Regarding how we humans can't seem to stay on an even keel, though apparently some are bound for glory, C.S. Lewis has senior devil Screwtape write: 

Humans are amphibians-half spirit and half animal (The Enemy’s determination to produce such a revolting hybrid was one of the things that determined Our Father to withdraw his support from Him.)…This means that while their spirit can be directed to an eternal object, their bodies, passions, and imaginations are in continual change, for to be in time means to change. Their nearest approach to constancy, therefore, is undulation-the repeated return to a level from which they repeatedly fall back, a series of troughs and peaks.   
                                              -- The Screwtape Letters

Thirty-one years of marriage has illustrated this idea.  We make progress, and fall back, but move just a bit closer to a lofty ideal with each down and up.

On the week of our anniversary, we used one of the gift certificates I often receive after a season of BCS sports photography and went to The Cheesecake Factory.  The gift certificate limits our choice of venue but there's one just six blocks away -- at Bellevue Square.  The pictures below were taken with Nancy's new pink Canon ELPH 100HS ($129) that I got her.  (For an even cheaper pocket camera ($69), I got myself a blue Canon A495.  I may be "a Nikon man" when it comes to pro equipment, but Canon is tops in the point and shoot market.)

Nancy is determined to outlive me -- at least in that she chooses healthy dinners out while I go for the Blue Cheese Bacon Burger.  I made up for it when we brought most of the cheesecake home, and Nancy and JB finished it over Spring Break.

[The photo above left is my SPU computer lab portrait. Our anniversary photo (right) is at the church we were wed in and where we still worship -- and, unlike nearly every other Sunday, and most workdays, I wasn't wearing a tie!)

Don and Judy Celebrate Their 50th

Don was a teenager (just) when he married his "twenty-something" bride Judy.  (Their birthdays are a month apart.)  I was five when Don, who had skipped a grade, went off to the UW.  I was seven when he got married. 

Their children John, Chris, and Debbie put on a three-hour luncheon celebration at Salty's in West Seattle.  The location was appropriate because these Sleight kids all attended West Seattle High School like their Dad and their Sleight aunt and uncles.  Those aunts and uncles also chipped in on the great bench which was their big 50th anniversary surprise gift.  It will be installed by Chris up at their cabin on the shores of Lake Cavanaugh in Skagit County.

Above right, Judy showed off her wedding dress (as Nancy did at our 10th and 25th).  Although Nathanael and I were late, arriving as the end of the serving line came in view, Don asked me to say grace -- something I was delighted to do.  There were about fifty family and friends to help celebrate.  It was a fitting tribute on a very rare sunny afternoon this spring.

Katherine and Adam Kidwell made the party, and Katherine read a text message from Laurie.  Don, Randy and I, and Judy's brother Ed, all spoke.

Katherine graduates on Friday, June 8th from the M.A. in Museology program at the UW.  I understand they will stay in the Seattle area.  Her "show" at the Experience Music Project (Science Fiction section) opens June 9th.

Nancy Takes a Leadership Role in P.E.O.

Nancy agreed to be inducted as the Vice President of Seattle Reciprocity of the P.E.O. sisterhood this month.  "Reciprocity" is a coordinating group with representatives from each of the area P.E.O. chapters.  Nancy's grandmother Ethel Rutherford joined Washington State's Chapter A of P.E.O. in 1926 and Ginger Rutherford joined in 1955, Susan in 1971, and Nancy in 1974.  Annie and Jean joined in 2006 and 2011. 

For the last few years, Nancy has been a champion for the P.E.O. Star Scholarship program, coordinating the matching of top women high school students with sponsoring local chapters.  No doubt this zeal got her noticed at "Reciprocity."

JB and N8

Both Nathanael and Jeannie Beth continue to enjoy their college years.  I see them more than a typical "empty nest" dad — not only at church, but when buying textbooks, bringing needed items from home, and a very occasional meal at Gwinn Commons.

But as much as these two are peas from the same pod, they are quite different.  Jean is the gregarious one who is more the open book.  She's the noisy one.  Nate is equally joyful, but if a deep thinker, he's still a quiet lone ranger.  It's hard for Nancy and me to see "behind the mask."  Or, most likely, this "man in whom there is no guile" is just as he appears and acts.  JB is a roller coaster.  N8 is a peacemaker.