At family day we got a pic together of most of the former East Texan young people. We were missing my brother, Melissa Brown, Luke Chadwick, and Sarah Evans who were at other sites. Everyone else was all here at the Cali feast site by coincidence. It's pretty cool that we're all still "with the program" after all of these years. From teens to 30's! ......How the time flies. Below is the best we could do with a goofy pic. (I'm planning to find an old pic of us posing as young 'ems and do a post on that to see how we've changed over the years! :-) )
Below: Rachel S. was from South Texas, and we'd see her on the holy days and special combined Texas services back in the days, and since she took our East Texas pic, we had to include her in as Texans whether East or South stick together. :-)
Laurel posing with Mommy's friend above, and with Mommy below. She is so cute and loaded with personality.
A family pic of the Miller/Smart Klan.
I love how Brendan poses. His facial expressions are actually out of love. LOL!
Alicia Pope and I. She use to be South Texas while I was East Texas. We were teens together and saw each other on special combined Texas occasions. Texans really do stick together and it's pretty neat that most of us are still "here."
At services photos
The next three photos are the Hochstetler family photos. GREAT and I bolded that on purpose, family!
Rachel and I. Long time Texas buds. Texas totally was in California this year. :-)
Thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Marc Szabo for letting us have our LGD get together in their villa. It was a blast!
Here are some of my candid Indian Wells, California FOT pics and videos so far for any family and friends interested. Everything is going well and this truly is a blessed feast. Many old friends that I grew up with are here at this site. It's really great to reconnect with old friends who were around back in the early to mid 90's that I "grew up" with. I'm very thankful for and trying to take advantage of every opportunity that God gives to me. The goal is to give back as much as I can. I will add more pics to this post of things that are still yet to come such as Family Day and the LGD that I won't tweet about, so if you want to see all of the pics and videos feel free to visit this same post again within a few days as I will update it quietly. :-)
ABOVE: Breakfast with the Nash's and Deepika
BELOW: Steve and Rachel Szabo were dining in the same room at the same time. (I cut Rachel out of the pic b/c she would have not killed me b/c that would break one of the commandments, :-) but maybe hurt me a little if I had posted her in her "morning outfit." :-)
Yummy breakfast w/smoked salmon in the raw. Unbelievable, but seeing is believing! :-)
After breakfast we ran into Brooke Cocomise with two of her kids, so Deepika posed with Titus and Chloe. So cute! The Cocomise kids are sooooooo friendly and loving. You can't help but to really like them!
A long time friend going all the way back to my teenage years in Texas..... Rachel Szabo and I pose with her son Austin. You know with a name like Austin her son has to be cool.
BELOW: On the first HD instead of a regular luncheon, about one half of the Indian Wells site went to the on site restaurant and had Fish Tacos. It sounds kind of gross, but if you like fish any they are actually pretty good.
BELOW: Deepika and I hosted a children's party for the children so that they could have fun with their friends, and to give their parents a break with a few hours off to do what they pleased. It was wild alright, but we had so much fun and got to know the kids a lot more. They are so our little brothers and sisters!
Our children's party group pic. One with Deepika and one with yours truly. The kids were so much fun. We thank the parents for giving us that opportunity. I admit that we were tired afterwards, but it was so worth it.
Getting ready to dish up the ice cream for the kids. We had chocolate mint, chocolate fudge, and peanut butter cup flavors. I learned from this that chocolate mint is apparently super popular with kids. #TheThingsParentsKnowThatPeopleWhoAren'tParentsDon't
BELOW: Thanks to Erica Irwin for giving of her time to help us with the kiddos.
VIDEOS from the children's party. So fun!
Back to photos!
Below, the boys exploring the outside. We didn't let them go outside on the balcony. With that many kids, the word tragedy kept coming to mind.
The lovely Katy R. wore her fiesta shirt in honor of our party. For any wondering, fiesta means party in Spanish. :-) Spanish lesson of the day. :-)!
Smart and Miller cousins.
Alec Brown
Switching gears from the children's party......a few pics from the Singles Dessert Mixer
The prerequisite to be in this picture was that you had to be a shorty. :-)
Switching gears again.....we had our first children's choir practice earlier this week. The kids did well. These very low quality pics of the kids are more for my reference to remember where they stand for the actual performance.
Lunch at a Japanese place with Deepika. She had sushi while I went with the cooked food. :-)
Switching gears to entertainment night!
Below. Long time friends of mine, the Barkei's. Their daughter Laurel is missing from this photo, but she was around having fun with her feast friends. Nathan is the sound dept. head and is doing such a great job here.
Below: Katrina Szabo poses with flowers that her Aunt and Uncle, the Walker's, sent her all the way from Ireland. :-) Perks to the internet and phone. :-) She is such a great little dancer and actress. Her brother Austin poses with her as well. I can't believe this gal is 5 and dancing on stage. I remember when both she and her brother were just little babies. Ahhh!
Can you tell who is not a Szabo? :-) Adding the cousins to the mix. Stephanie, Rebecca, and Jeanette. All of K's family and friends were so proud of her. :-)
Mya Smart struck a pose for me after performing an Irish dance in the show. She did well.
I give Conner props for best outfit in the show. I really liked his outfit. Old timey and fashionable. :-)
Adding Conner's wife and my long time friend Melinda to the mix along with their son Alec.
The Browns, Laskey, Deepika, and I were the very last people in the Church hall after ET.
A few at services photos.....
Cuteness in one pic. The van Klaveren gals, with a Miller and Smart gal.
Switching gears again. The day of the performance. Children's choir photos. Thanks to Poppy H. for taking the direct below picture during the actual performance. The kids did really well. They sounded great and they were so well behaved. One of the cream of the crop children's choirs I've ever been so blessed to work with. I'm proud of them all. The plan is to send each one of them a little something after the FOT when they are home. It will be done. They earned it. :-)
During the practice pics that I shot.
Switching gears again......a few video's from the singles activity of an egg drop. The goal in the below videos was to drop an egg suspended without it breaking.
BELOW: A pic from the singles activity. Thanks to Calela for sharing this pic with me. :-)
Switching gears again......a ladies gathering by Rachel S. after services up in the penthouse lounge.
The Barkei's were in the lounge as well as were the......
Mr. and Mrs. Marc Szabo's. These two families, the Barkie's and Szabo's, have been so kind to me. I'm blessed with some great friends.
Switching gears again......Deepika and my wine and cheese night before the singles activity. It turned more into a small AC student gathering with just maybe two field new friends, but it's not like we've "hung out" this FOT so it was just the right mix. Hopefully they enjoyed. The FOT is so busy it can be hard to coordinate get togethers.
Thanks to Deepika for letting me "pirate" this pic from her that she took while I was driving one day this FOT in Indian Wells. I really like the palm trees along the road.
Well, these are the pics and videos that I've managed to take so far. I hope you've enjoyed. :-) I'll try to take more tomorrow and more on Family Day this Sunday, and of course the LGD, so this post is....To Be Continued silently as I won't tweet it again........ :-)
