Walk to the Beach House

We decided to take a long walk down the beach and the blues and greens were just spectacular. And then it happened....I had seen a picture of a beautiful water lily in a coffee table book of Kauai, and I talked Kevin into going into the Plantation Gardens to see if they still had water lilies. Not only did they have lily pad ponds, but they had hundreds of orchids, and heliconia, and an entire cactus garden that must have been 100 years old. It was then, that I fell in love with the flower of Kaua'i. Oh my goodness...and me with a new camera!

Snorkeling and finding Sea Turtles

We love to walk along the coast, looking for sea turtles. They were everywhere, this year. Not hard to find at all. This is our favorite snorkeling beach. We walk over the hill from the condo and watch the sunset from here most evenings -- and almost always there are sea turtles right along the beach.

Pihea Lookout

We decided on a whim to go to Pu'u'o Kila Lookout where you can see the NaPali Coast and Mt. Wai'ale'ale (5148'). I've always wanted to see the top of the mountain (which you can see from many places on the island), but it has always been covered in clouds. We've gone to Pu'u'o Kila Lookout several times before, and it's always been misty and cloudy. And quite naturally so, since it's just on the other side of Mt. Wai'ale'ale, the wettest spot on earth. With 440 inches of rain a year, it rains all of the time. But I wanted to go on a hike -- and I had brought my hiking boots for just a time as this.

When we got there, it was an absolutely gorgeous day. Not a cloud in the sky - the whole day. It was amazing. "A one in the million kind of day" according to the woman at the Ke'e Museum.

So we took her advice and decided to hike to Pihea Lookout...a moderately strenuous hike mind you -- which means that at some points you are climbing hand over hand up the "trail," holding onto the the roots and trying to find a place to put your foot. What fun! Seriously fun! I was glad that I'd been getting a little exercise climbing the stairs at work.

The only bummer was that my camera broke. So there we are on and absolutely gorgeous day with no camera...but my phone. So we decided to live in the "now" and just enjoy it. We'd have to record the memory in our minds. Until a nice couple from Spokane volunteered to take our photo and email it to us. So here we are at Pihea Lookout, standing in front of Mt. Wai'ale'ale -- where is the mountain you might ask? Yes, where is the mountain. The top is flat. Unbelievable. I'd been imagining Mt. Rainier -- and it's more like Table Mountain.

Kauai

We had a great time in Hawaii. Every morning I loved watching the sunrise. It truly is new every morning. And almost every evening we watched the sunset. The weather was perfect. We kind of got into a routine of watching the sunrise, then having a little breakfast, taking a couple of hours to read and journal and pray on our own. Then we'd talk for a couple of hours about things that really mattered to us. We had time to talk about "us" and share deeply with one another. The we'd go for along walk along the beach, come home for dinner. It was fabulous!

Said Good-bye to Jeff and Wendy

We went out for dinner last night to officially celebrate the time we've had here in San Jose with Jeff and Wendy. It's been such a blessing to have them sharing with us in the ministry in San Jose. New Life wouldn't be New Life if it weren't for their sacrifices over the years. I am very sad that this chapter in our lives is over. I know that the relationship will change as distance means we won't know their friends and what they're thinking about and we can't just pop in for a bit to see the kiddos. But instead of focusing on the hard parts of the changes that are coming, I can be extremely grateful for the years that we've had with them. What a blessing it has been.

Walking along the coast

The weather was perfect, the sunset gorgeous, the otters and pelicans plentiful -- what a great evening to be walking along the coast in Santa Cruz.

Prayer Retreat

Kevin led us on a wonderful prayer retreat. We met at John and Judy's cabin at Mission Springs and thoroughly enjoyed the day with the Lord.

Hugging Cousins

Fun times in Seattle and Portland

An Afternoon n the City

Mireille, Romeo, Kevin and I enjoyed watching (and listening to) the California seals and pups at Pier 39. I don't think Mireille could quite believe it. She'd never seen anything like our seals.

San Francisco

We took Mireille and Romeo to San Francisco to celebrate Romeo's new job and drivers license.

We had to check out the Pacific Ocean -- a gorgeous day and warm!

And a trip to Pier 39 -- tons of people and music!

