escaping the heat

This past weekend Chad, Mags and I went to the cabin to cool off. The weather was great, the mood was relaxed, and we all had a great time. Saturday morning we travel to Huntington Lake to watch the High Sierra Regatta. The three of us had a picnic while watching the boats and enjoying the fresh mountain air. And of course we took Maggie to the swing before the day was done.

sledding

A couple weekends ago went spent the weekend at the cabin. That Saturday the weather was beautiful. We were able to take Maggie sledding (which she loved--especially going down hills by herself...yikes!) and she helped make snowballs and a snowman. We tried to find a great new hill for sledding, but it turns out the best one is in the empty lot next to the cabin. Go figure. 

Bird Feeders

A little over a week ago my parents took Maggie to the cabin for the night. One of the things they did with her was make peanut-butter-pine-cone-birdseed bird feeders. Apparently Maggie was more interested in eating the peanut butter than actually covering the pine cones (really though, can you blame her?). They brought the feeders back to our house and Maggie, Chad and I hung them together. She was more interested in doing that and now we can watch out our window for hungry little birds.

Thanksgiving

Our family had a great Thanksgiving weekend. We were able to spend it with Chad's parents, siblings, and nieces and nephews up in Shaver Lake. There were four people out of the 24 who couldn't make it this year and they were certainly missed. We went early on Thursday and left Sunday afternoon. The holiday weekend was filled with eating food, playing games, doing crafts, riding on the swing, playing in the snow, making bracelets, seeing Santa in town, opening gifts and spending time with each other. So much fun.

First Snow Day

We spent the past Saturday and Sunday with my parents at the cabin. Saturday was overcast and cool, but stayed dry. We woke up on Sunday to a snow storm with the ground and trees covered with soft white snow. After Maggie woke up we dressed her in some warm clothes and let her play in it for awhile. She tried to eat the snowflakes as they were falling, jumped in the snow, rode around in a sled with Chad, helped my dad shovel the snow layer on the front deck, and picked up more than her share of snow with her gloved hands. Unfortunately the gloves were more for style and cool weather rather than for snow because her little hands froze after about 20 minutes of playing. Hard to believe the first snow of the season (for us) has arrived before Thanksgiving. 

Dry Lake and Friends

Chad, Maggie and I spent last weekend with our friends at the cabin. We mostly caught up with each other because they live in the Bay Area and don't see them as often as we'd like, but we also squeezed in quite a bit of eating, dart throwing, block stacking (with Mags) and hiking. Before our friends arrived Chad, Mags and I took a drive to the lake. It is being drained, the first time since 1920, to repair the dam and currently looks pretty sparse. They won't let anyone on the lake bed and, as you can see from Maggie's reaction about being held and not allowed to run wild, she wasn't happy about that.

Boating

As I said last week, we rented a boat on Labor Day weekend. Maggie wasn't digging it for the first hour and we all wondered how long we were going to actually enjoy our time on the lake. After lunch, however, and after we took off her life jacket, her mood changed and she enjoyed herself. She also loved playing in the water so we made sure she got time to do that. The rest of, and the majority of, the afternoon on the boat was great.

Cabin

For Labor Day weekend we went to the cabin. It was nice to be back in the mountains for three nights--but this time with a kitchen, bed and shower. Ahhh. We relaxed, played darts, Scrabble, went to the swing, watched a movie and walked through a craft fair. On Sunday we rented a pontoon boat and spent the afternoon on Shaver Lake. More about the lake on the next post. Overall, a fun weekend. Hard to believe summer is almost over...

Happy Father's Day!

Over Memorial Day weekend Chad, Maggie and I went up to the mountains for a little hike. Chad carried Maggie in the backpack and she couldn't have been happier. Chad and I had fun too. Surprisingly there was still quite a bit of snow on the ground. Weird weather we've had this year, huh?

Anyway, this post is dedicated to Chad on his second Father's Day as a dad. Thanks for being so great. We love you.

Sledding

Chad decided it was time to take Mags sledding as part of our wintery fall weekend. There is a hill right next to the cabin that's perfect for a short sledding introduction. Maggie had a ball every time they went down the run. Seriously, we could not wipe that smile off her face.

Clashing is in this seaon

On Saturday we drove to the cabin, knowing a storm was on the way. Had we known exactly how strong the storm was going to be we might have stayed home. But we didn't and it was beautiful and fun. And so snowy and cold. In fact it was unusually snowy for the weekend before Thanksgiving. Chad and my dad got to shovel snow and put chains on our car at the peak point of the storm. As soon as we saw a break in the clouds we all high-tailed it out of there.

As you can see, Maggie got to try out her new pink snowsuit. And red jacket.

