Our Week in California

Before we parked at the Spokane airport for our flight to Orange County we enjoyed our Linner at the Rusty Moose in Airway Heights which is just a hop skip and a jump to the airport.

We arrived at the Santa Ana Airport in Orange County on Thursday evening May 7th. Our brother-in-law picked us up at the curb and brought us back to my sister Vera’s home in Huntington Beach, where we would be staying for a week. Our sister Vera had been in Arizona and she arrived this night, too, and brother-in-law headed back to the airport to pick her up. BIL lives in Texas and he arrived the afternoon of this day. This Orange county airport had a total of 7 of our family members arriving at different times on this day. We all initially traveled to attend our friends memorial service on Friday morning but after that we filled the rest of our time meeting up all over the L.A. area traversing the freeway system for graduation ceremonies, Mother’s Day meals, birthday meals and farewell meals with different family groups and different venues. Whew!

Our Washington kids were able to attend our Great Nephew’s graduation from The Masters College in Santa Clarita. They drove across Los Angeles from the Memorial Service to attend.

That evening we were treated to dinner at Seasons 52 in Costa Mesa with two of my sisters and brother-in-law. I didn’t take any photos.

Saturday this crew drove from different areas of L.A. and Orange County to meet for brunch at Twoheys. Those of us who weren’t at Jack’s graduation were able to congratulate him in person at this gathering. Some of us were also meeting his bride to be for the first time.

This restaurant moved from it’s original location in Alhambra to this South Pasadena location.

Retro, family-friendly American diner known for burgers & hot fudge sundaes since 1943.

Our church youth group would end up at this restaurant frequently in the 60’s and 70’s. That was when they were still in the Alhambra location. We could down a burger and then have one of their famous sundaes. My choice for a burger was always the Stinko Burger. A plain burger with a thick slice of raw onion. I ordered the same on this day for ‘old times sake’.

Josh and Laura left the 2EE’s gathering and headed straight to the airport to fly home.

Saturday evening this crew met up in Huntington Beach at Mario’s Mexican Restaurant for dinner. My brother Steve and SIL Kelly were able to make it to this gathering, driving out from Moorpark. Our niece Debbee was turning 50 this same week so we celebrated her. The Brother in law who picked us all up at the airport is sitting next to Greg. Me and my two sisters are seated at that end of the table. My brother is next to me and SIL across from him sitting next to our niece Melissa. Our niece Debbee is to the right and her hubby is taking the selfie. There was a two hour wait time for a table at this restaurant (remember this was Mother’s Day weekend) but…our Lenny, Debbie and Melissa are good customers here and the manager of the bar came up with seating for us in 20 minutes! Muy Bueno!

On Sunday, Greg and I attended Beach Bible Church (formerly Evangelical Free of Huntington Beach) with my sister Vera. This was Mother’s Day. This was the same church Greg and I attended when we lived in Huntington Beach in the mid 70’s and mid 80’s. Both of our sons were dedicated in this church. It hasn’t changed much and it is still a Bible believing and Bible preaching church. The service with the worship songs and preaching was balm to the soul.

At some point during the weekend gatherings there was a last minute decision to gather at Vera’s home for a Mother’s Day meal. Our niece Melissa offered to bring the pies and our nephew Ryan made a special gluten free cake for the gathering. Vera and I made the decision to order a couple dishes from a Chinese restaurant close by to make the day easy peasy. The Beef Broccoli and Orange Peel Chicken with steamed rice was just right for everyone.

I wasn’t with any of our children on Mother’s Day but it was nice to be with all my sisters, a few nieces, nephews, BIL’s, one brother and SIL.

Monday was beach day and I’ll save that post for another day.

Our flight home would be on Wednesday morning so our last gathering was on Tuesday night with a skeleton crew. My sisters Lana, Vera, Greg and I had a wonderful meal at an Italian Restaurant in Newport Beach called Sapori.

It was a very nice finale to our time in Southern California.

Vera drove us to the airport on Wednesday morning. Thank you, Vera, for your hospitality and to all our family who drove miles for our gatherings. Thank you, Lana, for giving up your bed for a few nights and for the use of that amazing hair dryer! 🙂

July Wrap-Up #3

At the end of the week with Southern California cousins visiting in Washington State, the party shifted down to Southern California with more cousins and aunts and uncles for what we have dubbed these gatherings, Bag-o-rama! Josh and Laura flew down to catch our visiting Bagdanov-Dallas family along with more of our family in So Cal! I’m living these events vicariously with photos shared.

First stop, my sister Vera’s home, where my brother Leonard’s family were staying. They are the Dallas fam.

Our youngest niece, Hope, enjoying Jamie’s sourdough bread that Josh and Laura transported to So Cal.

Saturday was beach day!

Party shifted from the beach to their cousin Debbee and Lenny’s home in Huntington Beach.

On Sunday Bag-o-rama continued at Debbee and Lenny’s home.

Half of the Bagdanov siblings were there. My brother Tim, sister Kathy, sister Vera and brother Leonard.

The Sunday crew of my brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, grand nieces, grand nephews, son and daughter-in-law.

Josh and Laura flew home on Sunday and some of the crew continued with Bag-o-rama at Disneyland on Monday. Earlier in the week my brother Steve and brother Leonard made a visit to our parents’ gravesides.

My parents would be pleased with all these gatherings. We carry on our pop’s now famous phone call or end of visits benediction, I love you, I love you, I love you.

This will wrap up my July posts. Onward to August for more fun in the sun!

Father and Children

This is another tribute to Dear/Greg upon his 70th birthday. Some photos with our children in their growing up years. Some are out of order and I haven’t transferred all the photos from when our kids were young onto the computer so these are limited but more than you might be interested in. 🙂

Joshua’s baby dedication at Huntington Beach E.V. Free church with pastor Bob Thune.

Daniel’s baby dedication at Huntington Beach E.V. Free church with Pastor Bob Thune.

For those who don’t miss a trick there isn’t a photo from Katie’s dedication but it did happen.

Our kids appreciate their dad and his wisdom, integrity and faithfulness.

Wide, Wide as the Ocean ~Hymn

Wide, Wide as the Ocean

Wide, wide as the ocean, high as the Heaven above;
Deep, deep as the deepest sea is my Savior’s love.
I, though so unworthy, still am a child of His care;
For His Word teaches me that His love reaches me everywhere.

Words: C. Austin Miles, 1914.

I Still Call It Easter Break Hodgepodge

Time again to answer Joyce’s questions for Wedneday Hodgepodge.

1. We’re in to a season students call ‘spring break’. Did you/your family travel over spring breaks when you were growing up? Tell us something about a ‘spring break’ you remember (from childhood or adulthood, either one).

Growing up in the 50’s and 60’s we always had Easter break. I forget when it was changed to Spring break. I’m not sure if we had the full week leading up to Easter off or starting on Good Friday for a full week. My family did not travel over Easter holidays. My mother was too busy baking Kulich (Russian Easter Bread) and making Seernaya Paska and sewing Easter dresses to go off galavanting. 🙂 We would fast on Good Friday and then attend a Good Friday evening service and when the service was over we would break our fast together with a meal at church. On Easter Sunday we would all dress up in our Easter finery and celebrate Jesus Christ’s Resurrection and come home to a luncheon of Lamb with colored Easter eggs and of course the delicious Russian Easter Bread for dessert.

In 1997 I had an epic road trip during our kids’ ‘Spring Break’ to Southern California. Dear was working but our two sons and daughter, our oldest son’s girlfriend (whom he married in 2001) and our middle son’s best friend, joined me as we traveled down I-5 with stops in Yuba City (at Dear’s mom’s condo) and then to our destination in Yorba Linda at my Mom and Pop’s home. Our oldest son was accepted to Westmont College in Montecito (Santa Barbara) and would be attending there come August so we made a trip there on one of our days. We had beach days, cousin days, a Disneyland day and Baba and Dzeda days before we headed home stopping in Clovis (at my cousin’s home), and Yuba city to have one more visit with Gommy (Dear’s mom). That stop and visit on April 18th/19th was the last time we would have with Gommy as she died on May 6th of that year, unexpectedly. Collages at the end of this post are from this epic road trip to Southern California. The photo at the top of the post was from this road trip, too.

3. March 7th is National Cereal Day…are you a fan? What’s your favorite? If not cereal what’s your favorite breakfast? Your typical breakfast?

I do enjoy breakfast cereals like Raisin Bran, Frosted Mini Wheats and Granola. My favorite breakfast is our family traditional meal of Swedish Pancakes and little smokies because we are all sitting around the table enjoying that breakfast together. If we eat breakfast at a restaurant I enjoy Eggs Benedict.

A typical breakfast would be high fiber cereal with blueberries or toast with avocado.

4. Break ground, break of dawn, break down, break the bank, break one’s stride, break the ice, break a law, break a habit, break bread…choose one of the idioms listed and tell us how it applies to your life currently.

I’m in the throws of trying to break the habit of going up on the scale after I’ve gone down on the scale. So far so good. The up and down and up again has been a yearly habit so it would be nice to break that cycle this year and stay on the low end.

