On the Way…

…to Gaviota for the wedding we attended on August 10th we headed off Hwy 101 just North of Santa Barbara to pick up Josh and Laura at the Santa Barbara Airport.

Josh and Laura had to travel on Saturday because Josh was directing Junior Highers at Lakeside Bible Camp for the week. They arrived after 1:00 pm and we were all hungry so we headed to Goleta Beach.

We ate at Beachside Bar-Cafe.

We missed Andrew and Dan but enjoyed the fact that the 5 of us were able to be together.

We all enjoyed something different. Dear had the fish and chips and I went with the great local treat of Santa Maria Tri-Tip.

There was a boat launch at the end of this small pier and they used this tractor to haul the boat off the pier once they lifted it out of the water.

From here we stopped in Hollister for some donuts before we headed farther north along the coast for the wedding.

The girl cousins! I had to lift this one from my niece Melissa. Somehow I missed it with my own camera! Looks like Marie didn’t make it in the shot, either.

It was so good to be with our kids. Katie and Andrew are driving West right now from North Carolina headed for Salt Lake City to visit Andrew’s mother and sister before they finish their road trip here in Seattle. We are busy getting their room ready. Dear will finish the trim on the new bedroom door and re-install the closet doors.

We got a lot accomplished over the weekend. Dear’s closet was completed and ready to get all his clothes back upstairs from the basement. I’m busy organizing my new office upstairs in the sitting room off our master bedroom. Little by little and inch by inch everything is getting more organized and fresh around here.

August is just ticking away. What do you have going these last weeks of August.

Ranch Hospitality…

When you have a wedding on a Ranch/Blueberry Farm you have to consider some extra comfort items you need to bring in…like generators to provide electricity, fancy honey buckets, and special lighting.

The drive up the coast beyond Santa Barbara was lovely with lots of views of the Pacific Ocean. The wedding venue was 16 miles beyond our first beach camping experience with our family back in 1984, Refugio State Beach.

Each table had a book by a favorite author of Caleb and Marie. Each guest found a library card on file at the guest book table to see what book and author they should look for to see where they were to be seated.

I was happy to see that our table was Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment. There were a few more Russians at our table!

Here’s the table where we found our library cards and were able to sign the guest book. They had photos of the parents and grandparents on their wedding days. Sweet!

There were a few tables that I would have been very comfortable at.

They had a special coloring book for the younger guests with crayons at the tables where they would be sitting.

Blueberry Jam for each family to take home to remember the special wedding at the Blueberry Farm.

Just in case you doubted whether or not we were on a working ranch here come the cows and the horses!

After the sun set and on our way out of the ranch we stopped on a section of the road to look up. The sky were amazing with a view of stars I haven’t been able to see in a very long time. Wish I could have gotten a photo of it.

I am happy to announce that we were able to get both our cars in the garage again. That means we have everything out of the garage and back in the house in it’s new or old spot. Such a good feeling. Dear still has touch up and baseboard work to do along with closet shelving and organizing.

What’s happening for you this weekend?

Joining Families…

It would be good for me to make myself a list before I arrive at major functions like weddings. After the fact I realize what I missed because I get distracted in the moment. Heat and sunshine take a lot out of me and I find I’m less successful in catching everyone and everything at an event.

Enough excuses already, here are the shots I got of the families that are joining each other in this latest union in my family.

Dear, Josh and Laura…

Niece Melissa with Grand niece Avery!

Our daughter Katie who flew out from North Carolina for the wedding!

Niece Melissa with Katie.

My brother Steve and SIL Kelly, parents of the groom.

Father of the Bride.

Mother and sisters of the bride.

The Bride’s sisters, Katie and Annie.

Marie’s Dad’s side of the family with Great Grandma who is 93 years old. Oops…I didn’t get mom’s side of the family. Oye!

My brother with my wonderful SIL Kelly and their sons.

Cousins on the Bagdanov side of the family.

Caleb’s grandparents on his mother’s side.

