September 29, 2025

Was September 23-24, 2025 a “failed” Rapture?

You may have heard something recently about a rapture that didn’t happen, or a “hoax” that fooled millions of people into believing that Jesus Christ was coming to take his Church from this earth to Heaven on September 23 or 24 this year. These specific dates were proclaimed in June by a South African named Joshua Mhlakela who said that he was visited by Jesus Christ. According to Joshua, Jesus told him “I am coming soon”, listing the dates of September 23 and 24 for his return to rapture the Church.

This testimony of Joshua’s took the world by storm over the ensuing months, resulting in a deluge of videos about the anticipated rapture on social media and even in some main stream media outlets.

Additionally, social media outlets exploded with thousands of videos from people discussing their own personal confirmations about Joshua as well their own visions and confirmations from God.

I am a Christian, a believer in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. I believe that what the Bible says about the rapture of the Church and its prophecies about the end times and tribulation that will happen afterwards is the true and the infallible Word of God.

Thus, when I heard Joshua’s testimony it excited my soul to think that it could actually happen within my lifetime.

I know that we as Christians should be living every day as if the Lord will return any minute….but it is so very human to fall back into the day-to-day routine of life with the expectation of the rapture being relegated to the philosophical rather than the practical. A similar example is a person who suddenly receives a terminal diagnosis….before receiving such news they lived their life routinely, but afterward every moment, every day suddenly becomes precious. It seems it takes a deadline to put everything into perspective.

Now that September 23 – 24 has passed, the world is mocking and scoffing Joshua and all believers who anticipate the rapture of the Church. As it is written:

[2Pe 3:4 NIV] They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.”

When I first heard about Joshua’s revelation, I was skeptical. The Bible strongly cautions us to beware of false prophets and to not allow ourselves to be deceived. But, it also advises us to “test the spirit” when we receive a word or information that may or may not be from God. 1 John 4:1 – 3 says:

1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.

My method of “testing the spirit” consisted of the following:

Does this acknowledge Jesus as the Son of God?
Does this contradict the Scripture in any way?
Has the Holy Spirit checked my spirit in any way about this issue?
Did I receive a personal confirmation about this issue?
Are there two or more witnesses that confirm what is being said?

Joshua’s testimony seemed (to me) to be based upon sound Biblical doctrine. He acknowledged the deity and the gospel of Christ.

The “red flag” that most objectors mentioned was the fact that Joshua announced a set of specific dates for the rapture of the Church. The outcry of the usual “No man knows the day or hour!” (based upon Matthew 24: 36) argument was great. That verse says:

“But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”

That verse is commonly applied to the rapture and the interpretation is that it is impossible to know when the rapture will take place. It is my opinion, however, that this interpretation is in error when taken in context with the verse before it:

[Mat 24:35 NIV] Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

The words “But about that day or hour” in Matthew 24:36 refer back to the previous verse that says “Heaven and earth will pass away.” This is the promise that God will one day destroy the present heaven and earth and create the New Heaven and New Earth. This was prophesied by Isaiah in Isaiah 65:17 and Isaiah 66:22 and will happen after the Rapture, the Tribulation and the Millennium reign of Christ.

God’s word actually instructs believers to be watchful for the return of Christ so that we will be prepared and not taken by surprise:

[1Th 5:4 NIV] 4 But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief.

So to me, the fact that Joshua named Sep 23 – 24 as the time that Christ would come to rapture his church did not seem to be a Biblical contradiction.

Not finding any apparent Biblical contradictions in Joshua’s testimony, I then took it to prayer. I asked the Holy Spirit to make it known to me if this was a deception or if this was actually a message from God for his children here on earth.

Studying end times prophecy, the Bible says:

[Act 2:17-18 NIV] 17 ” ‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. 18 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.

As I was (and am) already firmly convinced that we are indeed “in the last days” I did not find it strange that someone was talking about receiving a vision or a word from God, since his Word told us to expect such things.

As those dates approached I continued to ask the Lord to make it known to me if I should disregard Joshua’s testimony. One day I asked God to send me a confirmation that this word was true. In my daily Bible reading that day this verse jumped off the page:

That was pretty exciting!

And as for the other “witnesses”, well, as I said before, there were thousands.

So….why would God allow this situation to happen when it obviously wasn’t His plan?

Thinking (and praying) about this, I think that the answer is that it WAS God’s plan to use Joshua to announce the rapture on September 23-24, 2025 to get the world’s attention. And boy, did it! The whole world became aware of this phenomenon; in fact, on Sep 23 the word “rapture” received the peak popularity rating of 100 according to Google Trends.

Without this exposure how many people would still not be aware of this event predicted by the Bible? How many people have heard the saving Gospel of Christ that might not have if this had not happened?

A spiritual revival is happening all around the globe and many, many people are coming to Christ who would not have been a participant in the rapture otherwise. In fact, I read one report dated September 26, 2025 about 7,000 students gathered for worship at the University of South Florida, at which event “some 2,000 salvations, 300 baptisms and thousands of changed lives” occurred. If the rapture had happened on September 23 – 24 these new believers would have missed it!

So while this didn’t turn out the way we all expected and hoped, we know that the rapture is not cancelled, it is just delayed. God fulfills all of His promises and He will fulfill this one in His appointed time.

Just as He did for Noah.

[Gen 7:1, 4 NLT] 1 When everything was ready, the LORD said to Noah, “Go into the boat with all your family, for among all the people of the earth, I can see that you alone are righteous. … 4 Seven days from now I will make the rains pour down on the earth. And it will rain for forty days and forty nights, until I have wiped from the earth all the living things I have created.”

Have you ever wondered why after Noah finished building the ark (which took him 120 years) God told Noah and his family to board the ark and then wait for seven days for the rain to come? You have to wonder, what was the point? Was it because of all of the mockers and scoffers in Noah’s day to have a heyday at his expense? The door to the ark was open and any of them could have joined Noah and his family on the ark, but one did. But when God closed the door of the ark and the rain began to fall, I can imagine a lot of those mockers and scoffers changed their tunes and begged to be allowed into the ark, but it was too late. (This last sentence is only from my imagination….the Bible does not actually say that happened.)

So while the world mocks and scoffs, believers wait for the soon coming of Christ to take his church off this earth and to Heaven with him.

When the rapture does happen, now that the whole world is aware of what the rapture is (thanks to the “failed” rapture that was predicted for this month) they will be witnesses of what actually happened when millions of people suddenly vanish off the face of the earth. (And no, it will not be aliens or a higher consciousness that took us away.)

While we wait we are comforted by these verses:

[Hab 2:3 KJV] 3 For the vision [is] yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.

[Rom 8:22-25 KJV] 22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. 23 And not only [they], but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, [to wit], the redemption of our body. 24 For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? 25 But if we hope for that we see not, [then] do we with patience wait for [it].

And for anyone who might be reading this who either has never heard the Gospel or what Christ did for you on the cross, or even if you have heard it before but have never asked Christ to be Lord of your life, I hope you’ll read a little further. This is the best news you’ll ever hear!

The Bible tells us that we all have a problem—sin. We’ve all fallen short of God’s perfect standard (Romans 3:23), and the result of that is separation from Him, both now and forever (Romans 6:23).

But here’s the good news: God loves us so much that He sent His Son, Jesus, to rescue us. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). He took the punishment we deserved, died on the cross, was buried, and then rose again on the third day—just like the Scriptures said (1 Corinthians 15:3–4).

Because of what Jesus did, we can receive forgiveness and eternal life. And the best part? It’s not something we can earn by being good enough. It’s a gift from God that we receive through faith (Ephesians 2:8–9).

So how do we respond? Jesus said, “Repent and believe the gospel” (Mark 1:15). The Bible also says that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved (Romans 10:9–10).

In short, the Gospel is this: Jesus died for our sins, rose from death to life again, and offers eternal life to everyone who turns from sin and trusts Him.

Won’t you accept him as your Lord and Savior? Do it now before it is too late! (Take it from me, you don’t want to become a Tribulation saint.)

Maranatha, brothers and sisters.

[Rev 22:20 KJV] 20 He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

December 18, 2023

Merry Christmas 2023

Happy December to our friends and family! We hope that this letter finds you all well and at peace! As you will read, 2023 has been a busy year for the Rogers as usual!

JANUARY: After enjoying our annual New Year’s Eve party with our friends on 12/31/22 and then putting away all of the Christmas decorations at the house, Redgie and I packed up and headed to San Diego on 1/6/23. Christina was due to deliver our third grandchild and Redgie & I were “on duty” to stay with Charlotte and Ezra when the time came for Brooks & Christina to head to the hospital for the delivery.

Gemma Rae was born on 1/16/23!

We were so glad to be able to care for Charlotte and Ezra for those few days while Brooks spent those first few days at the hospital with Christina and their new daughter. How precious it was to witness Charlotte and Ezra meeting their new baby sister when they brought her home from the hospital a few days after she was born.

During our time in San Diego, Redgie and Brooks worked on a big improvement project at our house. Brooks acted as our contractor and made arrangements for all of the hardscaping in front of the house to be removed along with the fence & gate. He supervised the installation of a large brick-paver parking area and patio around the front porch as well as artificial turf along the side of the house. Finally, a custom (black powder coated) steel fence frame was installed and Brooks completed the job by staining & attaching all of the fence boards along the frame of the fence & two gates. It sure turned out beautifully and is such a big improvement to the curb appeal of the house, not to mention the very convenient, three private off-street parking spots that we gained. We are grateful for all of the hours of work and supervision Brooks contributed to the project. We couldn’t have done it without him!

During all of that activity we managed to close on the purchase of a new condo in Fort Walton Beach, FL on 1/17/23. You may remember reading from last year’s letter that in the fall of 2022 we sold our two remaining Dune Pointe condos with the intention of reinvesting the money into one larger condo, so that is what we did. Our new condo is in “Azure”, a newer building which is located on the same beach as our previous (Dune Pointe) building.

After the sale was complete Redgie made a quick trip to Fort Walton Beach & the new condo. While he was there, he disposed of a lot of the furniture, etc. that we knew we were not planning on keeping and prepared the condo to get it ready for our painter to come in and start painting. Then he flew back to San Diego, because on 1/29/23 Redgie & I went down to the cruise ship port there in San Diego and boarded the Diamond Princess ship for a one-week cruise to Mexico.

FEBRUARY – MARCH: Our cruise itinerary included stops in Cabo, Loreto and La Paz, none of which we had ever visited before. We had a very nice, relaxing week enjoying the food, entertainment on board the ship, exploring the towns and focusing on time together. I love cruising!

