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Beach Church

After 7 straight weeks of rain by the buckets, we woke up to a day that stayed gloriously clear and bordering warm all day. Thought we'd better grab the opportunity and go out to the beach. Spent a couple hours running up and then sliding down the dunes, and ended as usual with Caleb first getting a shoe wet, and then going for broke til he's wet up to his armpits. That's when we know it's time to go home. :-D Our beach is not like most people would imagine for a California coast. It's not populated, it's not perfect white sand, and it's rarely warm enough to go without a coat, but it truly is beautiful in all it's untouched nature. I was talking with my hairdresser last week about thinking I need to start going to church. Not only do I want to give Caleb a basis for making spiritual decisions in his future, but because it feels right that we formally thank God on a routine basis for all the blessings that He has given us. Susan (my hairdresser) said, "I have that need, too. That's why I go to Beach Church." And I realized that I've been doing that myself for the 15 years since I first moved to Monterey. I feel close to God there, I believe He knows I'm thankful, and I don't have to put on pantyhose on Sunday mornings to prove it. By the way, Caleb IS going to Christian school starting in the Fall.  I don't know which I'm happier about; him getting a good basic understanding of God and the bible or the fact that he gets to avoid our lame public school system, but we really expect he has a bright future, and for that I'm extremely thankful.

Our first to get married

We never did place any bets on which of our four beautiful daughters would get married first, so no money was lost when Kate, our youngest, surprised us all and stood in front of the local Justice of the Peace a couple days ago. Only her mother and Doug's mother were present, as well as Kate's girlfriend who shared these pics with us.

Even tho they've only known each other for 3 or 4 months, they appear to have a solid connection. We're all rootin' for them. By what I've seen he's good to Kate and good to Kadence and that's all John and I really care about.

We got a call around noon today that one of Doug's uncles was throwing them a little celebration party at 4pm. Come to think of it, that was a wise decision--nobody had time to go buy presents so they just got cash! :-) But you gotta know it killed me to bring a store-bought card. It was either do my hair and makeup or spend all afternoon at the studio making a card...I opted for looking presentable upon meeting his family for the first time. I'm happy to say this was the LAST TIME I'll have to apologize for lame pics...I bought a new 5mp camera today...just wasn't quite prepared to use it for these.

It's always kind of a novelty getting John and Roz (the redhead; mother to Amy and Kate) in a pic together ;-) The fun looking guy in the crazy hat is Doug's father. Doug says he's going through about his tenth mid-life crisis. That he has about 9 or 10 of those crazy hats that he wears all the time. Seems like a fun guy.

Kate's new family is certainly not short on kids! Doug has three by a previous marriage...his parents; Mike and Vera, are a year or two younger than me, and they have ELEVEN GRANDCHILDREN!!! Egad. Caleb just had the best time jumping up and down on the bed (when I wasn't looking) and being a goofball in general while all those little girls played with their dolls.

Here's to Kate and Doug. Like I wrote in their storebought card:
"Don't sweat the small stuff. And remember; it's just about ALL small stuff!" :-)