Valentine's Day Dinner and Dance

I am in the process of catching up on posting pictures from a week or more ago, but will get closer to current day with pictures from the Valentine's Dinner and Dance that the Softball Club here at Venture Out hosted. The guys from the softball teams dressed in formal attire (white shirts, ties, and black slacks -- that's about as formal as it gets here!) and served the tables.

When we purchased tickets, we reserved a particular table (in a specific location in the ballroom) and got tickets with friends -- so we knew where we would be sitting and with whom!

Steak and Shrimp dinner -- yum!

The music for dancing was provided by the band, Midnight Confessions -- one of our favorite bands!

We enjoyed the photo booth...

He had a "Kiss Me" sign, so I complied!

"Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." I Cor 13:7

We enjoyed the time with friends, and two-stepped and line-danced until we were exhausted! We are blessed!

Murder Mystery Event

One of the clubs at our resort hosted a Murder Mystery event in the ballroom. It was set in the roaring 20s at a Speakeasy -- we were seated at tables and supposed to try to solve the mystery.

Many people got dressed up in costumes.

Each table was given some clues and some people in the audience became part of the show...

... the group of suspects with some of the actors -- some of the members of the audience who were picked to be part of the group of suspects really played their parts well!

We enjoyed it, but found that it seemed that there were too many people participating -- we were supposed to go around to the other tables and try to get additional clues, and it was confusing what we were supposed to do. The ballroom was too loud and chaotic for us to understand everything that was going on. We're glad we did it, but we would not do it again...

Happy Anniversary block celebration

Unbeknownst to us, our neighbors put together an impromptu Happy Anniversary party for us on February 2...

Appetizers galore...

... and a delicious cake from Fry's!

We had already committed to pick up a friend from the airport that afternoon, so when Liz contacted me to invite me to the party, I told her we might be late -- didn't know that we were going to be late to a party celebrating us!

Happy Birthday, Peggy!

Back on February 1, our friend Peggy (from our Alaska caravan group) was celebrating her 70th birthday, so we went over to their home in Mesa to celebrate with friends and family.

This is their African Sulcata tortoise...

... according to Peggy, he was golf-ball sized when they got him, he is now large enough that their pre-teen grandson can ride on him, and weighs over one hundred pounds. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_spurred_tortoise)

Peggy (on the far side of the table) and her daughter and grandson on the near side

Happy Birthday, Peggy!

Some trivia from 1955

A puzzle that Peggy's husband, Mory, is working on

Box for the puzzle

It is nice getting to celebrate with friends!

Wisdom from the VO Residents' Bulletin Board

In the area near our post office boxes, there are a number of information boards, including one for VO Residents to post their own messages. When I checked it a couple of weeks ago, I found a number of interesting posts!

 Hope you got some giggles!

Hiking options

While we have not yet taken advantage of it, there are a number of hiking groups here at Venture Out. I took some pictures of their information on the boards so I would have it handy if we happen to decide to go at some point!

We tried going out with the middle group last time (last season? several years ago?), and found that it was too fast for us, so we're thinking we are probably Trekkin' Tortoises now.

Hike schedule for Tortoise Trekkers

Listing of trails used by the VO Hiking Clubs

Maybe we will yet get there!

More pictures from Jenice's visit

On the last morning that Jenice and Gary were here, Jenice and Carl decided to try out the morning exercises... I was volunteering in the Activities Office that morning, so after they finished "Stretch and Tone",

they came by to visit me at "work".

Then they headed over to pool exercises, where the water and air temperature were just right to have fog coming up from the water!

Since we hadn't gotten a group picture yet, neighbor Linda came over to take one!

Jenice and Gary seemed to enjoy their visit, and are already planning to return for a longer stay (maybe a season rental!) next season!