Our son Dan did all the preliminary planning of the more involved events like snorkeling, zip-lining, pineapple farm, etc. so the drives would be coordinated instead of zig zagging all around the island. Thanks, Dan.
On Friday October 2nd he planned a relaxing free day with no special events.
We had pool time and beach time and lots of photo time. We ended the day with dinner at Duke’s Restaurant which was right on our resort property.
Greg and I were captured on the path as we walked to Duke’s for an afternoon refreshment.
Granny Great got hit by a wave! Walking to find some famous Hawaii Shaved Ice…
A Wheelchair was rented to save Granny Great from the extra long stretches of walking.
There be three gentle and goodlie things
To be here
To be together
And to think well of one another
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L.M. Montgomery (from Pat of Silver Bush)
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Thank you, to Lorrie (Fabric Paper Thread) for posting this quote I lifted for our time in Hawaii.
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I was reading an article from Paul Tripp Ministries while in Maui and the title of a new teaching series (Mercy Triumphs over Judgement) where he shared his favorite verse of 2026,
James 2:13:
“For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.”
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As I sat amongst the twelve of us in Maui with different quirks and different personalities I thought this was a perfect verse to dwell on and consider…
Our third day was a full travel to experiences day. Saturday will take a few posts to cover.
In July of 2007 my brother and his wife who live in Texas came for a visit to Seattle. They had been married for almost 1 year. We had fun doing all the touristy things we love to do with visitors, Pike place market, the troll, Kerry Park, Whidbey Island, etc.
One of the evenings they were in town our friends who live on the Sound in Edmonds invited our clan over for the evening. The post about this event has disappeared from my blog and I’m reinstating here. The photos aren’t the best but the memories are.
Our dear friend Jody was the hostess with the mostest and knew how to feed a crowd.
We enjoyed a fire pit in Jody’s beautiful English garden. Jody is married to Dave who was our doctor for years! He’s the fire starter in the orange shirt.
I did mention that they live on the Sound.
Mandy would have been meeting Dave and Jody for the first time. Our brother Leonard knew our friends well.
I wonder who is in the Dunn Lumber sweatshirt behind Josh and Laura?
Leonard, Mandy, Greg, Lana, Josh, Laura and I think the profile is Bridget, another one of Dave and Jody’s daughters.
Me and my sister, Lana, who happens to be Leonard’s twin. I see Jan in the background.
One of Dave and Jody’s daughters.
Another missing piece of Leonard and Mandy’s visit for our dinner gathering in Kirkland on the waterfront.
There will be a few more Old Lost and Found posts appearing fresh on my blog in the coming year.
On Sunday morning 12 of us gathered in Pasadena at a restaurant on E. Colorado Blvd. for brunch. The name of the restaurant is Old Town Caffe and don’t let looks deceive you, it was a fabulous establishment serving great food and specialty coffees. The service was top notch, too.
It was a fun and laid back morning and good for some recovery time after all the labor of putting on the Bridal Tea. Even though Vera’s car got locked in the wrong parking structure and she had to call attendants to let her out, all worked out in the end and we made it back home for a little rest time before we dropped off Katie at the airport for her trip home.
Later on Sunday evening…
…five of us gathered at Mario’s Mexican Restaurant for dinner. Lenny, Vera’s son-in-law, thought it would be fun to say it was Vera’s birthday. She was treated to a birthday balloon crown for this fictitious day.
Monday last before I flew home on Tuesday, I met my dear recently widowed friend at a restaurant in Tustin. We spent 3 solid hours at our table in conversation good for both our souls. We didn’t think to take a photo of the two of us.
My trip to California was filled with people time. No beach time even though I was staying in Huntington beach with my sister.
When someone puts so much thought and energy in making an event so special it needs to be documented. I choose to document it here on my blog. I was blown away at the vision our niece had for showering her soon to be daughter-in-law and for the tribe of helpers who came along side her to make it all come to life. As guests we were treated to a very special time at Delaney’s Bridal Tea. Our niece’s ‘tribe’ were there before the event and well into the night when the event was over cleaning up and washing tea cups and tea pots. What a wonderful community!
The shower was held in Ryan and Michelle’s yard in Newhall. Michelle is our sister Kathy’s oldest daughter. The groom, Jack, is Ryan and Michelle’s son.
