MERRY CHRISTMAS

Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas. We're off to Camarillo on Christmas Eve to celebrate with John's family. We're so excited to be able to share this holiday together again. Love, John & Laura

Early Christmas

We went to St George to celebrate an early Christmas with Cam, Mary Ellen and Abby. We had a relaxing, fun time. We loved being with them in their lovely new townhome. We spent the first morning curled up on the sofas watching HGTV, drinking coffee, talking and being entertained by Abby. She is quite the face maker! The Christmas tree was decorated on our second evening after a chili dinner. We gave Abby her first set of wheels and we all got a kick out of her reaction to the trike. On Sunday we went out for breakfast and afterwards went to a lake and checked out the ducks and swans. Later that day we headed to Bed Bath and Beyond and Cam and Mary Ellen picked out their Christmas gift from us....they selected curtains and a rod for their beautiful french sliding doors in their kitchen. Abby helped Daddy with the installation. Thank you for a great early Christmas Cam, M.E, & Abigail!

We Had a Thanksgiving Dinner That Couldn't Be Beat

It wouldn't be Thanksgiving without family, good food, and Officer Obie

Well, two out of three ain't bad! John didn't regale us with his rendition of Alice's Restaurant this year, so we've included it on our playlist. But, we were blessed with the other requirements!

We enjoyed a wonderful holiday when John's parents Martha and Roger came out on Wednesday in rainy conditions. It was their first visit to our home and we were quite moved. They really liked spending the night at the Indian Wells Resort. It's a small resort that was started by Lucy & Desi Arnaz. It's lined with lots of great photographs of it's 1950 - 60's Hollywood connection. We relaxed at home on Wednesday afternoon, and we were treated to a yummy pizza dinner by the P's.

Thursday morning found Laura in the kitchen bright and early. We had such a wonderful time catching up with good conversation. We shared memorable meal together. This is how it was meant to be. We kept looking at each other and grinning. We'll never forget it.

Tully Clan

Last weekend we enjoyed a long awaited visit with Laura's brother Roger. His daughter Claire and son Tristan went with him to Tucson, and we gathered at Laura's Mon and Dad's home. It was an amazing gathering. The only thing missing was the presence of Maureen, Jamie and Jackson. And having Michael and Zach would there also would have been the cherry on top! We look forward to the next time we can ALL be together.

OH ELLEN!

How lucky are we? We've got each other, a beautiful family and amazing friends. John and I finally made it up to Santa Barbara were we spent an amazing day with Ellen. I thought I was jonesin' for time with her, as it had been since last November since we'd seen each other; but John had it bad! It had been 27 years since they'd seen each other! Inexcusable! Needless to say the reunion was brilliant. We had the best time ever, sharing old and new stories, discovering Ellen's beautiful garden, eating a fabulous dinner and sleeping under a blanket due to the cool mountain air in Painted Cave. The next day we headed down to Hendry Beach and had a lovely lunch of lobster tacos followed by a walk on the beach before heading home. Thank you Ellen for being such a wonderful friend to both of us.

Sean"s visit

We had the pleasure of visiting with our long time friend Sean Russell. He was in the Desert for a golf tournament and he stopped by for an anticipated reunion. We enjoyed catching up and sharing old stories of ACHS and Moorpark , particularly of the glory days of Speech and Debate. We look forward to seeing Sean and Julie next time we're in Camarillo.

Our Old School

We thought it would be fun to post these pictures from the 1975 Alacran, our Alma Mater's yearbook!

Here's John performing at half-time with the Stage Band. He's wearing a Panamanian hat that Laura's Mom brought back for him. Dig those sideburns! His Mom forbade him to grow a beard, so in typical John fashion, he pushed it as far as he could go by growing the most impressive mutton chops and forgoing the goatee!

The group picture is of our Speech team...John is in the top row, 6th from the left. Laura's in the bottom row. 2nd from the left. We had such a great time competing all over California with John kicking ass in Debate.

We've had fun reminiscing about our high school experiences. We were such lucky kids to have lived how we did with terrific parents that trusted us and gave us the freedom to explore Southern California together. Between Speech and Band, we made so many trips to L.A. and visited so many museums, attended concerts from the L.A. Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, Led Zeppelin at the Forum to Bob Dylan at Universal (ALL of the Concerts attended together are a subject of another entry!). We are definitely the product of how we were raised and the life we lived and we are grateful. Like the Jimmy Buffet song says, 'We are the people our parents warned us about'!

Cousin -Cousine

We had brunch with Laura's cousin Dody last Sunday. Dody and John were really happy to see each other, it was fun reunion. Dody put on a wonderful spread, as always and Laura was entertained by Dolly, Dody's spunky terrier. We're looking forward to getting together with Anna and Elise the next time they visit from LaLa Land. Maybe Maria will be coming soon? Don't think we'll be heading to Chicago soon.

Now She Can't Be Trusted

Our friend Veronica has turned 30! We were able to share this momentous occasion at the incredible surprise party thrown by her wonderful husband Mark. 65 family members and close friends were treated to a great evening at the Westin Mission Hills. We enjoyed a live rock trio, DJ, hosted bar and a delicious appetizer buffet. Vern's reaction to the gathering was priceless! It was really terrific to get together with Laura's good Merrill Lynch friends and for John to get to know them on a personal level. Thank you again Mark for hosting a great party!
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Make a Memory

Laura's sister Maureen and her boyfriend Michael spent a great couple of days in NYC. They attended a gallery opening for their friend Roger Shimomura. We had the opportunity to meet Roger in Kansas City in March.

We heard this Bon Jovi song on Graham Norton and it really made us think of Kansas City and the special time we spent there with Maureen and Michael.

On the way home from Camarillo we stopped in Santa Monica for a bite to eat at
il Cucini and shared mussels and calamari while enjoying the breeze off the Pacific on their lovely patio before returning to the heat of Palm Desert.

A couple of weeks ago we visited with John's family in Camarillo. Sunday was fun as it was Hat day at church. Thats why most of us are wearing hats. Laura and I made grilled salmon for everyone sat. nite. We went to the Camarillo Fiesta on Saturday, ate some great food, saw some really cool cars, and heard some great music.

We took a trip to St. George, UT in May so I could finally meet John's wonderful son Cameron. It was pretty cool to make at trip back to that State together after making several to visit my family there in the 70's. We had a really good time with Cameron, his wife Mary Ellen and the cutest, sweetest granddaughter in the whole world, Abigail. We spent one day in Zion Ntl Park and I was blown away by the sheer beauty.

Party at the Houser's

In June we spent an amazing evening with our friend Matt Houser. They had a joint 50th birthday (for Matt) and a high school graduation (daughter Christina) party at their home in Dana Point. It was incredible to see and spend time with old, dear friends.

Catching up

Nothing much to post today, the slide show is one of many 'catch ups' that we will be posting. That is a slide show of John's motorcycle trip in '06. Logged over 5K miles and had an experience of a lifetime. More 'catch ups to follow soon.
You can of course click on it and it will open in new window for full size pictures....

Hey everyone, after many years apart Laura and John are back together again. We are both so excited. Many thanks to our families for their love and support. Many bigtime thanks to Maureen. What a sister. This has been quite an adventure for both of us as we know so much about each other but still ask the little questions like 'Do you like onions?'.