Happy Birthday, Liesl!

We celebrated Liesl's 8th birthday today.  Her actual birthday is Tuesday, so today was the birthday extravaganza.  We started out at Carmel beach, which is a dog beach. (Leash free.)  It is Liesl's favorite place on earth.  It is her Disneyland.  She met new friends, ran all over the beach, chased her ball, and went swimming.  She was pretty tired but still had to act like a toddler when it is time to leave the park.  She will dilly-dally and act like she has to smell every grain of sand, blade of grass, leaf, etc.  When we got her to the car, she was happy to be wrapped up in her towel and cuddled.  She was too tired to go into the dog boutique for her special birthday cookie, so I had to run in alone.

 

Her dad barbecued her a chicken breast with some noodles for her birthday dinner, which she promptly wolfed down before looking like she was starving while we ate our dinner.  She is a little bit of a drama queen, which is one of the things we love so much about her.  I have treasured every single day of the past 8 years with her and look forward to many more.  We both love her so much and are so grateful for all of the joy, love and laughter she brings into our lives.

 

We have not really been home around the cozy cottage much lately.  Back in mid-July, my sweet baboo had his high school reunion in Santa Barbara.  He treated Liesl and I to a special mini-vacation at a hotel, right across the street from the water.  This was Liesl and my favorite place to sit that weekend.  It was so funny because the first day that we were there, we took Liesl for a walk on the beach.  She went running into the water, full throttle, with a look of pure joy and bliss on her face.  We took her "swimming" each day that we were there.  We had fun just watching her.

 



 



While in Santa Barbara, we got to tour Mission Santa Barbara and the beautiful rose garden.  The roses were so beautiful, and I was really grateful they had the names of many of them on plaques.  I am hoping to find them on my unending rose bush searches.

 

We are so fortunate because for three weeks every July, musicians from all over the world come to our little corner of the world for the Carmel Bach Festival.  I love classical music and my favorite composer is Johann Sebastian Bach.  So this is a big deal for me.  This year, we were fortunate enough to make three concerts.  All three were so amazing.  Last Sunday, we saw St. John's passion.  I wept through it.  On Thursday, we saw the Brandenburg Concerti performed on period instruments.  The concert was sold out and everyone loved it.  It was hard to be out on a weeknight, but we were so happy that we saw it.  It was an incredible concert.  Yesterday, we saw the Coffee Cantata, which was very whimsical.  We love the Bach Festival and feel so appreciative that it is right here on the Monterey Peninsula.

 

So, it has been busy here, but with all good things.  We are so grateful for all of the blessings we have been able to experience lately.  I hope that your days are filled with many blessings, as well!

 

In closing, I would like to share more photos from Mission Santa Barbara. 

 

Betty Boop Rose

A massive Morton Fig Tree



 

A very happy Zwergschnauzer