After the Financial District and the Civic Center we headed across the Golden Gate. And enjoyed a fabulous view of the City,

And the Golden Gate bridge. Then had a sunset dinner in Sausilletto. A really wonderful day celebrating the goodness of God to all of us.

Talking about Journaling

I was invited to share some of my thoughts on journaling on a Moody radio talk www.middayconnection.org show this week. If you're interested here's the link...my section is the last 15 minutes. Kinda funny to be at work, one minute writing the disaster recovery plan for the library and the next minute the phone rings and I have to shift gears and talk about journaling. I was hoping that my mind wouldn't go blank and I'd have nothing to say. At least that didn't happen.

Mireille is part of our family

Luann and Ashley at The Springs retreat

Mireille is a young woman from Central African Republic who is living with us now.

Mireille and the Easter bunny at The Hunt our church sponsored at a neighboring park.

Kaia

Loving our new little one!

She's a cutie!

Newim Leadership Retreat

Ginger enjoyed opening her parting gifts.
Below: Susie Kimes, founder of NEWIM, and Ginger, retiring president. We've served together for over 20 years. Hard to believe it's been that long.

June and Barbara -- a couple of the youngest looks grandmas in town.

June and Nancy -- this is one of my favorite pictures because you NEVER see June and Nancy so serious. These two are double trouble...and to have them looking so intently is a crack up!
Luann, Marty and Susan
Beautiful flowers from Shirley for Ginger.
Last weekend we met at Ginger's for a NEWIM Chapter Presidents meeting and then on Saturday for a leadership retreat. Ginger retired after serving as our president for 13 years. Jackie Rettberg is now our Executive Director. I've worked with Jackie for years and look forward to working with her as we transition NEWIM in the next couple of years from a volunteer organization to a more mature non-profit organization with paid staff. This will take a lot of work and development but I'm convinced that it's the right direction.

Kaia Pamela arrives

What a great day! Jeff woke me up with an early morning phone call to say that Wendy was in labor. Then he called back about 45 minutes later saying they were on their way to the hospital. Ashley and I hustled down to the hospital--we got the privilege to take pictures in the delivery room. By the time we arrived, Wendy was already at 3. Kevin came over from Mission Springs so he could be with us too. Things were moving along much faster this time. Watching a new little enter the world is amazing!

A couple of weeks ago New Life women joined some of Wendy's other friends for wonderful baby shower. Her mom came up just to join the fun. We had a great time. Jeff and Wendy came over last Saturday -- and we had to get a photo of her belly.

Wendy's going through transition with a smile on her face. Wow!

Here's Kaia! 8 lbs 7 oz. What a cutie.

Kevin and I went to get Micah and bring him back to the hospital to see his new little sister. He was so excited.

What a wonderful day.

It's my birthday!

I took the day off work yesterday to celebrate my birthday.

Kevin and I spent the day in San Francisco -- we had lunch in Sausileto over looking the bay -- they had some of the best fresh seafood. Then we went to Golden Gate park and went to their new Academy of Science museum -- it was great.

We drove down the hill to the ocean and walked the beach as the sun set -- the kite surfers were really fun to watch. We walked up to The Cliff restaurant (where we had breakfast on our honeymoon). Then went to Union Square, walked up to the top of Nob Hill, went into the Fairmont and walked up the stairs of Grace Cathedral and back down the hill. We poked around in the mall on Market, went into Macys, and had an Italian dinner and a raspberry dessert before we headed home. A really nice day. On Saturday, Jeff, Wendy and Micah came over. Micah made me an awesome flower basket like the one in a story he loves -- with yellow roses and pink camelias and blackberries. What a treat!

Girl Time

I took a day off work to spend some time with Ginger. It was one of those magically warm, clear, southern California winter days. We walked the beach at Crystal Cove for a couple of hours, just talking. There's nothing like an afternoon with a close friend to restore my soul.

Melinda's visit

Melinda came to visit over the long weekend.

We went over to visit Jeff, Wendy and Micah. When Micah got in his jammies, he wanted to play 'scary monster.' He was scary all right. We spent a beautiful day at the beach seeing some of my favorite places on earth. We saw grey whales spouting, otters, seals and sea lions, pelicans and lots of other birds. I couldn't believe how warm it was (72 degrees) for the middle of January.

Cypress Point, Carmel