We returned back to San Diego at the end of our cruise on 2/5/23 and two days later we flew to Fort Walton Beach to begin the task of getting the new condo ready to rent. We were disappointed to find that the painter was still NOT finished; in fact, we were there for a week before he finally completed the job. He painted the entire 4 bedroom/3 bath condo including all of the ceilings, walls, trip, doors and cabinets in the kitchen and all 3 bathrooms.

We had originally planned on being finished (getting the condo ready to rent) in early March, but in the end due to some delivery delays it took us until the end of March to complete the job. We were happy with the end result, but glad to finally be finished and to be able to start renting the condo on the short-term rental market & start earning some revenue!

Redgie went to Myrtle Beach the last week in March for his annual golfing trip with his Altoona buddies. I was glad to go home!

APRIL: In April we flew back to San Diego for Ezra’s 3^rd birthday! He had a fun birthday party in a local park with lots of friends and family there to celebrate with him. We enjoyed the time with the grandchildren as always, but especially getting to know our little Gemma more! She is such a smiley, happy little girl and such a joy!

On April 16 I had to make an unexpected trip to GA to attend the funeral of my Uncle Franklin (my father’s brother) who died suddenly after a short stay in the hospital with pneumonia. I only got to stay for 2 days but I was glad to be able to visit with my father and my brother Jeff & family as well as my little sister Holly and her oldest daughter Savannah. I also got to see my cousins Kimberly and Johnny (Uncle Franklin’s children) whom I have not seen in decades.

Later in the month Redgie & I flew to Pittsburgh to attend the wedding of his good friend Ken. Ken is a pastor at a church in Pittsburgh where he met his fiancé, Michelle. We were very happy to be able to celebrate their love & union with them on their special day. We enjoyed visiting with a lot of Redgie’s old youth group friends from their growing up years in Altoona.

MAY: We pretty much were able to stay home in May, with the exception of a quick trip up to our condo in Dillon early in the month. We had some new living room furniture delivered and so enjoyed a few days in the mountains.

JUNE: Redgie went to Lynchburg during the first week in June to attend a golf tournament at Liberty University. Some of his buddies joined him at the house and played in the tournament as well. From there Redgie flew to Salisbury, MD for a Perdue meeting. In the meantime, I went to San Diego June 9 – 23 to spend a few weeks with the kids while Redgie was traveling. He popped over to San Diego for 2 days (17^th & 18^th) before flying to Charlotte, NC for another work function.

JULY: Redgie & I spent one night in Dillon so that we could attend the annual HOA meeting on July 1. After the meeting we took the time to enjoy our favorite hike to Lily Pad Lake in Summit County (beautiful!) before driving back down the mountain to home.

AUGUST: On August 3 I flew to San Diego to pick up Charlotte (our granddaughter) for our “Grammy & Pappy” trip. Two days later Charlotte & I flew to Fort Walton Beach where we met Redgie for a one week stay in our condo at the beach. The three of us had so much fun! We played in the pool a LOT, played at the beach where Charlotte met a new friend, Charlotte played in the waves with Pappy, we went on a sunset dolphin-sighting cruise and to the “Gulfarium” (aquarium), ate ice cream and popsicles and Jello, read books, played games, did some art and went to a movie one day. Charlotte did great! She was a little bit homesick for her brother Ezra, but at the end of the week she told me she could have stayed one more day. 🙂

After taking Charlotte back to San Diego after our beach trip we stayed for another week so that we could celebrate Charlotte’s 5^th birthday! During that week Charlotte was not in school so she & I spend a lot of time together going to the park, the Children’s Museum and the zoo. Redgie & I also enjoyed time with Ezra and Gemma (who is growing so fast and has new teeth!)

Charlotte’s birthday party was at a neighborhood park with lots of her friends and family. There was even a rainbow unicorn pinata that Charlotte chose….the kids loved it!

A few days later was Charlotte’s first day of Kindergarten! While she had been expressing some anxiety about kindergarten she was soon right at home with her classmates and teacher and loves it (as we knew she would!)

SEPTEMBER: Redgie & I flew from San Diego to Lynchburg, VA for a week at our house there. We enjoyed time with friends who joined us for the weekend, the highlight of which was the football game on Saturday with a victory against Bowling Green. After that, I flew back home to CO but Redgie went on to Altoona to participate in the annual Precious Life golf tournament. He always enjoys that tournament when he is able to play golf with is Altoona buddies. Later in the month I went to visit my father in GA for a week. It was so nice to be able to spend that time with him. I was also able to visit with my brother Jeff, his wife Karla and their boys Jeffrey and Philp. Precious time with family is the best!

OCTOBER: Redgie went back to Lynchburg for a few days so he could attend the football game against Sam Houston (another victory!) Then he drove up to Salisbury, MD to attend a meeting at Perdue. Later in the month we both went to San Diego for the purpose of staying with Charlotte, Ezra & Gemma while Brooks & Christina traveled to Annapolis for a reunion at the Naval Academy. Redgie & I were “on duty” from Wednesday through Sunday afternoon. I was a little bit worried about how we’d manage three rambunctious kids, but they were great and we had a great time! (I confided to Gemma that she was the best-behaved of the bunch that weekend! She’s such a good, happy baby!)

We came back to CO for a quick stop to attend a wedding, but a few days later we headed to our condo in Fort Walton Beach for our annual autumn visit. The weather was beautiful, the condo was so comfortable and we enjoyed daily walks on the beach and gorgeous sunsets each evening. Shannon joined us there for the latter part of our visit so it was nice being able to spend that time with her.

NOVEMBER: We left Fort Walton Beach on Nov 9 and flew to Lynchburg again for another weekend with friends and football! Liberty won the game against Old Dominion.

It was nice to have a few weeks at home after that. Redgie, Shannon & I enjoyed Thanksgiving in Colorado Springs with Christina’s parents Harry & Irene. They hosted a very large gathering of family & friends, including Brooks, Christina & the kids (of course!) and we were honored to be included in the “Partridge Family” Thanksgiving. The next day Redgie & I went back to Colorado Springs to spend the day with the kids at the Great Wolf Hotel Resort water park. What a great way to spend a snowy, wintery day! The indoor water park had lots of slides & pools and the kids loved it….even Gemma!

DECEMBER: Redgie & I flew to Nashville, TN on November 30 to attend the “Come Home for Christmas” weekend hosted by the gospel music artist Matthew West. It was so much fun! We spent most of the weekend in the charming town of Franklin. The weekend schedule was full of great music and fellowship, food and fun and the group of about 200 people thoroughly enjoyed every event, including the lighting of the Christmas tree in Franklin’s town square! On Saturday night Matthew performed a Christmas concert which was televised by TBN and is set to air on December 22 at 7pm CT on TBN. You should try to watch it if you can, it was a wonderful concert and you might even see us in the audience! 🙂

Val greets little Jimmie Dickens in Nashville

We will be home in Colorado for Christmas, but a few days later we will be heading to Phoenix, AZ for the purpose of attending the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl because Liberty University will be playing in the game against the Oregon Ducks! The LU Flames had an undefeated season under the new coach Jamie Chadwell and won the CUSA Championship against a respected opponent (New Mexico State Aggies). Even so, it was a great surprise to learn of Liberty’s opportunity to play in the Fiesta Bowl on New Years Day! This is the biggest thing that has ever happened to Liberty’s football program and Redgie & I are so excited to be present to witness the game in person. We are definitely the underdogs against the mighty Ducks, but who knows? We may just surprise them, in the end. Go Flames!

As I bring this letter to a close, please know that Redgie & I have prayed throughout the year for our family and friends, especially for those who have had a difficult year with health or other circumstances or have lost loved ones. We wish we could do more but we know that everything is in the hands of our Heavenly Father who loves us & only has good plans for us. We praise Him for our blessings and are thankful for you all.

Love,

Valerie & Redgie

December 18, 2023

Protected: Merry Christmas 2023

December 16, 2022

Merry Christmas 2022

Today is December 6, 2022 and it’s time to sit down and write our annual Christmas letter so that I can get our Christmas cards in the mail. I confess, the last couple of years I’ve wondered to myself if it isn’t time to “simplify” and stop writing these long (probably boring!) letters and replace the Christmas cards with a photo card, but each year I decide to continue our tradition. I like having at least one letter per year that gives an overview of what happened during that year, if only for my own historical records, and since I’m not a great communicator during the rest of the year this one letter helps me feel connected to all of you. So…here goes!

Before I begin with the events of 2022, I wanted to mention how precious Christmas 2021 was for our family. Somehow (I think when we were all together last year in August for Mom’s memorial service) it was decided that my side of the family would celebrate Christmas with us here in Aurora.

My father Bill, brother Jeff & sister-in-law Karla and their sons Jeffrey & Philip traveled from GA; my sister Vickie and her son Jason, his wife Christina and their sons Cadyn, Connor & Anthony traveled from Dallas; and our son Brooks, his wife Christina and their children (and our grandchildren) Charlotte and Ezra traveled from San Diego. Local family included our daughter Shannon and her husband Robert, our son Brady and his fiancée Colbie and Vickie’s other son Justin & his wife Allison who had moved to Littleton, CO earlier in the year. It was a wonderful time of enjoying some special family time together, which happens rarely since we are all scattered around the country. The only “bummer” was that Brady & Colbie contracted COVID-19 on Christmas Eve, so they had to stay home and join us via video call instead of in person. (We even have a photo of the entire group including Brady & Colbie on the TV screen – fun!)

In JANUARY Redgie, Bebe & I traveled to Lynchburg, VA and enjoyed a week at our home there. We were joined for a few days by our friends Mark & Cathy. It was wonderful to be able to visit with them while enjoying some fun events at Liberty such as attending Convo and a basketball game and eating at some of our favorite restaurants.

From there, in FEBRUARY we traveled to San Diego and for another two weeks enjoyed time with Brooks & Christina and Charlotte & Ezra. We visited the San Diego Zoo, enjoyed trips to the park with the kids, read lots of “bookies” and also did some maintenance on our house in Golden Hill after our 14-month tenant moved out earlier in the month. Redgie also went on a short but notable business trip to Las Vegas during that time. It was the first business trip that he has taken since COVID-19 hit in February 2020 – two years!

After we returned home to CO Vickie came to stay with us in late February – early March. She normally would not plan a trip to CO in the winter, but Shermco (the company that Jim worked for and that their sons Jason & Justin currently work for) was presenting a new Safety award named in Jim’s honor at an annual national conference that happened to be held in downtown Denver this year. So, Shermco invited Vickie, Jason & Justin (and us) to be at the presentation of the James R. White Safety Award. It was quite an honor to be able to be there and witness the national recognition given to Jim for his contributions to the safety of the electrical industry through the technical books that he had written as well as the white papers and presentations he offered at national meetings and conferences throughout his career.

