The Four Cars

2008-12-03T15:26:00.000-08:00

Our Turkey 2008

Seventy Six Trombones...!

2008-03-12T11:39:00.000-07:00

The photos that follow are a montage of my experience of costuming La Habra Highs production of 'The Music Man'! Imagine dressing sixty five high school kids in period costumes (circa 1912) with each person having an average of 5 costumes each! That's just a little over 300 costumes!! I had a ball doing it and it was, as usual, a pleasure to work with Brian Johnson and his drama students! They are a talented group of kids...the kindest and most considerate I've ever worked with. I am so fortunate to be able to participate with them! Enjoy!!

The ensemble gets ready!!

The 'Pick-a-little' ladies!!

Amy gets help with her 'Pick-a-little' hat from her mom Dana.

Behind the scenes with some of the cast.

The 'Shinns' in the 4th of July finery!

Wesley Johnson waits patiently for the show to start.

Ally and Patty waiting for the show to start!

Paul L., John H., Cameron W. and Paul R. as the quartet!

Amy and Gina before they went on stage!

P.J. Arrey played 'Winthrop'.

Taylor Vickery and Amy Snyder as the Americana couple.

Mrs. Shinn making her entrance.

'Harold' and 'Marcelus' plotting and planning!

'Harold' telling the town what terrible 'Trouble' they're in!!

Gina and Christine (Marian and Mama) sing and argue!

Wes sings 'Seventy Six Trombones'.

The transformation of 'Harold' from salesman to band leader happened with a reversible jacket that I created from a pajama top pattern and my imagination! It is my favorite costume piece from this show.

Wes and Gina as 'Harold' and 'Marian' in the 'Marian the librarian scene.

I had fun doing Ginas' hair for every performance. The next pictures show how she became 'Marian Paroo'.

A wide eyed view of Amy and P.J.!

Lauren, Tana and Kristen after the show...LHHS Class of '80!

Rock City USA!!

2008-02-17T18:05:00.001-08:00

So this is what we look like when we rock climb! We spent some time at the Rock City Climbing Gym in Anaheim Hills today. This place had all kinds of climbing routes and a couple of caves with tunnels, drops, twists and turns!! We had sooooo much fun and unexpectedly built trust and had a great workout! It was a fun time together as a family as we hope the photos show...we highly recommend this for all ages and skill levels. Rock on!!

Scott rock climbed a lot when he was younger and always loved it...looks like it's something you never forget how to do!

We all really had a great time...each one excelled at something different. It was amazing how much trust played a factor in everything we did!

Chels regained her nickname of 'spidermonkey'! Scott and Chad are in one of the tunnel caves below!

"Oh, Mister Darcy!"

2008-01-20T16:35:00.000-08:00

Don't we look like we just stepped out of a Jane Austen Novel? Well, there's a reason for that...Our friends Ken and Melanie Coble invited us to attend an event in Pasadena called, "A Jane Austen Evening". It's held every year and is always sold out. Everything is authentic, the food, the costumes, the dancing!! Yes dancing! Regency Dance is the official term and it's just what you see in the movies. It's not difficult, but it is! Anyway, of course we made and wore costumes , had High Tea (all recipes were authentic from The Jane Austen Cookbook and very declicious), danced to a live quartet and had a grand time!
We stepped back in time for a little while and we highly recommend it!

The two couples in all their finery for a grand evening!

The ladies pose for a portrait and dancers showing off their skills!
Scott and Ken discuss very pressing matters and Ken takes some libertys with his wife!! Shocking!

On the dancefloor...notice Melanies' and Tanas' dress is pinned up so as not to have anyone step on it. Very proper indeed!

Lexi!

2008-01-20T16:18:00.000-08:00

We are happy to introduce you to the newest member of our family...Lexi! We adopted her from Boxer Rescue LA just a few weeks ago. We met her on the sidewalk outside Boxer Rescue and instantly fell in love! She is 6 years old and a real sweetie...she has adapted to our family like she's been with us her whole life. She loves to go on walks and is quite pushy about getting us to take her!! She plays with a fleece toy of hers and cracks us up...it's hysterical! We have intruduced her to Starbucks where she is treated to a 'Doggy Whip' (whipped cream in a cup) and she loves it...so far she has gotten it at the drive thru and on a walk to the Starbucks closest to where we live. It feels so good to have a pet and she really makes our house feel like a home! We hope you can meet her soon!!

