"Fleet week" in San Fran. good times!

It was fleet week this weekend in SanFrancisco. We went to a BBQ for all the active military- lots of food, music, prizes & good times. The Blue Angels performed their magic and all the sailboats were out for the show.

visits and tours and sights

grama & grampa Read visited in September and we all went to the Jelly Belly factory! We also went to Pixar studios - where you can only get a tour if you KNOW SOMEBODY on the inside. We do and it was awesome!!!

August 2009 Florence Oregon -this and the blogs below this one are all from the Barnes family reunion. If you click on top of the pictures, they pop up big so you can actually see them. I loved this moment of Hannah's and played with the camera to try different looks - isn't it pretty?

Ah, the Oregon coast. It's true there's really no place like home....

Barnes Family reunion
FLorence Oregon
August 2009
Hannah and Me making tyedye pillowcases
My girl at the beach
Hannah & Sloan takin a stroll - look how beautiful it was!!!

Barnes Family Reunion '09 - the guys did vounteer work in the park - some of us contributed by cheering them on - Daniel admires Levi's mowing skills, Dad weed-eats, John and Pat also mow while the rest of us enthusiastically dole out water and pep talk to the team!

cousins on the beach
best clam cleaners in the west!
Uncle Pat trying on one of the history presentation props. Lookin good.
Uncle John gives the Washburn State Park history presentation - with the famous Barnes Family Players

In August this year, the weather was gorgeous in Florence Oregon!! The cousins had a BLAST on the beach, cleaning and pounding and cooking clams, and even helping with the annual Washburn State Park presentation Uncle John puts on!! the next post will show more of that. I love this reunion and SO look forward to it every year. I already can't wait for next summer to do it all again!! Our family is AWESOME.

That statue was already making a "blech!" face, so Trish & I stuck our feet in it's mouth!! We all went to the boardwalk @ the SF Pier & had dinner @ Rainforest cafe.... the mustache one is Levi & his fellow officemates....... handsome bunch, no?

We tried taking night photos at Golden Gate Park - I think this one's pretty good considering it was pitch black and I had to play around with my camera for it to work. It doesn't do justice to how pretty it really is, though. Did you know that people come from all over the world to commit suicide by jumping off the GG Bridge? The Coast Guard is always going out to fish for them.... nice, huh. they don't say that in the tourist info.....

cousins and other stuff I found

HEY!! I TOOK THIS PHOTO. from WAY FAR AWAY. I just had to share, because i think it looks awesome. And Levi couldn't get as good a pic with his big fancy-pants CG camera! I zoomed and held SO freaking still to get the shot. nice, huh? San Francisco Bay

CALIFORNIA

Hello, California Bay Area! this is definitely big city. Juneau reminded us of Oregon, but with way more rain. This is a mild climate with wind a lot. not much else. it rains here and there, but temperatures stay mild. kinda boring. lol. There's Penny - our new dog. She is amazingly cool. we LOVE her. Levi says he could take her or leave her, but HE'S the one who always worries about her. And she ADORES him for it. tee hee (click on top of the picture to enlarge if you want to see it better- it may work for you, it does for me)

Grama made stick horses for ALL the grandkids. Grama ROCKS!!

we spent Christmas in Oregon with the family - it was WAY SNOWIER in Newberg, OR than it was in juneau AK!!! the kids & cousins had a BLAST!! here they are 4-wheelin with Posh on the farm

After the adventure of getting married and moving to JUNEAU, ALASKA, we were just feeling at home there and loving the people when the US Coast Guard moved us to the California Bay Area. Here we were on the ferry just before Christmas . 4 days on a ferry can make you a bit loopy, but we had a good time and got to stay together thanks to stand-by and prayer!- Levi was originally told he had to get off in Canada and meet up with us after a 10 hour drive south to WA. So we were very happy to be all squished in our 4 bunk "state room"