The first James R. White Safety Award is presented to Vickie, Jason & Justin

Later in MARCH, Redgie went on his annual Myrtle Beach golf trip with his group of Altoona/golfing buddies. He looks forward to that trip every year and enjoys the fellowship, fun, laughter, good food & friendly competition on the golf course with his good friends. “Do it now” has been Redgie’s mantra for the past couple of years and he’s determined to enjoy these annual trips as long as he is able to continue to do so.

In APRIL, we traveled to San Diego (Apr 6 – 19, 2022) to be with Ezra as he celebrated his 2^nd birthday! Ezra had lots of his friends come to his birthday party at the house where they enjoyed a fun splash pad, great food and birthday cake! During the trip we went back to the San Diego Zoo & enjoyed the water attractions/splash pad at the Children’s area as well as a ride on the carousel and train. Grammy & Pappy took Charlotte & Ezra to a few different parks around town and Bebe & I enjoyed daily walks around our Golden Hill neighborhood and Balboa Park. Redgie & Brooks attended a Padres baseball game and Redgie managed a round or two of golf during the trip.

From San Diego Redgie, Bebe & I traveled to Fort Walton Beach where we enjoyed time in our two Dune Pointe condos (April 19 – May 3, 2022). While we were there our friends Dave & Sonya visited for a week. This is the second time they’ve come to FWB and stayed with us while we were there and we loved spending time with them! Besides reminiscing about Redgie’s & Sonya’s time together singing in the EnPsalms while students at Liberty, Sonya cooked wonderful meals for us all week long which we thoroughly enjoyed!

In MAY we took a quick trip to Winchester, VA so that Redgie could attend a small reunion with his Pierce Foods colleagues. He so much enjoyed re-connecting with those guys and all of the fun stories and memories they shared during the reunion. We also were so blessed to be able to visit with our dear friends George & Karen and Andy & Jayne. We love them & have missed spending time with them since we moved away from Winchester in 1994.

Reg surprised me with a horseback ride adventure on May 14

JUNE was a rare month with little travel, with the exception of Redgie’s trip to Lynchburg with some of his Altoona buddies to participate in a golf tournament at Liberty University. I stayed home while he was gone and enjoyed the beautiful weather and lots of walks with Bebe. We also got to see Brooks & Christina & the kids a couple of days in June as they had traveled to Colorado Springs to attend a family reunion on her mother’s side of the family…. bonus!

Vickie came back to visit us June 23 – July 8 so that she could go with us when we took our annual trip to Dillon for the 4^th of July holiday week. However, when she arrived, she found that we had been dealing with Bebe suddenly struggling with elevated kidney and liver levels and being so sick to require a 2-night hospital stay. Over the course of a week and a half her health steadily declined to the point that we had to make the difficult decision to let her go on June 27. Our hearts broke when we had to say goodbye to our sweet little girl who had been our constant companion for so many years. It was a sad trip to Dillon this year, but I was grateful for Vickie’s visit to distract me from my grief.

In AUGUST we were visited by Ray & Donna, who had moved to AZ last year. It was good to see them and fun to have them stay with us while they were in town to help their daughter & family do some home improvement projects. Unfortunately, during their stay with us we had to take a quick trip to Delaware to attend the funeral of our good friend Melanie, but it was good to be able to briefly visit with Melanie’s husband Bill and our friends Mark & Cathy while we were there.

In Philadelphia on our way to the airport after our trip to Deleware. We had cheesesteak sandwiches at the famous Pat’s Steaks.

Later in the month we traveled to San Diego for Charlotte’s 4^th birthday. Charlotte’s birthday party was at the beach this year! Lots of her friends attended and they all had so much fun playing at the beach & water, on the playground and enjoying a picnic & birthday cake together. Redgie & Brooks took a quick side trip to Las Vegas to participate in the Bronco “Off Roading” school and had a blast driving Ford Bronco trucks all around a rough off road course. We also spent time at the zoo, the aquarium and the Children’s Museum with the kids during this trip.

In SEPTEMBER we embarked on a LONG-AWAITED trip to Europe (Sep 5 – 15). We had been planning this trip for 2 years so we were beyond excited to finally be able to go. The main goal of the trip was to attend the famous Passion Play in Oberammergau, Germany, which only takes place once every 10 years. But included in the travel itinerary was Prague (Czechoslovakia), Bratislava (Slovakia), Budapest (Hungary), Vienna (Austria), Oberammergau & Munich (Germany). We traveled as part of a group from the Montrose Church of the Nazarene (CA) including our friends Dave & Cyndi as well as Denver friends Randy & Elise and friends Steve & Jeanie from Idaho. It was a trip of a lifetime and the highlight, of course, was the Passion Play and our time in the quaint village of Oberammergau. We loved it!

(Click the arrows on the slideshow below to see all of our photos)

Almost as soon as we got home from Europe Redgie had to repack his suitcase and head off to Nashville for a business trip; only his second business trip since 2020. I was glad to be able to stay home, unpack, do laundry and try to recover from jet-lag.

I did have fun on Sep 25 attending our daughter-in-law-to-be Colbie’s bridal shower. So many of her family, friends and bridesmaids were there and it was fun to meet them all and hear about all of their plans to attend Brady & Colbie’s wedding in Cancun in November.

In OCTOBER it was back to the friendly skies for us on Oct 12 to fly east for another Lynchburg trip. This time the focus was on FOOTBALL at LU; we got to attend 2 games during that trip. For one of them we were joined at the house by Mark & Cathy, Steve & Sue and Ken who all stayed for a long weekend. The guys got to play a round of golf, we ate at all of our favorite restaurants, attended Convo and had a great time on Saturday as we watched the LU football team win a victory over the BYU Cougars (Brigham Young). What a historical victory! We were so excited that we were able to be there to celebrate this big win for LU football with our friends.

From Lynchburg we headed back to Fort Walton Beach (Oct 24 – Nov 4). This time, the purpose of our trip was to empty the Dune Pointe condos of our personal belongings and things we wanted to keep because we had made the decision to sell both of them and re-invest the funds into a larger, newer condo on Okaloosa Island (TBD). It was a bittersweet decision because all of our Dune Pointe condos had been great investments and have contributed in a large way to the success of our short-term rental property business. But after a lot of thought and prayer we felt sure that this was the correct path for us to take and so on Oct 26 we closed on the sale of unit 501 and on Nov 17 we closed on the sale of unit 401.

Vickie came to stay with us while we were in FWB so that she could enjoy the Dune Pointe condos one more time before they were sold. We took lots of walks on the beach enjoying our memories of times spent there with family and friends over the years and looking forward to new memories at our new (as yet undetermined) property at the beach.

NOVEMBER – We only had a few days after traveling home from FWB to pack up again, this time for our trip to Cancun, Mexico so that we could attend Brady & Colbie’s wedding on Nov 12! Redgie & I left on Nov 8 and flew to San Diego so that we could travel to Cancun with Brooks, Christina, Charlotte & Ezra the next day. Brady & Colbie, most of their friends and Colbie’s family and Shannon & Robert all arrived on the same day. We had a great week enjoying lots of family time, fun activities, sunny beach and pool time, good food and of course the highlight of the trip, the beautiful wedding on the beach. Charlotte was the flower girl and Ezra was the ring bearer and of course they were adorable and did a terrific job! It was such a special, memorable week and we are so happy to finally be able to “officially” welcome Colbie to our Rogers family.

(Click the arrows on the slideshow below to see all of our photos)

Redgie and I went straight to Lynchburg from Cancun for our last football weekend of the year. Unfortunately, the team did not win this game, which was disappointing. On Sunday we drove from Lynchburg to Sligo, PA were Redgie’s sister Tammy & husband Mark now live after having moved from Altoona last year to be closer to Tammy’s daughter Amanda, her husband Corey and their sweet daughters Anistyn, Lundyn and Raelyn. Despite me contracting a cold during our visit, we had a great time visiting with Tammy & Mark and Amanda and her family, including a fun visit to a local Christmas store & Christmas tree display and a delicious Thanksgiving dinner cooked by Tammy. We look forward to our next visit with them, hopefully in CO!

Reg celebrated his 64th birthday on Thanksgiving Day!

We got home on Nov 25 and look forward to staying put for a few weeks. We got to see Brooks & Christina & the kids for one night/day as they had traveled from CA to spend Thanksgiving in Colorado Springs with Christina’s parents & family. Shannon & Robert and Brady & Colbie came over to our house while they were here so that we all were able to visit together before Brooks & family flew home to CA the next day.

After the holidays, we plan to go to San Diego for several weeks in January 2023 to await the arrival of our THIRD GRANDCHILD due on Jan 20. We are SO excited and blessed to look forward to meeting this precious new addition to our family!

So, as we prepare to enjoy this blessed Christmas season, we send our wishes to you all for a wonderful, healthy and happy New Year! May God bless you all and please know how much we love & treasure each one of you reading this letter.

Love & blessings always,

Redgie & Valerie

Was September 23-24, 2025 a “failed” Rapture?

by Val Rogers September 29, 2025September 29, 2025

Merry Christmas 2023

Happy December to our friends and family! We hope that this letter finds you all well and at peace! As you will read, 2023 has been a busy year for the Rogers as usual! JANUARY: After enjoying our annual New Year’s Eve party with our friends on 12/31/22 and then putting away all of the…

by Val Rogers December 18, 2023

Merry Christmas 2022

by Val Rogers December 16, 2022December 27, 2023

December 6, 2018

Merry Christmas 2018

Santa display

December 5, 2018

Every year it seems I begin this annual letter marvelling at how fast the year has flown by…but this year it seems especially so! It has been a year of much coming and going and we have arrived suddenly to Christmas! As best as we can estimate Val was away from home about 155 days in 2018! If you add those days to Redgie’s busy work/travel schedule you can imagine how much more time he spent away from home this year.

We have traveled so much and had such a full year that for the sake of brevity (if you can 2562 words “brief”!) I will try to condense it all into a bullet point list of events.

(Click on the photos for larger view.)

