Before we left for Temecula, we stopped by to see our good friend Jen Bay. We were able to leave all our leftovers with her and see her awesome sewing space. Jen used to live up in the Silverdale area and volunteered in the temple. We became good quilting friends before she left for Mesa and we left for Ecuador.
She and her husband (Paul’s mission president’s son) have remodeled their home room by room and it is lovely. They served for two years in the Mesa Mission during the pandemic and were perfectly placed to serve in that assignment. Look at this sewing area.
She gave me a few Moda mini charm packs for my hexagon making. I’ve been enjoying sewing them in the car on our travels.
We enjoyed Mexican food with my parents, Tad and Liz, and Marissa. And the next day we had Mexican again with the Fausetts. I would be happy eating tacos and pork barbacoa every day!
I saw this on the wall in the guest room. I think I made this as a teenager in the 1980s for my mom. It was nice to see it again.
One evening we went down to visit Mike and Diana and as we were driving past the Escondido exit, I asked Paul to turn off so I could visit my old house. But as we drove up Mary Lane, I remembered the Kolb’s home was for sale, so we take a turn on Haas.
Becky and I played here many days. It was fun to walk around and look in the windows.
When I was little I would pick a pomegranate from the tree across the driveway and pick it apart as I walked home. They are still growing strong.
This is the route I would usually walk to the Kolb’s home. When my sister married Becky’s brother, it meant we could always be related.
Speaking of Don and Jerri, we moved in with them for our last two weeks in the country. They are so wonderful to keep us and always have fun things for us to explore in Provo.
Here’s Becky and I at their wedding. Our mothers made these wonderful Gunne Sax dresses for us in brown broadcloth.
The OGC would like to have a few days of training on Zoom so we figured San Diego would be a great place to enjoy that. We packed up and went to Temecula for a week.
We were greeted with many kisses.
Nana really knows how to garden. I was able to help out and trim old roses and deadhead some spent flowers.
We joined a Zoom meeting where the employees and missionaries of the Asia Area were saying goodbye to Elder David F Evans. During that farewell, they showed a picture of the Harpers. They are friends of Don and Jerri, so I need to catch up with them when we arrive in Hong Kong.
We drove away from the home with the red Jetta, a big pickup truck, and a trailer on Monday, November 11, 2019. There were places to go and people to see.
We spent some quality time with Howard and the kids in Boise. It would be a long time until we hugged them again and I knew I would miss them terribly.
Then we drove west to Fresno to see Marnie and Eric. This is actually from a year earlier just before their marriage. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner at Spaghetti Factory and continued south to Temecula.
My parents are happily living in Temecula near my brother and his family. They are still very independent and busy around the house.
Mom asked me to take a picture of her hair since it had never been this long. She had it cut shortly after this photo.
Here she is before riding in the Rose Bowl Parade as Miss Long Beach State.
I took the opportunity to go by my childhood home. Although I’m old, I can still rattle off the address: 6090 Redbrook Road, Clairemont, San Diego. It looks quite new and modern compared to when we moved out in 1975.
The neighborhood is still quite nice for being so close to the city.
Since we were in town, we figured one more trip to Disneyland wouldn’t hurt. We are serious FastPass users.
It was all decorated for Christmas. We even went to California Adventure for the first time. By 8pm I was dragging. Here’s how we toured:
Soarin’ over California, Radiator Springs SR, Midway Mania FP, Incredicoaster FP, Pal-a-Round Swinging, Corn Dog Castle, Guardians FP, Grizzly Mountain, Little Mermaid. Hop–Star Tours FP, Bengal BBQ lunch, Pirates, Big Thunder FP, Matterhorn FP, Smuggler’s Run SR, Dole Whip, Indiana FP. Hop for Frozen show. Hop back–Space Mountain FP, train to New Orleans, Haunted FP, French Market dinner, It’s a Small World FP, Tea Party. Whew! That was 9am-9pm and I was tired. SR=Single Rider line, FP=FastPass.
From there we slept in Anaheim and then drove to Salt Lake to catch our flight.
Here we are on the plane to Dallas, then Miami to Guayaquil. Paul’s parents were nice enough to drive us to the Salt Lake airport at 3:30am. We would arrive much later at 9:30pm.
When Paul was a young man, he served a mission in Phoenix, Arizona. But this is my first experience as a missionary. Who know how many we will serve or what adventures await us. I see innocence in me and skepticism in Paul.