2023 January-March at Sunshine Acres Children's Home

Around volunteering for Superbowl LVII and Los Angels Angels Spring Training, we volunteered at Sunshine Acres Children's Home in their Greenhouse and I also volunteered in the Health Center.   

For the Health Center I built them a database to hold the children's data from medical appointments, vaccinations, history, family health history, etc.  

Here are some photos from the greenhouse.

Nancy & Al in front of a tower of Swiss Chard

Al putting together the electric pumps in the tower bases.

Different varieties of tomato plants getting ready to be planted

Harvesting Swiss chard

Thai Basil

Every day we volunteer we never know what our tasks will be.  Some days I was painting clay pots to be filled with plants and sold at the farmer's market.  I am not an artist!

Pat, Nancy, and Jake painting pots

Al inside the greenhouse

Valentine's Day

Plants to be sold at the farmer's market

Plants to be sold at the farmer's market

Beautiful tomatoes ready for sandwiches!

Kelly, Eve, and Randy

Celebrating the beautiful tomatoes by enjoying our
BLT's with "L" and "T" from the greenhouse.

Some towers are set up outside but need to be stabilized to withstand the winds.

A tower of kale

A tower with various flowers

This year they experimented with growing cauliflower

Purple spinach

Even purple cauliflower

Another place we volunteer over the winter is for the Scottsdale Elks #2148 Steak Night which is held twice a month.  We are food runners delivering meals to guest's tables.  It's the best steak and a great deal at $26 for steak, mashed potatoes, corn, roll and butter. 

Aaron cooking the filet mignons and rib-eyes.

When we had free time, we spent time with friends and working on projects on the RV.

Nancy and Kathy hiking

We celebrated Randy's birthday by playing miniature golf and eating at Stuffrageous.

Al, Nancy, Linda, and Patty

Linda

Lenny, Kelly, Randy, and Eve

Lenny

Randy

Linda

Patty

Al

Al, Kelly, Eve, Linda,Patty, Randy, Lenny, and Nancy

Birthday boy, Randy

Al, Kelly, Patty, Randy, Lenny, Linda, Nancy, and Eve

One evening we drove south to Casa Grande to help our Hot Air Balloon friend, Bill, with a charity event at Palm Creek RV Resort.  On Friday evening there were about 7 balloons that inflated and did a "glow."

Pilot, Bill and his equipment

Bill had quite the crew to help him.

Getting the basket ready

Bill is testing the propane

Attaching the balloon to the basket and laying it out

Inflating the balloon

Band of Gold

Another day we went to the 2023 WM Phoenix Open Golf tournament as designated drivers for our friends, Eve & Chris.

Chris, Eve, Nancy, and Al

We had tickets with access to one of the tents with free food and drinks.

Chris & Eve

Eve & Chris, Nancy & Al

Towards the end of our time at Sunshine Acres there is a nice luncheon for all the volunteers.  I sewed the place mats under the centerpieces (made by Kelly) and helped assemble the goodie boxes.

Aunt Carol spoke to the volunteers

Linda & Randy and Al & I did the Hole in the Rock hike.

 

Randy capturing the view from the "hole"

I caught Al driving the skip loader one day while I was on my way to the volunteer at the Health Center.

Al had a couple of RV projects to complete before we leave.  One was to repair the cabinets on the side of our couch. 

He made them even better by putting hinges on the top so it's easier to access items inside the cabinets.  He also replaced the outlet boxes with white so they are easier to see instead of the brown ones that were originally there.

 

 

Al made this for me to replace the command hooks I've been using.

We celebrated Al's birthday.

We try to go to a Benihana for each of our birthdays and our anniversary if there is one in the area.  They give a nice $30 coupon for these special occasions.

The group went to Imagine 3D Mini Golf and In-N-Out Burger to celebrate Al's birthday.

Eve

Al, Nancy, Kathy, Eve, Patty, Lenny, Dave, Linda, and Randy

I flew to Pennsylvania to visit my family and help with some tasks around my Dad's house.  

I was surprised by my family celebrating my upcoming 60th birthday.

Jay, Greg, Jackie, Barb, Dad, Zach, Mel, and me.

Another treat was to spend Easter with Barb's family and all the delicious Polish foods!

My sampler plate

It was good to be able to help out my Dad and Barb with some projects around their house and spend some time with them.  

It felt like time flew during the 5 months we were at Sunshine Acres this winter.  We did keep ourselves busy and out of trouble.  

Next we're headed out for our summer travels.  Firstly we're headed to Yuma and then Sedona, Arizona.