CO condo view

FL condo view

Brooks and Christina celebrate Dad’s 80th birthday with us

Mom and Dad on his 80th birthday

JANUARY

Jan 1: Went to Dillon to take down the Christmas decorations in the condo.
Jan 4: Flew to FL to close on our 3rd condo in Fort Walton Beach.
Jan 4-Feb 7: We spent this time installing new floors & having the condo painted, furnishing & stocking the condo for rent. Val’s mom came from GA to help with this big task and we were so thankful to have her help!
Jan 12-15: Val’s sister Vickie came to spend the weekend with us & Mom and help with the condo.
Jan 14: During a visit with Brooks & Christina and Christina’s parents who were visiting from CA we learned that we were going to become grandparents in August!! Redgie & I have dreamed of becoming grandparents for so long we are so excited and grateful that our dream was finally going to come true! God is so good!
Jan 19 – 23: Val’s dad drove to FL from their home in GA to spend a few days with us and celebrate his 80th birthday together on 1/22/18. We drove to Pensacola that day to have a celebratory dinner with Brooks & Christina. The next morning Mom & Dad left to drive to their second home in Lake Placid FL.
Jan 25: We flew back home to CO because the next day Redgie was scheduled for a medical procedure. It was not the best timing since we were not finished with the condo in FL but the schedule was out of our hands. Everything went great so the next week we flew back to FL to finish the work on the new condo. One week later we flew back home to CO. Our first guests checked into the new condo on 2/9/18.

Jim and Vickie

Our granddad Rhino

Cousin reunion

FEBRUARY

Brooks & Christina stopped by our house on their cross-country drive from Pensacola to San Diego where they were moving to for Brooks’ new assignment as the “mini boss” on the USS Portland. They were happy to be moving back to San Diego. We got to “Rhino-sit” while Brooks & Christina took trip to Belize to be with Christina’s family. Rhino was the easiest dog to “sit” because all he ever wanted to do was take a nap! Redgie took him for a walk around the neighborhood twice a day though, so he did at least get that much exercise.
Feb 24 – Mar 1: Redgie went to Myrtle Beach at the end of the month for his annual golf trip with his Altoona buddies.
Feb 23 – 28: While Redgie was on his golf trip Val went to Washington D.C. to keep her sister Vickie company during a conference that her husband Jim was attending. We stayed at the Gaylord Hotel at National Harbor for five days. It was fun! We visited Old Town Alexandria and did some shopping, enjoyed some fun conference events with Jim and even had a “cousins reunion”! Vickie & I grew up inside the Beltway and our cousins still live in the general vicinity. Sisters Terri & Diane and our other cousin Becky all made plans to spend the afternoon at the Gaylord with Vickie & I. We had so much fun visiting, having lunch, laughing and reminiscing about our childhoods.

Reg helps Brooks construct the back deck

At Blue Star Donuts in Portland

U.S.S. Portland

At the LU Baseball game

Val found this sand dollar on the beach in FL

Val, Reg & Lt. Brooks Rogers

APRIL

Apr 12 – 16: A trip to Lynchburg to spend a fun weekend with Bill & Melanie (from Delaware), Steve & Sue (from Altoona) & Ken (from Pittsburgh). We enjoyed going to Convocation, eating lunch in the student cafeteria, going to a couple of baseball games, attending church at Thomas Road Baptist Church on Sunday and sharing lots of laughs and memories and stories.
Apr 19 – 22: A trip to Portland OR to attend the commissioning of the USS Portland. It was very interesting and fun to get to tour the ship, attend the christening ceremony, and best of all spend so much of the weekend with Brooks. He looks so handsome in his uniform and we don’t often get to see him in his “official” capacity.
Apr 25 – May 12: A trip to the Fort Walton Beach condos to take care of any necessary maintenance, re-furnishing and restocking the condos.
While I stayed in FL Redgie flew to San Diego for a few days to help Brooks work on installing a new deck on the back of the house that they bought when they moved there earlier in the year. Brooks was trying to get it done before he shipped out for 10 weeks that summer so Redgie was glad to be able to help.

MAY

May 18 – 20: We flew to San Antonio to attend a vacation rental conference. I was proud that my little business VRAssist was able to provide this opportunity for Redgie and I to spend a few days with others in the STR industry. We learned a lot, enjoyed meeting so many interesting people and enjoyed the city of San Antonio.
May 27 – 30: We spent another three days up in Dillon at the end of the month. During that trip we spent a day in Vail exploring the town. That was fun!

JUNE

Jun 20 – 24: We made a quick trip to Fort Walton Beach to help our friend Melissa get her new condo on the beach ready to put on the vacation rental market. It was a whirlwind few days but enjoyable nevertheless because we got to share that time with Melissa and her sons Alex and Nick.

Hiking on Lily Pad trail

Dead Sea Scroll exhibit

Lake Dillon

Dillon Farmer’s Market

Fourth of July Parade in Frisco, CO

JULY

Jun 28 – Jul 5: We went up to Dillon to spend the week of the July 4th holiday. We love Dillon in the summer and usually will take a bike ride, go hiking on our favorite Lily Pad Lake trail, go to the Farmers Market (which this year was right outside our building on the road that runs beside the lake), enjoy the free concerts in the newly renovated Amphitheater which is only a block from our condo, and eating at our favorite restaurants in Dillon and Frisco. Because of the fire hazard this year there were no fireworks so that was a disappointment but we enjoyed the trip anyway!
July 27: Shannon, Redgie & I went downtown to view the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit. That was very interesting!
Jul 29: We attended the wedding of Hannah Cantwell and Connor Whitson. The wedding was beautiful, full of joy and love and laughter! We were honored to be invited.

Reg meets Charlotte for the first time

Brooks & Christina at the baby shower

Family photo at baby shower

Grandma at last!

Charlotte has arrived

AUGUST

August 3 – 13: We flew to San Diego to attend the super-secret-surprise combined baby shower for Christina & Brooks and her friend Chrissy & Joe (who were expecting their 2nd son in October). Brooks almost pulled off the surprise but at the last minute a fumbling attempt at deception (which he never was very good at!) alerted Christina that something might be up. However, she was very surprised when she arrived at the shower to see many members of her family (her parents, sister Jessie, and Aunt & Uncle) so in the end it turned out fine.

During that trip Brooks & Redgie worked on finishing up the deck on the back of the house and Redgie & I searched for a small apartment to lease. We decided that we were going to want to spend as much time as possible in San Diego after our first grandchild was born and didn’t want to impose on Brooks & Christina for lodging. We ended up finding a small but nice 1 bedroom apartment only 1.5 miles from their house.

After we got home from that trip we spent a week gathering up anything that we could spare at home (dishes, pots & pans, linens, etc), packed up the car and on August 18 we began the drive from CO to San Diego. We spent the night in Las Vegas and on August 19 we moved into the “tiny tiny house”.
August 22, 2018: Our beautiful new granddaughter Charlotte was born. I was able to be at the hospital when she was born but unfortunately Redgie was out of town on a business trip (in Charlotte, NC coincidentally!) No words can describe our joy at finally becoming grandparents after so long of dreaming of this day.

In her father’s hands

Redgie and Sparky

First family photo

At the San Diego Safari Park

SEPTEMBER

September was spent in San Diego where we visited with Brooks, Christina & baby Charlotte as often as possible. Redgie did tear himself away for a trip to Lynchburg to attend Liberty’s first football game & first game in the FBS conference. He enjoyed the weekend with his Altoona buddies. We returned home to CO on September 30.

LU Gang at football game

Convocation at Liberty University

OCTOBER

Oct 10 – 15: A fun weekend in Lynchburg again with Steve & Sue and Ken. The guys went to a hockey game on Friday night and all of us went to the football game on Saturday. On Sunday we attended church at Thomas Road Baptist Church.
Oct 28: Redgie & I took a day trip to Dillon with our friends Jan & Vini. They helped us swap out the summer decor and bedding for the winter decor and bedding. On the way back down the mountain we stopped in Idaho Springs for dinner at BeauJo’s pizza….yum!
Oct 31: We flew back to San Diego.

At LU football game on Reg’s 60th birthday

Auburn University stadium

Sunrise at the beach

In my Dad’s shop

Mom & Dad’s house

Sunset at the beach

Reg & Val with Steve & Jeanie

NOVEMBER

Nov 1 – 9: In San Diego we enjoyed spending as much time as possible with Brooks & Christina and Charlotte. In just the short time since we left at the end of September Charlotte had begun smiling, cooing and giggling so it was so much fun to play with her and enjoy her emerging personality. We also got to enjoy a dinner & evening of visiting with our friends Steve & Jeanie Laird who were in town at the same time coincidentally.
Nov 9 – 19: Our fall trip to the beach condos to do the usual maintenance & restocking and enjoy the beautiful sunsets every evening and as much delicious seafood as we could eat. On November 17 Reg & I took a day trip to Auburn, AL to attend the Auburn vs Liberty football game. Unfortunately Auburn crushed the LU team. 😦
Nov 19 -24: We drove to my parents home in GA to spend a few days and Thanksgiving with them. As usual my mother was the “hostess with the most-est” and had spent several weeks preparing meals and treats for our visit. It was wonderful to get to visit with my brother Jeff and his family and my sister Holly and her four children. Unfortunately my other sister Vickie and her husband Jim were not able to come but they are planning a visit to Mom & Dad’s after Christmas.
Nov 24 – 28: On Redgie’s 60th birthday (Nov 24) we left GA and drove to Lynchburg in time to attend the freezing, rainy Liberty football game. You can bet if it had not been Redgie’s birthday I would not have been sitting in that stadium that day! But, being the good sport that I am I endured the bad weather and eventually the rain did stop and Liberty won the game so all was well in the end.

DECEMBER

We’ve been home in Denver since Nov 28 and have been working on getting the Christmas decorations up, Christmas cards addressed, shopping done and anything else that needs to be done before Christmas because in two days we head back to San Diego for 10 days…we need our Charlotte time! We’ll be back home on Dec 17. We look forward to spending the holidays with the kids (except for Brooks, Christina & Charlotte who will spend Christmas with her family in Palo Alto.)

Update on the kids:

B&C Family Portrait

Brooks & Christina: You already know that they became parents this year and I am sure that is the most important news/change they’ve ever experienced. It is precious to watch them both become loving, caring parents and we thank God for this special blessing. Brooks learned that he will become promoted to the office of Lieutenant Commander in February. Christina continues to enjoy her job as the Project Manager of the White Rhino Conservation project at the San Diego Zoo. Rhino has adapted to becoming a “big brother” with his usual laid-back personality and lots of naps. 🙂

Shannon & Robert*

Shannon & Robert still live in Parker, CO. Robert got a new job this year as an aircraft mechanic on a mobile response team for a different company. He is doing the same kind of work as he had before but is not traveling quite as much as he was before which is a good thing. Shannon continues to work for Sugar Palm Rentals (vacation rental property management company in Destin owned & operated by friends from VRBO/Homeaway). She just recently was invited to join the team on a full-time basis which makes her very happy as she really enjoys her job and working with the folks at Sugar Palm. Our granddogs Bruno & Roxy and grandcat Ruben are doing well also!

