of my free golf perk and staff perks with the CEO trying to cut back on staff golfing plus I was working too much, so much so it affected what I what I wanted to complete. I will miss that as 4 years of Marshalling was a lot of fun. I have our RV lot about 95% done which took up a lot of time so it affected our travelling this year. I love our lot. I love the peacefulness and our neighbors and activities are amazing but I do NOT want to be tied down to it only. I only went fishing twice in 2019 in Alberta and that is just not right. Below are some high-lites of the summer and comments.
Thought of the Year
NEVER GET SO CAUGHT UP MAKING A LIVING YOU FORGET TO HAVE A LIFE
Jessica being nominated ” Top 40 under 40 ” by the Lethbridge Chamber of Commerce
You know when you are getting older when your brother becomes ancient and hits 65 years old.
Alfred hitting 65 years old
Loads of fun in Mesa with friends doing all kinds of things.
Rosa’s Mexican food outing. Love this place and enjoy dining out with friends. Mary , Terry’s friend and Tim, Fred’s brother were with us this time along with Fred & Terry.
Visiting the Katcher Caverns near Tuscan which were amazing with Kieth & Jenny
Lots of after golf get togethers this time with my friend the ex owner of Lealta Building in Lethbridge and Ian the best golfer I know.
Love the block parties once a month with the entire street.
Champagne, Irish Creme and sausages were provided for a street block party brunch which was excellent.
Burger nights with friends and in this picture with Jackson
Last Monday burger night for the Keys and Jackson. Love Fat Willy’s patio. JUGS of beer are cold and good ! We need to restart our loyalty to this as it has waned a little bit.
The LAST SUPPER with our good friends and neighbors Pat & Bob Ferris as they are leaving us. We will miss these two big time. Why, why you are leaving ? LOL
Great looking bunch of people ! Las Sendas Patio is a higher end first class patio for supper,drinks and to watch the sunset.
A good friend finally deciding to join the good life of retirement fun. Jeff Grace farewell party
Jeff & Doug with their cake that was made by the culinary department at the school. It was awesome. Nice to have another join the ranks to the good life.
The old fart showing off his Jackfish 22 pounds at Pinehurst Lake we caught a couple of years ago. But now that he has HIT 65 years old in 2019 I am not sure if he could still lift this monster. LOL Happy 65th Fred
Fred’s 20 pound plus Jack
Our annual family friend May Long Weekend get together. I love the pot lucks we have.
Amazing food. I loved the UK theme for this year. I hope the food wasn’t spoiled in that Oiler crock pot. Some incredible dishes this year with me liking Ron’s toad in hole or something like that the best.
The May Long Weekend event I have enjoyed for over 40 years and the 2020 one planned at a Wildlife Park will be a super fun one for the kids. Jackie & I have camped this weekend in snow, rain, hail and a few times in the sun. It has changed over the years with May Long starting with just our family, then with Keith& Jenny plus family, then just our family again as we moved to Calgary,then with Keith & Jenny, Ron & Merle ,then with Keith & Jenny, Ron & Merle, Fred & Terry with our families and now with all of the additions to family we are over 30 people some years. For 2020 we have 25 attending.
I like to renovate and keep busy doing so. The backsplash really popped the looks of the kitchen. Added the tile to the top vent chase also looks great. New handles.
It seems like I never finish renovations. This year I did the backsplash.
Proud to be pure English but 100% state I am Canadian. There are a lot of families that had the Viking seed or German seed planted in their family tree which dissipated the pureness of their genes causing all sorts of unfortunate mutations.
As pure as you can get !!!
Discovering I am 83 percent PURE ENGLISH and 17% Ireland/Wales/Scotland. No Viking rape in our family tree. That is PURE
The odd side job for Corey is always fun to help with. He is a very detailed and dedicated quality carpenter that I enjoy working with. This beam job turned out perfect.
Fun helping Corey to a beam job. It is a two man job that Corey does by himself 99% of the time.
I love our lot which has been a blast work on. One project was my outdoor kitchen with a bar fridge, a BBQ, counter top and a power range hood with lights all built in with cupboards. It was Jackie’s first attempt at distressing the looks of the cupboards and I believe it looks great. I made the cupboards out of MDF and glued the layers to make the shakers. I love the old fashioned lights and barn wood backsplash. I added the TV in the corner.
FINISHED my outdoor kitchen . I love the looks and functionality
Country chic
I love helping friends with projects if I have the time. This is Fred’s new gazebo and add on to his deck we did this year. Looks wonderful !
Helping build decks and gazebo’s is enjoyable at Fred’s place
We had quite a few gatherings at our place this summer. Sometimes cool and wet sometimes perfect but always fun.
Lots of discussion at the parties at our lot.
It has been awhile since we had a wedding. This is outside of Spruce Grove for our nieces wedding, Kayla.
Wedding in Edmonton Kayla Darlene’s daughter
Any golf trip can be fun. I love Drumheller and Wendy found us a groupon deal which was fantastic so we came for a game of golf and an outing at the Rosebud theatre. Fun !
Love Drumheller ! Great golfing with freinds
Camping, golfing and fishing are my favorite things. Muscle cars would be number one if I was rich. What a day catching over 85 Walleye in Wabamun Lake which is a big clear water lake. This was our first of many and is one of those that the timing was just right. It headed and landed in the water.
Love this picture. Caught over 85 Walleye !!!
Notice the huge coal power generator in the background. Hundreds are going to lose their jobs.
