The Busy-ness of June

 You can probably tell that blogging is down on my list of late.  That is not because of a lack of events to expose.  I have allowed myself to be less inclined to record them.  Yet here I am attempting to do so in spite of my reluctance.

I promised daughter Jessica that I would visit her every three months.  The visiting month came up in June.  Dorothy, Timothy and I drove to Seattle together, with her staying with son James and I with Chris and Jessica.  It is always pleasant to be with them.  I love them all and enjoy them too.  Jessica is consistently keen to be on the move.  So we spent time at the local "cove" and enjoyed the scenes of lake and shore.

Chris is a creative and industrious soul.  He build a second gazebo in their yard.  It is the same one Layne built in ours.  I think it is lovely and looks especially beautiful in their flourishing Seattle yard.  Chris and Jessica had an outside buffet on our last day there and it was lovely.

I missed seeing granddaughter Gemma, but her two younger sibs were there and so fun to hang out with.  Here's Miles and Peyton.  Miles is home from his freshman year at U of Arizona, in Tucson.  

This year is still full of Covid 19 concerns and restrictions, but much less severe, thank heavens.  Seth and Angelica were able to perform in a school concert, but still had to wear masks.  Meantime, Timothy performed the same day in the school jazz concert, maskless and with great enthusiasm.  It was such fun watching him play piano with relish, beating time with his whole body.  He has such a gift!  Here is a scene with Seth, masked (can you recognize him in the middle?), followed by the unmasked Timothy playing piano at the jazz concert.

Eagle High School held a Prom this year but many of the kids organized their own, with their own group of friends.  Angelica went with that idea.  The kids dress up in Prom attire, but do a variety of activities, including a little dancing.  It is interesting to visualize those fancy outfits participating in all sorts of activities that usually require much more casual dress.  Of course the event begins with lots of picture taking.  I was the photographer for Angelica and her date this time.  I have lots of photos to share, but here is just one of Angelica and her date, Colby.

Seth and Angelica have been living with us for 4 years now.  That's hard to believe!  Seth graduated from Eagle High School on June 19.  The kids were planning on being back in Taiwan by then, but we discovered, by accident, some 5 weeks ago that their American Passports were expired.  We got them renewed and expedited but they have been slow to arrive. So the kids are still with us and Seth got to participate in his graduation ceremony.  I think he enjoyed it.

Although he said he wanted no fuss, we held a family dinner to celebrate him, with Reed and Dorothy and boys.  I think he liked it.

Seth can have fun for sure but he also can be quite a help, with his youth, height and strength.  Here he is helping us put up curtain rods in the gazebo (the one like Chris put together in the picture above).  So now we have curtains in the gazebo.  I love it!

Since I promised Jessica I'd visit every three months, I also wanted to promise the same to Audrey.  She is so good to visit us almost each month.  She visited us with her friend, Serena, the weekend of June 6.  Here they are.

I planned to keep my three month visiting promise by driving to California the weekend of June 26th.  It was full of California birthdays:  Allegra on the 25th, foster daughter Michelle on the 26th, Audrey the 27th, Scott and Jacqueline the 28th.  Jacqueline is a California girl but she and Ben's family were out of the state.  But three birthday celebrations (plus Michelle, who I didn't get to see) in one weekend was worth being there for.  So I talked Angelica into driving there with me and the plans were finalized.  Just a couple of days before our departure, Ben called to see if he and his Jessica and their kids could spend Saturday night with us on their way to Seattle.  Oh boy, what to do?  Layne said they could come even though I was planning to be gone.  Then, nephew Mark Berrett called to ask if they could spend that same weekend with us, to attend a sport's tournament for their daughter.  Layne said, "sure."  So now two families are set to come while Angelica and I are in California!  Seth and Layne would host without us. I was torn, but decided to keep my California commitment.  Reed and Dorothy said they'd help the guys host.  Why, I wonder, do things come in bunches?  According to Layne, they had a wonderful time without us.