Brady & Colbie*

Brady continues to work for Enterprise Rental Cars and lives in Denver. He and Colbie have been dating for 2 years and really seem to get along well and love & care for each other. We are proud of the young adult Brady is becoming as he transitions from being dependant on us to being responsible for himself and making his own decisions about his life. Their dog Benji completes our menagerie of granddogs (and grandcat)!

Charlotte and Pappy

Redgie continues in his role at Perdue, traveling much of the time as usual. He is starting to look forward to the time when he can retire so we’ve begun to work on plans that will perhaps expedite that date. He is not one of those men who say they want to work until they die…Redgie wants to enjoy time with family & friends, travel for fun (not work), play golf and go to as many Liberty football, basketball and baseball games as possible!

Dec 2, 2018

As for me, this year I resigned my small part-time job with Sugar Palm when I learned that I was going to become a grandmother. I knew that I would want to be with the baby as much as we could manage. Now I keep myself busy with VRAssist and the management of our own vacation rental properties. (At the present time between VRAssist and our properties I manage 14 vacation rental properties!) I look forward to as much Charlotte-time as I can get in the coming year!

Reg & Bebe

Bebe turned 10 years old this year. (I thought she was 9 but Redgie insists she is 10!) She has gone with us on just about every trip….I wish she had her own Reward Miles account and could earn points for all of her travel!

We thank God for all of his many blessings to us this and every year, but this year especially with the birth of our precious granddaughter. We pray that all of our friends & family will experience the same blessings from God and be filled with the joy and gratitude of this very special Christmas season as we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Merry Christmas and sending our love,

Redgie & Valerie (and Bebe!)

June 4, 2018

Don’t just hide God’s Word in your heart….Speak it!

In the beginning was the Word

I’ve begun a new discipline in my life inspired by the book written by Joyce Meyer: “The Secret Power of Speaking God’s Word“.

This little book packs a powerful punch!

THE WHY

The author describes the circumstances in her life that lead her to the discovery that it isn’t enough to simply read God’s Word or even memorize it. We need to speak His Word out loud in order for it to work its supernatural power in our lives and in the earth. She learned that “it is good to stop doing the wrong things, but the real harvest comes in our lives when we plant seed by doing the right thing.”

Romans 4:17 states that God speaks life to the dead and calls nonexistent things as if they already existed. I began doing the same thing. I was calling those things that did not yet exist in my life into being by confessing God’s Word….Confessing God’s Word isn’t a way to get our own will accomplished but, rather, the will of God. As we believe and confess God’s Word we are setting ourselves in agreement with Him for His plan to come to pass in our lives.

THE WHAT

The author presented some Biblical examples of speaking God’s Word out loud. One was the example of the young shepherd boy, David:

First Samuel 17:42-48 tells us that when David was preparing to do battle with the giant Goliath, he ran toward him confessing out loud what he believed the end result of the battle would be….He prophesied the end result from the beginning of the event. God does the same thing according to His Word. (ISAIAH 46:9-10, ISAIAH 48:6-7.)

She also emphasized the fact that angels “hearken to the voice of God’s Word” and that when we speak God’s Word “they hear it and to go work for us.” That’s exciting!

Are not the angels all ministering spirits (servants) sent out in the service [of God for the assistance] of those who are to inherit salvation? HEBREWS 1:14

Bless (affectionately, gratefully praise) the Lord, you His angels, you mighty ones who do His commandments, hearkening to the voice of His word. PSALM 103:20

The author says “They want to work on our behalf, that is their assignment from God, but we need to release them by speaking or praying God’s Word.”

THE HOW

She goes on to explain how we are to use this supernatural tool in our daily lives.

Each time a thought comes to your mind that does not agree with God’s Word, confess the truth of God’s Word out loud, and you will find the wrong thought disappearing…

…Casting down imaginations, thoughts, reasonings, and theories that don’t agree with God’s Word requires us to use our offensive weapon – the Word of God coming out of our mouth. When we speak, it becomes a two-edged sword that defeats the enemy with one edge and opens the blessings of heaven with the other.

We can release God’s Word through prayer, confessing His Word out loud, and taking God-inspired action. We are blessed in the “doing” not just the “knowing.” James 2:17 says, “Faith without works is dead.”

THE RESULT

God’s word teaches us that our tongues are as the pen of a ready writer (PSALM 45:1) and our hearts are as a tablet (PROVERBS 3:1, 3). When we speak God’s Word we are writing it onto our hearts. I never realized that! I thought reading it or memorizing it was enough. No wonder it sometimes felt like even though I KNOW God’s word it is hard to actually LIVE it.

Joyce Meyer wrote:

God’s Word does not return void.

Isaiah teaches us that the Word coming out of God’s mouth (which I believe can also be our mouths dedicated to Him) will not return void. It accomplishes what it was sent to do.

As His representatives, we should speak His Word just the same as He would. We should speak it boldly, with authority, believing it has power to change our lives and circumstances.

And He said to me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, You know! Again He said to me, Prophesy to these bones and say to them, O you dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.….So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a [thundering] noise and behold, a shaking and trembling and a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone…So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath and spirit came into [the bones], and they lived and stood up upon their feet, an exceedingly great host. EZEKIAL 37:3-4, 7, 10

I am excited to embark on this adventure of proclaiming God’s Word from my mouth. If you happen to hear me muttering to myself don’t assume I’m losing my marbles…I may be confessing God’s Word and writing it on my heart and releasing heaven’s angels to do their work here on earth!

December 13, 2017

Merry Christmas 2017!

Denver City and County Building at Christmas

Today is Monday, December 11, 2017 and it is actually early for me to begin writing my annual Christmas letter! This season seems so quiet and relaxed compared to Christmases past. The reason must be because our children are all grown and living on their own and so I don’t have all of the usual planning, cooking, baking, shopping, wrapping etc, etc, etc, that I used to do when they were growing up at home. I miss those days of having children at home because that is when the “magic” of Christmas seemed so near.

When I reflect back on this past year it seems as if we were away from home more than we were at home. Our year looked like this:

January 2017 collage

JANUARY: I went to Dallas right after the New Year to spend 2 weeks with my sister Vickie to help her after she had a hip-replacement surgery. Her surgery went very well and she recuperated well but I was glad I planned on staying 2 weeks instead of one.

My sister Vickie is on the bottom left of this photo

Towards the end of the month Redgie & I went to Lynchburg VA (the home of our alma mater Liberty University) to purchase a new 3 BR/2.5 BA home (seen in the collage photo above). We spent 6 weeks furnishing & stocking the home to get it ready to put on the vacation rental market. While I was there my mother came from GA to help me with the shopping, decorating and furnishing of the property. She was only supposed to stay one week but ended up staying two. Thanks, Mom!

FEBRUARY: While I continued working on the house in Lynchburg Redgie took a short break and went to Myrtle Beach for his annual golf trip with his buddies from Altoona. As usual, they played a huge number of rounds of golf and enjoyed the fellowship of long friendships.

Ken, Reg, Steve & Dale

MARCH: Two days after returning home from Lynchburg we received a letter from the HOA of the community informing us that we could not rent the house on the short term market. What??

Long story short, the HOA prohibits rentals for less than 6 months so we were not in compliance with the HOA bylaws. Ultimately it was our fault that we missed this little clause in the poorly organized 144 page HOA document. However, before we even made the offer to buy the house we called the HOA management company office and specifically asked the question and were told that Cornerstone “follows the same rules as the City of Lynchburg.” That sounded like good news, since we had already researched and did not find any rental restrictions in Lynchburg for short term rentals. To back that up we saw listings in Cornerstone on VRBO and Airbnb so we knew that other owners in our community were renting on the short term market.

We appealed to the HOA board for an exception but were denied.

In the meantime, we learned that while the City of Lynchburg did not have any restrictions against short term rentals, neither did they have a provision to provide a business license to operators of short term rentals. In a phone conversation with the City Planner I learned that we could apply for a Special Use Permit (the process that hotels and Bed-and-Breakfasts went through to obtain a business license.) But the City Planner basically told me it was a crap-shoot if we would be approved since the City Council did not have a plan in place for short term rentals.

All of this felt like a door being shut on our dream of owning a second home in Lynchburg and sharing that home with others on a short term basis. So after owning the home exactly 2 months we decided to list the home for sale. The good news is that we got a contract on the house just 17 days later. (Stay tuned for the rest of the story!)

The last weekend of March saw us traveling to Monterey, CA to attend Brooks’ MBA Graduation ceremony. He received a Masters degree in Business Administration from The U.S. Navy Post Graduate School. We enjoyed spending the weekend with Brooks & Christina and visiting with Christina’s parents Irene & Harry and family in Palo Alto. We are very proud of both Brooks & Christina for working so hard to obtain their Masters degrees!

APRIL: We spent 2 weeks at our condos in Florida in April. For one of those weeks we had the company of our good friends Jan & Lanny. It was so much fun having them stay with us! We enjoyed beautiful beach weather, lots of good seafood and lots of laughter and fellowship. I hope they’ll consider making this an annual event! During those two weeks Redgie & I (as usual when we make the trip to one of our properties) spent time fixing, upgrading, replacing, stocking and generally making sure the condos were all ready for the busy summer season.

Lanny & Jan

When we got home to CO at the end of the month we were just in time for a spring blizzard which dumped several inches of heavy, wet snow everywhere. What a shock to my system! But, we need the moisture so I didn’t complain (too much!)

Apr - Beach and Snow view

MAY: We went back to Lynchburg on May 14 to pack up the rental house and put everything in storage. Since the time we started advertising the house as a vacation rental till the time we had to stop advertising we had taken 5 bookings and were able to honor all of the bookings, for which we were grateful. The good news was that it supported our hunch that Lynchburg is a good location for vacation rentals. But it was still very bittersweet to un-do everything that we had just spent 6 weeks doing. We were scheduled to sell the house to the new owner on May 19 but the closing was delayed for a couple of weeks. While we were in Lynchburg we spent some time with our local realtor and looked at lots of new properties. Eventually we found one located only 4 minutes from the Liberty campus and made an offer, which was accepted. And so for the 2nd time in 6 months we started the process of buying another home.

On May 30 Redgie and I boarded an overseas flight for a 2-week Baltic Cruise that we were sharing with 8 other couples – 18 of us in all! We were cruising on the Princess Cruise line, which was very enjoyable. We had a day and a half in Copenhagen and then on Friday we boarded our ship, the Regal Princess to begin a 12-night Baltic cruise!

