kite

We had a windy afternoon and Chad thought it might be fun to teach Maggie about kites. It took a little while to figure out the new kite, but once he finally got it flying it was so pretty in the air.

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. 

Chalk

This month I finally decided to bust out a large pack of sidewalk chalk because the weather has been so darn good. Mags and I have been outside as much as possible these days because who knows when the temps are going to change and actually make this area feel like winter again.

BBQ

The Tulare County Historical Society, an organization that my parents are heavily involved in, held their annual summer BBQ on last Sunday evening. Instead of hosting it on the museum grounds, this year we all went to a member's house for the fundraiser. She lives on a farm in the country with a huge area for tables, horses, musicians, a catering company, a dessert company (who made dutch oven peach cobbler on-site) and over 250 people. Maggie danced a bit, pet a horse, ran around, played with rocks, rode on a vintage toy horse (and subsequently smacked herself in the face with it and lightly busted her lip), met a handsome young cowboy, and looked cute in her little pink dress.

Grandparents Day

Sunday was Grandparents Day. Chad's station was co-sponsoring an event at the zoo that day so we decided to take my parents for the morning. It was a sprinkly, humid morning but we all had a nice time regardless. We fit in the bird show, made the rounds at the booth area, had lunch, and saw most of the animals at the zoo. Additionally Maggie fed a giraffe, skinned her knees (both knees, twice), gave money to a raven, and acted all cool like a pirate.

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...

Camping, Day 1

Our first day of camping began with a hike on the Big Stump trail. It was the same hike Maggie and I took a year ago (click here). Maggie's grown a lot since then and is much more solid on her feet. She still enjoys riding in the backpack, though. Who wouldn't?

After the hike we drove to our camp to unload. Maggie and Chad took a nap after the tent was up and I enjoyed sitting outside, relaxing and reading a magazine! Later in the day, after dinner, the air turned humid we noticed a few sprinkles on our bear box. Huh? It can't rain while we're camping! Good thing we have a good tent and a solid rain-fly. Fortunately the sprinkles only lasted about a minute or two and were super light, so nothing ever got wet. We did, however, get to see something at sunset that Maggie was excited about: a rainbow.















We ended up having about 3 minutes of rain overnight and it was so loud in the tent. I liked it and especially liked that there wasn't any thunder or lightning to accompany it.

Park City

About two weeks ago we flew to Park City, Utah for a vacation. We stayed in a condo in The Canyons and found that there is a lot of summertime stuff to do in the area. We made an attempt to fit a fair amount in and I'd say we did a good job of doing just that. The weather was great so that helped motivate us to get out and see the sights.

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.

Girl Time

On June 1 Maggie and I met up with a couple of our friends at a local park. It was a mild-weathered day and I'm glad we took advantage of it with them.

Tsunami

Last Thursday night was interesting for us. Chad and I had a wonderful dinner (which I'll talk more about later) and then the family met in our room for an evening of fun and games. My dad, an avid cable network news watcher, was watching TV and immediately told us about the earthquake in Japan. We all watched in real-time as the tsunami took over a bridge, pushing cars and boats around like they were toys. We stared knowing it was a tragic event but had no idea how devastating it would turn out to be. A couple hours after the quake we were notified by hotel staff that we needed to evacuate our ocean-level resort and head to the local high school. The school was located on a hill and safe from a possible tsunami that may or may not be headed our way. Kauai would be the first Hawaiian island hit so it was important that we follow orders. We packed up the car with necessities and eventually found the evacuation spot where we were supposed to be. Initially the wave was going to hit our island at 2ish. Then 3ish. At 6:30am we were still waiting and shortly after that they said we were safe to head back to our rooms. We slept off and on in the car and hung out with the crowd in the school cafeteria watching the news for updates. It wasn't a fun experience but it was a neat experience. As uncomfortable and tired as we were, we were lucky compared to those in Japan and we couldn't complain (even though we did).

Chad found his 15 minutes and captured photos and videos at the shelter for TV news stations on the mainland. He did nine phone interviews for news programs all over the US. I was proud.

Here I am in the middle of the night looking all kinds of cool:

And here's a snap of us hanging out in our van:

Years from now I will still remember where I was when that devastating quake hit Japan.

I'd like to thank those super rad friends of ours who contacted us to make sure we were safe that night. It meant a lot so thank you!

LimBUSine

On Saturday Chad and I went on a LimBusine trip with a dozen of his colleagues. Limbusines are gutted tour-style buses that have been restyled with luxury and parties in mind. It was awesome! The driver took us to the beautiful Central Coast where the weather was perfect, the companions were fun, and overall the day was a blast. We ate lunch in the sun under a large oak tree, saw some of the most beautiful scenery, and had a great fun-filled day.

Sunset

As I was making dinner last week I looked out the window and noticed a shockingly bright red sky out my window. I know, I know, quick snaps of amazing sunsets aren't that interesting on blogs, but it was beautiful so I don't care. Here you go. (I promise I didn't change the colors on Photoshop.)

Happy New Year! (The Storm Edition)

We had a wonderful weekend in San Diego celebrating Christmas, the end of 2010 and the beginning of 2011. I'll post more about that this week, but here's how we ended our trip: getting stuck in a blizzard! Hurray for us! We left San Diego at 9:30am hoping to avoid some of the storm. We figured we'd hit some of it in the mountains, but not nearly as much as we did. Take a look at the photos in this post. These were taken long after we had escaped the worst parts and were home free. Hard to believe. (Getting out my camera and documenting the experience were two of the last things on my mind earlier that afternoon.) We experienced an excessive amount of snow and wind, plus ice, sliding cars, sitting in traffic, crawling in traffic, me being scared, cars on the side of the road, Maggie being an awesome passenger, Chad being a rock star driver and finally freedom after four hours of being in the stormy mountain. Turns out they had closed the Ridge Route at some point while we were up there, but we were already inside so... The good news is that we made it and the whole ordeal is over.

Float Your Boat

We have had rain since Friday here at our house. There have been a few breaks in the clouds, but for the most part we've just been wet. Sunday we drove to my folks' house to pick up Maggie. To our surprise, here's what we found going on across the street. The normally green park filled with soccer players and running dogs has turned into a lake! With boaters! There were four boats when I ran to get my camera. Such a funny and strange sight.

Players

Maggie and I have been really busy this past week. Unfortunately I keep forgetting to bring my camera with us so I haven't had many updates for the blog. I did remember, however, to bring it today for a fun little rainy day playdate with friends. We all played with Oobleck in the kitchen and as the kids were wearing down from all the playing and toys and horsing around, they enjoyed watching the rain from the couch.

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.

Grizzlies

Fresno has a minor league baseball team called the Grizzlies. We got tickets from Groupon to watch the game on Saturday and we invited my parents to come along. The first part of the game (against the Sacramento River Cats) was slow, but as soon as the Grizzlies started scoring it got exciting. The breezy weather was wonderful. Going to the game was a great way to spend a Saturday evening for sure.

Farmers' Market

Every Friday during the spring and summer seasons our town has a farmers' market. It's a nice little event with fresh local fruits and vegetables, plus live entertainment, booths and food. We went to the first market of the season and it was chilly and windy. Weird! Unfortunately my point-and-shoot camera battery was about to die, but here's a photo of Chad and Maggie at one of the booths. See that top row of zucchini just to the right of Chad? We bought that. It was delicious.