Thanksgiving 2025 saw our family at home and enjoying a traditional turkey dinner and each other's company.
Sitting down to a wonderful Thanksgiving meal together.
Thanksgiving games after our meal. We had a great time playing an amazing game of Scrabble (our family favorite) where we managed to get to all four corners of the board!
The weather has been very mild and the fall colors beautiful, so we were able to play games on the picnic table in our back yard.
Our annual tradition the day after Thanksgiving is to put up Christmas lights on the house. We are thankful for our great family!
Celebrating Lisa's 61st birthday.
This year we celebrated Lisa's and Caleb's birthdays together since they are only two days apart (Lisa on October 27 and Caleb on October 29).
Caleb turned 22 this year and it was great to spend some wonderful time with our special son.
Lisa received a very special gift this year from Bob -- brand new downhill skis and boots along with a three-day flex pass to one of our favorite local ski areas, Diamond Peak. How exciting!
Caleb showing off his fun birthday gifts.
Our cute little Chester with a stuffed puppy who looks just like him.
Bob's old workplace, the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas celebrated their 50 year anniversary at their Annual Economic Outlook on November 13th. In recognition of Bob's working 20 years of the Center's 50 years, Bob got to join other long serving staff for a little stage time. They each received football jersey's with the number representing the year they started working at the Center.
Here are before and after pictures of his handiwork. Feedback from the teachers and kids has been great. :)
This fall Bob also got to enjoy another wonderful seven day river trip from October 16th through October 22nd down the Green River in central Utah through Desolation and Gray Canyons. River trips have been one of our favorite outdoor adventures and this trip was no exception. In this picture Bob is joined with our good friend Phil Spargo who took his kayak to paddle alongside the rafts. It's a great way to go to do some remote kayaking and let the rafts carry all your gear.
For a full write up and pictures of this trip, make sure to visit our Desolation and Gray Canyon River Trip page.
At the Sand Wash put-in where we all met up to rig and load our boats on October 15th for our launch the following day.
On the water for some beautiful fall scenery in central Utah.
October is a wonderful time to float desert southwest rivers because, although shorter, the days are mostly warm and sunny. Nights do get cool however and Bob woke up a couple of mornings with his sleeping back covered in frost.
The great thing about river trips is they combine the best of backpacking and car camping -- you get to experience the remoteness of backpacking and the luxury of having all the extras of car camping. It really is a great way to go.
One of the unexpected outcomes of this trip is that Bob came home with a boat. Our friend, Dann Coffey, had two, one of which Bob rowed, and he wanted to sell it. So, he made Bob a really great deal which led to the next challenge, how to get it home. Bob ended up rolling up the raft and putting it and all the gear in the back of our 4Runner, tied the oars on the roof rack, and strapped the frame to a hitch rack. It all worked perfectly other than the tail lights were a little hard to see. That said, our custom "RVRTME" (River Time) license plates could still be clearly seen and now seem entirely appropriate. :)
One of the amazing late afternoon views Bob got to enjoy as he drove through the San Rafael Swell region of Central Utah. What a magical end to another great river trip.
Legacy Christian Academy, where Lisa works, hosted a fun run on October 11th at the Empire Ranch Golf Course. Lisa and Bob (and of course, Chester) helped out on the race course. It was a beautiful fall day and a really great time.
Leading the pack for the 10k event was Brady Roser who is also the board chair for Legacy. He was nothing but smiles as he cruised past us.
On September 20 th Caleb ran in the 20 th annual Battle of the Rattle 5K run in Reno.
The first portion of the race is a steep rock scramble up the side of Rattlesnake Mountain, which can be seen in the background.
All of the "ants" running up the steep slope at the start of the race. Caleb is one of those tiny specks!
Caleb coming in for a strong finish at the end of the 5K. Focused for the final stretch!
Caleb with his medal after finishing, he ended up coming in 4th in his category.
He really pushed himself and this was the first race he's ever gotten sick afterwards, but he said it was worth it!
On September 12th Bob and Hannah flew to Montana to visit Grandma Potts and celebrate her 92nd birthday with her.
Her birthday is actually on the 4th but on the 13th Bob's niece Michelle and her new husband, Dylan Cabral, were holding their local wedding reception as they got married earlier in the year in Hawaii. So, we decided to visit a bit after Grandma's birthday so we could celebrate both.
Here's a picture of Dylan and Michelle on either side of Grandma, along with Bob and his brothers Dave and Jim. It was a really great time!!
While in Montana, Bob spent much of his time helping with a few projects around Grandma's house and helping her with some of her finances. Hannah, however, had more time and spent a few extra days with Grandma so the two them could have some special "girl time" together.
Grandma and Hannah in front of the historic Murray Cafe in downtown Livingston, Montana. This was one of their stops on a beautiful drive through the Paradise Valley.
This is a picture of the Pine Creek Elementary School on the east side of the Yellowstone River in the Paradise Valley. It is a reminder of when small, rural schools were more the rule than the exception they are now.
Every time we visit Montana we have to stop by the Churchill Cemetery to see where Grandpa Potts now rests. Pretty amazing the sunrise that all those resting there get to face every morning.
There's a full writeup about Bob's Dad and the time we had with him in the last couple months before he passed and the memorial service we had for him about a third of the way down this page.
One of the great things about being retired is Bob can go out to our local shooting range whenever he wants to further dial-in his accuracy. On this day it was to try out his new Kestrel ballistics solution device (in the picture with the blue and white tether). The Kestrel is a weather meter that measures wind, altitude, pressure and all the other critical weather and ballistic variables to calculate an accurate aim point for long-range shooting.
This is a picture through the spotting scope at 100 and 300 yard targets. In both cases, the Kestrel provided perfect ballistic solutions to hit dead center every time. If you click on this picture you can see the hits on the 8 inch plate at 300 yards.