We had a GREAT weekend! Saturday morning, Tom and I hopped in the Cam to go south for the weekend. We drove to Fresno after breakfast to drop me off at my mom's place, around lunch time, after which Tom continued on down to the LA area to hang with his mom for awhile. One goal was to deliver a TV we didn't have room for, anymore, to Tom's brother, Ken, who happened to need one for his new apartment. I LOVE it when those kinds of things work out!
Fresno was in the tamer 90s,
degree-wise--hardly noticeable--though they are under some of the same smoky haze we've had up here from the fires, which are still blazing away many miles off! Mom is doing well and I was able to finish putting all her pictures and other stuff on the walls. The place looks very cute and she's quite comfortable, there. It has now been just about a year that we moved her back to California from Hawaii following her "year of adventure, sort of" living on Maui. So far, so good. She's able to be near to my sister, Terry, and her family, where new great-grandchildren seem to pop up every few months!
Mom and I also spent some good times with Terry, H, and about 2/3 of their growing family. Tom rejoined us Sunday afternoon, back from LA, to eat and hang out for awhile. Corrie, Jeff and their four kids, Ella, Tabor, Quinn and Gigi, along with Katie, Dave and little Grace were there. Andrea and Annie, who's just started college this term, plus Lamek (sp?), a student who used to live with T & S, rounded out the big group. They all routinely spend Sunday afternoons, together, which is just the coolest thing! Gigi is the newest member of the Sands family (Corrie and Jeff), at just a few months old, but there's an even more recently added Spees named Parker who was born a few weeks ago to Frank and Lisa, who live in Irvine, CA, in Orange County. Parker has a
big brother named Gavin. For way better pics and more info on any of T & H's married kids, see the blog links at the top of the page.Tom, meanwhile, had motored to LaVerne, east of LA, where his mom lives, and also delivered the TV to Ken's. Tom accompanied his mom to dinner, where he met a bunch of her fellow thespians, partying, after having put on a production of "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown" the night before. She's doing great! Afterward, Tom mosied up to Monrovia to hang with and spend the night at the home of his niece, Joy, her husband, Marcus, and their three boys, Wesley, Colby, and Griffin. He didn't have a camera, but you can check out their family blog (Stenzel), also at the top of the page.
I feel like I've been reciting family trees (and running out of colors) this whole time ! Tom and I left Terry and H's house for the 3 1/2 hour (plus stops, looking for Swedish Fish) drive back home. It was uneventful (although, we didn't find the SF--we're not fooled by Jujufish for one
minute--anymore!). I love being so close to my sister's place! It's so much more tractable to keep up with them after having lived so far away from each other all our adult lives! It's so great that mom has settled there, too. Enough for now! The pictures are of: Mom holding Grace, Ella (showing off the new teeth!), Tabor (displaying the features of the bell fountain), Terry holding tiny Gigi (#6 of 7 grandchildren!), and Annie (somehow, able to focus on her math homework in the midst of the bustle).Perhaps tomorrow's the day I start my new, briefer, style of blogstering!
