Baba and Dzeda

It was such a blessing for all that my folks were able to attend Levi and Kristin’s wedding. My mom got released from the hospital on Saturday, went home and got ready for the wedding. Here are the photos of them enjoying the wedding.

My dad blessing Levi and Kristin along with Levi’s maternal grandparents and Kristin’s grandmother.

The handsome groom and beautiful bride with my parents.

Baba with Jack (great grandson), Hope (youngest granddaughter) and Avery (great granddaughter).

My parents with all their grandchildren and 2 great grandchildren. There are 9 grandchildren and 2 great grandchildren missing.

Thank you to all of you who prayed for my mom. We appreciate your prayers and concern. She is so thankful that she could attend the wedding and her pain has subsided.

More photos of the wedding are forthcoming. Two of our bloggy friends are having daughters get married in May, too. Looking forward to Pondside’s photos and Mille Fiore photos.  And then in the summer Rosella’s daughter. Fun times are afoot!

We had such a rain storm yesterday. It really gave our new roof and patio covers a good workout.

No Need to Rehearse…

…a wonderful meal!

After the wedding ceremony rehearsal we were treated to a wonderful evening of good food and fellowship. Our nephew Levi married Kristin this past weekend in Nuevo, California. Nuevo is a rural community located east of Los Angeles and Lake Perris in Riverside County. It’s a rocky, hilly area with low lying valleys. But enough geography lets get back to the main event…

My sister in law Kelly is such a creative patient soul. She put together great decor and food presentation to honor the personalities of her son and new daughter in law. Steve worked hard leading up to the event with outdoor improvements on the yard. There were many trips to Home Depot this past month or so…

The main event happened in their backyard but the inside was beautifully coordinated with the theme of country casual.

It can be a little windy in the valley so Kelly anchored down the bandana hanky table cloths with books. The bride is a published poet so a lot of the books were poetry collections. Kelly and Steve have both fostered the love of books, reading, and learning with their 4 boys and so this was another great creative touch to the decor. Kelly sewed the tablecloths.

Country touches with galvanized buckets to hold the drinks. Kelly used mason jars for a lot of the decor and food presentation. She filled mason jars with ice and lemonade and put the lids on them. They were put in the bucket filled with ice to keep them cold along with other drinks for the evening. Straws were available for all the drinks, too.

They lined the bucket with plastic…

The menu was Middle Eastern with Falafel, Humus, Tabuli, Pita, and Shepherds salad.

Part of the dessert was baked and served in mason jars, too. An assortment of mason jar pies and cheesecake and brownies.

The evening ended with Levi and Kristin acknowledging each of their wedding party and the impact they have had on their lives and also a thank you to each of their parents for all they have done for them.

We returned home from Southern California on Sunday night full of all the experiences we had over the weekend. I’ll share more as the week goes on. It was so good to see our daughter Katie. We had a special family time on Saturday morning before the wedding with Josh, Laura, Katie, Dear and I. I’ll be sharing that experience soon, too. We were sorry Dan and Andrew couldn’t attend the events of the weekend but duty calls!

My mother is doing so much better than she had been for months. She is so pleased with the results she has gotten from her cortisone shot in her hip. She has mobility that she hasn’t had for quite a while and the relaxed smile on her face says it all.

Mom & Pop…

Tim and Letty picked me up at the airport and we headed straight to the hospital to visit my mom. Everyone said she looked so much better today than yesterday. We still aren’t sure when she’ll be released and if my mom and dad will attend the wedding. For Mother’s day I put together an album of photos from Katie and Andrew’s wedding for her and my dad. After we left the hospital our kids stopped by for a visit, too. For the record…my mother is hilarious on morphine. My dad is quite happy with his new bearded look. It was great to see both of them.

Friday night we attended the Rehearsal dinner at my brother’s house for Levi and Kristin. A beautiful evening with wonderful middle eastern food. I’ll be sharing more photos soon.

Oops I was so busy taking photos at the rehearsal dinner that I forgot to put sunblock on and now my cheeks are screaming at me.  I should know better…

Good night everyone. Have a great Saturday…

Equal Time…

…for the Groom.  All photographs were taken by Jeremy Leffel our wedding photographer.

Waiting to see Katie for the first time in her wedding gown…

The first look…I think he was pleased.

Now we are getting ready to see the next groom in our family, Levi.

What an emotional day Thursday was around here. We got an early morning call that my dad had called 9-1-1 and that my mom was rushed to the hospital. They are keeping her for observation and are trying to determine if she had a heart attack. Most of my family is and will be in Southern California soon for our nephew’s wedding on Saturday. My mom is real sad that she’ll have to miss her grandson’s wedding. She is in a lot of pain and doesn’t walk well these days because of the pain. We’ll hear today more on what’s going on. I’m at Seatac airport as I’m typing this getting ready to board my flight for Ontario Airport in Southern California. Hope things are quiet where you are…

Quack, Quack…

…waddle, waddle. Mama and her 8 ducklings came to visit.

