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Saturday, June 29, 2013

California Dreamin'

One week ago at this time we were headed home from ten days in Southern California with family.  What a busy and fun time we all had!


Here's the group that was there for the weekend's celebrations. Our daughter who lives in Chicago and our son came as did Dick's brother and his wife. Most of the weekend festivities were held at their oldest son's lovely house in San Marcos. Thanks to VRBO we were able to rent a house nearby for our part of the family. (Three other families, including our younger daughter, were unable to attend and greatly missed.)


The young lady in the hat was the inspiration for our trip as she had just graduated from high school and will be going to Cal Poly in the fall to study electrical engineering.  (Our daughter Jill used to babysit for her!)  This night, however, we gathered at a restaurant to celebrate my birthday and our son's birthday which are two days apart. Kaeli, Mark and Pia's middle daughter, wasn't able to attend because she had a dress rehearsal for a dance recital the next day.




On Saturday night Mark and Pia hosted a very nice graduation party for Jessica, and we got to meet some of their neighbors and some of Jess's friends.



That  same afternoon while the party was being prepared, our household went to the beach in La Jolla where the grandkids experienced their first ocean waves.  If you enlarge the photo, you can see that lots of sea lions inhabit this beach. The kids had a ball!



Sunday evening found us back at Mark and Pia's for our last dinner together.  We all had fun cooking on two special grills, and the trampoline provided lots of bouncy fun for almost everyone. 


On Monday Bob and Mary had to leave for home, and we decided to take it easy.  The kids though spent an exciting day at Disneyland.  So, that's the first part of our week.  I'll be back soon with more photos from the rest of our stay. Ciao!

Friday, June 28, 2013

Back Home and Back On the Needles

We are back home from a wonderful trip to California and trying to catch up!  I did a fair amount of knitting on the plane and in the car (as a passenger!).  If you enlarge the photo, you can see the colors of the speckles on this blanket better.  I am on the home stretch: ball number 6. It's a fun knit but not particularly quick.



I'm on the way up the second sleeve of this little sweater.  Looks like I'll make the deadline on it also.



My latest project is Jared Flood's Guernsey Triangle shawl thanks to my wonderful stitching friends.  They've decided to add Knitting and Crochet to their talents. The yarn is Madeline Tosh light.  I really like the color only it makes seeing the patter a bit difficult.  Oh well.  It was FROM MY STASH!!!


More photos soon from our trip.  Meanwhile, check out Judy L's blog to see what other knitters are doing.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Our crazy week



Our garden kept growing while we were gone! (The weeds did, too.)


The clematis is blooming well this year. Hurrah!



These two hats were finished while we were gone.


I'll bet you can guess who will be wearing this! It was a fun and quick project.


From the front and back...you can see where he dug out a new path up the hill. He went through the fence twice!


We were awakened last Saturday night when an our-of-control driver plowed through our corner neighbor's yard and hit the house before being stopped by a tree in the front yard. Would you believe he ran away? We don't know whether the dogs the police brought in found him. I sure hope so! Sunday morning we were amazed to see the damage.

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Time Travels

We recently returned from PA and Dick's 50th college reunion. 

 

Before we left for State College, we did some visiting with long time friends in Verona. Marv is Dick's fraternity brother and the four of us were neighbors in San Diego long ago.



Our girls took swimming lessons together at the Y. Marv found this old photo!



Dick grew up in this house, and his folks lived here for 60 years or so. We were kind of sad to see it for sale.




We visited the Oakmont Cemetery and were delighted that Dick's cousin, Suzy, planted flowers at his parents' graves.


Most of the Acacia class of '63 fifty years later.


The wives.......


We spent the last couple of days exploring the Pennsylvania countryside and then slipped across the border into New York and enjoyed a few hours at Watkins Glen. What a lovely spot!
We've been home for a busy week and are soon headed to a family gathering to celebrate our great niece's high school graduation and make some more memories!

Friday, June 7, 2013

Still Needlin'

Just in case you hadn't figured it out, we've been gone.  We spent the past week in Pennsylvania where Dick grew up, revisiting old haunts and friends.  I did quite a bit of knitting between visits.



This project is a good travel piece although it is getting larger and more cumbersome.  Only a little bit more and I can start decreasing. Yay, it might just get finished!



Don't know about you, but I can't stitch in the car or plane, so this is what I completed before we left.  The time is getting closer, so I need to get. back. to work!

Our choir is singing tonight at a Wedding Blessing, our first, so am going to cut this short.  Will be back soon with photos from our Time Travels.