We had our grandkids quite a few times out at the lot. They love it as do I. Tiring though trying to keep them busy. Girls were much much much much easier.
You always have to have a wiener roast when looking after the grandkids
Not the worst driving conditions but the worse road conditions I have ever seen. Two days after a storm and to have a major HWY 2 covered with ice like this is not performance. Volker Stevin should have fired the crew responsible for this mess. 6″ thick ice on a highway the day after and only one lane open is just stupid.
September snow Ugly
Another fun golf trip to Coleman to play Crowsnest Pass newly renovated course. Wonderful course and fun times including a great supper night out. I am going to need to lay off the sun as it looks like I am getting too dark. Maybe a discount ?
Crowsnest Golf another fun golf trip. See YOU all should retire to do this.
LOVE THE LOT !
Looks good , great price and cordless blinds so all is good to finish off the interior.
Homemade doors in my Saloon. I made a 8ft high barn door and stained it plus the two sliders with whitewash.
A fun date night at Stage West. A poor play but the food was excellent. A British Farce that wasn’t very funny at all. Being a purebred you would think I would love this humor . The company divine though.
Birthday Date night. Lucky guy to have such a wonderful and beautiful wife.
One of many special events held out at our RV lot.
Carnival with the kids
Early Halloween is an event at our lot that is fantastic. The lots are all dressed up and we may have had as many as 200 kids coming around for candy. Fun evening. Lot’s of jelly shooters for the adults at each lot which only adds to the fun, then a big Halloween dance after.
The family on their trick or trick run for early Halloween.
Who doesn’t like watching youngsters play sports.
Great deke Jackson. Good puck handling. Hockey is fun to watch
Jenny hitting a milestone age of 60 years old. An old friend that we have known since she was 16 years old. She didn’t take the milestone well. LOL Fun to bug. She needed it pointed out that YES it is her that is that old.
Having friends hit MILESTONE years. 60 YEARS OLD for Jennifer Judy Harry !
Everyone if they are there or not puts up lights in Mesa. This is our house lighted up for 2019 with something new and some old.
Another great Christmas look ! New frost flakes this year. Next year a new Candy Cane lane decoration
Dinner & Dances and shows are fantastic at Viewpoint.
Fun at Viewpoint in Nov with a meal and dance. A meatloaf meal that was superb and a band that was fantastic except for only playing one polka.
We stopped in Raymond for Halloween on our way to Mesa this year and went out with the kids. Atti and Auggi both had a blast. Best small town idea ever by having cars back into a lot and serve candy from the truck bed or trunk. The kids can hit 50 stations in 1/2 hour. I loved it.
The kids thought this was great. Their buckets filled up very quickly.
I love decorating for Christmas. It is low key now as we go back and forth to Mesa but still fun. I don’t understand people that don’t decorate. It can be done on a shoestring and look fantastic but it adds so much to the joy of the year.
Christmas in Calgary
Love Christmas concerts ! August here loving his performance.
Jackson said he was going to do this. Great sense of humour. Takes after someone I know. LOL
The 3 Bandits Christmas morning
Jackie & I are thoroughly enjoying ourselves. We are so fortunate to have great friends and family to experience it with. We plan to travel a lot more in 2020 , I plan to golf more and especially fish more. Retirement is the best phase of your life. One has to remember as a retiree you do not have a paycheck coming in every two weeks so what you spend is gone. That is where a pension would have been nice. After 6 years if being retired the only thing I don’t like is the balance going down. Having said that you only have a limited amount of “good years” before health issues can happen. The average life span in Canada is 82 years old. So that means there are a lot of people over that age but in most cases either mentally or physically challenged and other than medical bills or special need housing will not spend a lot so enjoy your money will you can. I am going to say out of the year, any year, I have about 20 days I don’t care for. These are the days in December waiting to go back to Arizona. USA rules make us stay 30 days. I love Christmas with the kids and wouldn’t want to miss that but the extra days are not great.
Plans for 2020 so far:
- We have the May Long Weekend event booked at the Wildlife Discovery Park in Innisfail.
- We have the September Long Weekend event booked at Oasis for early Halloween and the kids Carnival
- We have our Alaska Cruise booked for September
- House boat rental in Arizona for day long fishing and sightseeing trip
- I have my Turner Valley Golf retainer paid for and my Heatherglen golf membership paid for plus 2 years of golf at Oasis.
- Install my irrigation system at Oasis so we can leave and come back to beautiful flowers.
- Huge job of installing a new heater core and a/c evaporator in the Dakota ( 2-3 days min)
- Helping finish projects like landscaping at Jessica’s and Fred’s new clutch in his Landcrusier.
- Finish installing the sink and toilet in the Saloon.
- Golf golf Fish fish Camp camp Travel travel ENJOY ENJOY
Some special days in 2020 coming up.
- Jackie’s 60th Birthday. Yes I said 60 years old
- Our 40th Wedding Anniversary
- Jeff & Wendy’s 25th Wedding Anniversary
- Audrey & Michael’s 5th Wedding Anniversary
- David & Erin’s 5th Wedding Anniversary
- Kayla’s 30th Birthday
- Michael’s 70th Birthday
- Pat & Bob’s 50th Wedding Anniversary
I think I have most of the BIG events for 2020. Sorry if I missed one.
Thank you 2019 for a wonderful year , it was our 5th year of retirement and for making it a great one.
HERE IS HOPING EVERYONE HAS A WONDERFUL 2020 YEAR AHEAD. !!!
Larry & Jackie Willard's Retirement Adventure 