Debbee and Lenny

The day turned out so lovely with the sun shining brightly.

Perfect for the bride who grew up in Huntington Beach and loves the beach and her flip flops!

These are 3 of my nieces. Debbee is the bride and Michelle and Melissa (sisters) were 2 of the 5 bridesmaids.

My niece Hope and grandniece Avery were the flower girls.

Brother and Sister, my nephew David with Debbee.

My sister Vera’s family.

My mom and dad with the bride and groom.

My nieces, nephews, grandniece and grandnephew.

The grandparents with their grandchildren and great grandchildren. 12 grands are missing in this photo.

The wedding party.

Mother of the groom, mother of the bride, and the groom’s sister helping Debbee to the bride’s room to wait for the ceremony.

Father of the bride getting ready for the walk down the aisle.

The rest of the photos I’m posting here are random shots of my family that I took before the ceremony began.

Here Comes the Bride!

The bride and groom are big sports fans. The ceremony was relaxed with lots of funny references to baseball and Debbee’s favorite team, the Angels and Lenny’s favorite team, the Boston Red Sox. At least both their teams wear red.

Next post will be all about the reception at Newland Barn in Huntington Beach.

My lower back is trying to freeze up on me so I did not mow the lawn yesterday. I did get some laundry done and have started on the “list” for my trip to British Columbia. The big news here in the Northwest is the glorious weather we have been promised for the next few days and into the weekend! I’m smiling…

Dear’s Side of the Family

The days here at home are short for me before I take off to Canada for our book launch so I’m going to try to capture the beauty of our time celebrating with family and friends in Southern California in my next few posts. There will be a lot of photos because a lot happened and a lot of people were together that aren’t together very often. So get your scrolling finger ready!

They arrived in waves to John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana on Thursday. Katie had to fly into LAX and I’m happy to report that the freeways proved smooth sailing for my drive to pick her up. We arranged a meeting at the hotel to get together with Dear’s only brother’s family. The only one who was missing was our oldest niece Jenna who lives in New York with her husband and grandniece.

The restaurant at the hotel was very dark so you’ll have to excuse my photos!

We had such a good time together catching up and laughing. It was good to hug and console My SIL Christina as her mother Virginia Wicks just passed away at age 92. Chris shared some things she has come across while she and one of her brothers have been sorting through Virginia’s papers. You can read about the amazing roll Virginia played as a publicist and in the jazz world in particular by clicking here and  here. She was also one of the Goldwyn Girls and was featured on one of the covers of Look magazine in 1954.

Our beautiful nieces and sweet grandniece and more shots of our families together in the past year…

Happy to be Home Again…

No matter how much fun it is to go away and enjoy family and friends it’s always good to come home again.

Josh, Laura and I flew back to Washington from John Wayne Airport today and it is so good to be home again. We came home to sunshine and clear views. I’ll be sharing all about the celebrations we enjoyed while we were in California soon. In the meantime the lawn needs mowing and I need to catch up with the laundry. What’s happening at your house?

Great Is Thy Faithfulness!

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We’ve had many celebrations, an emergency room visit, dinners, breakfasts, lunches, birthday parties, singing, reunions, and there is more to come. It’s Sunday and I’ll be back to my speedier connections Tuesday evening and will share many photos of all our celebrations. Consider yourselves warned. For now I’m just chiming in to say as my dad would say…”we are praizing duh Lorrd for all he does to us” God is good. Blessings on your Sunday!

Apple Blossoms

Apple Blossoms

God might have clothed the apple trees
In scentless brown of gray —
Such frail and fleeting blossoming,
So soon to pass away —

Instead of this fair springtime garb
Of fragrant pink and pearl,
That flutters down like rosy snow
On every breeze a-whirl.

His goodness gives the pleasant fruit
On laden boughs down-bent;
His lovingkindness adds the bloom,
Its beauty and its scent.

