Climbing Beautiful Point Dume

Tobin, Boom, and I went on a wonderful weekend day off to Malibu. One of our favorite places to climb, Point Dume. It's a beautiful setting, and rock cliff right on the beach, with amazing blue-green water, sun, sounds, and good climbing "problems."

As you can see, many other people had the same idea to good to the beach.
And there were actually quite a few other climbers.
We termed this the Sea of Umbrellas!

Conquering the climb. Beautiful reward in views at the top!

Just chillin' enjoying the ocean!

Boom with her amazing climbing skills.
She's getting so much better!
It's fun to see her figure out new problems!

God's Creation is amazing and awesome!
You can see the blue-green in the water here.

At the end of the day we enjoyed the water.
Here I am getting practically knocked over by the power in the wave.


Here's Tobin taking a ride with the Boogie Board!

Auntie Christy

A photo I think Tobin took from his iPhone. It's me holding KJ (Kate Joy: we'll see if my nick name sticks I kind of like it) my newest niece!

Our night getaway...

Well, LASIX surgery gave us a good excuse to stay at a hotel at the beach. We didn't get to see or do much, but it was nice to relax after the surgery and walk out to the beach in the morning. I love the beach!

Eagle Eyes!

Well, Tobin had LASIX surgery done about 4 years ago, and I had been thinking on and off about doing it myself. And I decided to go through with it! We found a good recommended ophthalmology surgeon, and I scheduled it soon after my screening exam because of my crazy work schedule! So August 28th was the day! I'm glad to say that thus far the results have been pretty amazing. I'm still a little in the recovery face, so I've noticed a bit that occasionally my vision will get a little better or worse, but they say that's normal in the first couple weeks. So pray for continual healing and good vision!!! Pretty amazing what they can do these days. My surgery was at UCLA Eye center, so instead of driving all the way home on Friday we stayed in a hotel at Marina del Rey. That way we didn't have to fight Friday night traffic (which would have taken 2+ hours) to only come back for a 1 day follow up post surgery. It was nice to have a place to stay and in the morning we ate yummy bagels for breakfast (I had coffee too!) and we walked out on Venice Pier.

This was the unfortunate site on the way to UCLA. The fires in So Cal have been pretty bad this year. This is a huge fire that is still not yet contained. These photos are I think the second day after it began. Be praying that it is put out soon or thousands of homes could burn down!

That's downtown LA in the foreground. We don't drive this way very often, and seeing such a huge plume of smoke is definitely an odd site.

Last Photo with 4 eyes! Not that I hate glasses, it's just nice to be able to see without them, wear sunglasses, wake up and be able to see, see the inside of my shower (I don't know if this is a blessing because I'll have to clean it more frequently now!)

Right before surgery. Tobin took this wonderful photo of me in my get up!

Not the procedure room...they didn't want cameras or phones in the room as to not mess up the lasers. For due reason, these are my eyes they are shooting the lasers at!!

Not my surgeon, but one of the assistants getting me ready.

No photos right after because of the sensitivity to light, the fact that you need to keep your eyes closed for healing, and I wasn't thinking about photos at the time! But it went well. Tobin was a good doctor with great bedside manner bringing me what I need, leading me, bringing me Jamba Juice, and comforting me! He's going to be a great Doctor!

Great Week in the NW

Here's a few more photos to recap the week in the NW. It was wonderful. I got to see Tobin again, after spending 2 1/2 months apart! I spent time with family, and got to reunite with some friends. Cori Campbell, Maggie Holmes (friends from Fox), and I got together for coffee (I unfortunately forgot to take a photo). But it was fun to catch up and hear about Maggie's adventures in India! And see Cori's pregnant belly! Andrea Neufeldt (a good friend from high school) got together for shopping (we each got wedding presents for different weddings) and coffee. She is moving to Oklahoma, so it was nice to see her before she left!

Andrea and I!

Then we had Bean's wedding festivities. Tobin and I got to the rehearsal over an hour early...communicate glitch, but ok, we hung out in the car. You can see Tobin is thrilled....he did this on purpose because I told him to smile. Punk... =)

The groomsmen at rehearsal.

and the bridesmaids....all pretty much had associations with George Fox

Bean and Alyssa (Bean-to-be)

The wedding reception site...beautiful!

Alyssa and her girls (friends on the right of Alyssa and sisters on her left)

I dressed exactly like the Mother of the groom for rehearsal!

I guess great minds think alike. We even had black heels on too!

With my hubby!

Then we had a mini Barclay house reunion (where I lived senior year at Fox).

We sadly were missing two (Kaycee and Corrine)

But it was fun to get a few of us together.

Pictured L-R: Vickie Shaver (just moved from Pennsylvania to Oregon)

Christina Cournia (working as an RN and doing Hood to Coast in a couple weeks!)

Melissa Nigro (married, has one daughter Addison who is just over 1 year old)

Me (yeah you know what I'm up to)

Anyways, I think I captured most of the week. It was a fun and full week seeing friends and family (you can see them in another post).

Love seeing Family

It was wonderful to get to see family while I was up in Portland. Maryanne and I got to go shopping together (which we both love to do), I got to spend quality time with Porter (even babysitting him and taking him on trips in the car alone...of which I really felt like a Mom as I was late for most occassions Porter and I needed to be at, and I arrived with spit up on my shirt). Tobin and I took dinner over to Andy & Ruth's place, got to see our new niece Kate, and had fun playing a little bit with Gracie, Benjamin, and Zoey. Gracie HAD to show us how she can ride her bike without training wheels now! Then Saturday, I met up with Andy, his first 3 kids, and Mom and Dad at the Oregon Zoo. That was a lot of fun going with them. I told Andy I don't need my own kids, all I have to do is hang around with his kids and everyone assumes they are mine...you'll see why in the photos below!

Here's Zoey, she LOVED the animals!

The leopard we almost missed seeing but it came out from hiding behind a rock for a drink!

Hmmm..do you think we are related? Poor Benjamin I kept cutting his head off in the photos...

Grandpa and Zoey! We took this train ride through the park. It was beautiful

Mom & Dad, so nice to see them!

Curious Zoey

Three cute redheads...soon to be four running around!

Mom sewed beanbags for Mexican Horseshoes (you throw bean bags towards these holes)

On each set of beanbags, Mom specialized them, by embroidering each kids name on their own set. The kids loved it!

Andy and Tobin officiating the game =)

Zoey swinging with Grandpa!

Kate Joy Miller....I think I might call her KJ =)

Porter, the happy happy man! He had cute converse tennies on, but his expressions were better than the shoes he was wearing!

Bean's Wedding

Our good friend Michael Bean finally got hitched a couple weekends ago. He was our best man for our wedding, so it was fun to be a part of his wedding! Here are some fun photos. I knew most of the groomsmen, but got to know Alyssa, a bit, and she seems to be a perfect match for Bean.

Here Chris (Bean's brother) is slicking on some hairgel before photos

...something Bean is unaccustomed to. =)

The Studly groomen sans the bestman Chris (who was still applying the hairgel)

Looking good!

It was so nice to see my man again!!!

Bean (I just can't call him Michael...I think he'll always be Bean) and Alyssa

Pink and Pink! But they looked beautiful with the black dresses

Alyssa and her two sisters, making sure the bride looks her best, Bean looking on thinking,

"Now will I be the one doing this later, and how the heck do you work with those staight clip things in her hair?"

Again so happy!

Here's a photo of a mini Fox reunion. GO Class of 2004!

The ceremony and reception was all beautiful! Makes me want to live closer and in the NW...we'll see!