Our Trip to New Orleans

I feel like I've been away for a long time. I'm definitely in a different season in life and it's been an interesting adjustment.

We went to Red Robin for Beth's birthday, she got a new phone case and some gift cards. It was a small celebration but she had a good day.

We just returned from a long weekend in New Orleans. We went to celebrate Sharaya and Peter turning 40 this year. Chuck, Beth and I had never been there before and it was fun to explore a new city.

Diana, Peter and the kids flew in on Wednesday, the rest of us took a red eye and arrived Thursday morning. We met in Jackson Square and began our adventure! 

St Louis Cathedral

We walked around downtown and came across a wedding procession. A band and a hundred people dancing down the middle of the street! The music just made you want to dance! 

And the food! We had beignets, we tried the gumbo, po' boys sandwiches, alligator, grits, and all of it was delicious. I only got a picture of the beignets though. It was hard not to be messy when you ate them. 😊

We went to the WWII Museum. That place was huge, we could have spent days there. 

Sharaya took this picture of the outside

I don't know if each of those dog tags represent a person who was killed, but it was a humbling display. 

Did you see The Monuments Men movie? The museum had a section about the art that was preserved during the war.

It's an incredible place. We were there for hours and still didn't see everything.

One day we took the trolley to the park. The kids got to watch the ducks and play on the playground.

It was such an incredible trip. There was so much to see and do there. The music, the food, the sights. And the people were so friendly. Oh, and the trees with the Spanish Moss! I wasn't expecting those. They were beautiful.

It truly is a beautiful city. We had a great time. If you ever get the opportunity to go, you should.
 

Beth Turns 42 Today!

October 10, 2026 Beth turns 42. Hard to believe! She wants to go to Red Robin - her favorite place, and due to everyone's schedules, we'll celebrate her later this weekend.

 

Happy Birthday Beth!

(And Sharaya turned 40 this week! I'll write about her birthday later.)

Still Here - What We've Been Up To

Hi everyone,

It's been a while. Our family is in the process of healing and we're doing okay. We appreciate your continued prayers.

We've had a very busy summer. I turned 65 in June. The girls got me a record album... with songs from different decades of my life, and songs that remind them of me. It's amazing! I've been playing records since I was in the 5th grade, and now I have my own. 💖 I love it!

Chuck and I celebrated our 44th Anniversary in August. We walked onto the ferry and rode it from Edmonds to Kingston, and spent some time at the small park there. Then we rode it back again. It only takes an hour or so but it's a nice relaxing trip. 

Beth bought some new bowling shoes. The bowling alley she goes to every week has a little pro shop and she loves to go in there. The bowling ball she's had for a while is getting too heavy for her. She's getting older! Her elbow was getting sore so we went to the doctor and turns out she has tennis elbow, so now she's looking at getting a new one.

This summer I went to a dahlia show at our local nursery to get some pictures for my greeting cards. I have some small orange dahlias in the backyard but I had no idea there were so many varieties! 

 

We also went to San Diego for Chuck's 50th high school reunion. Here's a picture to give you an idea of the evening. Chuck is in the dark blue shirt.

I also got to see my sister again while we were down there. In fact, Beth stayed with her while we were at the reunion. They wanted nachos for dinner, then they played Yahtzee and watched TV. 

Plus I got to see a couple friends from high school. (Chuck and I went to different schools.) There are five of us that met our freshman year and we're still close today. They're the only two that stayed in San Diego though. It had been a few years since we'd seen each other but it was like no time had passed at all. The older we get the more we cherish these friendships.

Well, it's taken me four days to write this so I'll close and get it posted. We've got a busy October with two birthdays, and a vacation planned. 

How are you doing with fall here now? Can you believe it's October already?

One Last Visit, Then Home

 We left Colorado then headed west to Northern California. 

Stopped for gas and some hot chocolate. Beth gets hot chocolate every Sunday at church so she was very happy to get some this Sunday too!

We ended up driving by the Great Salt Lake and the salt flats. We're the blue dot at the bottom of this pic. That's where we were when I took these pictures.  

Chuck and I are on ancestry.com and about 15 years ago a lady named Joan emailed me and asked about her aunts picture on our page. Her aunt is my great grandmother. She was putting together a book of the history of our family and mentioned that back in 1928 my grandfather and his cousin, went with an aunt and uncle on a road trip from Massachusetts to San Diego, up to Seattle and home again. She had letters that her aunt wrote to her cousin (mom and daughter) during the trip. What she didn't know was that I had all the photos of that trip. We've been writing back and forth all these years, and finally got to meet.

We crossed Donner Pass, the same road they took on that 1928 trip.

This a post card of a snow shed up on Donner pass.

Here they are visiting the giant redwoods in northern California -

My grandpa Robert on the left, with Uncle Henry and Aunt Lou.

We met Joan and Don for lunch and talked for almost 2 hours. But we wish we'd had more time. It was so good to meet them.

We stayed overnight in Redding, then had breakfast at Black Bear Diner in the morning. The food was so good. And they're known for their biscuits.

Mount Shasta

Drove through Oregon, then into Washington, and home to Seattle.

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Right now we're going through some things at home so I may not be on here for a while. Please keep our family in your prayers.