Life and travels of the Dennis family…
Hi everyone, I can’t believe it’s been over a year since I’ve posted. I have sooooo many pictures. I am just now answering emails from the past year and able to type reasonably well after 3 hand surgeries, so bit-by-bit I will catch up and post photos from the last year. Should be fun.
Thought I’d better at least get a hello up here in blog-land. Stay tuned for pictures coming soon…the dennises are still alive and well!
Hi everyone. I can’t believe I haven’t posted since March!!
Well, here’s a BIG catch up…
We had an unseasonably cool, wet, Spring which has been great for the flowers and veggies. I’m all into gardening right now and have been for the last few months. I had carpal tunnel surgery on my right wrist at the end of April and in the mending process right now. Everything’s coming along fine.
Well, our little boy is growing up fast!! Spencer’s new school, Adonai Academy, had its first ever 8th Grade Graduation ceremony on June 5, 2008. My friends at Camp Edison were kind enough to let us use the Tanager Group 2 outdoor amphitheater and day use site. The boys spent a fun afternoon at Shaver Lake, followed by a family BBQ and then our graduation ceremony at 7pm. The weather was absolutely beautiful with a rather cool edge by evening time. We were small, but mighty and saw it through!
Michael, Gwynneth and I are active on the school board. Our current project is to find some property or a suitable location with a building already on it for the school for next Fall. Please pray with us over this beautiful acreage we’ve had our eyes on for awhile now!
Like I said before, gardening is the healing balm during this time while my right hand heals after surgery. I’ve taken some beautiful garden shots of my veggies and flowers to share. Happy viewing!
Depending on my return to work date, me and Spence are hoping to make a quick trip to Portland, but that remains to be seen. I’ll let everyone know…
Michael has been hired to sing in an equity musical entitled, Onebody; a 21st Century Passion Play. Check out his My Space site; presenting Michael Dennis! Rehearsals start in July and the show will be touring in California during August. See Onebody’s website for show times.
Fay made her first ever ministry visit to a women’s prison, Valley State Prison for Women in Chowchilla. I went as a guest of Chapel of Grace and had the privilege of meeting some of the women from the chapel’s fundraising DVD (see the movie on their website) and was deeply touched by their stories. When I got home, Michael and Spence were all excited to hear about my visit and kept asking me to tell them about it. I just sat there blank. Michael said it was as if I were stunned and that was a very accurate description of how I felt. There are no words to describe how I feel after the fact and can only say it was eye-opening at the very least. I was tremendously moved by the experience. It has been on my heart now for over six years to go into the prisons and minister with a worship team. Now that I’ve been, I will be spending a lot of time putting together a worship team to do just that. I hit it off with the protestant chaplain and will be in contact with her shortly to talk about another visit. I also hope to make inroads with her and other prison chaplains so that I can facilitate the How To Hear God’s Voice course that I’m certified to teach through Communion with God Ministries (this is the foundational and required course for all tracks in the online university Christian Leadership University in which I’m currently enrolled for the masters in Worship track).
So, WOW!…a lot going on…a lot to think about…a lot to plan…
We’ll be busy for the rest of the Summer and really looking forward to it.
Talk to ya’ll soon…
Lots of love,
Fay 
Time to say goodbye :( to our fun-filled, extremely relaxing week with Cheryl, Tex, Jeff and Kurt. Thanks for a great time, we love you guys!!
We had a blast in Scottsdale, but alas all good things finally do come to an end.
We sat by the pool again on Friday then visited the Renaissance Festival in Phoenix on Saturday. All three of us came home sporting a bit of a tan!
And finally, on the road again early Sunday morning with a few parting shots of the Arizona desert all abloom!
We spent Wednesday just bumming around the pool and generally relaxing and soaking up the Arizona sun. As you can see from the pics, it is absolutely beautiful. Sun is shining, the sky is blue, and there’s a lovely, balmy breeze that brings the scent of lemon blossoms wafting by…yep, pretty close to paradise. I told Gwynneth if I was any more relaxed I’d melt into the ground.
Today we were off to a desert location about an hour away to learn how to shoot. Tex has an array of firearms and was a very patient teacher. I’ve always been nervous about guns and after today I’m ready to take a class. It was really fun. I can really see if you’re having a frustrating day, it’d be fun to shoot your agressions out (at a target of course)!! Then we went on to Seven Springs for a picnic lunch. We ate, relaxed and hiked for awhile. What a great day, and there are still two full days left for sun and fun. We’re having a fabulous time!!
More later…
Well, here we are in beautiful, sunny, balmy Scottsdale Arizona.
We left the mountains and the snow and travelled to the lovely, winter Arizona desert!
