Family In Town

My sister, her husband, and their two children are in town from Montana, so we've been quite busy. Almost as soon as the Summer Art classes finished, we were at our former neighbors' 50th wedding anniversary party at which it was lovely to see so many friends from my childhood; we lived in that neighborhood from the time I was six years old until three years after Keith and I were married. Several of these neighbors helped with our wedding reception held in my parents' backyard at sunset 23 years ago. The Lanhams, who lived across the street and whose Golden Anniversary we celebrated on Saturday, were the family who took me to church when I was eight and first introduced me to Christ. Their youngest son, Scott, was my age exactly and we went through school together from first grade until graduating high school. He gave me my first kiss and we used to play tackle football on his front lawn on summer nights. We truly grew up together. And then we saw other families whom we knew as I grew up, including a neighbor whom I had a huge crush on when I was in 7th grade. It was great to see all the old neighbors, and fun for my sister and her family to be here for the special event.

On Sunday after church at Lake Murray and our Logos meeting to discuss Blue Like Jazz, we had a family barbecue down at my parents' place in Pacific Beach, complete with our aunt and her husband, our uncle, and Mom's cousin, his wife and tennaged daughter, plus my brother and his two kids, my sister, her husband, and their two, plus Keith, myself, and our four kids. The deck was certainly full as we enjoyed grilled chicken, ribs, and sausages with baked beans and coleslaw with strawberry shortcake for dessert.

Then on Monday my parents and my sister and her family drove up the mountain to our home, and from there the kids and I followed their Surburban with our Sienna to my parents' cabin on Mount Laguna for a quick visit, and then we caravanned into Julian, a charming goldmining-town-turned-tourist-attraction. We enjoyed lunch and wandered through a couple of shops, including our traditional stop at the Cider Mill which has all kinds of great things to eat along with samples of cherry apple cider. We drove home from Julian via Cuyamaca Rancho State Park where we stopped near our old camping spot at Los Caballos Horse Camp which burned in the 2003 Cedar Fire at the Stonewall Gold Mine to take photos of Stonewall Peak, which also burned in the fire, and the surrounding area which used to be on our favorite riding trail over to Lake Cuyamaca. I'll post a few photos later this week on my photo blog.

Today was an at-home day, and I played catch-up with e-mail, laundry, and gardening. Tomorrow after Anglican chapel and a stop at Dr. Burns' office for a quick chirpractic adjustment, we'll go down to my parents' house for an afternoon on the beach then an evening at the San Diego Zoo which is open at night during the summer. We don't have anything really planned for the 4th of July, and after this busy week, we may just stay home and rest.

More later, and more photos to boot....