5. Where do you go to connect with friends and family? What do you like to do most when you’re home alone?

Because of our moves later in life I’m disconnected from my longer established friendships. We’ve been in our current country location for 4 years and we are establishing new friends. We go to church to connect with friends. We connect with family and friends in our home or in their homes. I’m thankful for friends and family that come visit and stay overnight. Also thankful for trips to see friends and family.

I’m a list maker so when I’m at home alone I like to tick off my list. I like to have at least one day a week where my calendar has nothing on it and I can wile away the morning in my jammies and robe.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

March is my birthday month and this part of our state is not ideal for travel on my birthday, usually. We are re-thinking a night away and postponing that to the beginning of May, Lord willing. We’ll check the weather and try to get down to Spokane for a nicer meal than we would get in Colville on my birthday but time will tell. We also want to get to Spokane to see ‘Jesus Revolution’ while it is still in theaters. Growing up in Southern California we had experience with the Jesus People at Calvary Chapel (the original one) and want to see how it’s been portrayed in this film. Have any of you seen the movie?

April 12th we traveled in a rented van from Bothell to Yorba Linda. We made a rest stop to kick the soccer ball around. If I remember correctly we stopped in Yuba City for an overnight (or maybe that was an overnight on the way home) before we made it to Yorba Linda. Cousins came to visit us at Baba and Dzeda’s house on the 13th. On the 14th we headed to the Huntington Beach where our rented van broke down. I worked on getting that remedied while the kids enjoyed the beach.

On the 15th we drove to Santa Barbara (Montecito) and visited Debbee (cousin/niece) and to check out the campus that Josh would be attending.

On the 16th we had more cousin time playing card games.

On the 17th we had a Disneyland day with my sister and a cousin Melissa.

On the 18th we hit the road with stops planned in Clovis to visit cousins and then in Yuba City to see Gommy again.

Under the Pier

The beach in winter is a favorite of mine. These were some photos from our time at Huntington Beach during our family vacation in January that I haven’t shared yet.

I find the underside of a pier interesting and love watching the waves roll through.

Our niece Debbee and Lenny were married in 2013 in Huntington Beach and they took their engagement photos here so it was fun to try to recreate that moment.

This day was also Lenny’s birthday.

Today we are nowhere near the coast and we still have that white stuff on the ground and it’s not beach foam.

Our Colville kids are coming over for dinner tonight. Speaking of dinner, tonight will be the third dinner in a row that I’ve made. It’s a Notable February for that reason and others, too. Wednesday we had an Asian Stir Fry with actual vegetables. Here’s the dinner we had Thursday night. Leg of Lamb with vegetables in my Jamie Oliver Retro Roaster. We like lamb and I know many people don’t.

Tonight we’re having Oven Baked Tilapia with rice and vegetables or salad.

Speaking of food, 18 eggs were $4.24 at our local Wal-Mart on Wednesday. They were not the brown eggs, or free range eggs, or Beverly Hills Eggs, just the white caged bird eggs.

What have you been eating these days? Happy First Friday in February.

Sand and Water

After we walked the pier on Monday the 16th we headed down the steps to the sand and on to the shoreline.

Brothers born while we lived in Huntington Beach over 40 years ago in January.

And yes, JJ ended up falling in the water and getting soaked so we stripped him of his wet clothes and wrapped him in some dry coats before hypothermia set in.

Monday afternoon Josh, our trusty 15 passenger Van driver made a trip to the airport to pick up Jamie’s mom and her granny who would spend the next few nights with all of us. We enjoyed soup for dinner. We made a special trip to Rockwell’s Bakery to pick out a cake for Dan’s birthday.

Addy chose the cake. Her daddy bakes the best macarons and Addy spotted this cake and decided it was the one.

Good choice Addy! Happy Birthday Dan. The birthday celebrations keep coming.

There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy ~ Hymn

There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy

There’s a wideness in God’s mercy
Like the wideness of the sea;
There’s a kindness in God’s justice
Which is more than liberty.
There is plentiful redemption
In the blood that has been shed;
There is joy for all the members
In the sorrows of the Head.

For the love of God is broader
Than the measures of our mind;
And the heart of the Eternal
Is most wonderfully kind.
If our love were but more simple
We should take him at his word,
And our lives would be illumined
By the presence of our Lord.

Troubled souls, why will you scatter
Like a crowd of frightened sheep?
Foolish hearts! why will you wander
From a love so true and deep?
There is welcome for the sinner
And more graces for the good;
There is mercy with the Savior,
There is healing in his blood.

Words: Frederick W. Faber

Waving Goodbye…

…to Southern California.

We are leaving the city of Orange and finishing our family vacation in Huntington Beach today, flying out later in the evening.

After rain the first few days we have enjoyed sunshine filled days. Our Tuesday Disneyland day was perfect weather for us, sunshine and cool temps. Sounds like we might be returning home to more snow!