Lake Almanor

A few weeks ago our friends offered to let us stay at their house on Lake Almanor. It was the perfect vacation for our little family of five. We enjoyed lots of outdoor adventures including fishing, hiking, paddle boarding, kayaking, swimming, dock jumping, rock throwing, stick collecting and sunset watching. We also rested a lot, watched movies, did "dates" with the kiddos, and enjoyed a lot of fresh trout.

Exploring around the river

First day on the river: a success!

Hiking in the Mt. Lassen wilderness to Bumpass Hell

Bumpass Hell steam vent (smells like sulphur)

The best sunset of our trip

Sam swimming around

It was a long dusty road to the Yellow River

Yellow River aquatic plants: there were flowers growing right out of the stream. It was so beautiful!

Exploring around the Yellow River

Swirl cones at the Pine Shack

Somebody loves his Maddie girl

no caption necessary

pretty little stream trout

 honeybee reunion?

me and my hiking buddy

Oregon! My Oregon!

Memorial Day weekend the kids and I drove up to Oregon to meet up with my parents, brothers, sister-in-law, nieces and nephew. It was epic. The kids were AMAZING in the long car rides--3 hour stretches with just one stop each way (7 hours total trip)! We stayed at a hotel right on the Rogue River and enjoyed a handful of adventures in our short weekend.

We enjoyed awesome dinner and drinks at a lodge right on the river, a short walk from our hotel. The kids were kind enough to pose for a picture. Oldest cousin is nearly 13 and Evan is 14 months! In between we have 10, 7, 7, and 5. Grammy & Papa look way too young to have such grown up grandchildren.

Sunday we explored Jacksonville, with its quaint historic buildings and fun little shops. The girls really enjoyed shopping together and the guys didn't seem to mind tagging along.

On Sunday night we enjoyed a long speedboat trip down the river. We did lots of spinning 180s, got really wet, napped (Evan), saw wild osprey and bald eagles, motored through Hell's Gate, and enjoyed an amazing all-you-can-eat dinner on the banks of the river with all our boat friends. 

After dinner the sun was going down and the kids were skipping rocks. We snapped a few more photos as long as the cousins were all together:

It's soooo hard to live far away from our families, whom we love so much. But trips like this are sure to stick in the kids' memories and they love their Oregon family so much.

Thanks, Painters, for an awesome trip! We miss you and can't wait to come up in just a few short weeks.

Back to School 2013: Part 2

A few weeks ago Sam headed back to school, for his third and final year in Preschool! A look back at the past two years (cue tears):

Um, he looks like a baby in that 2011 pic. And he didn't stay small and round. My boy is so long and lean! This year's photo:

So, two funny things about this year's photo: 1) Sam put up a HUGE fight about wearing socks to school on the first day of school, to the extent that he was in such a mood he wouldn't let me take a picture on Wednesday. Which leads me to 2) When I snapped this pic today (Saturday), he was shoeless. Ha. 

Also, the pics from last week's Back to School Eve Feast! For future years, see here, here and here.

This year's theme was books, based on the classics.

I made signs for the food using A Beautiful Mess app on my iphone and printed them up at home:

We had Secret Garden green salad

A River Runs Through It smoked trout

The Catcher in the Rye quinoa

Grapes of Wrath red grapes

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory chocolate chip cookies

It was fun (and enlightening) explaining the plot of all these books to Maddie and Sam. So funny.

I did make crowns, as usual, but they were thrown together in a flash and I didn't take pictures. Basically, they were open books made of paper with words highlighted in them like "love, learn, read, fun" etc.

Happy Back to School everyone!

Woodlake & Kings Canyon

Last week we visited some good friends in Woodlake. We've been friends with Joe and Jodi since seminary and their brood visited us last Summer, so it was time for another visit. We loaded up the car and headed Southeast to a valley near some mountains. 

It was pretty hot, so we did a lot of hanging out inside during the heat of the day and venturing out at night or to local swimming spots. J & J have four awesome big boys aged 5, 8, 9, and 13, so there was plenty of fun to be had.

Maddie & Daddy relaxing (note the similar profiles):

Sunset our first night in Woodlake:

Evan didn't need any clothes during the day, even in the shade:

Evan working on his new trick, raspberries with spit bubbles:

Sam enjoyed a first, playing "big boy" video games (with buddy Owen):

Lots of snuggles in the morning light: 

Fooling around (photo bomb by Judah):

Maddox & baby E:

On our last day we bid goodbye to our buddies and said hello to Kings Canyon. Gorgeous mountain ridges, deep valleys, giant sequoias, cooler temps. It was awesome.

Kings Canyon:

Giant Sequoia exploring: 

Little buddy, mesmerized with the big trees:

I can't wait to go back! The trees are so beautiful and the mountains so majestic. Hopefully one day soon we can return for camping.

Summer Bucket List: peach picking

Monday afternoon we headed to Moffatt & Moffatt in Brentwood to pick some peaches. 

Sam heard we were going to a farm and decided cowboy attire was in order:

At our first stop, Maddie & Daddy got right to work. Cowboy had to poke around a bit.

And rest in the shade. It was 92 degrees and I think the leather chaps were making him a little hot...

Long-legged Maddie had no problem reaching the peaces and nectarines:

There was plenty of fruit to be found:

Sam found ladders and then he was all about the peach picking!

Ladders make the job SUPER FUN!

We may have done some sampling...

More ladder shots:

Orchard lines:

Maddie picked a little less than twenty pounds of peaches & nectarines all by herself!

Sam just had to check out the farm equipment. He is his Papa's boy!

We highly recommend Moffatt & Moffatt. The sweetest old lady talked and talked to us about her kids and grandkids while she made Evan smile. And at $1/pound, how can you go wrong??

With our load, I froze two bags of sliced, peeled peaches for smoothies, etc. I made two quarts of peach-infused vodka. I made peach ice cream. AND we gave lots away. The final fruit is in our basket on the counter, rapidly disappearing.