My SIL Kelly’s side of the family.

Cousins from my SIL’s side of the family.

Candid of our Katie.

Candid of our niece Kristin.

Candid of my brother Leonard with my niece Michelle and SIL Mandy!

Nieces and nephew and I wonder who David is looking at? I also got some other members of my family in the background.

Yippee for Friday! We are inching closer to having everything back in place including bedroom doors and closet doors. We had to make some adjustments in closets so Dear still has to go to the basement to find his hanging clothes. We are looking forward to a weekend at home to be able to wrap up some things around this old house. Our daughter Katie and our Son in law Andrew will be hitting the road from the East Coast to our coast early on Saturday. They should be arriving here next weekend. Katie will be staying with us for up to 7 months while Andrew is deployed. Hopefully the door on their bedroom will be back in place this weekend. Oh dear, I just realized I need to clear out the closet in that room for them, too.

What’s on your agenda this weekend?

The Attendees…

I really didn’t get many photos of the attendants at the wedding. There were many cameras and I-pads in my field of vision and then the wedding party was swept away to the back 40 on the ranch for the professional photos. By the time they got back it was time for dinner and the darkness descended on the venue…

The definition of attendees: a person who is present on a given occasion or at a given place

So this post will be all about the attendees and I apologize ahead of time for my tunnel vision on people I’m related to…

Our nephew Timothy with his wife Jessica and nephew Levi with his wife Kristin. Brothers and Sister in laws of the bridal couple. Looks like Levi spotted me taking his photo. Hi Levi!

These are the bride’s sisters Katie and Annie. Our nephew Joe is walking Katie down the aisle.

Our niece, grandniece and a Caleb and Marie’s friend’s little sweetie were the flower girls.

The flower girls had a great time running around the ranch!

The Best Men and the Maids of Honor helped to shield Marie from Caleb’s view while they walked to the aisle.

The wedding party getting back from their photo shoot.

From dinner we headed to the dance barn and watched a wonderful “first dance” by Caleb and Marie and the Father/Daughter Dance and Mother/Son dance. Way too dark for my camera skills!

My next post will be all about the family shots that I was able to get.

My mom continues to hang in there. Today I told her that my cousin/her niece had sent an email asking how she was. My mom then said to me “tell her to call, I can still talk!”

Happy Day to all of you!

The Bride & Groom…

I was considering calling this post the Long & Short of it or the Tall and Short of it…

I had more glimpses of Caleb before the wedding than Marie. She was being kept as hidden as possible so Caleb would see her for the first time as she walked down the aisle. This is Caleb with his brothers, Timothy, Levi, and Joseph.

Caleb and Levi.

Caleb is a bow tie kind of guy. My pop (Caleb’s grandfather) wore a bow tie in his wedding photos. I found this photo of my pop (Caleb’s dzeda) sporting his bow tie in a photo with his brother in law (my uncle Paul).

I loved this tender moment when Caleb reached over to move away a wisp of hair from Marie’s eyes.

Caleb lifted Marie up to give her the “kiss”.

Caleb and Marie stood at the beginning of the buffet line to hand out plates to their guests. What a great gesture of appreciation of their guests.

It was a fun time of celebrating Caleb and Marie and being able to see how much their family and friends appreciate them as a couple. There were 20 attendants in the ceremony. What’s the most attendants you’ve seen at a wedding?

The Heritage…

I was struggling with how to share all the photos I took at our nephew Caleb’s and new niece Marie’s wedding this past Saturday. This new couple is so blessed with an amazing legacy of marriage longevity so that is where I decided to start. The fathers, the mothers, the grandparents, and the great grandparents. Over 350 years of marriage was represented! 73 years, 70 years, over 50 years, over 30 years, over 20 years…those are amazing numbers in this day and age.

The father of the groom, my brother Steve, with the groom Caleb. Loved watching their interactions while they waited for the Bride to appear in the distance. (Now I’m struggling with where I should be putting commas! Added pressure with so many English majors in this family!)

