This is our family website.
Please make yourself at home, visit as often as you like,
and leave us a comment or two so we know you were here!
Click any of the categories listed to the right and have a look!
Archive for Family
October 4, 2008 at 11:37 am · Filed under Family
Mom and Dad Aanestad celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary this summer.
We had a nice evening with friends and family honoring them.
(click the pictures to make them bigger. Use the back arrow to return)
This was thier wedding day, more than 50 years ago
50 years later...haven't changed a bit!
It was meaningful to have Sam, Sue, and Steve there.
Lots of familty and friends were there; these were among the prettiest!
Dad said a few words
- …Brian followed, then I spoke
Then Cam said a few words (with Whitney joining him)
followed by Graham, and Billy, and Brad's girls, and David and, well...you get the idea.
Faith was the Belle of the ball. She shares Great-Grandma's birthday!
Uncle Sam wanted to squeeze her until her head popped
And Faith told her Mama, Michelle, about all the people she met.
Mom, Dad, and Keasa sang a song for Kaesa and Darren's girls.
Everyone loved the story Brad & Erin's girls told
and the night was filled with love, laughter, family, and good friends.
If you know my parents, you already know this. Dad and Mom are a model of family love.
Their marriage has demonstrated faith, virtue, and commitment. They have practiced faith in God, and faith in each other, knowing that faithfulness to God and to each other facilitated a healthy marriage. They have been models of virtue and integrity for their family, and have instilled strong values that I proudly recognize in my siblings. And they have shown us how to remain committed to each other through a lifetime of, well…life, and they are an example of the rich, deep love that results from that type of commitment.
I pray that God will continue to bless them richly!
Following are some random pictures of family.
Graham, Michelle,& Faith
I just wanna hug 'em all!
They smell almost as good as they look!
Happy Anniversary, Mom & Dad
We love you very much!
October 4, 2008 at 10:51 am · Filed under Billy, Family
I really need to spend more time updating my Blog.
Several months ago, Billy (our youngest son) graduated From the University of California, Riverside, with a degree in Political Science. Of course, we are very proud of him. Bill is a serious and grounded young man, with a keen intellect and strong values. I look forward to the times I get to spend with him, and lately, our discussions mostly seem to involve politics 🙂
I admire him for all the hard work he put into this accomplishment. That, and I just really like him as a person.
This is Bill, receiving his diploma
...enjoying the sense of accomplishment
the proud parents
Bill feels fortunate to have such loving grandparents
Alise (Bill's sweetie) flew down from WA to celebrate the event!
We gave him a guitar. He gave us the finger.
Cousin Matt dug it!
Billy graduated on Father’s Day 2008.
What a wonderful Father’s Day present (no more tuition payments!!!)
June 3, 2008 at 6:59 am · Filed under Cameron / Whitney, Family
This is Whitney; Cameron’s sweetie.
Cam started a web site devoted to his relationship with her:
http://www.ilovewhit.com/
Whitney is intelligent, she is sweet, she is thoughtful, and she is good. She has a wonderful sense of humor, and she loves my son!
She’s the kind of daughter-in-law fathers want in the family.
Check-out Cam’s site, and tell ’em Pop sent ya 😉
May 30, 2008 at 1:49 pm · Filed under Family, Graham / Michelle / Faith
this smile stole my heart
May 30, 2008 at 1:00 pm · Filed under Alana, Bill, Family
Alana and I just returned home from a nice vacation, during which we celebrated our 25th Wedding Anniversary in Yosemite. This post will mostly be about the vacation, but I mention the anniversary for two reasons:
1) In case you might want to pick up a small gift (or send money) to commemorate the event.
2) To present evidence that another human being actually CAN live with me for 25 years.
Let’s get started. (That was for Cameron, who just received a perfect grade in his Public Speaking class.)
Click on the thumbnails to see bigger pictures 😉
We left on the FZ1 after church Sunday. It was HOT and dry, and we were in full gear. But we were excited to get away, and the heat wasn’t bad once we got moving.
We rode almost six hours Sunday afternoon (including a fuel stop, and a stop at Arby’s). We stayed in Three Rivers that night, at the Lazy-J Ranch. I LOVE that place. This was my second stay there, and if you ever need to stay near Sequoia National Park, i recommend staying at the Lazy J!
All of these pictures were taken just steps from our room!
We got a good night’s sleep and sallied forth Monday morning into Sequoia National Park
There was still some snow on the ground in the shadows in the higher elevations.
We spent most of Monday, and Monday night at the Montecito Sequoia Lodge. We didn’t have a camera with us most of the time…sorry. We rowed a canoe on the pond, hiked, ate, napped under some really tall pine trees, and tried to decompress. The Sequoias sure are a pretty part of the world!
After a nice breakfast in the lodge Tuesday morning, we loaded up the bike and pointed her toward Yosemite.
Road repair caused the closure of a few roads in Yosemite, requiring detours that made my simple maps worthless. Somewhere along the way i made a wrong turn, and we stopped to regroup in Mariposa, which is about 40 miles south of where we wanted to be. But the roads from Maripose to Yosemite Lakes were awesome!!!
Yosemite lakes is a camp ground. We stayed in a “yurt”. A yurt is like a tent-style hotel room. It has fabric walls, but it also has plumbing, heating, air conditioning, electricity, TV, kitchen, and an alarm clock! Even the skylight had a nice view!!
