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!