Really Random Thursday, 6/22/23

 Mark and I upgraded our phones yesterday. It was an event. I normally do the transfers myself and I've never had a problem. However, because we wanted the highest trade-in from Verizon on his iPhone 10 and I still had a couple of payments on my 12, they had to do some maneuvering. I'm not sure what all it entailed, but we decided to let Verizon do the transfers in the store. As much as I hated to pay for it, in hindsight it was a good decision because it took 3 1/2 hours! Mark doesn't really care which phone he has because he just wants a functional phone. Me, on the other hand--I only upgrade for the camera. Anyone else out there like that? :) Prior to the transfer, I spent some time deleting photos and screenshots. So, speaking of phones...

Aaron and Christa were out of town for the weekend and so grandkids spent the weekend with us. Our zoo, which is amazing, just opened a new exhibit, Kingdoms of Asia, and they are having a few members-only events. Levi was working but the rest of us checked it out. 

Much like my favorite part of the zoo, African Adventure, this part of the zoo has animals in as close to their native habitat as possible.  They even moved the Komodo dragon out of the reptile house (so obviously I have never seen the Komodo dragon at our zoo...) to this new exhibit, but there were so many people that I failed to get a picture of it. 

On Saturday, Gabe had a performance after being in a drama group each morning. He did such a great job. 

You can never go wrong with silly faces...

Good friends...

On Sunday, we drove up to the Sugar Pine railroad for a train ride. It's about an hour from Fresno. We rode the train five years ago on a super hot day in July.

Oh how the kids have grown!

It was a beautiful day for the ride.

So true...

I need this library to come to a neighborhood near me!

And finally, I play Wordle each morning. I have two starter words that I alternate between, sometimes using a third but not very often. What are the chances that I chose the correct starter word yesterday? This will never happen again. So I'm definitely documenting it!

We are enjoying unseasonably cool weather for the next few days, but I know the hot weather is just around the corner.

Friday: Family, Fabric Fun and 50th

FAMILY

At Gabe's end-of-the-year band concert a couple of weeks ago, he played in the advanced band, even though he has only been playing the trumpet since fall. In fact, he was the only trumpet player in the advanced band and did such a stellar job. He was given an award for being an outstanding band member.

Levi was baptized, along with two of his very good friends.

Aaron and Christa hosted a celebration lunch afterwards.

FABRIC FUN

Two weeks ago was the annual quilting retreat at Dotty's cabin near Yosemite. An extra visitor walked next to the cabin.

Our sewing room.

The tradition has long been that when you have completed something, you hang it over the railing. It has been years since I have had anything to hang, as I am usually just working on quilt blocks, but not sewing them into a quilt top. This year was different. I actually completed an entire top, and also hung the pineapple quilt that I've been working on at multiple retreats.

The railing from a different view.

Marilyn's super cute elephant quilt.

Good friends: Vicki, Marilyn, and Dotty.

50TH ANNIVERSARY

While we have an Alaskan cruise scheduled for later in the summer, for our actual anniversary we rented an Air BnB in downtown Fresno. I know that sounds less than exciting. However, it was a very cool industrial loft on the 13th floor of an old building. 

A room with a view...

As weird as this will sound, we chose Denny's for our anniversary dinner. Why? The back story...our wedding took place at 7 p.m. We had a light lunch, but at the reception there was only cake and punch. By the time we left, we were so hungry. It was 10 p.m. and the only place we could find that was open was Denny's. So we stopped and grabbed hamburgers. We were a little nostalgic and decided it was a fitting place to celebrate. The food was good, and we ate for under $40, which is cause for celebration in itself!

We ended up stopping at a hotel downtown where we know the wait staff, and were treated to red velvet cake.

Fun lights...

The next day we had to figure out how to spend the day. There is not a lot to do in downtown Fresno. We grabbed breakfast at a nearby restaurant.

And then, because I love libraries but for some reason have never been to the main branch of the Fresno library, we hung out there for awhile. 

We had been hoping that the iconic Fresno Water Tower was open for tours, but alas, it was not.

Christa's brother, Aaron, works downtown, so we chatted with him until he finally had to go back to work. Haha...

Our loft on the 13th floor, the whole corner (there are four units on that floor).

Later in the afternoon, we walked to a cool wine bar called Lune, and had fancy cheese and some apple slides.

In the evening, Aaron, Christa, Jason and Jill came for dinner. We ate at Quail State, which is on the 2nd floor of the building where we stayed. It was a beautiful evening to eat outdoors.

They came up to the loft for awhile. Jay liked the hammock. :), and because of this photo, we found out that his sister knows the owner of the loft, so that was a cool coincidence.

We tried to watch the Fresno Grizzlies baseball game, which was fun except that we had an obstructed view and couldn't see the batter. If they have Friday night home games, they also have fireworks. We had a great time with our little staycation and would definitely stay in the loft again. And a bonus was that the next day we were home in less than 15 minutes.

It's kind of mind boggling to think that we have been married for half a century!