Our itinerary included stops at the following ports of call:

Oslo, Norway 6/3/17
Berlin, Germany 6/5/17
Tallinn, Estonia 6/7/17
St. Petersburg, Russia 6/8/17 – 6/9/17
Helsinki, Finland 6/10/17
Stockholm, Sweden 6/11/17
Copenhagen, Denmark 6/13/17

We had such a great time visiting a part of the world we had never been to and sharing those experiences with so many of our good friends.

(Click on a photo in the collage to view its caption)

Regal Princess

Oslo, Norway

At the top of the tower of the church in Copenhagen

The Church of Our Savior in Copenhagen

Riding the subway in St. Petersburg

Reg & Val “selfie”

The Vasa Museum in Stockholm

Vigeland Sculpture Park in Oslo

Lunch in Tallinn, Estonia

Formal night on the ship

Val behind the Berlin Wall

Tower in Tallinnn

Sculpture in Berlin

Setting of the midnight sun in St. Petersburg

Enjoying waffles with friends (Oslo)

View of Akershus Fortress as we leave Norway

Reg on bike tour

Reg competed in “The Voice of the Sea” on the ship

JUNE & JULY: We didn’t get home from the cruise until June 13. On June 26 we were back in Lynchburg to attend the 1^st of two County Zoning Commission public meetings to address our application to operate a short-term rental in Campbell County. As soon as we got home we headed up to Dillon to spend our annual 4^th of July holiday week at our condo there. We love spending this time up in Dillon! There is so much to see and do during the summer time. It is our favorite time of year in Dillon. Every time we go up to Dillon I hear Redgie say at least once “I love it here!”

Lake Dillon

It was during July that we received word that our dear friend Don Robnett passed away after a long battle with cancer. He & his wife Jan had been housemates at the BBH with us and Dave & Lynn for a while and it was during that time that we grew to love them both. Our hearts broke for Jan’s loss and we still think of and miss Don’s sweet smile all these months later.

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Our good friend Don Robnett passed away on July 2, 2017. We miss him…

AUGUST & SEPTEMBER: On August 1 we were back in Lynchburg to attend the final public hearing to approve our application for a special use permit. Good news, it was approved!

We celebrated the approval of our Special Use Permit with a visit to Monkee Joe’s Ice Cream…yum!

We went back home for a couple of weeks and then came back to close on the purchase of the new house on August 16. What a process! But FINALLY we could get the house put together and start taking bookings.

The new house (called “Candlers Mountain Retreat”) is located just 4 minutes from the Liberty University campus, which will be a great benefit to the families who rent our home while visiting their student at LU, or alumni coming for a game, or online students coming to attend some Intensive classes.

Right behind the house is a horse farm. Our favorite “neigh-bor” is William the Donkey. He’s a real friendly cutie!

(Click on a photo in the collage to view its caption)

Candlers Mountain Retreat

Our “neigh-bors”

William the Donkey

Little did we know that it would take 7 weeks before we were finished and back home again. The rest of the month of August and all of September saw big changes at the new house: new wood floors, new paint, new appliances for the kitchen, new washer/dryer, plantation shutters for all of the windows and some new furniture & bedding since this house had one more bedroom and one more living space than the first one. My favorite project was the very large accent wall in the main living/dining/kitchen area that we covered with whitewashed shiplap. It was a true DIY projects and looks awesome (if I may say so myself!

Whitewashing the shiplap wall

Shiplap wall DONE!

To view all of the “after” renovation photos of the property please visit our website here.

It wasn’t all work and no play, though. Redgie & I enjoyed going to Convocation at Liberty, attending services at Thomas Road Baptist Church and a couple of football games at Liberty too! Go Flames!

Reg and Dane at Convocation at Liberty

The “71” flag is in honor of Dr. Jerry Falwell, Sr.

The “Spirit of the Mountain” marching band performs during a football game

A Sunday service at Thomas Road Baptist Church

Reg took a side trip to Altoona in September to participate in the annual Precious Life Golf Tournament. He enjoys playing golf in this tournament with the same buddies from Altoona that go to Myrtle Beach together every year. He got to see his sister Tammy & her husband Mark for one evening before they headed up to Clarion to celebrate their granddaughter’s 3^rd birthday.

OCTOBER & NOVEMBER: We enjoyed a couple of beautiful autumn weeks at home at the beginning of October. Reg & I (and Bebe) took as many e-bike rides as we could fit in during this peaceful interlude.

Bebe turned 9 years old on Oct 8.

Happy 9th Birthday Bebe!

By Oct 21 we were on our way to FL for our annual fall trip to the beach condos. My sister Vickie and two of her best friends from high school (Ellen and Patty) joined us for the first week. They stayed in one condo and we stayed in the other. Vickie, Ellen & Patty had a wonderful week reminiscing, laughing and talking. I had fun with them whenever I joined them (which was often since Redgie had to travel a good bit that week.)

We left FL and traveled straight to Lynchburg on November 8 to spend the long weekend at the new house with a group of our friends from Altoona. Steve & Sue, Mark & Cathy and Ken joined us for a Liberty-filled weekend. (All are alumni except for Sue, who graduated from Penn State but we don’t hold that against her!) 🙂

We went to convocation on Friday, ate lunch at the student cafeteria, attended a basketball game Friday night, went to the football game on Saturday and attended church at Thomas Road Sunday morning before everyone hit the road to go home. We had SO much fun! I hope we’ll be able to plan many more weekend getaways like that in the future.

Val, Cathy & Sue

The gang at the Snowflex at the top of the LU campus

Thanksgiving dinner was at our house and we were happy to share it with Shannon & Robert and Brady & his girlfriend Colbie. After dinner Redgie and the kids played a fun game of “Ticket to Ride”. Everyone had fun!

Thanksgiving fun

The next day (on Redgie’s 59^th birthday) we headed up to Dillon to spend two nights. We swapped all of the summer decorations & bedding for the winter decorations & bedding and decorated the condo for Christmas. That is always fun! We went to Pugs for dinner and Redgie enjoyed seeing his “local friends” there as always. (He says he feels like Norm on the TV series “Cheers” because whenever he shows up the local guys yell “Regggg!”)

DECEMBER: Since being home from Dillon I’ve been spending time decorating the house for Christmas and shopping for & wrapping all of the gifts that needed to be mailed. Now that that’s done, it’s time to get our Christmas cards ready to mail. I may be the only dinosaur left who writes long Christmas letters and sends actual mailed Christmas cards! But since I’m a terrible correspondent all of the rest of the year I’m willing to do it if you are willing to read it!

We are looking forward to a real family Christmas this year since Brooks & Christina will be here in CO with us during the holiday. They are wrapping up their time in Pensacola because Brooks has received his new assignment and will be stationed back in San Diego! They are very happy about that! Brooks’ new assignment will be as the “Mini Boss” of a new ship: the USS Portland, which will be commissioned next April. They are looking forward to the move to San Diego next February. We’ll miss being able to see them (and our granddog Rhino) when we go down to Florida; it’s been great having them so close by in Pensacola.

Brooks, Christina, Rhino in Pensacola

Shannon & Robert will be with us at Christmas, also. Shannon keeps busy working for Sugar Palm Rentals (the same property management company that also employs me part-time) as well as helping me with VRAssist. She also drives for Uber & Lyft whenever she wants to earn some quick extra money. Robert continues to work as an air-frame mechanic on a mobile response team. It means he is traveling a good bit of the time which has been an adjustment for both of them, but I think he enjoys the challenge and enjoys traveling to new places. Our granddogs Bruno & Roxie & grandcat Ruby/Ruben (long story!) are all well and happy that their mommy does not have to leave them alone every day when she goes to work.

D1F6DE6F-D58D-4C57-91E2-B8DF93F4BBBC

Also joining us for Christmas is our youngest, Brady. Even though he does not live far from us we don’t get to see him very much because of his demanding work schedule at Enterprise. Brady lives in the Wash Park area of Denver, sharing a house with 3 roommates and a dog named Benji (a real cutie!) He and Colbie have been dating for more than a year and he seems very happy. I’m glad for any time we are able to spend with Brady so I am really looking forward to Christmas this year with all of our kids and their “significant others”.

Colbie & Brady

Benji

If you are still reading this letter then I thank you for your dedication! We love each and every one of you and think of you often throughout the year, though you wouldn’t know it since I don’t write much. That’s why I’m telling you now!

We wish you all the very merriest of Christmases, as we celebrate the birth of our Lord.

Blessings to you,

Redgie, Valerie & Bebe

Reg & Val Christmas 2016

December 4, 2017

Immeasurably More than We Can Imagine

This past Sunday we had a guest speaker at our church since our Pastor and his family were out of town. It was not the first time that Pastor David Ralph has stepped up to the pulpit of our church when invited and just as before I found inspiration and a message worthy of meditation in his words on Sunday morning.

The scripture for his message was:

Paul’s Prayer for the Ephesians

20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

The gist of the sermon was an exhortation for us to remember not to put limits on God’s influence in our lives but to allow Him to exceed our expectations and imaginations as He works in our hearts and lives.

I’d venture to guess that most of us get so caught up in our daily lives with all of its details, deadlines, and demands that if we happen think of God at all it is usually with a quick prayer thanking Him for something or asking for help with something else. We pray with an expectation of what we think He might be willing to do on our behalf.

Paul says that God is able to do IMMEASURABLY MORE than we can ask or imagine. If we could think of the biggest, most dramatic answer to prayer, God can do so much more than that. SO much more, we can’t even imagine it.

So why limit God with our own expectation or lack of imagination?

I thought of a story told by Steve Vinton to a group of us who had traveled to Tanzania, Africa last summer to visit Village Schools International. Steve and his wife Susan are a remarkable couple and meeting them and spending time with them in their home and village of Madisi was an experience I’ll remember always.

Steve told us the story about how the AIDS Clinic in the village came to pass. I’ll recount the story here, but let me add my disclaimer that all of the details may not be exactly accurate….however this is the way I remember the story:

After settling in this village in Tanzania it soon became clear that AIDS was a prevalent issue in the area. Susan began dreaming about building an AIDS clinic in the village to serve those affected by the terrible disease. There was a small corner of land not being used by the school so Susan claimed it for the location of the dreamed-for clinic until such time when there were funds to proceed. In true Vinton/Village School fashion, they did not launch a big fund-raising campaign, but just began to pray that God would please supply whatever was needed.

In the meantime there was a woman who had come as a short-term volunteer to teach an intensive English course to the students. At the end of her time in Tanzania she confessed that volunteering in this way may not be her calling. However she asked if she could help by raising funds for the AIDS clinic after she arrived back home. Of course, the Vintons agreed.

I don’t remember how much time it took for the funds to be raised. (I wish I did, because it would probably strongly emphasize the point of God working beyond our wildest imaginations!) But it turned out that the amount of money raised for the clinic was many times more than what Susan & Steve had estimated they needed to build the clinic on the small piece of land designated for that purpose!

