Well.

That's a pretty deep subject..... if you're talking about nouns, that is.

I'm talking about adverbs.
As in, "I Am Well."

It's been ten whole days since I've had a chance to actually sit down and catalog the events of the past ten days, so I'm going to sum up as best I can, with as many pictures as I can fit in one post.

First of all, we took off last Thursday for my parents' home in my old stomping ground of Petaluma, California, in order to help them celebrate their 50th reunion. (Of course, I didn't get any current pictures of the congratulated couple -- I left that up to my brother Steve, who is slowing posting pictures a few at a time on his blog. This shot below was actually taken five years ago!)

We gathered together as many family members as we could (considering we have two missionaries out in The Field, and one nephew on the East Coast, and one niece heading to China, and various college students and Utah family members who could not come) and had ourselves a lovely, noisy, fun reunion at the Old Homestead.


But first, we began our weekend at the Oakland Temple, where we put ourselves to work doing a session for some of the names Anne and Sara have been hunting down. It was a special experience, but one that Roy and I both felt sadly lacking, due to the fact that we had driven 7 hours earlier that day. Still, the weather was clear and beautiful and we could see the great Golden Gate across the bay during a gorgeous sunset after the session. Great omen...

You're looking at the lovely downtown metroplis of Oakland in the forefront -- San Francisco is in the left background, and if you squint as you look to the right background, you can see the Golden Gate. It's not really golden -- it's more like a tangerine orange, and sometimes it's even green.

Friday morning, I met with my newly-engaged niece and got to play Dress-Up for a few hours -- as in, let's try on the Dress of Your Previous Engagement and see if we can turn it into the Dress of Your Dreams. I wish I had taken "before" pictures, but it was a very simple, plain-front dress with no waistline at all. Unfortunately for Allie, the torso was about four inches too long, and when there's no waist in a dress, the only way to shorten a torso is to cut it in half, cut out the excess bodice, and re-attach the skirt with an empire waistline. I don't know if that makes any sense to anybody, but there's nothing I love more to do than to take a dress that doesn't fit, take it apart, and make it fit. And make someone very, VERY happy in the process.

By the way, this is not the happy bride. This is my other niece, Kristie, who obliged as my human pincushion since Allie had to go to work after our initial fitting. My sister-in-law, Sonya, helped me tear the dress apart that morning, and Kristie was more than happy to model the dress so I could fit the organza on the bodice. Blah, blah, blah. Shop talk, I know -- can't help myself. But Kristie looks MAHvelous, don't you think? And Glen, I hope you're not peeking!

Friday night we had a gargantuan family pasta feed, courtesy of Melissa the Magnificant Chef Extraordinaire, complete with THE MOST AMAZING BLACKBERRY-APPLE COBBLER I'VE EVER TASTED. We fought over every last crumb. I would have given my right arm to lick the pan. And I will share the recipe as soon as I can pry it out of my sister's iron grip!

Saturday was the perfect day to take our traditional Wasden Family Hike out to Point Reyes, one of Northern California's many wonderful coastal highlights. Anne took over the camera for a while, and took pictures of every leaf, twig, and pastoral scenic view she could find. Even from twenty feet in the air, up a fallen tree!


I thought the whole hike would be a nice, leisurely stroll through the coastal wilderness, but three and a half miles later (and half an hour before we were supposed to be home), my brothers said, "Just fifteen minutes more!" and we found ourselves hoofing it up one last hill and ....

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you, THE PACIFIC OCEAN!

It never ceases to amaze me. The sheer power of the surf, the salty spray from the waves crashing on the shore (a hundred feet below us!), the rocky cliffs, the cry of the seagulls and curlews, the thick, soupy fog.... aahhhh, paradise!

And then, we hiked the four and a half miles back to the parking lot (I was really proud of Emma -- nine miles in one day is not too shabby for a little squirt like her!). We collapsed into various vehicles and came crawling home, two hours late for my dad's gourmet barbecue. (Check out Steve's blog for the pictures of that! YUMM-O!) Later that evening, we went and saw "Up" in 3-D (there really is no other way to see it!), visited the most amazing candy shop Petaluma has to offer (I love Powell's!), and polished off the evening with yet another round of Melissa's amazing cobblers. She made three this time, and we still snarfed it all!

We attended church on Sunday (and took over a third of the chapel!), and it was wonderful to catch up with friends and ward family members that I haven't seen in forever. Kids I used to change diapers on are now having babies of their own, as if I didn't feel old already! Still, it was great to see and be seen.

I didn't want to leave Petaluma without catching up with several of my high school buddies as well, so Sunday afternoon I spent on the phone trying to track them down. I only got a hold of one of my friends, and we had a marvelous hour of jawing on the phone. We caught up on the last twenty years (gulp!!) since high school, and swapped life stories and 'have you seen so-and-so's?' until we had to call it a night. Talking to Ken was like a step back into yesteryear -- he didn't sound a day older, and it was just like old days.

And now I'm going to get my walker and hobble off to bed. I'll finish the rest of my story tomorrow.