Montecito wedding and wonderful family visit

Santa Barbara

Back after a whirlwind California wedding trip and an immediate great visit with Tiffany, Chris and the girls. 

California coast - we crossed from east coast to west

seals

with good friends Jamie and Lowell

man with pet turtles - a California thing?

our group before the welcome party

What a wonderful trip seeing friends and celebrating the wedding of the oldest daughter of longtime friends. We had time to sightsee in between wedding events and enjoyed wonderful hospitality with winery visit, golf for the guys, restaurant visits, and a spectacular outdoor welcome party. All a lead up to the main event: the wedding in Montecito.

And what a wedding this was! A gorgeous lavish affair held at the Rosewood Miramar. a good time had by all.

And this pretty much sums up the Walker visit. Water, water, and water. They needed a slowdown after being at Disney. So great to see the family. And Mark was around, just not at the beach. I of course was the invisible photographer. Til next time...

Finally our Maryland visit

⚘SPRING⚘

Back so soon? Yup, a long anticipated trip to Maryland to see Heather, Brian, and the kids. We hadn't seen them in a year and a half!

Aubrey and Braden - beautiful and amazing grandchildren.

As you can see a lot of silliness and laughing came with the visit. It took no time for the kids to warm up after some hesitation at first. We were strangers to them after so long. Lots of active games including the best one- bury Granddaddy under stuffed animals and then fling more at his head. We'd been told Braden had quite an accurate aim with his arm. Yes indeed....

This is currently the wet, wet early spring state of the backyard. Seriously, where's the boat? Every yard I could see was in the same condition. Heather is super resourceful and ordered these amazing rainsuits for the kids. Thumbs up on water play. We did not have anything that would work under these conditions so watched from the deck.

We wore everyone out I think, but the visit was great and meant everything to us. Hooray for family...

Beach, Matlacha, and botanical gardens

 I took some time off of posting but I'm back. After I had two questions in a week asking "where was I?" I figured I better jump back in. Hard to believe it's late in March. It's fair madness here in the height of season. We've had company off and on, traveled a bit (actually leaving for Maryland Thursday to finally visit Heather and family) and more to come.

Sherry and I had so much fun going to a little redone fishing village north of us - Matlacha. Cute stores, art galleries, and fresh fish at the local restaurant. While we played Paul and Mark were working hard at swinging the golf clubs to win their flight in the member/guest tournament. Always a great time when they visit whether it's Florida or Colorado.

I also took Sherry to the Naples Botanical gardens to see the thousands of exotic plants. It was unseasonably hot (89) but we enjoyed anyway. I don't know about anyone else's area but ours cannot stay on the norm. We're either breaking records for heat or cold and not many days that have regular temperature in between. Oh well, just adapt I guess....

Charleston for Christmas

 We had a lovely Christmas in Charleston with the Walker family with a big variety of weather - cold (36)brrr and ending with 74. 

All the sweet traditions of Christmas - gingerbread cookies, hard puzzle, and wonderful Christmas dinner.

Just love Charleston and its charm. The homes there speak of another time, though these are modern. The low country and the beautiful grasses and water never get old. 

Tiffany planned for the tourist "have to do it" carriage ride downtown while we were there. It was a lot of fun and we slowly sauntered all over the historic home district. Another memorable Christmas. 

Welcome 2022! Wishing everyone peace, love, harmony, and good health.☺