Kristin and Bob's Wedding.

Our reason for going to the far northwest was to attend the wedding of some friends. It was a long trip, but it was certainly worth it. The wedding setting was perfect and all the activities surrounding it were great. The wedding was in an old church on the island. Here are some pictures of the building and its surroundings.

Shots of the wedding party. The bride.

The groom's family is of Irish descent, so they wore kilts.

The bride and groom.

There was even a bagpiper.

The reception was at the bed and breakfast where we stayed. It was a really nice outdoor setting and the weather was perfect. Here are some shots from the reception. ( I have some others that I'm saving for use later as blackmail.)

Mother and daughter.

Visit to Seattle

Posts have been pretty few and far between lately. We've been traveling a lot (not doing my golf game any good, that's for sure!). One of our trips was to Seattle and the San Juan Islands, mainly to attend the wedding of some of our friends from Chicago. We really hadn't spent much time in Seattle before and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We took a harbor tour and a guided tour of the city. We thought they would give us the most exposure given that we didn't have a lot of time to spend there. It was a good visit, but I don't think I could live in Seattle. The weather is just too depressing. Seattlites delight in telling visitors that it doesn't rain as much there as it does in, say, Chicago. Probably a surprise to most people. On the other hand, the sun only comes out about 5 days a year. Mt. Ranier is less than 100 miles from Seattle and is alleged to loom over the city. However, we never saw it while we were there.

Here are a couple of pictures of Seattle's skyline from different vantage points--one from our cruise and one from a hill overlooking the city.

The San Juan Islands were very pretty and the weather was much better. Their geography is such that on Lopez Island where we visited we were actually north of Victoria, British Columbia. 

Here's a shot from the ferry that took us out to Lopez Island. If you look closely you can see Mt. Baker.

Lopez Island was idyllic. It was larger and had a more varied topography than we expected. It was a very nice setting for the wedding--but more on that in my next post.

Grandaughter and Ginger

In an earlier blog, I published a picture of our Chicago granddaughter and Ginger. Ginger loves all our grandkids but her affection is really returned by our granddaughter here in Texas--probably because she lives with dogs all the time. Anyway, the two them play together all the time (see my daughter's blog for some examples-http://drsjulien.blogspot.com/).

Here's a picture of the two of them checking out the backyard for critters.

Far from the Tree?

Here are some striking pictures of my daughter and her daughter at similar ages. Would you be able to tell them apart?

Birthdays--I

We went north for our youngest Chicago granddaughter's birthday. She's just a couple of weeks older than our Texas granddaughter, who was also able to attend. I was a bit under the weather, but the kids were really fun. Susan took some great pictures while we were there. Here are some samples. 

First, the two birthday girls. Texas on the left and Chicago on the right.

Our puppy really likes the two little ones. Here's a picture of Ginger and our granddaughter checking out the backyard.

Here are a couple of close-ups of Rob's daughter. The purple dress (looks blue in the photo) was a present from my mom when our granddaughter was born. She grew into it just in time for her birthday.

Finally, a girl and her cake.

Birthdays--II

These next posts are going to come out of order. I have two granddaughters that are turning one this year--within weeks of each other. We went to Chicago for the first one a couple of weeks ago, but I was so out of it with a back spasm that I didn't take any pictures. Susan took a couple of rolls, and while she takes great pictures, she doesn't believe in digital photography, so I'll have to wait for those to be developed before I can scan them and put them in my blog. For the birthday this week, I was feeling much better and took lots of shots. I decided to put the celebrations up out of sequence rather than wait any longer.

Here's our granddaughter telling grandma how old she is.

Opening presents and playing with the very fun (and noisy!) toy grandma and grandpa got her.

She had her own cake (thankfully we didn't have to share--you'll see why in the pictures) and really enjoyed it.

Birthday parties are really fun!

Mom's House

While we were gone the builder made significant progress on my mom's new house here in Sun City. We were really impressed. We are on target to have her moved to Texas by June 1, although her household goods may not come until the next week. Here are some photos.

The front and down the side. We were afraid that the yard wouldn't be very level and that there would be steps in front, but they did a great job of grading the yard.

A couple of views of the kitchen.

The great room looking out from the kitchen. Here you can see some of the patio and how far she is from the neighbors behind.

It's Been a While

It's been a while since the last post. We've been gone to the almost unfrozen north for the past two weeks. Believe it or not, we made it to Chicago for the first snow of the winter and the last (just a flurry, thankfully). We went to our granddaughter's soccer game and it was kind of cold and drizzly--about 40 degrees I imagine--and I remarked to Susan that "this is as cold as I ever want to be again." The lady sitting next to us thought that was hilarious. I teased our daughter about her blood getting thin after she moved to Texas, but it sure is easy to get used to the weather down here.

We had a great trip. The main reason was to attend our youngest Chicago granddaughter's first birthday party. She is a real cutie (as are all my grandkids). Our son and daughter-in-law regularly have pictures taken of the kids at appropriate times--birthdays, etc. While the kids are always cute, the settings are rather contrived--child with stuffed toy, child with football, ... Our daughter-in-law decided to try something different--take the pictures herself. I hope she continues, because our granddaughter's picture is fabulous. See for yourself

There will be more pictures as I sort through what we all took the last two weeks, but I thought this one was special.

This weekend is our Texas granddaughter's first birthday. She actually traveled to Chicago (with her mom and aunt) for her cousin's celebration, but unfortunately the logistics of coming from Chicago to Texas (three siblings, dad with a new job, mom pregnant) will keep our Chicago granddaughter from returning the favor.

Stay tuned for more on our trip.

Some more Pictures of Texas Spring

Bluebonnets near the Sun City entrance:

Our backyard:

Texas Wildflowers--From our Street

Just down the street.