Jack’s grandmother (my sister Kathy) and Jack’s auntie (my niece Melissa) gathered flowers at the L.A. Flower Mart the day before the event. They brought the flowers to Michelle’s the day before the event and many hands arranged the bouquets in the tea pots.
Kathy baked the meat filled piroshky and they were delicious and transported those of us with Russian heritage back to our Mother’s kitchens.
The father of the groom was the scone chef!
Cousins of Michelle’s came early and assembled the tea sandwiches.
Another cousin made Gluten Free tea goodies for those who are gluten intolerant.
A dear friend made these melt in your mouth meringue kisses!
Michelle’s ‘tribe’ helped from before the shower began through and to the end with all the details that help create an celebration to remember.
Lemon curd and Clotted cream were added to each table for the scones.
Our daughter-in-love, Laura, flew in early to be a support and helper for Michelle.
Another lovely detail were the shower favors that were on each guests place setting.
It was a love filled event from beginning to end.
My Bridal Tea II post will feature all the guests and the ‘tribe’ that made it all come together.
A quick shoe change and it was time for the hard shoe dances.
Here are Addy’s people who came out to watch this time around.
The first day of Feis At the Falls was in the books for our crew. Sunday would be another morning filled with dancing.
We all drove to a great Mexican spot, Birriería El Sazón Spokane on Sprague in Spokane Valley for our lunch. Addy was the most famished of all of us after all her nonstop dancing and shoe changes! We highly recommend this spot but beware…the portions are huge!
Back at the hotel there was an afternoon of swimming before the crew landed in our room for Charcuterie that Dan and Jamie hauled to Spokane in their trusty cooler. It was quite a spread that we all enjoyed including home made pickles, sourdough and summer sausage!
The orange watermelon from a friend’s farm was so delicious!
We had a nice large corner room in the hotel so it was comfortable to gather and enjoy each others company before we called it a night. An early night since our little dancer would be on stage bright and early on Sunday.
Since our hotel room only had 3 chairs available both Josh and Dan rolled the office chairs from their rooms to our room for our gathering. Josh and Laura were 9 floors up from us and Dan and Jamie were 5 floors up from us so they made quite a sight rolling their chairs and the cooler down the elevators and down the hall to our room!
The littles decided they would ride on their way back to their rooms.
For whatever reason this birthday celebration for Greg in 2007 got removed from my blog and I’m adding the photos here for the sake of history. This celebration happened on the 31st of August instead of on his birthday because he would be back in Southern California on his actual day.
The dinner and dessert gathering happened on Friday evening the 31st of August in Edmonds, Washington.
A birthday trifle for a crowd was his cake this year.
Some memories are a little tougher than others. 🙂
Our friends who hosted this gathering live on the Puget Sound shoreline.
As per usual Jody made enough food for the crowd and to send home leftovers.
Thankful for memories of this time and of our dear friends.
Before this celebration Josh, Laura, Katie, Greg and me were at our favorite Mexican Restaurant to celebrate together. It was our famous Tequila/Taco Tuesdays at La Corona in Kirkland.
Early on in our weekly tradition, Leticia was our waitress. In later years, when we switched to afternoons instead of evenings, Lilianna became our most favorite waitress ever!
I probably put together this next collage to post on Greg’s actual birthday in 2007. This was his 54th birthday!
Meanwhile back to 2026…
We enjoyed the cheesecake I made to celebrate Greg’s special day. Greg was with our middle son on his birthday hauling firewood and when unloading at their house our grands and DIL were able to wish Gramps a happy birthday. Our oldest and youngest called with birthday greetings for their dad. Greg’s brother and sister-in-law who live in North Carolina also called with birthday wishes. Greg was thankful, too, for all the greetings for his day on my blog and on Facebook and Instagram and texts!
When I went to link up this morning for the Hodgepodge we had the news from Joyce that her dear Mama passed away earlier this week. Our hearts and prayers are with you, Joyce, and with your whole family.
1. How do you feel about the transition from lazy summer days to a busier fall routine?
I’ve always loved the transition from summer to fall. Even the years I was in school, I welcomed with excitement going back. These days I enjoy the fact that Ladies Bible studies will start up again and there will be more order in our days. I enjoy Fall weather and Fall events like cider fest and the corn maze.
2. Your favorite cookie?
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I like homemade Loaded Chocolate Chip Cookies with oatmeal, walnuts, almonds, and sometimes coconut!
I use the toll house recipe and load them up with extras.
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3. What’s something you’ve learned from a culture different than your own?
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I grew up in Southern California just outside East Los Angeles and the neighborhoods we lived in were multi cultural with Mexicans, Jews, Russians, Armenians, Japanese, Scots, and Heinz 57 Americans. I included Scots, although I only first heard of anyone who was Scottish in 5th grade when Karen’s parents moved to Montebello and she was introduced as a new student in our class. I was enthralled with her from the start and she taught me a few Scottish dance moves that we shared with the class for show and tell. I think we sang a song, too, The Bonnie Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomand.
Apart from the great food we enjoyed in the homes of my friends from these cultures, I learned about the Jewish custom of coming of age.
A bar mitzvah and a bat mitzvah are both Jewish coming-of-age milestones. A bar mitzvah (“son of commandment’) marks the religious maturity of a boy at the age 13, while a bat mitzvah (daughter of the commandment) marks the religious maturity of a girl, traditionally at age 12.
I was invited to one of my Jewish friends Bat Mitzvah and I was blown away by the lavishness of the celebration!
These are my multi-cultural Cheer friends from my high school at a Russian dinner at my house before a football game. (My Scottish friend from 5th grade, Karen, is the one with the rollers in her hair). We would have a meal at a different Cheer members home before Varsity games. They are eating borsch. That was just one of the food items my mother prepared for them. I think I see piroshky on the table, also. After the meal we would all get our cheer clothes on and head to the game for a night where we would work off every calorie we ate at dinner!
This is one of my best buddies from school days, Nanc. I spent a lot of time in her home where I learned how to make guacamole and we learned every popular Leslie Gore song by heart. Her parents brought me along to Mexican restaurants with them and to the downtown wholesale fashion district for shopping. Growing up, my family did not eat in restaurants so that was an eye opening experience all its own. Her dad drove a Volkswagon Square back and we spent many miles in that little car. One summer when she got back from visiting her uncle who was a jeweler in Mexico City she gifted me the ring below that he made for me.
While we were living in Camarillo for a short time Nanc and I reconnected online and we met up a couple of times for meals and to catch up on life. The photo above is of one of our meet ups. I hadn’t seen her for 40 years! There is a long story about that…
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4. Food critic, film critic, book critic, art critic…which hat would you most like to wear? Tell us why.
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Of these choices I’d choose the Food Critic hat because I love to travel and I love to try new restaurants and eat good food. I’d have a hard time writing bad critiques, though. I’ll just choose to be a traveler and enjoy trying new food in different places and being satisfied.
I’m not a film buff, or the reader of a variety of genres, and I’m definitely not artsy.
5. What’s a small, random thing from your childhood that you still remember clearly?
This will give you a little insight into my character. I remember hiding from my mother and father on Saturday mornings because I did not want to go to Russian School. When they found me, I would stomp my feet and say, “I’m an American!”. Well that didn’t work. In my latter years I was thankful to have learned the Russian alphabet and to learn to read and write in Russian.
To say “I am American” in Russian, use Я американец (if you are male) or Я американка (if you are female). If you want to say “I am from America” or “from the USA,” you can say Я из Америки or Я из США.
Я американка, Yah Amereekanka, I am American.
6. Insert your own random thought here.
These questions pulled up a lot of memories from my past.
On Saturday morning, this fella came up behind me while I was watering and gave me a scare. I was happy that he was a friendly fella. He wanted to come inside but we set him straight. After we gave him a drink, Greg walked him down the road a piece and he seemed to get his bearings and trotted off home.
On Sunday afternoon these two fabulous human visitors were expected and we were happy to see them pull up. We welcomed them inside. 🙂
It is always good to catch up in person with one of the Mennonite Girls Can Cook and their husbands.
We had dinner together and solved many world problems.
It was a short visit and we waved goodbye on Monday morning.
These were the skies we woke up to on Monday morning.
Psalm 19 always comes to my mind when I see a sunrise or sunset that colors the sky. “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.”
It was nice to have a short reprieve from smoky skies.
Today we have ash floating in from the latest fire in our county.
Lord, please keep our firefighters safe. Give them wisdom in how to approach all the fires burning. Help them to escape when they need to. Bring them home to their families safe and sound. And, please send us some rain without lightning. Amen.
