Family Snapshots

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

2013 - What a year!!!

Wow...so much has happened this year!

It hasn't been an easy one,
but it's good to remember all the great things -
as we're dealing with the difficult ones!
We are blessed!

Just a few of the highlights:

March 2013!!
5 Grandbabies ... 4, 3, 2, 1, 0 :)
#6 is due in May!
(Thanks Deb and Jonah)

Great Gramma Guyer came to visit April 4-10th!!!
So much fun to be with Mom and her 5 great grands!

Special Times - 4 Generations on a Couch!

Pics!

With Beka in Boston, April 15, 2013 was a tough day.

She lives 1/2 mile up Boylston St. from where there bombings were.

Thankfully she was safe in her apartment!!

The following hours and days were filled with texts and calls!

The night of the lockdown, Beka created this video

using photos she'd taken of Boston

and a recording her Cab'ret group made the day after the bombings.

This was how she dealt with those difficult days ...

Beautiful photos! Beautiful singing!

I worked for Hallmark until the end of April

until a cut in hours made it not worth continuing :)

The beginning of May we made a trip to LA

to move James back to AZ!

Tim was given a layoff notice on May 9th after almost 25 years at Boeing

... His last day would be July 19th!!!

Oh boy!!! We'd never had to deal with this before!

Job hunting began!

Mary Pat, my high school buddy, came to visit in June.

We went up to lovely Sedona and enjoyed a great trip to the

Grand Canyon ... felt like high schoolers!

Beka was home from May 13th - June 18th.

Great times together pics!

She returned to Boston so she could get to

New Hampshire for a 6 week job performing

at Interlakes Summer Theater as

Cosette in "Les Miserables" and Philia in
"A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum"!

I met Annette in Boston July 26th, drove to Meredith, NH

and spent 4 great days together exploring the countryside and

seeing both of Beka's shows!

Then we spent a couple days seeing the sights in Boston!

Great memories!

We flew together to Ohio, where Lisa joined us in celebrating our dear

mother's 82nd Birthday on Aug 3rd at the Pioneer Mill in Tiffin, Ohio!!

Annette and I went to the Lakota High School Reunion...

So fun to re-connected with dear friends,

Chris and Anna, that I hadn't seen in 40+ yrs!

None of us had changed a bit! ;)

I got to go to my first Fremont St. Joe's High School Reunion!!
40 years!!! Such a great time with old friends!!
None of US had changed a bit, either!!!

Carrie and the boys drove over from Maryland.
We enjoyed hanging out together!
... even took the ferry over to Put-in-Bay!

While at mom's I scanned old family photos from 1954-1970
and uploaded them to an Album on-line for all to see!!!
There are hundreds more to do...but that's another Ohio trip!

Then back to Boston to help Beka get ready for her Senior year!

We shopped, stocked up, cleaned and organized her apartment!

We rewarded ourselves with a day trip to NYC!

We took an early morning MegaBus and got to NYC by 11am!

We spent the day running around and seeing the sights before

catching a 1 am bus back to Boston. I had never been there

so it was such a treat! So with basically no

sleep I flew home the next day! Quite a trip!

I was home for 11 days before Tim and I left for

Ferndale, CA on August 29th!

My brother Tom has a place he's working on...

and offered us a job helping and we were both free to GO!!

What a great time of work and fun!

The crew hard at work!

Before! - Tom's place - After!

Check out these Pics of all we did!

We ended up staying for 8 weeks...
Just a great time of working, meeting people
and seeing the sights together!

We enjoyed the 18 hour drive to get there and back,

stopping at some special spots along the way!!!

We were able to see Tim's sister, Melanie,

and daughter Kristin's family in Modesto, CA!

Wonderful to re-connect!

We were married in San Leandro, CA on Sept 16, 1978,

and it's been a dream of mine to be on the CA coast

for our 35th Anniversary!

Not quite how I'd planned but

we were actually there!!!

