California: Alturas and Chester

Willis and I planned a trip to California to visit family during the time Ben was in the Dominican Republic (May 19-June 24) and Hannah was in the Rising Senior program at Union University (June 1-28).

Saturday June 14: Willis traveled on a plane with Ideal from St Louis to Reno while Bethany and I drove home. When we purchased the tickets in March the plan had been for Willis to start work on a deck off the back of Les and Ideal’s house in Chester. That was before Willis needed hernia repair surgery on May 8! But there were plenty of other, less strenuous projects to complete, including helping in her embroidery business.

Tuesday June 17: From Nashville, Bethany flew to Hartford CT to spend some time with Josh and family before reporting to her job at Camp Joy in Carmel New York. And I flew to Reno where Willis picked me up and we drove to Alturas. Our time with Mother and Daddy and Carolyn and Johnny was very good but different: Carolyn’s three children were all working out of town so none of our 7 children was with us. We have certainly entered a new season in our lives……….

Saturday June 21: Willis and I drove to Chester. Since the storms with lightning occurred that night, we were able to enjoy a nice meal with Ralph, Cecilia, and EmmaLey (up from Woodlake) and Ideal, Les, and Kurt before Les headed off to fight forest fires. Helping Ideal with Stitch It and More projects and preparing for vacation Bible school plus some scrapbooking and a trip to Lassen Volcanic National Park—yes, that’s ice on Lake Helen!—filled our wonderful time in the mountains.

Tuesday June 24: Kurt drove Willis and me to Reno to catch two different airplanes to fly home to Nashville. Willis flew to Oakland, then to Phoenix, then to Nashville. I flew to……………well, that’s the subject of a future post!