Graham and Michelle came up for a couple of days. We walked around Yosemite, enjoyed the falls, and BBQ’d some steaks for dinner. It was very meaningful to us that they drove all the way up to spend a little time with us. Faith thought her Grandpa was pretty funny.
What a beautiful time of year to be in this little slice of heaven!
Alana especially enjoyed the Dogwood trees
Graham took Michelle out to see the countryside on the bike, then we had another nice, albeit too large, meal. Then Graham and Michelle wished us a Happy Anniversary (did I mention that is was our 25th?), and headed home. About an hour after they left it started to rain–not hard, but steadily. So, we stayed inside the yurt for most of the next few days. We ate. We napped. We laughed. We did crossword puzzles, played solitaire, and watched a little TV. We ate a lot, actually. Between the light rain showers, we’d hike along the river, do some laundry, or explore the area a little.
We didn’t get back on the bike until Sunday, when we went to church 🙂
We enjoyed relaxing in the yurt. I got fat, got rested, and once or twice got “the look” from Alana
I can’t think of a better way to spend my 25th wedding anniversary (did I mention that is was our 25th?) than alone with my bride in that peaceful setting. I fell in love with her all over again!
Here are a few more random pictures. Thanks for letting me share!
March 24, 2008 at 6:58 pm · Filed under Family, Graham / Michelle / Faith, Holidays
This is Faith…10 days old.
Easter Sunday; March 23, 2008
March 24, 2008 at 6:50 pm · Filed under Family, Holidays
This is our family on Thanksgiving Day, 2007.
(click the pic to make it bigger)
California Thanksgivings aren’t really crazy, they’re just funny that way
March 24, 2008 at 12:06 pm · Filed under Family
This is a long post with no pictures. It will be tagged in the family category, however.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. In mollis. Phasellus velit. Etiam varius, nisi euismod scelerisque venenatis, mi dolor viverra justo, non dignissim pede arcu eu diam. Nam interdum malesuada dolor. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Quisque dapibus, quam at venenatis dignissim, turpis mauris pharetra augue, id ultricies diam lorem nec nisl. Maecenas sapien. Nulla facilisi. Aenean id diam. Integer sit amet arcu. Suspendisse rhoncus. Nam at mauris. Nullam ultricies pede ac nisl. Praesent non urna. Fusce felis elit, luctus vitae, dapibus at, imperdiet ac, quam. Morbi lobortis risus sodales justo.
Integer varius justo sed leo. Duis in arcu. Ut varius, tellus nec tempus tincidunt, neque mi dictum risus, quis vulputate odio odio ac ligula. Quisque dignissim pretium enim. Aenean tortor orci, porta sit amet, fringilla nec, semper eu, orci. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Vivamus lacus. Mauris egestas lectus nec mauris. Curabitur mattis nisi non mi. Pellentesque volutpat viverra est. Maecenas nibh justo, scelerisque at, accumsan id, ullamcorper quis, est. Nunc nonummy erat ac libero.
Praesent cursus nibh et erat. Etiam dolor odio, adipiscing sit amet, pellentesque quis, vehicula quis, tortor. Aliquam viverra, mauris id pharetra fringilla, arcu diam ullamcorper elit, vel fermentum felis sem eu turpis. Sed leo massa, pharetra sit amet, commodo sit amet, convallis id, mauris. Duis non massa. Integer eget mi ut turpis blandit tincidunt. Proin ultricies diam ac lorem adipiscing cursus. Sed non neque. Cras quis magna. Donec neque ligula, semper non, porttitor non, porta sed, ante. Sed accumsan tellus. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Proin vulputate. Donec imperdiet volutpat lacus.
Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae; Maecenas pellentesque tortor ut nulla. Vivamus mattis. Ut ut purus. Mauris dolor. Vestibulum urna lacus, nonummy ut, vulputate eu, adipiscing eget, mi. Duis vel felis. Suspendisse congue. Quisque nisl. Phasellus cursus urna aliquet sapien. Donec cursus est et leo blandit adipiscing. Suspendisse vel eros eget turpis nonummy aliquam. Nulla porta mattis ipsum. Integer pellentesque eros. In hac habitasse platea dictumst.
Maecenas velit neque, sodales quis, aliquam eget, pretium id, urna. Sed ultricies eros quis odio. Praesent porttitor, justo non egestas placerat, nisi massa tempor nunc, in dictum sapien justo nec sem. Etiam lobortis ipsum ut orci. Etiam massa mauris, laoreet ac, mollis vel, semper sit amet, velit. Fusce sem sem, rhoncus sit amet, sodales sed, vulputate eget, dui. Sed at pede ornare arcu nonummy faucibus. Morbi varius metus eget odio. Sed dignissim dolor consectetuer ante. Aliquam dolor. Donec sed enim. Aenean vel elit. Aenean cursus fermentum purus. Nulla ultrices magna in justo. Nulla diam ligula, tristique non, congue ut, gravida sed, augue. Nulla neque dolor, volutpat et, condimentum ut, imperdiet et, mauris. Sed augue est, dapibus ut, porttitor aliquet, elementum non, erat. Donec at tortor. Duis rutrum quam eu elit. Donec ac diam.
March 24, 2008 at 12:05 pm · Filed under Family, Graham / Michelle / Faith
…on March 13, 2008
She shares her birthday with her Great-Grandmother Dorothy Mae Aanestad!
Here’s a picture of my granddaughter. Please note how profoundly awesome she is.
The other three-and-a-half guys are my sons (except one, but he’s like a son)
« Previous entries