I SPY

2007-12-15T11:24:00.000-08:00

The pictures below show how we put our I SPY together. It took several days of accumulating and positioning the items...then tilting some items and finally taking shot after shot at a variety of angles to make sure everything could be seen. It wasn't perfect but it was a fun process and we liked the final outcome. We hope you did too!

25th Anniversary!

2007-11-12T07:39:00.000-08:00

What a week of celebration! November 6th marked our 25th Wedding Anniversary...Our friends Tim and Jill Crawley took us to The Melting Pot for a special evening! On November 10th we celebrated with many of our friends and family from near and far. If you weren't able to be with us, you were missed and YOU missed a lot of fun, happy tears and a beautiful night! With the help of their Aunt Karen, our kids Chad & Chelsea honored us with a fantastic party (held at the home of Uncle Bob and Aunt Patty where we had our rehearsal dinner!) which featured a sit down dinner for 80, slide show and musical tributes, toasts and lots of memories of a very special night so long ago.....The pictures that follow are just a sampling to highlight the celebration...Enjoy!

Dawnel & Ben.....Engaged!

2007-08-31T18:12:00.001-07:00

Last night our niece Dawnel was proposed to by her boyfriend, now fiance, Ben Mitchell!! As you can see from the following photos the family got to be a part of the celebration after she said yes!

Mom is the first to congrat-

ulate the bride to be!

Dawnel and Chelsea

Sister Noel gives the ring a gander........it's beautiful!!

Chels is so happy

for

Dawnel:)

Noel and Dawnel

The 'twins'...Chad and Dawnel.

The newly engaged couple with Dawnels Oma and Opa...they've been married 57 years in October!

Aunt Tana and 'Der'..."Now we can go wedding shoe shopping:)

Blake and Dawnel

The 'fiances' with Bens brother Buzz, his wife Melissa and their little guy Jerry!

Dawnels brother Brad and his wife Sarah with Dawnel and Ben!

The Fessendens

Photo Art

2007-08-30T08:15:00.000-07:00

On our vacation we came upon some beautiful sights natural and man made. We came across the deer while visiting the Applegate Fellowship outdoor worship center near Jacksonville Oregon. The purple bush was at the rivers' edge along the Rogue River in Grants Pass Oregon where Tanas Aunt and Uncle live and have a home on the river!

Trying my hand (eye) at some super close nature photos! Not bad!

The last time Tana saw this post along this highway was in January 2007 and it was covered in snow and ice! A much different scene here! (This is along the Columbia River on the Oregon side)

This is the Sundail pedestrian bridge in Redding,CA. We visited in the morning and were so impressed with its structure and design. As the sun passes over it it creates a sundial in the garden behind. Worth seeing if you're ever up that way.

One lazy afternoon in our backyard we were in the pool and had this guy sit on a reed the whole time! He would zoom around every so often and then sit alongside the pool with us. Scott snapped this amazing shot!!

Summer 2007

2007-08-29T11:04:00.000-07:00

Bear with me as I learn how to do this stuff! This is probably a mess but oh well! We've had a lot of varied experiences over the past 6 weeks or so! If you want to view the pictures in chronological order start at the bottom and work your way back up! Enjoy!

Greeting Mitch after the ceremony! It was a very patriotic ceremony...made you proud to be an american!

Chels' 20th birthday 'Black & White' bash was so fun! From food to friends, family and the jazz band!

Our visit to Oregon reunited cousins Judi, Theresa and Tana!

Our vivist to Washington for Laurens' sons BarMitzvah was filled with celebrations! We attended the ceremony, brunch afterwards,great evening party and casual brunch the next AM!!

Lauren, Tana and Maggie pose for the camera as do our children (below). What a special time we had in beautiful country!

From L to R:Eli,Seth,Jacob,Chels,Chad,Colin!

Scott and Tana in the Shafers backyard! Just a small part of it!

Above: The Four Cars at the BarMitzvah party:)

On our way up to Washington we stopped in Grants Pass to visit with our favorite peopleUncle Neil and Aunt Carmen! This was Chels' only chance to see them as she would be flying home for school from Portland:(

We stopped in Redding CA overnight and made a trip to see the pedestrian bridge at Turtle Bay! Really neat!

Our nephew Tim (far right) and friends came for a visit! They were great guys and are welcome back anytime!

Scott and Tana at The Sky room for Tanas' birthday!

Tana hosted a birthday bash with all of her high school friends! We all turned or are turning 45 this year...it was a fun time of sharing and remembering and being thankful for our friendships!

We have a blog!

2007-08-19T16:34:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! We are new to this but we're looking forward to doing this online journal thing! Bear with us as we create our blog....we're learning as we go. This should be fun!