Spring Camping Vacation - New Brighton State Beach

Derek and I met up with Nicole, Mark, Aubrey & Garrett for a week of camping fun over Spring break. We hit the road early last Saturday, heading to New Brighton State Beach near Santa Cruz.

Stopping to have a yummy breakfast.

Beautiful, bright wildflowers on our drive across Hwy 46.

The guys figure out where to put which vehicle :)

Wonderful beach near by

We're Certified!

Yay!!! Today Derek and I signed off on our Home Study and so we are official!!!!

Spring has Sprung with the Local Wildflowers

Here are some pics of beautiful wildflowers I get to gaze at on my daily commute to Bakersfield.

You probably have to zoom in for this one, but in the distance there is a pink hue on the hillsides of some pretty pink flowers.

Frogs & Shrooms

And so with all this rain, we now enter our "Irish" stage with beautiful green lushness!

I was out walking Shasta in the backyard and we saw this huge mushroom growing on the outside of the fence. It reminded me of a fairyland :)

And then I heard VERY loud frog croaking from our little 'seasonal' creek -- I so wanted to see what kind of frog it was but I only caught a glimpse of it swimming to the other side. But I'll keep my eye out for it and maybe soon I'll have a pic :)

Here's a local squirrel - I'm sure he's what Monkey barks at incessantly at night!

And last but not least...my flowers are starting to wake up from their winter sleep -- YAY!!!!

Big Bear Berms

A winter trip up to the Big Bear Cabin this weekend was quite the adventure. They had gotten a lot of snow lately and nobody had been there in the last few weeks - so.......there were huge berms in front of the cabin from all of the road snowplowing. We ended up needing to have someone with a tractor dig us a parking spot in the driveway - but how cool to be around so much snow!

Here's the back door!!! We kind of dug a little hill path for us and the dogs to go out back- but mostly did a lot of climbing!...and sinking into the snow drifts! The dogs mostly stayed inside because the snow was so high in the back they could have jumped the fence.

Even though the dogs were in most of the time...they still managed to keep occupied -- here is the local squirrel eating peanuts on the front rail - it was like their version of television!

Michelyn went to a Bald Eagle presentation at the Discovery Center. Didn't quite wake up in time for the morning count but they reported 9 eagles in the area - 4 adults and 5 juveniles.

The presentation ended with a live visit from Aries, a local Golden Eagle from the Moonridge Animal Park. A wonderful, up close view of a stunning creature!

Godzilla in Tehachapi

Well, hubby got in the local newspaper again! Check out the story here about the Godzilla movie he and his classroom made! Very fun - I'll have to save the actual article from the newspaper because it has Derek in a couple of pics :)

http://www.tehachapinews.com/content/golden-hills-class-becomes-movie-studio



At the end of the article is a link to the movie on YouTube - just imagine the credits scrolling to a really awesome Godzilla song - we think it doesn't play on YouTube because of copyright issues?

Final Walk-through

On Saturday, our Koinonia social worker, Alexis, came over to the house for our joint meeting and final walk-through. We gave her the tour and she took some pics of us and the house. We went over some things and then she signed off on the final home visit. So now it's just a matter of the home study report being finalized and waiting for whatever children God is going to bring across our path! This is exciting because it could really happen at any time and we're good to go. Whew! I'm sure our world is going to rock!!!

NASA Field Trip

Last Thursday, I got to accompany Derek and his classroom on a fun field trip. We drove out to NASA on Edwards Air Force Base and got to see some really cool planes, machines...and of course we were on the lookout for aliens!

Derek has a wonderful class and all of the kids were fun and I loved meeting them in person.

One of Derek's basketball friends works as a machinist there and he was kind enough to give us a special tour of that workshop. Protective eye gear everyone!!!

Whoo whoo

Last night I got to hear very clear whoots of an owl -- I wish, so wish, I could have seen him -- but it was pitch black outside. It was a very soft, soothing kind of whoot and was so cool to hear. My dad heard an owl sound when they were up for New Year's Eve - maybe it's the same one ? :)

I went online and looked up what owls we have in Kern county - there are 9. So I tried to find sample whoots on the web -- the three that sounded most like the one I heard were: the Great Horned Owl, Spotted Owl or Long-Eared Owl.

Setting Up

Derek & I have started working on the blue room - getting ready for foster/adopt kids. Here are some pics of the work in progress...

The bunk beds are cool - but what a pain to make the bed! We'll have to have reasonable expectations for that chore! May be just straighten the sheets and throw the comforter over it -- like the way we make our bed! LOL :)

Welcome 2010!!!

I'm actually looking forward to seeing what 2010 brings! My folks came up to Tehachapi to have dinner with us and ring in the new year. It was wonderful to see them!

Unfortunately, I've come down with some laryngitis so I've been 'squeaking' the last few days! But that's okay - I've got a whole year to shout! :)