My sister-in-law Kelly, the mother of the groom and married to my brother for 32 years.

The mother of the bride, Lizzie. Her husband Todd and she have been married for 25 years.

Marie’s great grandmother and her grandparents. Great grandmother was married for 73 years before her husband died! Each of Marie’s grandparents have been married over 50 years! (53 & 55 I believe)

Caleb’s grandparents, my SIL’s parents, married for 56 years.

Caleb’s grandparents (my parents) watching the wedding via facetime at their apartment. How cute are they all dressed up for the wedding from afar!? They have been married for 70 years!

Father walking his first daughter to get married down the aisle. They were both fighting back the tears. Marie has two younger sisters.

Both fathers officiated the wedding side by side.

It was great, Todd prompted Caleb for his vows and Steve prompted Marie for her vows.

And then all the grandparents came up to pray a blessing over this young couple.

What a beautiful moment representing 364 years of marriage!

I’ll be sharing more posts soon because there’s the bride, the groom, the flower girls, the extended families, the venue, the tables, the fabulous way they had us find our assigned tables, etc. etc…

I’m feeling more alive today. Yesterday was a do nothing recuperation day for me. How’s your August going?

Two Days Filled With Love…

Celebrating a new beautiful beginning and celebrating a lifelong time of loving and caring pretty much sums up our whirlwind trip to Southern California.

My heart is full and my heart is heavy…

After the beautiful wedding on Saturday we packed up and headed to my mom and pop’s apartment for a short visit before our flight home. We had a wonderful time around my mom’s hospital bed where she shared her favorite verses from the Bible with us with some added words of counsel. She was able to walk into the living area for a while to eat and watch the video of the wedding of grandson Caleb and sweet Marie that was recorded with my sister’s IPad during the wedding ceremony. By this point she had to go back to her bed and rest. Dear, Josh, Laura, Katie and I said our goodbyes knowing this would be the last time we would see her alive. Heavy…

Life…just like this post is always mixed with Joy and Sorrow…isn’t it?

Now that I am home I will be able to go through all the photos from the weekend and share with you in depth the beautiful wedding we were able to enjoy. Here’s a little tease…

Before I go here is one of passages my mom shared with us when we were around her bed yesterday…

Jude 20, 21 (NASB)

²⁰But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, ²¹keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.

Jude 1:20 (The Message)

^20-21But you, dear friends, carefully build yourselves up in this most holy faith by praying in the Holy Spirit, staying right at the center of God’s love, keeping your arms open and outstretched, ready for the mercy of our Master, Jesus Christ. This is the unending life, the real life!

It was so good to walk into our home last night to the smell of new floors. I’m looking forward to catching up on what you have been up to here in bloggy land.

Taking Flight…

We are flying to Southern California for a wedding on a Blueberry Ranch Northeast of Santa Barbara. We meet up at LAX (Los Angeles International Airport) with our daughter Katie who is flying from North Carolina. Our flights arrive 30 minutes apart. We’ll head north to our hotel and then on Saturday go farther North picking up Josh and Laura who are flying into Santa Barbara and on to the wedding we will go.

On Sunday we will trek across L.A. headed east to visit with my mom and pop before we fly home on Sunday evening. A whirlwind trip covering many miles on the 101 Fwy and interstate 5. It will be nice to be with my family and friends at Caleb and Marie’s wedding and have a visit with my mom and pop before we all head home on Sunday night. Katie will head back to North Carolina just in time for Andrew’s return from a month long training. As a dear friend of mine has coined…”Life is Rich”!

The photo above was taken by my sister Lana on Thursday night at the apartment. My niece Melissa was celebrating her birthday with my mom and enjoying strawberry cupcakes! A very special birthday to remember…

I’ll be sharing lots of photos of the newlyweds soon…

My computer will not be traveling with me so I’ll check in with y’all on Monday! Have a lovely weekend!

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

Category Archives: Caleb and Marie