Big Bear & Guitar Hero

We had a wonderful jaunt up to Big Bear with "the fam" - always great to spend time with family! Got to take a group tour on the Miss Liberty to view the lake and its treasures!

A special treat was Mark bringing up his Guitar Hero - I had never played it before and much to Derek's delight, I think I'm hooked!

Spiffing Up "The Shasta"

One of the things we are looking forward to with our new (to us) white truck - is camping with Derek's trailer - it's going to be 16' of traveling fun! Derek spent a lot of last week in Lake Elsinore where his folks have kindly been housing it for the last 6 or so years! My honey worked hard in the heat to get new tires for it, etc. so that we could bring it home to Tehachapi. We thought is was "providential" that it is called "Shasta"!

So this afternoon we decided to tackle the clearing out of the trailer. There have been many boxes in it for storage - so after a bug bombing, we got to wiping out the dirt, dust and cobwebs.

Michelyn is especially proud of this drastic change - I didn't get a "before shot" picture but imagine everything covered with boxes, boxes, and more boxes. Throw in some old propane tanks and snow tires and everything from toilet paper to a love letter from one of Derek's old girlfriends and you get the idea!

Hey, the color combos may not be "hip" - but we'll work with the "retro" theme!

And this is just a random picture of 'my family' hanging out on a Sunday afternoon.

Monkey and the Stick

Our Monkey-boy loves his sticks...he'll fetch them and often tries to bring them inside - but mostly they can't fit through the dog door! Well, tonight he found one he could run and prance around with inside, showing off his prized treasure!

Tahoe Vacation #2

Thursday, Derek & I went on a 2 hour horseback ride - Derek riding 'Tuesday' and Michelyn riding 'Tommy' - I think this may be our "thing" - a fun activity when we go different places.

Here we're passing the "swiss chalet" - a little one-room cabin as a resting stop for cross-country skiers in the winter.

Afterwards, we had lunch in Truckee and visited nearby Donner Lake and the State Park/Emigrant Trail Museum. I got a book earlier in the week ("Desperate Passage") about the infamous Donner Party and it was great to see the actual locations of much of that story -- it was a very interesting book with lots of great info and history.

This is a statue acknowledging the survivors and general western pioneer spirit - the height of the rock column is supposed to be the presumed height of the snowdrifts when the Donner Party got snowed in while trying to cross the Sierra Nevada mountains.

Stay tuned for more pictures as I upload some from Derek's camera... :)

Tahoe Vacation #1

Here we are stopping for a snack on our long drive to Lake Tahoe

We made it!!!

Tehachapi Mountain Park

Derek and I found a treasure right in our own backyard. Saturday, we drove 15 minutes up the Tehachapi mountains to Tehachapi Mountain Park. We took the pups and went on a nature trail hike and then checked out the campsites they have up there! What an awesome place! It was beautiful and peaceful.

Tegan Winter

Friday brought the birth of a brand, new niece....Tegan Winter Gould. I couldn't stop myself from driving down the same day to see her. What a precious angel she is!

Happy Birthday, Sweet Tegan!

Poor Baby Shasta

Our poor puppy got an owie! This week we noticed a swelling between two of Shasta's right toes. So Thursday Derek took her into the vet...they checked it out and found a fox tail embedded in there, starting to get infected. They even found a nasty fox tail in one of her ears that we didn't even know about. After a brief surgical removal she has her paw all bandaged up and has to wear one of those cones for three days. She's a trooper and being patient with it all.

Now our nightly ritual includes body checks for those blasted fox tails!

What I Learn From My Nieces and Nephews

I love being an auntie...all of my nieces and nephews are precious to me!

But they are also wonderful teachers about how to embrace life and laugh with one's entire soul...here Siena enjoys the bouncy house at Garrett's party.

Garrett Turns 3!!!

Garrett turned three last week....he was so cute and excited about having a birthday. We all got to celebrate with a Diego-themed party!

Pinata time!!!

Time for presents!

Siena gets her second wind...

Aubrey and her imagination!

Hot Air Balloon

This morning on the way to work, I saw a hot air balloon in the sky above Tehachapi. How cool is that! What an awesome view they must have had. As I got on the freeway, I started to notice the colors of the balloon and thought that was a good metaphor in life -- as you get closer to what you're striving for, you see more and more details and beauty.