I’ll be seeing my mama and pops and 6 of their ducklings this weekend. There will probably be a lot of quacking going on. Some of us are at the waddling stage, too. But back to mama duck and her ducklings…

They decided they wanted to eat the bird seed that falls from the bird feeder while I was mowing close by. I left them in peace and mowed another section of the yard until they were done. We think this is the mama duck that visits us every year. This is the first year she’s waddled about our yard with ducklings. We think her eggs got eaten last year.

Things are busy around here as we get ready for a couple of events. Tomorrow we have a dinner here for our end of session celebration with our small group. Then bright and early dark and early on Friday Dear is dropping me off at the airport. I’m flying to Southern California for our nephews wedding in a barn. Makes me think about one of my father’s favorite things to say when we’d leave a door open “Were you born in a barn?” Now Levi and Kristin can say they were married in a barn. Maybe they should have their first babe in a barn. (I digress again) Dear will be joining me later in SoCal. We’re excited that Josh and Laura and Katie will be joining us, too. It’s been a couple months since we’ve seen Katie and we’re looking forward to spending some time with her.

What’s new in your neck of the woods?

Sitting Pretty…

All the photos I’m sharing today were taken by Jeremy Leffel, the photographer that we chose for Katie and Andrew’s wedding. We’d choose him again…

Many more wedding photos are in my stash to share. We are getting ready to head to Southern California for my nephew’s wedding. I’m looking forward to seeing my folks and many of our family this weekend. Not only do we have the wedding to celebrate but another nephew and niece graduated from college with honors!

This Time Around…

…we decided on more coverage.

After our deck gazebo demise we’ve been considering new options for our deck and how to get protection from the afternoon sun. Here’s what we came up with…

Joshua came over to help his father and I got to lend a hand here and there. This wouldn’t have been as easy without Joshua’s help. Thank you Josh!

We are on the same wave length as the Space Needle make over for the 50th anniversary of the World’s Fair with Galaxy Gold…

We’re calling our color terracotta and that’s the color of our new deck stain.

Here are some interesting facts about the Space Needle…

When the Space Needle was built in 1962 it was the tallest building west of the Mississippi River.

The Space Needle had the second revolving restaurant in the world. The first one was in the Ala Moana shopping mall in Hawaii (now closed). There are now hundreds of turntables throughout the world.

One of the best sellers during the fair was a Needle-shaped gold charm with a light in it, selling for about $75 in 1962. Another was a 9-inch high chrome lighter in the shape of the Needle.

The center of gravity for the Space Needle is 5 feet above the ground.

The original nickname of the Space Needle was “The Space Cage.” The original name of the restaurant was “Eye of the Needle.”

We had so much fun in the sun over the weekend and we are still promised a good stretch. It was timely to get the deck structures up. Have a great week everyone!

Look Ma…no Jacket!

We had our first evening Sounders Soccer game that I did not have to have several layers of warmth on my body this past Saturday! The sun was shining, the crowd was rowdy, but our team went down in defeat. The only downer on a very wonderful day!

All day in the sunshine. A 5K in the morning. Putting up deck structures in the afternoon. Dinner downtown before the game. We were all yawning during the 2nd half of the game! Absorbing vitamin D is hard work!

Going to the Dentist today so hopefully I can say “Look ma, no cavities, too!”

Can’t leave without showing you how thoughtful my kids are…

A basket full of treats that were personalized about things that bring me joy from Josh and Laura.

Flowers on my doorstep from Katie and Andrew all the way from North Carolina.

Daniel sent me a gift certificate for a local salon and I’ll be booking a massage real soon.

Dear pampered me all day beginning with home made eggs Benedict that were delicious!

Blessed to the brim and I don’t take it for granted…

Have a great week y’all.

Free Them 5K!

We joined our son’s team Axia Home Loans Lynnwood to walk against human trafficking. World Concern in Seattle sponsored the event.

This is part of our Northshore Baptist group. Notice the sun glasses? We are in a wonderful stretch of sunny days here in the Seattle area. We were all a little befuddled from all the sunshine we were in on Saturday!

This event has really grown from year to year and our daughter in law was busy helping coordinate it all week long. Thankfully there were lots of volunteers to help things run more smoothly. Human trafficking is a troubling worldwide problem and events like these raise awareness and money to help fight it!

Our sunny day activities continued on after our morning walk and I’ll share more later. Today I’m linking this post with Mary at Little Red House for Mosaic Monday.