Favorite Picture

I've been going through my pictures lately and I keep coming back to this one as one of my very favorites. I thought I would share it with you. The girls and I are so lucky to have such a special guy in our lives.

Fishing at Medicine Lake, CA

Monterey

Early this month we were able to travel to Monterey, CA for the California Farm Bureau Annual Meeting. This country girl had to adjust to driving in heavy traffic, having the help of a bell man, and valet parking. You can laugh, it's OK. There's something to be said though for being able get something out of the pickup with out having to call someone to bring it to you. By the time our stay was over I was getting used to it, but our trip did give me the opportunity to be thankful for a long list of things I've grown accustom to living out here in the sticks.



My parents were able to meet us in Monterey for a little vacation of their own. We spent the better part of a day at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Hannah and Helena are enjoying looking at sea horses and other sea creatures.



In one exhibit you could look up and see a whole school of "saltines" as Hannah called them, swimming around in a circle. They are sardines to the rest of us. She's always good for a laugh.



The jellyfish were my favorite exhibit.


We got to see penguins amongst several other animals.



Oh, look! Two penguin babies just hatching from their egg!



The girls enjoyed playing in the "coral reef." Hannah is dressed as clown fish "swimming" through the reef.


This was Hannah's favorite part of the aquarium. Can you tell? This was a three-sided glass room that a wave crashed over every so often. Helena wasn't too sure what to think of it.



Through a comedy of errors, misinformation and assumptions we ended up playing right next to the wharf after spending too much time looking for lighthouses. I guess we weren't meant to visit a lighthouse because the two closest to the bay were closed. We needed some time on the beach anyway and it was a beautiful day for it. We played on the beach while Memaw Mary and Papa Lee kayaked on the bay.


It looks like Helena for once is telling Hannah what to do, and Hannah doesn't look like she likes it. But I don't really know what was going on here, I just thought it was kind of funny.


Ben and I spent our 8th anniversary in Monterey and driving home. We were both so busy getting ready for the trip that we forgot to get each other a card. Here was my attempt at making up for my forgetfulness.


It was a great trip but boy were we glad to be home!

Fall Colors Tour

The girls and I went with my Mom today on a fall colors tour. I wouldn't say the colors here are spectacular but they are nice. We headed north and ended up around Ft. Klamath.

Here we are at Reservation Spring. This is the head waters of Ft. Creek. I was impressed with how much water was coming out of the hill side. It's possible that it's coming from Crater Lake.


Only one of them is teething but I guess they both need their fingers in their mouth.

Here's a shot of Ft. Klamath with the beginning of the Wood River. Someday when I have more money than I know what to do with I will have a cattle ranch here with purebred Black Angus and Polled Hereford. We will spend spring, summer and fall here and the winter in Tulelake. But until then I will enjoy it's beauty a couple of times a year when we drive through. This picture doesn't really do it justice as I was too lazy to put a wide angle lens on my camera.

This is a picture of the lagoon at Kimball Park. There is a spring that is the head waters of the Wood River that forms this lagoon. That's not Photo Shop folks, it's that blue. Again I was too lazy to change lenses.

It was a beautiful drive. We'll have to go a couple of weeks earlier next year. Many of the Aspen trees had already lost their leaves or had been toasted by the frost.

What We Did in August...

that I never had time to write a post about.

Changed the wheel lines after third cutting. We are going to have the pleasure of doing it again very soon before fourth cutting.

Went to Train Mountain with Grandma Bevie and Cousin Wyatt.

And the Klamath Fish Hatchery.

Had a birthday.

Hannah seemed to enjoy my birthday more than hers.

I hope you enjoyed my post made up mostly of sentence fragments. My brain is shot for the day. The stove top blew up (no joke, we had sparks and bright lights) last night so we spent a good part of the day in town today finding a replacement. So, sentence fragments are all I can eek out after shopping for an appliance with two kiddos, while trying to make a decision about what stove to get and then how to get it to fit into a hole that is too big. I think my handy husband has gotten it figure out, thankfully! Oh, some day a kitchen remodel!

July Happenings...So Far

It has been my goal to get out and do more this summer. I think I'm succeeding at it and I've even been able to drag Ben along with us at times.

Here's Helena and I kayaking on Lake Ewauna.
My Mom, Hannah, Helena, Grandpa, Uncle, Aunt and cousins went for a day of kayaking on Orr Lake.

The view of Mt. Shasta from Orr Lake.

Daddy and Hannah fishing at Little Medicine Lake.

Helena sleeping at Medicine Lake.

Hannah scaring all the fish away at Medicine Lake.

Swimming with Uncle Jared and Cousin Waytt at Medicine Lake.

View from the south end of Surprise Valley (A.K.A God's Country)

Annie Lake where we spent an afternoon fishing.

Hannah sharing her Goldfish with her new friend Ty. These were the only fish to be had at the lake. The were jumping right in front of us but we couldn't catch them...frustrating!

Memorial Weekend Recap

Hanging out with sweet Emma

Playing in the water with her cousin

Getting a sled ride from a super cool uncle

Visiting Crater Lake National Park

Feeding fish at the Klamath Fish Hatchery

A Little Trip

Last Monday (over a week ago) Hannah and I went with Daddy to Sacramento for some California Farm Bureau meetings. Click here to read about our trip last year. Hannah and I got to do some looking around that we wouldn't have been able to do otherwise.

Tuesday morning we hit the Sacramento Zoo. It was a beautiful day and we got there not long after it opened. I felt like we had it mostly to ourselves for the better part of the couple hours that we were there. Hannah seemed to really like the zoo. She knew some of the animals and tried to say the names of the others. I wasn't sure if she knew that they were real animals but she had fun anyway. After the zoo we had lunch and then went IKEA. I really enjoy IKEA but you need a game plan when you go there. They have so much stuff it is easy to get overwhelmed. I as far as I had gotten was to read through a catalog before going. I knew of some of the things I wanted but would have loved to have taken more home. After about an hour Hannah was approaching meltdown and my pregnant body couldn't go on much more so we got a few things and headed back to the hotel. Hannah and I "rested" in the hotel room until Daddy got out of his meetings.

Hannah enjoying watching the lions.

Orangutan

Hannah riding a salt water crocodile. She calls it an alligator and I couldn't convince her otherwise. They didn't have much in the way of large reptiles at this zoo.

Flamingos

We made a quick trip across the freeway to Sears and then headed for Daddy's Grandparent's house for dinner. We had a delicious dinner prepared by Daddy's Grandma and Aunt. Without a nap that day Hannah proved to be a bit challenging. She refused to eat dinner and just wanted to play with tractors all evening and pour water from one cup to the other. We really enjoyed our visit and look forward to seeing them all again soon.

Wednesday Hannah and I went to Costco to stock up before the baby comes. We got everything that we needed and headed back to the hotel to wait for Daddy's meeting to finish up. When I got back I realized that somewhere between the check stand at Costco and the two miles to the hotel I lost my debit card. Oh joy! Thankfully we have nice gals that work at our bank who took care of me. It's just a hassle that I wasn't planning on. We checked out of the hotel but still had a little bit of time to kill so we ran over to the mall. After a little over an hour of shopping and a lot of walking we had had enough. We were loading up in the pickup when Daddy called and said that he was done. Thank goodness! We were ready to head back home!