What a Summer! (part 1)

We've had a great summer so far. Instead of trying to document dozens of great experiences, we'll encapsulate them into two or three GREAT posts. So Here we go...

Jennifer and I went to the her sister Jamie's wedding back in early June. She married a great canadian named Kevin Monson (no relation to any church member I know) pictured below. I take full credit for this union, being that their first kiss was the night that Jennifer and I got married. Did I mention it was a "spa kiss"? Way-to-go Kevin.



While we were there we celebrated Jennifer's Birthday with some of our friends. We then celebrated it AGAIN on her real birthday, June 28th, with some of our friends here. TWO birthday parties?! Wow! Way to go Jenn!



While we were there we saw BIG HAIR (Jenn's poof) and BIG COWS (Thats a long-horn, for all your foreigners): Two texas essentials.



We attended the local rodeo here in Livermore. Thursday night was family night, which meant free. It was a cool summer evening. Jenn said rodeos were supposed to be hot and sunny, AKA sweat and uncomfortable. I disagreed. Either way it was great night.



My parents live about an hour a way. When my family first moved out to the they house where they currently reside, one of the first things my father did was plant an orchard. It started out small and now has grown to over 75 fruit trees. It's full of peaches, nectarines, plums, apricots, pluots, apriums, apples, figs, grapes and more. We love to stop in to see them...and take their fruit.

Moutain of the Devil?

It's true... We went to Mt Diablo. It was actually very beautiful. It's one of the highest places in the bay are, and we were able to see in all directions once we got up to the top. When you're driving up and up and up do you ever get frustrated because you're not there yet and you just keep winding up and up? And on top of that the trees sometimes block the sun and sometimes don't so you're constantly going in and out of shade, and even with sunglasses it still bothers you? And then you start to really get annoyed? I think that's how I get and bless Jon's heart... he takes my annoying remarks. With about ten minutes to get to the top I decided to shut my trap and close my eyes and take a little nap. But we made it!



There's a little telescope you can put your money in and see things out in the wide expanse of what you think is nothing... There was a man who did that shouts out, "I see someone in their pool." I started chuckling at the fact that he didn't look at the bay, or the valley, or the windmills. He honed in on some poor creature that didn't even know they could be seen. He turns to me and says, "you wanna see?" Wtih my curious mind I took a peek and sure enough someone was swimming in their pool (clothed with appropriate swim attire thankfully).

Then we went down a little and climbed up a huge rock that was calling our names. It was awesome. It was the first weekend that we actually went outside to do something.


(Doesn't he look so handsome?)