Angelica and I headed out early Friday morning.  I thought we could talk our 10 hour way to Mountain House, home of Cliff and Audrey.  But Angelica was tired.  She slept just about the whole way!  So much for a talking companion.  We arrived in good shape on Friday evening and went to Rayne and Dominic's condo, where we enjoyed a delicious chicken dinner and bonding time.  Then to Audrey and Cliff's where I enjoyed the guest room that was now open to me, after the previous occupants, Rayne and Dominic, had moved into their own place.  It was a sweet weekend, full of birthday celebrations and a girl's trip to a lavender festival on Saturday.  Here you see the girls in the midst of the lavender.  Allegra, Angelica, Rayne and Audrey pick in the above picture; Audrey in the one below.

Here are my three California girls in front of Audrey's fireplace:  Rayne, Audrey and Allegra, wearing the new skates that Rayne gave both the birthday girls.

Here is a picture of the missing birthday girl, Jacqueline, that I swiped from facebook.  She turned 19 on June 28th.

Our drive home was an adventure.  We left Tuesday morning at 3:30 AM, with a book to listen to and Angelica promising to be an awake companion.  I used the google girl to get me out of town and onto the freeway, where I knew my way home.  It was dark when we started.  The google girl had some creative ways of getting me to the freeway this time.  She does that sometimes.  Instead of leading me to the familiar highway 80 (the freeway), she took me to highway 88, which turned out to be a winding road that lead us through country towns and into the Sierra Mountains, and continued to wind its way through to the desert on the other side.  It was a mystery drive of sorts.  We continued, in faith that our computer girl knew her way.  We finally emerged out of the mountains into Carson City!  It was a beautiful drive and led us into the morning light with lovely views of the forest.  The amazing thing was that we lost little if any time going that route!  Perhaps the google girl was onto something.  We drove up to Reno where we connected with Highway 80 at last.  The adventure over, Angelica was soon asleep again.  So I turned on the book Audrey set up for me and listened to the unfolding mystery as I drove home.  All in all, it was a very pleasant experience.  Even if Angelica wasn't the talking girl I was hoping for.

Frances wanted some more formal pictures of Seth and Angelica, so Angelica's photography friend took a series of them.  Here is a sample.

We recently got recliners for our living room.   I love them!  Here I am relaxing in one of them, with kitty Cherry deciding that she would settle between my legs for a nap.  She was so comfortable that I hated to disturb her, so there I sat, for longer than planned, just to please her.

 

One of our adopted Mongolian girls, Bayaraa Hopkins, and her family came to visit on the 4th of July weekend.  We had such fun with that great little family.  Our Independence celebration was spiritual and fun too.  We celebrated with fireworks at Reed and Dorothy's.  They can have home fireworks, in the city of Meridian, but we can't in the county.  Go figure.  Anyhow, the Hopkins kids don't get fireworks at all in their Reno location, so they especially enjoyed lighting them with us.  We also enjoyed the fireworks that fill this Treasure Valley every 4th of July.  This is a patriotic place!  It was fun for all.  Here is Hopkin's daughter, Gwenth, dressed for celebration!

A few fireworks.

The Hopkins family:  Bayaraa, Gwenth in front of Nolan, oldest son Gordon and Dad Ryan.  Love this family!

Here is a little miracle to mention.  We have been anxiously waiting for the kid's passports to arrive, so they can return home to Taiwan for some summer time with family.  They haven't come.  Then, last Sunday at Church, I was approached by two lovely ladies in charge of the stake's Trek activity for the youth.  "Are the passports here yet?" they asked.  "We've been praying that they would be delayed long enough for Seth and Angelica to attend Trek this coming week.  Can they?"  Wow.  I thought, why not?  So we made last minute plans for them to go.  I just knew that the passports would arrive while they were on Trek.  They left last Thursday.  And guess what?  The passports came on Friday!  They returned home yesterday, tired, dirty, but happy.  Do you suppose that the Lord was guiding that?  Were they supposed to experience Trek?  I'm inclined to think so and feel grateful that the Lord is watching out for them, two very special grandchildren.

So here we are, all caught up.  I'll end by expressing my love and gratitude for a country that has provided freedom and prosperity for us; family and friends for all the years of my life.  How I hope and pray that love of freedom will keep us free, as God intended us to be.