On our trip home we took a trip down memory lane -
visiting many of our favorite spots and old homes!

So blessed to spend a night with our dear friends,

Steve and Gayle (an early morning shot)!!!

Pics of our CA adventures here!

We got home on Oct 25th!

Deb and Jonah needed a place to live after they sold their home
before they could get into their new one, so
they were able to stay in our house while we were gone.
Such amazing timing!!! We overlapped just a week

and moved them to their new home Nov 3rd.
Fun Fall Pics!

I HAD to go back to Boston Nov 21-28
to see Beka perform again
and Mom joined me for 4 of those days!!!

She was such a trooper...
taking the subway in the cold to see
Beka's cabaret show at the Hebrew Senior Life Center

and as Clara in "The Light in the Piazza" !
A very special trip!

I also got to re-connect with my friends, Mary Lynn and Gail,

who each joined me for shows!!

Beka graduates in May,

so not many more Boston opportunities!

I got home in time to prepare for Christmas and

Beka being home Dec 20th - Jan 1st!

Great having everyone together for the holidays!!

We're very thankful that Tim started a technician job on Dec. 16th!!!
We aren't ready for retirement, so I will be looking for work as well!

Excited to see what's ahead ...
Just hope it's not AS crazy!
Trusting God with the future :)

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

2013 is Here!

This is our late Christmas Greeting!!!

I didn't get Christmas cards out or updates here -

we weren't even all together to get a picture till Dec 27th!

Here's our annual family shot!!!

We added two little boys to the gang this year!

Deborah and Jonah's, Everett Tait, was born January 18;

Rachel and Clay's, Caden Jude, was born August 12!

What a difference a year can make!

Gammie and Paw Paw love these 5 grandbabies ...

and OUR 4 beautiful "babies"...
So great to have them all together!!!
Pics!

It's been a busy and full Fall!
We've enjoyed great times with the girls and their families -
just can't get enough of these sweet little ones!

We spent a weekend in Sedona ...

Celebrating our 34th Anniversary! So Thankful!

Had a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration,
with everyone together except for Beka ...
We missed her here but so glad James could be!

In early December, Sandy traveled
with her best friend and sister to Boston.
We went to see Beka's perform in a main stage play and
see her cabaret group's Christmas show at
an alzheimer's home ... some links here :)
We had a great time together - exploring and
running around a really fun and beautiful city!

Tim keeps busy working for Boeing...
Sandy keeps too busy working for Hallmark...
We're enjoying our empty nest and learning to
flex with life's changes!
So thankful for God's goodness!

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Awesome August!

Rachel and Clay's 3rd baby was due on August 1st...

We celebrated Owen's 3rd birthday on August 6th...

Beka was home for a week from August 7-15th...

James was home from August 8-14th...

Baby Caden Jude arrived on August 12th!!!

Perfect timing and great times together!

Happy Birthday Owen!!

(Cake and collage made by his mom :)

Fun together two days before baby arrived!

A few hours after he was born!

Adah and Emsley were so excited to meet

their baby brother!!!

Precious growing family!

Many more pics of baby Caden's birth week!

James and Beka were so glad to be here for the big event!

So much love!

Time at Deb's ...

... enjoying their nephews!

Fun sleep over at Gammie and Paw Paws...
Adah and Emsley loved being monkeys in the tree ...

and playing with "antique" toys!
So blessed with 4 great kids and 5 (what?!?!?!) grandkids!
Many more pics of the fun month!

Friday, July 20, 2012

Coast to Coast in a month!

So the month of June ended up being a month of travels!

LA:

James secured a place to live, after making
a couple more trips to LA to check things out!

June 2nd was move in day!

So Tim, James and I loaded up two cars and drove to LA!

We spent the next 4 days unloading, shopping, assembling

furniture and getting James as settled in as we could!

We enjoyed seeing a bit of the city -
and having some time at the beach
on our way to see Tim's cousin Janice in San Pedro!

Time to say goodbye!
Kinda hard to leave our boy all alone
in that great big city but we know
he's right where he's supposed to be!!!

As we were driving back to Phoenix,
I got a call from Tom saying that Dad was failing.
The next morning the hospice nurse called to say
it was time to come home.
I spent the next day making flights
and arrangements for the rest of the month.

OHIO:

On my way to the airport on June 8th,

I got the call that Dad had just died.

What a difficult call that was.

I had a connecting flight in Vegas and so did Tom -

it just "happened" that we were on the same flight!

What a blessing to be with my brother on that hard trip :(

More about Dad's funeral here ...

It was great to be home with all my family -

difficult and so special at the same time!

Tom and I stayed on at Mom's to help her with things. I hadn't

spent so much time there for many years and it was such a blessing!
Here are some pics of Dad's funeral and two weeks in Ohio.

My plan was to fly to Annette's on the 22nd, but was elected

to drive Dad's car down for Sam. I had a great trip! I was able

to have dinner with two high school buddies in Columbus,

then spend the night with Steve and his family in Cincinnati.

I had a beautiful drive to Nashville the next day, until I

got a block away from Annette work. Dad's car died :(

I prayed it would get me safe to Nashville and it did...

Just should have prayed for a bit more!

NASHVILLE:

Thanks to Annette's friends we got Dad's car to the shop and

proceeded to enjoy our few days together!

We were both pretty exhausted from a couple busy weeks.

Saturday morning we were going to relax with our coffee on her deck...

but up drove The Men of Acts,

ready to work on her Memorial Garden.

What a blessing to Annette that these dear guys showed up and

worked so hard. We finished the smaller garden then next day.

What a great few days... Wonderful times with my big sis,
yummy things at a Sushi place, relaxing on her
beautiful deck overlooking the woods outside of Franklin,

going to a FAB concert and dancing like teenagers,

and meeting her friends at church and hanging out!

Plus ... her house is like a resort!!! I kinda want to go back!!!

BOSTON:

I flew from Nashville to Boston on the 28th.

I had had flights to go to Boston about this same time to see Beka,

since her roommate was out of town and she was alone.

Then go on to Nashville and then Ohio for my Dad birthday July 6th.
Just had to reverse plans and move them up a month...

Wow it's taking a while to tell this story -

but a month is a long time and so much happened!

Beka and I had a great time together - we went to a Red Sox game!

... Rode the Swan Boats in the Public Garden!

Rented a car through Relay Rides and made a Costco run!

We had fun cooking and eating a couple meals in her

apartment together and just relaxing - a special time!

While Beka was working I got to hang out with

my dear high school girlfriends!

Mary Pat's mother died 2 days after my dad, so she was in Fremont, too!

I met her in Columbus and mentioned I was going to Boston.

She was retiring and decided to come, too!

We had a great time running around the city -

we actually just walked miles!

Our friend, Mary Lynn, lives outside of Boston...so she met us for dinner

one evening, we spent the night at her home,

she drove us to New Hampshire for lunch,

then met Beka and went to a Nora Jones concert at the

Bank of American Pavillion!

I got home on July 2nd .... What a full, inspiring month!

Many pics tell the month's story pretty well...

Springtime Travels!

Feb, March, and April turned out to be

just the start of a busy travel year!

LA:.

James was making plans to move to LA

and lined up a meeting with a possible agent,

so we found $25 flights and made the journey.

What a great trip: The agent wanted to respresent him and

we had a great time just scouting out the land,

deciding that Burbank would be a great place to live.

My dream is always to sit on a beach and just chill -
we had lots of time for that! So fun!

OHIO:

Toward the end of February,
my Dad started having congestive heart failure.
He spent time in and out of the hospital then ended up
at home with hospice, diagnosed with end stage cardiac...
I made a quick trip to see him, not knowing how long he had to live.

It was a short, hard but very sweet trip,
which ended up being the last time I would see my Dad alive.