Dave and Jan have spent many happy hours in their back yard during the years since they moved back to California to care for Jan’s parents at their Brea address. It has been a nice place for relaxing activities like reading and praying – and keeping up the lawn and landscaping has provided plenty of exercise as well.  The back yard has been a good place for casual connections with family and friends. It has been quite a while since their visit now, but Dave and Jan enjoyed a back-yard visit with Dave’s cousin Hal and Yvonne, from the Denver area in June. 

In August they enjoyed a birthday celebration with Stephen and his family – and extended family (left to right – Dr. Bruce and Connie Seymour; Chip and Heidi Clampitt with Benjamin in the highchair and Amos next to Heidi; Meagan, Ryan and Stephen; and Jan, of course).

In September the back yard was the setting for a barbecue with the members of the church’s choir and the opportunity to sing (for the first time) through the Christmas musical for 2016.

When Dave and Jan first moved from Arizona to Brea the neighbor to the south left his back yard pretty much in its natural state – as this view through the chain-link fence indicates.

The next neighbor turned his back yard into something more like a garden, so the view through the fence took on a new look.

More recently, the neighbor decided he wanted to replace the chain link fence with a brick wall, so the back yard has taken on a new look.

Dave and Jan will miss the visits with the neighbors, and it will take some time for the landscaping to mature, but the back yard will continue to be a place of refuge and fun with family and friends.

And there will still be beauty to enjoy in other parts of the back yard while new vegetation is filling in along the new brick wall.