45 Years Later

Cheryl and Diane

Diane and Cheryl

I remember the top picture hanging in our home, straight ahead as you walked in our front door. It's an 11 X 14, and seemed like a very large picture to me. My mom noted on the back that it's either 1960 or 1961 (another reminder to label photos).  In 1960 Cheryl was barely one year old at the beginning of the year, but turned two in December. I would guess the date should be sometime in 1961. I'll have to compare it to other photos taken around that same time.

In the top photo we are wearing dresses that Mom made. Cheryl's was a very pale pink, and mine was orange--about the same color orange that those candy hearts with sayings like "Be Mine" are. They are probably Easter dresses, which further convinces me it's more likely 1961.  My mom curled my hair. I remember pin curls all over my head. It was the only way to get my straight hair to have any curl at all. One time I remarked to Mom that it must have taken a long time to put all those pin curls in both my hair and Cheryl's hair. She just looked at me and said, "hers is all natural curl.I didn't have to do a thing with it."

Flash forward 45 years. The bottom photo is one taken at my daughter Debra's wedding in 2006. Oh my, we have a good time together! 

England ~ August 2014

Oh my goodness, I have so much to write about, and so little time. So, instead of a long narrative for my not-so-successful journal keeping efforts, I'll simply post a lot of pictures and hope to write about them somewhere, some time.  

In August Ray's parents treated us and several of his siblings to a trip to England. Ray's parents were finishing up their mission there, and we spent 10 days traveling England with them. We saw so much--it was so wonderful. Time flew by, and we were going non-stop, morning to evening. One day in London we walked well over 10 miles. I'm glad we did so much because I'm not sure I'll be able to get there again. 

The first part of the trip was mostly the Liverpool/Preston/River Ribble valley area, and we learned about a lot of LDS church history there. Fascinating. The second part was several places between there and London. The last couple of days were in London. It was thrilling for me to see so many things that I've read about over my lifetime. I just couldn't get enough of it all.

Here are some pictures. Lots of pictures. But really they are a tiny fraction of all the pictures we took. Most of them are me and Ray in front of various historical or interesting landmarks. 

We just landed at Manchester Airport

Me and Ann

Paul and Orva

Ann and Charles

David and Sally

John and Ray

Liverpool

Preston (a rainy morning)

The River Ribble

Chorley, the LDS temple grounds

Mom and Dad

The Preston Temple

William Wordsworth's home

Hill Top Farm - Beatrix Potter's home

Herefordshire Beacon, the Malvern Hills

Warwick Castle

Anne Hathaway's home

The Eagle and the Child--Tavern frequented by CS Lews and JRR Tolkien (best macaroni and cheese I've ever eaten)

Christchurch, Oxford

Windsor Castle

Riding the Tube

London Tower

St. Paul's Cathedral

The Rosetta Stone in the British Museum

Trafalgar Square?

Big Ben

Me and Sally, with a statue of Lady Jane Grey behind us

John and Ray

July 2014 ~ Lake Cavanaugh

We just had the best week of our lives. All of our children and their families with us for a week on beautiful Lake Cavanaugh in Washington State. No cell phone service, no internet. Completely unplugged and nothing but fun.

We rented a house for the week. It used to be our house--we sold it in 2002. My daughter saw it for rent on VRBO and we jumped right on it. Of course we chose the week with the 4th of July because you've never seen more fun fireworks than on Lake Cavanaugh. Many people around the lake set fireworks off on the end of their docks. Surrounding you are fireworks lighting the night sky.  Our thanks this year especially to the house down the lake who must have spent thousands of dollars on fireworks. What a show!

Lake Cavanaugh is a little over an hour from Seattle. It is a small lake, about 4 miles long and maybe a mile wide at the widest. There is a public boat launch, but no other public places to moor a boat, or camp. Boats on the lake are almost all owned by homeowners there. So there are few boats around, and it is quiet and serene.

We loved the lakehouse when we owned it, and to tell the truth, we all cried when we sold it. It's a little scary to go back to a place you love so much--can it ever be as good? Yes, yes it can. This time we had the added joy of introducing all of our children's spouses and our grandchildren to the magic of being together as a family on Lake Cavanaugh. We relived all of our great memories of family and friends being there with us in the past and created so many new memories with our own family.

It couldn't have been better.

Here are a million (or so) pictures, in no particular order: