Inspiring Couple

Just a quick promotion, on the girl talk blog, (you can click here or on "girl talk" under my links in the left column) there is a touching story of CJ and Carolyn Mahaney. CJ was the pastor of Covenant Life Church. Josh Harris is the current pastor and narrates the story. It doesn't take much time, it is a you tube video. So follow the link and enjoy. I am so blessed by Carolyn's love of husband and family because that is where my heart is....she was the matron of honor for each of her three daughters! How precious!

Cabo San Lucas

Now back to the current summer.....I am so behind! The last week in June, Paul, Lauren and I flew to Cabo San Lucas to stay at Pueblo Bonito Sunset Beach Resort where we bought a timeshare last year. My sister Pat & her husband Larry scheduled their week to coincide with ours and brought along my niece Desiree, her husband Rob and son Avery. We arrived late Saturday night and so we met on sunday for brunch at the La Nao Restaurant there at the resort. After brunch, we headed poolside. The weather was beautiful! Sunny but not too hot. That evening we took a cab into town to shop at Costco. In order to keep expenses down, we decided to do some dinners in our mini kitchen and not eat out every night. Monday morning we did the timeshare presentation in order to get the "gift" of a reduced price on a fishing charter and dinner at a restaurant in Cabo as well as, a sunset cruise. So that night, we went to Desperado's Cantina to use one of our presentation gifts. After dinner, we walked to a little open courtyard area by Cabo Wabo to finish the evening and take in the atmosphere Tuesday found us poolside most of the day, in fact, we spent quite a lot of time by the pool. That afternoon, we headed over to the marina to do our sunset cruise. Last year we did a cruise that included dinner and had an upper and lower deck. This year we did a catamaran cruise. I liked it even better because there were fewer people and I like the sailing : ) The crew threw a line in the water and caught a fish Pat and Larry enjoyed dancing on the deck Wednesday Tim flew down to surprise Lauren. She was very surprised! We had dinner at La Nao that night and you can see how happy they both were to be together. Thursday we took a bus to Todos Santos (about 45 min. drive) The town has many little shops with silver jewelry and decorative items to buy. Hotel California is located in Todos Santos Lunch was at the Tequila Sunrise Bar and Grill....YUM! Paul, Lauren and Tim posing with Dr. Margarita Friday, Paul, Larry, Rob, Lauren and Tim went fishing while Pat, Desiree, Avery and I went over to enjoy the beach at Pueblo Bonito Rose and to swim in the Sea of Cortez. Lauren and Larry each caught a Dorado. Avery enjoyed playing in the sand on the beach....and I did some reading Sorry, I know this post is lengthy...it's just so hard to choose only a few photos. Here are a couple shots from the beach on the Pacific shorebelow PB Sunset And now, a few pool shots... This is the Skypool which sits high atop the hill above the resort. It's a great place to be at sunset. Thanks for staying with me on this long post. Needless to say, it was a great week. If you see any photos that you think are really great shots, you can bet that Tim took them...he has a talent for photos (Thanks Tim)

Paris...

Recently my sister Pat remarked that she knew I had been to Paris, but she had never seen a single picture.....Not even one framed in my home. So I thought I would find them and scan them in (that trip was pre-digital camera for us) Probably the reason why I don't have them for display is because the pictures aren't that great. Anyway...we were there, it was June of 1999. Notre Dame...unfortunately, renovation was occurring at the time and we couldn't get inside The Eiffel Tower at night The Seine River The tunnel where Princess Diana 's fatal crash occurred....Above the tunnel is a memorial where people leave flowers and notes The Louvre...built in 1190 during the reign of Philippe Auguste to reinforce defense of the capital against the Anglo-Norman threat At the time of our visit, the museum had a huge exhibit of Egyptian sarcophaguses The Champs-Elysees with the Arc de Triomphe in the background We had a wonderful lunch at a sidewalk cafe on the Champs-Elysees The Arc de TriompheThe Arc de Triomphe was commissioned by Emperor Napoleon in 1806. It is 165 ft high with lots of little tiny steps up to the top Here is the view from the top La Sainte Chapelle (the holy chapel) is located on the Ile de la cite, one of the two islands in the Seine. It was constructed by order of Louis the IX to be the chapel of the Royal Palace and to store relics which Louis had acquired one being Christ's Crown of Thorns. The stained glass windows were exquisite

We had a very fun time in the 3 days that we were there before taking the train under the english channel to london....Paris is a very romantic city and if the opportunity should arise, I would love to return sometime.

June Happenings

Walt Rubke graduated from his court ordered alcohol-drug program!I am so proud of Walt for walking through this journey and staying clean and sober!

Since Meredith and Chris decided to move to Boston so Chris could pursue his Phd, she planned one last Moms and daughters get together. First we met for sushi.....When the restaurant closed, we weren't done having fun so we piled into Jan's suv and headed over to B & N for coffee and more chatting!
CBS had a summer leadership swim party at Juanita's home, it was a beautiful day! Both moms and kids had a great time.....Last summer the MOMs had a beach bonfire and enjoyed it so much, we decided it should be an annual occurence. We headed down to Oceanside on 6/20 for a wonderful time of swimming, bonfire with roasted hot dogs and s'mores. Jackson Agape Gritten....isn't he adorable? Joel and Jill agreed to meet Paul and me in Corona so we could finally meet their grandson. What a precious gift!