Michael and Spencer drove last Friday night, stopping over in Ehrenberg, AZ, then onto Scottsdale on Saturday morning. Fay was still finishing up in Vacaville at the Graham Cooke conference where she had a great time with friends (still letting it all sink in). They picked Fay up Sunday evening; together again.
On Monday, Cheryl and Tex took us around to their antique malls in the morning and in the afternoon we panned for Gold in their den. That’s right, we struck gold in the house (they send away for Alaskan gold dirt). We had a blast and we actually found some nuggets and lots of flakes. Auntie Cheryl and uncle Tex let Spencer keep everything he panned, and with gold at $1,000 an ounce right now, it will add up. We’re going to buy some ourselves and see if it pans out (no pun intended).
Then on Tuesday we went to the Wildlife World Zoo in Phoenix. It is a facility dedicated to saving wildlife babies and raising species near extinction in captivity. It has a wordwide affiliation. What’s so great about it is the animals are actually roaming in big, open pens that emulate their natural habitat so you can get up close and personal while taking pictures and even pet the tamer ones, like the giraffes. Enjoy the pics!
Stay tuned…the week’s only half over (and of course, all we do in between is eat!)…more to come…
Finally had time to upload pictures taken since the Fall…
We finished home renovations in the Fall and have promised since forever to put up pictures for Michael’s sister Cheryl of the renovations and our new living room furnite (our furniture is now, oh, five years old, I think).
Then came Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
And then a BIG snow storm in February.
And finally our trip to Portland during Spencer’s Ski Week break.
And next we’re on our way to Scottsdale to see more family. We certainly are the traveling kind…
Enjoy!
Man! It’s been awhile. Can’t believe I haven’t blogged since Christmas…
Nanna, Spencer, Gail and Fay just returned from Portland where we spent a wonderful family week. I’ll upload pictures (although I think Chloe and Heather have pretty much saturated their blogs with that visit, but I might have a few more good ones to add) soon. We basically just hung out together and that was the pupose of the trip. We were so proud to watch Heather in her show at church. And so very glad to finally meet Baby Owen. Sigh…great memories…wish we lived closer. On our way home, hit a big snow storm going through the Siskiyous - 45 miles of raging blizzard type snow - we all felt like kissing the ground when we reached Redding!!
Fay has been home until recently on doctor’s orders resting the carpal tunnel syndrome in both wrists, but back to work this past Monday waiting for a surgery date for the right wrist.
Fay, Gail and Nanna will be heading out to a Graham Cooke conference in Vacaville next Thursday and can’t wait!
The Sunday of the conference weekend, Fay will fly out of San Francisco to Scottsdale where Michael and Spencer will already have arrived the day before by car. We haven’t been to Auntie Cheryl’s in a looooong time and can’t wait to spend Spring break with she, Tex, Jeff and Kurt. Will have lots of pictures upon our return I’m sure.
Anyway, I’ll get pictures from Portland up soon and blog when we return from Scottsdale. We sure do seem to be on the move a lot. Ain’t it great???!!?! 
Nanner, nanner, nanner!!!
Beat that family__the first to upload Christmas pictures. Woo-hoo, woo-hoo-hoo!
I haven’t blogged in so long and I have a few quiet moments before the cooking frenzy, so thought I’d be the first to post pictures from Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. Will upload more later when Pam and Cliff come for Christmas dinner.
Well, got to go now and get organized for dinner… 
We went straight from a hot, hot Summer to 
We had our first snowfall Wednesday night (down to 6,000 feet so it didn’t get us yet at 4,000). I was on my way out to Big Creek and some of the vistas from the windy road were incredible. Mountains looming out of bubbly, wintry-looking clouds…low clouds settled in the valleys and working their way up the sides of the mountains…wind blowing through the trees. It was all very dramatic! I managed one picture before my camera battery went dead, so I put it in our header. I really wanted more of the trees, valleys and mountains in the low clouds, but I’m sure there will be another time soon. It promises to be a long, cold, wet/snowy winter. We need the rain!!
Catching up…
Here are some pics from Michael’s Bday dinner at Hazel’s in Modesto. It is a small, intimate dinner house that offers seven courses, all of which are preset except for your pick of entre. It was very English in decor and just our cup of tea, naturally.
Michael wanted to celebrate his 53rd birthday visiting some friends we met on the Worship Institute cruise in January, so we contacted our friends Tim and Darla, who are the Worship Pastors at Ceres Christian Church near Modesto (about two hours north of us), and spent the night on 8/25 at the Doubletree in Modesto. We laid out by the pool and relaxed, had a sumptious dinner, and then went to Tim and Darla’s church on Sunday worshipping with them. They treated us to a great lunch at the local, favorite Mexican restaurant.
We had a wonderful, relaxing time and Michael got his exact birthday wish.
Great hotel; great friends; great food; great weekend!