Maggie's Tree

Earlier this summer my dad decided he wanted to single out a tree at the cabin and designate it "Maggie's Tree". He had a sign made (by a local Shaver Lake dude) and he cemented a rather large post into the ground to secure it. We had a fun time debating which tree it should be and, after extensive analysis and voting, we chose a pretty white fir. The location is great--clearly visible from the driveway and entrance to the cabin.  Each year we're going to mark the post with Maggie's height and get her photo in front of it. This year was special because we were able to get a photo of her with both sets of grandparents. Hopefully future photos will be just as great.

Family Reunion

Last Thursday Chad's folks came for the weekend to visit. We had a great time and are so glad they were here. They took Maggie swimming and watched her on Friday so Chad and I could have dinner at Slates (yum!). Saturday we all went to the cabin. We had lunch with my parents before they headed back down the hill. That afternoon we went for a nice hike and enjoyed the gorgeous weather and clean mountain air. All in all it was a great visit and Maggie loved playing with and getting to know her grandparents from sunny San Diego. I'm pretty sure they felt the same way about her. Unfortunately we didn't get many photos of the weekend because video seemed to take priority. Maybe someday I'll learn video editing and get something interesting here on the blog.

Weekend Hike

This weekend we found a new hike near the cabin. We read about it in a hiking book earlier in the day so after Maggie's morning nap we put her in our hiking backpack and were on our way. Turns out it was a great trail but maybe a little too soon for us to have taken it. There was still snow on the ground in parts so we had to guess which way the trail headed a few times. We also had to trudge through some thick snow. Thanks to the well-placed markers though we were able to figure out where to go without getting lost. Chad was sick this weekend so he opted out of the hike and chose a long nap instead. My dad wore the backpack and Maggie for the first half of the hike and I tried the getup for the second. It worked slick and we all had lots of fun.

Fun Weekend

This weekend our good friends Loren and Andy came to visit. We spent the few short days they were here up at the cabin relaxing, cooking and enjoying each others company. Seems like just yesterday I was getting the house ready, shopping for food and waiting for their arrival. We're looking forward to seeing them again soon.

Shaver Lake Thanksgiving

Our family had a great Thanksgiving at Shaver Lake. We played games, fed the ducks at the lake, walked around the shops in town, spent some time at the swing, and overall had a nice long weekend with the family. The weather was cool and wintery and it even snowed the second night of our stay. The one bummer: A nasty stomach flu bug made the rounds between the two cabins and 19 of the 21 of us there caught it at some point. Fortunately it was a quick illness and didn't put a damper on our weekend.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This year Chad, Maggie and I are going to Shaver Lake for Thanksgiving. Spending the holiday weekend with us will be Chad's parents, siblings, nieces and nephews. There will be 21 of us in all! I'm expecting to have a great time and hope to have some fun photos to share after we return. Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

(PS Photo template provided by Pear Tree Greetings. Oh, and sorry for the blurry photo. It was the best the stranger at the park could take for us!)

Surprise!

(I'm way behind on posts but I'll do what I can to update the blog this week as I receive more photos.)

On Wednesday Chad took me out to dinner. He suggested we go to a restaurant we hadn't been before. I was a little confused as to why he wanted to go to this place on a Wednesday night, but really didn't think much of it. So after he got off work we headed down there, put in our food order and sat there talking, enjoying the evening. About 20 minutes after we got there our good friends L&A from the Washington DC metro area popped their heads into our booth. I looked at them and just sat there, thinking my mind was playing tricks on me. I couldn't believe that they would be in the same restaurant. In our town. On a Wednesday. She had just emailed me that morning from DC -- it seemed nearly impossible.

Once the shock wore off (or at least the initial shock, I was still surprised for the next 24 hours or so, really) we all sat down, ate dinner and headed to our house. Apparently our friends, Chad and my parents were all in on the surprise visit. So sneaky!

For the next four days we showed them our town (they'd never been here before), went to Yosemite, Shaver Lake and did a few other things together before we took them to the airport Sunday night. It was such a quick trip (for us) but I feel so lucky they made the effort to come out here. Talk about a wonderful surprise!

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Today is my mom's big birthday and we spent last night at the cabin to help her celebrate it. We went for a walk, had pizza for dinner, played Scrabble and watched the Food Network and American Idol. It was a relaxing but fun day in the mountains. I made my mom this quilt for her birthday. In this photo she's got it folded in half so it's really twice as big as it shows, but you get the idea. It fits right in with the cabin decor so I hope it'll get a lot of use! Happy Birthday, Mom!

Night at the Cabin

Saturday Chad and I drove up to the cabin for the night. It started lightly snowing about 35 minutes into our 50 minute drive. I'm glad I wasn't driving. We made it safely to the cabin and all was good. Chad immediately started a fire and I made grilled cheese sandwiches. About two hours after we settled in the power went out! Fortunately we found candles and flashlights and it was still relatively light outside. The outage only lasted about an hour and we sat close to the fire to stay warm. The snow continued to fall well into the evening and the view from inside the cabin was beautiful.