A California Weekend

On Friday JoAnn and I headed to southern California for a homecoming, of sorts. We lived in Ventura, CA from 1969 to 1972 and in many ways it was our first real home. We were out of school, in our first job, had our first child (and second), joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. All of these were life changing events. This weekend was what JoAnn described as her dream vacation. I didn't initially see it like that, but as we got into the weekend I came to the same conclusion. We spent Friday and Sunday in Ventura and Saturday a short jaunt to Solvang and Santa Barbara. We didn't do justice to either of those cities/communities so we have a reason to go back.

We kept family up to date on our adventure with postcards emailed from my iPhone. This resulted in a few jealous kids.

Ventura was a voyage of rediscovery, and no we didn't take lots of boring photos of places we remembered - mostly because they weren't worth taking photos of. However, there were lots of things we did take photos of and too many for one blog. For example last evening we went down to the beach and watched the sunset (2nd night in a row) and understand how it could be addictive. It was great to see so many people (older folks like us) who were doing the same thing. There were also younger folks down there too. More on this in a later blog.

In the short time we lived in Ventura we lived in 4 different apartments. They are all still there and we found all of them. Two of them have not changed a whit, except they are 40 years older and show it. The other two were homes or partial homes and have been remodeled. Our beach house we had to guess at. We had the right street and knew how far from the beach we lived, but it had changed considerably. They had moved the entrance to the garage 90 degrees so they could have a front yard. Good idea! The 2nd home had a back entrance and sat on a main street, but I loved it. Now it has a front entrance, stairs and a beautiful front patio. When we went by on Sunday morning there were 4 men sitting out on the patio eating breakfast.

We kept asking ourselves, why did we ever leave Ventura? We loved it and still do. But we left because we needed to grow. Some folks do this without ever leaving home, but JoAnn and I were never very good about that. We took home with us. We have the wanderlust and I think we always will. I can blame it on my parents and the military and I guess JoAnn can blame it on me. Regardless, we have loved all of the places we have lived and done so because of family and good friends. It was wonderful to go back to Ventura. We still love it. It has a great charm. It was a wonderful place to visit and when we went to Church on Sunday morning there were tears in both of our eyes as we realized that for us, this is where so much began that has made our family what it is. We are thankful for these experiences in our lives and for the joy that we have in our family.

Now we are back "home" in Las Vegas. It is our home for now and we have family close at hand (6 driving hours is close compared to 1,500 miles in the past) and many good friends. Not to mention, we also love the winters, the back patio (where I am now), and the springs and falls. The memories were good and we are refreshed, ready to go on with the rest of our daily living.

Did I fail to mention that an official holiday involves finding at least one quilt show and done or more quilt shops. I found the quilt show and a closed quilt shop and JoAnn found an open Quilt Shop, so we had and official holiday. The above art quilt is titled "Men in Ties" and is on display in the Ventura Art Museum. It is a classic piece of work and we knew Mike would like it. He has requested a full quilt for their bed (thank goodness he was kidding).

Reflections on a Family Week

This past week we were fortunate to have one of our Idaho families in town, all 7 of them with the grandchildren ranging in age from 5 months to 11 years. And what a fun time we had, from playing kickball in the garage, to exhausting themselves at what they call the dinosaur playground. The meals were noisy, the nights were short (or long depending on how you define a short night). In the end it was all fun. JoAnn and the girls made caterpillars and she can talk about that in her blog. This I do know, that the girls were so proud of themselves. They worked all week to create those caterpillars. Grandma let them pilfer her extensive fabric collection, she taught them how to make a circle pattern, how to hand sew (she has taught this before) the body and the helped them put it all together. Grandma always has a project for the girls.

Swinging is always at the top of the of fun and it's even better when Dad give you a big shove.

Of course, playground equipment is also at the top of the list along with swings, especially when you get to play by yourself.

And a friendly wave is a great "love ya gramps"!

And all too soon the week is over, the grandchildren and parents are off and back to work and school. We miss them, but we had so much fun that we know the memories are good.

Midwestern Clouds

When you live in the midwest you take clouds for granted. They are almost always there. They come in many forms and colors - or at least shades of gray if it is storm weather. In the morning they can be red or yellow or even varying shades. In the evening as the sun sets and dips below the clouds you get some really wonderful colors with a red glow rippling off the bottoms of the clouds. The tall thunderheads are equally beautiful and terrifying. At night as the full moon behind the cloud cover gives a glow that sometimes seems to fulfill the sky you know that the universe is vast and beautiful, that it is full of wonder, and that nature is beauty.

The clouds are just lifting on the mountains west of our home. Of course as I write this the clouds are back and almost as beautiful.

All that doesn't disappear when you move west, but the frequency of clouds, beautiful sunrises and sunsets, and especially thunderheads are rare. We have had a wet spring in Las Vegas and as a front passed through last night and today the clouds were beautiful. When I left for Church this morning there were no mountains to be seen, they were shrouded in a cloudy mist. An hour later when I came home to get JoAnn the clouds were beginning to lift, the sun was shining and yet, the clouds had that midwestern look. It was beautiful and while I miss the clouds I have yet to miss the winter.

Looking east from our home as the front moves through gives us some beautiful clouds to look at. Some mornings we can even get a beautiful sunrise.

While driving home I was int he shade, but the neighborhood and the mountains were capturing that beautiful desert sunshine. Absolutely beautiful.