Steve simply said: “Well, I guess God wants a much larger clinic that we planned!”

The village donated more land so a larger clinic could be built. It is now a beautiful, working clinic in the middle of this village that before had no resources to battle this terrible epidemic. Imagine!

To top it all off, the “Doctor” who treats the patients that come to the clinic is M’Safari, a young man who, growing up in a poor village, had no future beyond the government primary school. But because Village Schools International built a school in his area he was able to go through secondary school and then went on to earn his Nursing degree.

Now he serves the people of his community, caring and healing and loving them one by one.

Who could have imagined such an outcome???

God!

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

The AIDS clinic in Madisi

Patients await the attention of the “Doctor” and Susan

M’Safari describes the protocol of the AIDS treatment given at the Clinic (with Susan and Lynn)

Read Steve’s blog

Read Susan’s blog

November 15, 2017

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2016!

(When I first published this post on December 15, 2016 I mistakenly published it as a “page” instead of as a blog “post” so it never showed up in my blog post feed. I didn’t discover it until today. So I’m re-publishing it as a blog post!)

Ok, so this is a New Year’s Photo (2015) but I love it!

Two weeks till Christmas! The clock is counting down and before we know it we’ll be celebrating the “most wonderful time of the year”….the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ!

2016 has been a great year for our family, praise the Lord! We’ve had some milestones, celebrated birthdays & anniversaries, done some traveling & some moving and fellowshipped with friends. We have been so blessed….

Here’s a quick run-down of the highlights:

We bought our 3^rd vacation rental property on Feb 1. This one is located on Okaloosa Island, FL in the same building as our first FL condo…in fact, it is the one directly below it. Both FL condos did very well this year and we’ve enjoyed being able to stay in them periodically (Feb 1 – March 12, in April and again Oct 15 – Nov 14.)

“Beach Escape” (our 2nd FL condo) best-lr-view “Beachy Keen” (our 1st FL condo)

Redgie enjoyed his annual golf outing in Myrtle Beach with his buddies from Altoona in February. It is a highlight of his year and he looks forward to it.

Ken, Redgie, Steve & Dale in Myrtle Beach

In March Shannon & Robert and Brooks & Christina celebrated their 5^th anniversaries! I can’t believe it has been 5 years since their double wedding on the beach in La Jolla, CA.

Downtown Denver at the St. Patrick’s Day Parade

In April Shannon began working part-time as my assistant at VRAssist. It’s been lots of fun working with her and having her help managing the bookings for our clients’ vacation rental properties. Besides working with me, Shannon continues to cook as a personal chef to her regular weekly client, which she really enjoys. Her husband Robert got a new job this year as an air-frame mechanic on a mobile response team, which means he travels around the country to work on and repair corporate aircraft. He is really enjoying the new job and traveling to different locations.

Robert & Shannon hosted Thanksgiving dinner at their house this year

In May we went with my parents on an Alaskan cruise. This cruise was something they’ve wanted to do for many years, and we were so happy we got to share the experience with them. The timing could have been better though…..May is early in the season so we didn’t get to see as much wildlife as we would have if we had been there during the salmon season. Oh well, it is an incentive for my parents to take another Alaskan cruise sometime in the future but later in the summer!

In June Redgie and I made a very large decision that would change our lives: we moved out of the Big Big House after 5 years of sharing it with our good friends Dave & Lynn. This decision was motivated by a couple of things; the tenants in our Weaver house were moving out in July and Brady was going to be graduating from college and probably coming home to live for a little while till he could get himself situated in a full-time job and a place to live. We very much enjoyed the “intentional community” experiment and sharing our lives and Dave & Lynn’s home and are happy we had the opportunity to experience it.

Related to moving out of the BBH, Redgie & I ended up purchasing a new home in May after deciding to put the Weaver house on the market. We moved into the new home in June. We decided not to move back to the Weaver house because it is so large; the time seemed right to consider down-sizing to a smaller home in a “lock & leave” community, meaning we would not have any responsibility for maintenance or landscaping (or shoveling snow!) outside of the home. It is a town home and I really love it! It has been a bit of a challenge to learn how to live in a “normal sized” home with a “normal sized” closet and a “normal sized” garage (after living in the BBH) but we are pretty much settled now and comfortable in our “little little house”.

In July we spent a week up at our condo in Dillon. All of our kids and their spouses joined us for the 4th, which was a lot of fun! We love spending time in the summer there, enjoying the free concerts in the amphitheater and the Farmers Market and the beautiful view of the lake. I think it is Redgie’s favorite place…he always says “I love it up here!” when we go.

A bunch of goofballs at the concert in Dillon

On August 5 Brady officially graduated from Colorado State University! He actually participated in the CSU graduation ceremony in May but he had to complete his last two classes during the summer session before he could officially graduate. We are SO proud of Brady and this milestone accomplishment! (And all of us are relieved to have his college years behind us!)

bradys-graduation

Also in August I was thrilled to be able to accompany Dave & Lynn and Dave’s sister Patty and her husband Monty on a trip to Africa! Their “Find Us Faithful” Foundation was using this trip to visit several of the ministries that it supports in Tanzania and Kenya. They invited me to go along because they knew I was interested in one of the ministries: Village Schools International. It was an amazing opportunity! We visited London for a few days, traveled to Tanzania and visited with Steve & Sue Vinton (the founders of Village Schools) for almost a week. We then topped off the trip with a 3-day stay at a safari resort in Kenya (so much fun!) If you haven’t heard about it yet, you’ll have to ask me to tell you about a close encounter during the night with a bush baby! I journeyed back home after the safari but the rest of the gang stayed on for several more days and visited some other ministries that the foundation supports. It was an amazing trip and I’m so happy I was able to go.

steve-sue-vinton-describe-plans-for-the-college-2

adelias-mother-little-brother-%22shikamo%22

susan-talks-with-the-new-mother-of-twins

local-woman-harvesting-cabbages-in-madisi

In September Brady was offered & accepted a position in the Management Training Program at Enterprise (Rental Car). We have discovered that this is a first-rate company that invests heavily in their employees, offers a good salary and excellent benefits. Brady is working hard, puts in long hours but is learning a LOT!

Brady’s first day at Enterprise

In September Redgie visited Altoona twice: once without me when he played golf with his buddies at the Precious Life Fundraiser tournament, and then again with me a week later when we attended his 40^th high school reunion. It is always fun to stay with Redgie’s sister Tammy & her husband Mark when we visit, and Reg particularly enjoyed connecting with some high school friends he hasn’t seen or communicated with in years.
Also in September I traveled to Dallas to celebrate my older sister Vickie’s 60th birthday with her & her husband Jim. <smile> It was a great weekend because our parents also joined us for the weekend and we got to spend some fun time visiting with them.
Bebe turned 8 years old on October 8!

Happy 8th Birthday Bebe!

As previously mentioned, Reg, Bebe & I got to spend a whole month in FL from mid-October to mid-November. We enjoyed gorgeous weather, delicious seafood, and lots of relaxing time at the beach or on the balcony spotting dolphins swimming by almost every day. Each time we go to FL we are lucky to be able to spend time with Brooks & Christina (who live in Pensacola, only about 50 minutes away) so that is the icing on the cake for us! They are doing well. Brooks continues his present assignment as a flight instructor for the Navy but they are looking forward to learning about their next assignment sometime next year.

Redgie, Christina & Brooks at the Blue Angels show in Pensacola

On November 24 Redgie celebrated his 58^th birthday! I got to gloat a little bit because for most of the year we are the same age, but now for three months he is “older” than me!

And that brings me to the present, looking forward to the holidays and spending time with our friends & family. We are sending blessings from the Rogers’ family to yours & bright wishes for a wonderful 2017!

val-reg-dec-2016

Love,

Redgie, Valerie, Brady & Bebe

December 17, 2015

Merry Christmas 2015

It seems it takes a snowstorm to motivate me to get busy and write our annual Christmas letter! Today we hit a new record for snowfall on December 15: 6.5 inches (and still falling!) The old record was 2.8 inches in 1897. (Thanks to Dave Clouse for those interesting stats!)

As I look back on 2015 I find myself wondering what happened to the idea I had of what “retirement” and an empty nest would be like. I thought when I wasn’t working 40+ hours per week and taking care of a family I would have all of the time in the world to get done everything I had been putting off till retirement. “When I retire, I’ll have more time to…..(finish my scrapbooks), (organize our photos), (go through all of that stuff in the storage room and get rid of whatever we don’t need or use), (write letters to everyone that I miss and think of so often)”……you get the picture! I haven’t done one bit of any of that since I retired two years ago!

It seems we are too busy traveling and generally enjoying life to worry about “getting things done”….at least I am! Poor Redgie is still working many more than 40 hours/week and traveling almost every week for Perdue Farms, and I won’t let him retire for at least 9 more years! 😉 But he still manages to have some fun along the way too, and he isn’t complaining.

Jan 2015

On Jan 2 of this year we packed up the old Expedition and drove down to Ft. Walton Beach to spend a couple of months in our FL condo. Redgie traveled back & forth from FL for work while I stayed in Ft. Walton Beach. I discovered that winter in the Panhandle is not as warm as I’d like! Some days it was warmer in Denver than it was in Destin and that just didn’t seem right! All of the “locals” were saying it was a colder than usual winter, so I suppose I ought to give it another chance…but not this winter!

While we were there we did some work on the condo, including having the entire interior painted with bright, beach-y colors. I was definitely going out of my comfort zone in picking such bright colors for the condo, but it seems our guests really like it; more than one guest has mentioned in their reviews how much they enjoyed the “beach-y” colors and furnishings. You can view photos here.

During my time in FL I enjoyed going to the office of Sugar Palm Rentals to work (as a reservationist) with the local staff. Since I am usually working from CO it was fun to be able to spend time with our FL staff and work with them on a daily basis. Since January & February are the “busy” season in the vacation rental industry I worked a full-time schedule during those weeks. The rest of the year I usually work on a part-time basis for Sugar Palm Rentals.

Feb 2015

One of Redgie’s trips in February was to Myrtle Beach for his annual golf outing with his Altoona buddies. As always, he had a great time with those guys. I’m glad he still has those connections, they are very important to Reg.

Mar 2015

In March, almost as soon as we got home from FL we turned around and flew to Lynchburg, VA to enjoy a weekend of Liberty Flames Baseball. There we met Steve Dunn (Redgie’s buddy from Altoona) and his fiancé Sue and enjoyed spending the weekend with them. We went to several baseball games and enjoyed exploring the campus of Liberty University, our alma mater. I couldn’t believe how much the campus has changed since we left in the late 70’s!

While we were in that “neck of the woods” we took a little side trip to the little white country church and cemetery where my Grandmother Louise Earl is buried. It was a bit of a hunt to find the location, but as soon as we approached the Old Alberene Church I recognized it from a long-ago trip we had taken with our grandmother to her hometown of Charlottesville, VA. I miss Grandma….she was such a large presence in our lives growing up. One of my favorite memories of her is on Christmas morning. She almost always spent Christmas Eve night with our family and was always the first person awake on Christmas morning. By the time the rest of us got up and gathered in the living room Grandma had already opened her Christmas stocking (and usually had already sampled some of the goodies that “Santa” had left inside!)

Grandma Louise and little baby Holly (1975)

Apr 2015

May 2015

In May we took a quick trip to the FL condo since the week of the 16th – 23rd was not booked. Brady was able to join us on that trip….it was his first time seeing the beach condo. We had a nice, relaxing week enjoying the beautiful weather, the beach and lots of delicious seafood. We also drove over to Pensacola to visit Brooks & Christina and visited the National Naval Aviation Museum while we were there.

Jun 2015

June saw us on our way to Altoona, PA to attend Steve & Sue’s wedding. It was held at Lake Raystown Resort which was a beautiful location for the happy event. It was so much fun to see many of our “old” friends from our years in Altoona. We enjoyed getting caught up with many of them and had a great time celebrating Steve & Sue’s marriage.

Jul 2015

We stayed home in July, if you don’t count a trip up to Summit County to celebrate the 4th of July holiday at our condo in Dillon. We always save that holiday week in the condo for ourselves since that is when the annual HOA meeting is held. We absolutely love going up there and enjoying the beautiful scenery and fun activities during the summer.

We also attended a Rockies baseball game in July, as well as enjoyed a quick visit with my college roommate Gwendy, who was visiting her daughter who lives here in Denver. Gwendy hasn’t changed a bit….I wish I could say the same for me! (I haven’t really changed that much…there is just a little bit more of me to love!) 😉

Aug 2015

Not much to write about in August, except that Redgie flew to Pensacola to help Brooks build a garage in the back yard of their new house. They didn’t get it completely finished, but they accomplished a lot! I’m really proud of Brooks and how he takes on these new projects and figures out how to get them done even though he’s never done it before. (The deck he build in the back yard of their CA home was gorgeous! He did a great job!)

Sep 2015

In September we were really happy to have the newlyweds (Steve & Sue) come to visit us in Parker, CO. They got to stay with us in the BBH for a couple of days. They took a day trip down to the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs and then we went up to Dillon and spent a couple of nights at the condo. Steve rented a boat one day and we enjoyed exploring Lake Dillon for a couple of hours before Redgie & Steve went to play golf. (Sue and I went shopping in Breckenridge!) We really enjoyed getting to know Sue and can’t deny that Steve seems to be the happiest he’s ever been!

Redgie went back to Altoona the next weekend to participate in the Precious Life Golf tournament. This is a fundraising event for a local crisis pregnancy center and Redgie has participated in the tournament for years. Besides getting to play golf (again) with is Altoona buddies, he especially enjoys the time he gets to spend with his sister Tammy and her husband Mark. Tammy spoils Reg every time he comes to stay with them by cooking all of his favorite meals from their childhood years growing up: ham pot-pie, homemade meatballs, and of course, raisin-filled cookies!

Redgie left Altoona and went directly to Pittsburgh, where he met Brady, Brooks & Christina. Earlier in the year Brooks happened to meet the Pittsburgh Steeler’s quarterback Ben Roethlisberger while Brooks was in Monterey, CA. Ben gave Brooks 4 tickets to the game on September 20 so he & Christina shared them with Redgie & Brady. They had great seats on the 50 yard line and enjoyed watching the Steelers defeat the San Francisco 49ers 43-18.

I took a quick trip to Destin in September to help train some new employees at Sugar Palm Rentals. The company is growing, currently managing 38 properties in the Destin/Miramar Beach/Sandestin area of Florida. SPRs owns most of the properties in our portfolio but also manage a select number of properties for other owners. Because of our collective experience in the vacation rental industry (as participants in the formation and growth of the industry during careers at VRBO and Homeaway) our principals and staff have a unique perspective both as owners and managers of vacation rental properties. (One of the managing parters at SPRs, Christine Karpinski, actually wrote the handbook in 2004 to help other owners learn how to manage and market their vacation rental properties themselves. The other managing partner, Jeff Marken, actually help build the website VRBO.com as the first developer hired by the founders of the site.) I love working with this group of people…..it reminds me of how it was in the “good old days” when I was employed at VRBO.com while the original founders still owned the company. I guess I can call these the “new good old days!”

Oct 2015

October was a busy month! On Oct 3 Shannon & I went downtown to attend a “game show” performance of The Price is Right. It was so much fun! I especially enjoyed Shannon’s excitement every time they announced random names of audience members and invited them to “Come on down!” Too bad they didn’t pick her, that would have been a hoot to see her participate in the live version of the game show.

October was also the month that we went on a 12 night Mediterranean cruise. This much-anticipated trip was unique in that we went with a group of 16 of friends and family. The original purpose of the trip was an anniversary celebration of our friends Vini & Jan, but they invited anyone else who wanted to go along and so we ended up with this large group. Besides Redgie and I, my parents and also my sister Vickie and brother-in-law Jim went as well, so it was a great experience to share with them as well as our friends.

Redgie & I have never visited any countries in the Mediterranean so this was a “bucket list” trip for me. We visited France (Cannes, Eze, Nice, Monaco), Italy (Florence, Pisa, Rome, Ravello, Amalfi, Sorrento, Pompeii), Greece (Athens, Santorini), Turkey (Kusadasi, Ephesus) and Barcelona, Spain (where the cruise originated and ended.) It was a great trip and we had good weather except for our day in Rome when it rained cats & dogs! Now that I’ve visited these places I want to go back to some of them and spend more time exploring the area. (Another item on my bucket list!)

After returning home from the cruise Bebe & I went to the condo in FL and spent 3 weeks there while Redgie came & went for his business trips. The weather in late Oct-early Nov was beautiful! I got to spend a day in Pensacola with Brooks where we went to see the last demonstration of the season by the Blue Angels.

Brooks & me at Blue Angels

During this visit to FL I decided to replace the living room furniture that we inherited from the previous owners with new furniture and by the time I left it looked like a whole new condo!

Nov 2015

November found Redgie flying back east to attend a football game at Liberty University. He was joined by some of his Altoona buddies and also was able to visit with his high school youth group leader, Dane Emerick.

We also took a quick trip up to Dillon to decorate the Timberline condo for Christmas.

At Thanksgiving, Redgie, Brady, Bebe & I flew to San Francisco in order to share the Thanksgiving holiday with Brooks’ in-laws, the Partridges. Of course, Brooks & Christina were there as well. Christina’s parents have invited us for Thanksgiving for a few years now and we’ve never been able to make the trip, so this year we were really happy it worked out and we were able to go. The Partridges had quite a large and varied group of friends, family and guests and the menu was just as varied and enjoyable as the company! It was a quick but fun trip.

And that brings me to December! On December 5 Redgie & I attended the “1940’s White Christmas Ball” with our friends Jan & Lanny. The ball is an annual fundraising event that benefits the Wounded Warriors project as well as the Spirit of Flight Center Colorado and this was the first time we attended. It was enchanted evening of swing dancing and big band music amidst WWII planes, vehicles and artifacts, movie set lights & props, re-enactors, sleighs, Christmas trees, all under a canopy of lights. Part of the fun of the evening was seeing all of the guests dressed up in 1940’s fashion, including make up and hairdos! (To see a video of the venue and all of the fun, decorations, costumes and swing dancing click here.)

1940s hair and makeup

Now we are looking forward to Christmas! This year Brooks & Christina are flying up from Pensacola and we will spend a few days (including Christmas Eve & Christmas day) up in Dillon. Shannon & Robert as well as Brady will join us there so for the first time in a while the family will be all together on Christmas. (That is the fulfillment of MY Christmas wish!) The kids will go snowboarding at least once while we are in Summit County and we’ll enjoy each other’s company, traditional Christmas foods (sticky buns on Christmas morning and Grandma Rogers’ double fudge) and of course the obligatory viewing of the movie “Christmas Vacation” (sorry, Christina!) 🙂

As I’ve mentioned a few times already, Brooks & Christina moved from San Diego, CA to Pensacola, FL this year. Brooks was transferred to the Naval Air Station Pensacola as a flight instructor. He is training new pilots who have recently graduated from the Naval Academy to fly helicopters. Christina could not transfer to Pensacola in her role as a Captain in the Marines, so she became a Reservist and found a job in the private sector. They sold their home in San Diego and purchased a new one in Pensacola and are enjoying turning it into a “home”. They are fortunate that some of their friends from the Academy are also stationed in Pensacola so they have an instant support group there. Our grand-dog Rhino has a large yard at the new house and seems to be adjusting to the move well.

Shannon and Robert live in Parker not far from the BBH. Shannon continues to invest in her career as a Personal Chef and owner of “A Healthy Appetite” and enjoys helping her clients improve their quality of life through lean and healthy menus and food. Robert expanded his career this year by taking a position at Straight Flight as an air frame mechanic. (He was actually recruited from his former company by Straight Flight for this position.) He is getting a lot of experience working on many different kinds of planes which is great for his résumé. Our grand-dogs Bruno and Roxie and our grand-cat Ruben are helping our other grand-dog Rhino hold places in our hearts not currently filled with grandchildren.

Brady is in his last year at Colorado State University. He will graduate in May with a Economics major and a Business Administration minor. We’re not sure what his plans are after that….he’s just uber-focused on finishing classes and finally graduating from college and beginning his “real” life afterwards. We are proud of the young man that he is becoming and I’m excited for him as he continues to take steps into adulthood.

Redgie and I still live in the “BBH” (Big Big House) with our friends Dave and Lynn and enjoy their company and fellowship. We’re not sure what the future holds, but we are excited about it and look forward to 2016 and new adventures!

As I close this (long!) holiday letter, I stop and say a prayer of gratitude and thankfulness for all of the many blessings we’ve received: our family, our friends, good health, good jobs, nice homes, and the blessing of living in a country that values our freedoms. But our greatest blessing is also our wish for you all this Christmas season: the love and sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ and the hope of eternal life with Him in Heaven. May you all be as blessed as we are, and may we never fail to honor the One from whom all blessings flow!

With much love & wishes for a very Merry Christmas!

Valerie & Redgie