He loads us with His benefits
Until no want we know,
And then He sends the little more
That makes our cup o’erflow.

He opens wide His hand of love;
He gives no stingy dole;
His tender mercies crown our days:
O bless the Lord, my soul!

Annie Johnson Flint (1866-1932)

California is back to it’s old ways of showing off it’s sunshine. All my family is slowly trickling in today. Two more to go. I got to see the Bride and Groom last night along with my folks and may brother’s family from Dallas. Their daughter will be one of the flower girls and she was quite confident about her task since she has gotten experience in two of her cousin’s weddings in the last year.

I haven’t taken one photo since I’ve gotten here but tomorrow is the wedding so my camera will be clicking away!

Hope all is well in your part of the world. We’re hearing a lot about droughts and floods. Hope things won’t be as bad as they are predicting.

Who Would Have Guessed…

…I left sunny Seattle and flew to overcast misty Southern California. I’ll leave you with something else that I left behind…

Our apple tree is full of pretty blossoms. I’ll share more later.

I’m in my hotel room in Costa Mesa and will be heading over to Huntington Beach for dinner at my sister’s soon. Tomorrow the rest of my family arrives. Let the celebrations begin…

Time to Pack it Up…

…this will be my last tulip field post for now. It’s time to pack and head south.

I’m always on the lookout for the odd one in the bunch…

I was so happy that I was prompted to stash my yard boots in the car before I headed to the fields because…

…here’s what I got to walk through to get to all the different colored rows of tulips!

Yes, I felt quite smug! I’ll admit it…

If you didn’t have boots on the Roozengaarde Garden was a good choice to see many beautiful varieties of tulips and to be able to buy bunches of tulips, too.

Packed fresh and ready to send to the stands to sell.

I managed to take the garden shots avoiding hundreds of people that were milling about. The later in the morning the worse it gets.

Tuesday will be my day to get everything organized at this old house for my absence. I will be packing the suitcases for a very early departure on Wednesday morning. Dear will be coming later in the week.

Mixing It Up!

Hope you aren’t tired of tulips! Today I’m sharing the variegated and mixed up tulips. We have had rain, rain and more rain this weekend. Finally on Sunday afternoon we got some blue skies and sunshine!

We had some fun news this weekend. Our nephew Caleb asked his sweetheart Marie to marry him. Looks like our family will be having another wedding celebration come August! Reasons to celebrate are the theme of this year!

A friend of Caleb and Marie was hiding out to take this photo and others of this fun moment.

Congratulations on your engagement Caleb and Marie!

Anything new in your neck of the woods?

How Great Thou Art ~ Hymn

George Beverly Shea died this week and because he was known for introducing this great hymn to the world at Billy Graham Crusades I decided to share it today on the day of Shea’s funeral in North Carolina. Click here to read about him. My father accepted Christ at a Billy Graham Crusade in Los Angeles in 1963 and that changed the course of our entire family.

How Great Thou Art

O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder
Consider all the *worlds thy hands have made,
I see the stars, I hear the *rolling thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed:

Refrain

Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to thee:
How great thou art! How great thou art!
Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to thee:
How great thou art! How great thou art!

When through the woods and forest glades I wander
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees,
When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur,
And hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze:

Refrain

And when I think that God, his Son not sparing,
Sent him to die, I scarce can take it in,
That on the cross, my burden gladly bearing,
He bled and died to take away my sin.

Refrain

When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart!
Then *I shall bow in humble adoration,
And there proclaim, My God, how great thou art!

My father’s story was included with the stories in this book that Billy Graham’s grandsons collected.

Amarillo…

Today I’m posting the photos I took of all the yellow tulips at the Roozengaarde fields at the Skagit Tulip Festival.

A quiet weekend is on schedule for us and time will tell what we get inspired to do around this old house. The weather has been quite drippy so I don’t think we’ll be outside much. It’s Saturday in Ellen’s kitchen over at MGCC today so you can click over and check that out. Blessings…