It's a pre la ventana PARTY ! ! ! !

December 7th, 2009

With Rijk and Klaus just getting back from New Mexico last night, and the fact that all we think about is La Ventana and the warm weather, we decided to have a little party tonight at the house.

I shut off Monday Night Football and put in the DVD from last years La Ventana trip.

Mike will be driving down on the 12th and Gabor hopes to drive down between the 13th and the 17th. So we all got a kick out of watching the video. Al went last year and this will be Rijk's first trip there. Kyle is going to lend us a small kite in case it blows over 25 mph.

Mike and Mandy are driving down to the end of Baja on Saturday, but he's dropping by here on Thursday to pack up his truck with some of our kite gear.

Left to right, Klaus, Kyle, Elisa and Al. Klaus is still feeling the fall he took about a month ago. He hopes his shoulder is feeling better in two weeks. Kyle and Elysia are expecting their first baby on April 29. The first baby from the BS kite group. Ruth was born on April 28 and said the baby is going to be born under a great sign, Taurus. Al is taking a break this year, maybe he might be skiing.

L-R, Tim, Gabor and Betty. Tim is a past kiter, Gabor is Mr. Super-kiter and Betty, Tim's wife is his Harley partner. They rode the 9/11 ride this year and got a kick out of watching the video about Ruth and Klaus on the 9/11 Memorial Ride.

The first order of business was food. Ruth put together a huge salad, and Gabor brought two large pizza's. Naturally we had beer, wine, etc. and Klaus had tequila. He's in training for LV.

While the rest of us were feeding our faces, Rijk and Ruth were in the kitchen getting all of the food together. Here Rijk is making whipped cream for a lemon chiffon pie. Mmmm.

I didn't get a shot of the pie, but I grabbed a shot of the lemon squares before they were gone. Naturally there were "TO GO" plates for everyone. Otherwise Ruth and I would be 300 pounds. The whole lemon theme came from Mike. He and Mandy dropped off a bag of lemons over the weekend and Ruth whipped up the pie and squares today.

Matt heard there was a party and didn't want to miss out. He also wanted to work out getting his gear down to LV in Mike's truck. You should see his huge "Golf Bag."

Ruth was nice enough to climb up on a ladder to take this group pose. Then.....

...I asked her to take a back-up. Someone said "Make a funny face." Check them out.

Tim and Betty.

Elisa

Kyle

Rijk

Mike, Mandy and me.

After everyone left I put on my birthday gift from Klaus and Rijk. Then Ruth and I kicked back and watch some TV. The perfect evening.

I want to extend a BIG thank you to all of you that made this such a memorable Birthday. You are only 69 once. I really enjoyed the gag cards, texts and emails. The big 70 is next.