We are home!

Arrived back at the house in Salem around 8PM on Sunday evening.  Good to be home.  We're probably biased, but those that live in the northwest really do live in God's country.

Almost home

Before leaving California, we had to have a stop at In N Out Burgers, followed by a stop in Eugene to see Mike, Jamie and the boys...

Ripon, CA with Carroll, Joyce and Family

Our last overnight stop was in Ripon to see Carroll, Joyce, and their family.  Everybody in the family lives in or near Ripon except for Esther, which we saw in Michigan (see earlier post).  Kyle came over from San Francisco to join the festivities as well.  Carroll, Seth, and I managed to make it out to the golf course, but I couldn't convince Peter (aka Cephas) to join us.  Just a few pics from the visit...

Friends and Family in Arizona

We were able to spend a couple of days in Phoenix, visiting friends that I had when I went to college there in the mid 70s.  I actually lived with the Abbitt family during a large part of those years.

We had a great time chatting with Dave and Debbie Shaeffer at Starbucks...

I golfed with Jerry Abbitt and we enjoyed some good conversation with Jerry and Ruth as well...

One of the older married couples (actually, only a few years older) when I was a college kid was Mike and Ruth Green.  We had a terrific evening at Old Spaghetti Factory with the Abbitts and the Greens.  Mike is having open heart surgery soon and will be in our prayers daily.  We finished up with a tour of the old Grace Brethren Church on Bethany Home Road, since elder Mike had a key.  :)

Chuck and Sharon Emerling were also dear friends during those college years.  We caught up at Outback with both the Abbitts and Emerlings.  Good times.

We had a couple of short get togethers with Tom and Beth Abbitt.  One was at a Starbucks in the afternoon after Tom had finished his day subbing for a French class.  Later, we met them at their home so that we could say hi to Ruhama.

Lastly...there was Buddy...

From Phoenix, we visited Sedona, Oak Creek Canyon and then to the Hopi reservation to visit Jeremy's folks (Russ and Cindi).  While in Bacavi, we also had the chance to visit with Kevin, one of Nathan's friends from central Washington.

Tucson with Chris, Nicole, and family

We were the first of the family (outside of Doug's immediate family) to visit Nicole and her family in Tucson.  We had a great time with this family and even timed it nicely to watch the Seahawk/Cardinal game together.  Cooper was my little Seahawk buddy.  We were also partners in crime in making a couple of dry ice bombs.

We were also honored to attend church with Chris and Nichole at UCity in Tucson.