A new update (whaddya know)

From the past semester

All I can say is, wow, it's been a while. We have a slew of pictures to get through. These pictures are from this fall season. Ellia has now begun her second year (in fact, at this point she's very near 18 months). But here are some shots for now.

Sweet girl!

With Grandaddy at Noni and Grandaddy's.

Having a ball with Noni and Mama.

She's starting early.

At Grandma and Grandpa's house.

First birthday party, a little late

Last memories from SF

Sorry about the lack of updates lately. We've been a bit busy. But hopefully we'll be able to put up a little more frequently. We love you!

Baker Beach

As we may have mentioned, San Francisco is chilly in the summer. Quite chilly. But that doesn't keep us away from the beach. Baker Beach is on the north side of San Francisco, not far from Golden Gate Bridge. It's right on the Pacific Ocean. Here are a few shots from our time there.

more pics to come

Hi, dear family and friends. We now have less than two weeks in San Francisco, so we're trying to make the most of our time here. It's ridiculously cold here these days (low- to mid-50s), so we're trying to keep warm. We have moved into our last place (of five), so we're happy that we're in this house until we leave. However, there is very little internet access at this place. We have pictures, but it takes too long to upload them, and by the time I finally am able to get them all in, I lose signal and lose all the work. So I'll update with more pictures as I'm able, but it may be a little while.

We love you and look forward to seeing those of you in Texas again before too long.

Peace. Hope.
Brett (on behalf of Christina and the affection of all our hearts and blog posts)

Ellia's first birthday (take one)

Ellia turned one year old on June 20. We had been in San Francisco for two days, were still adjusting from our respective jet lags, and knew almost no one in the city. However, we were determined not to let this first birthday pass us by. So we celebrated San Francisco-style. Here are a few pictures from Ellia's birthday.

The birthday girl crawling around Alice's place.

Mommy made Ellia her first birthday cake which she happily smeared all over her face.

Our friend Leanne graciously took us to visit the Golden Gate Bridge for Ellia's birthday.

The cake apparently wasn't good enough, so she decided to eat some dirt. So much for taking a cute picture in the flowers.

Mommy, cleaning off the dirt.

Ellia loves to swing. This is at a playground very near the place we first stayed.

Our one-year-old. She's ONE-derful!

Despite two hospital visits during our time in Colorado,
Ellia was still smiling.

Ellia enjoys bath time with her friends Cole and Wyatt.

Ellia plays on the beach in Japan where Mommy taught a women's retreat.

Ellia loved the dolphins at the world's largest aquarium in Okinawa!

We arrived in San Francisco and Ellia handled the jet lag like a champ...
way better than Mommy did.

Stay tuned for a full report on Ellia's birthday!

The return of Ellia (to the blog)

Hi sweet three people who still look at this occasionally. I've (Brett) been out of commission for over a month now. I spent a month--apart from Christina and Ellia--in India with a group of wonderful people from Truett. Life-changing as it was, we'll skip it for now (look for a letter coming your way within the next month or two...sorry, I'm really behind). There was a beautiful reunion between the three of us in the San Francisco airport. I finally had the opportunity to catch up with the lives of my girls for the previous month, which included two and a half weeks in Boulder/Denver and a week and a half in Okinawa, Japan. I'll let these pictures do some talking. I know it's been a while, so we'll try to catch up over the next few posts all the way through (I can't believe it!) Ellia's first birthday. We're in San Francisco for the rest of the summer while I do my mentoring at FBC, SF. Enjoy the pictures.

In Boulder, at the feet of Aunt Juli.

With the moms in Boulder.

Oh, so cute.

With Uncle Clint in Denver. This has become a common face, especially when she sees her new bear, Bill Braski.

Just enjoying life at Noni and Grandaddy's house in Denver.

Visiting Buck and Granmama's

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