It's really time to clean photos off my phone.  Aside from there being 2,700+, it takes forever to find anything.   This was taken at Harry & David.  The little souvenir boxes we're holding contain a chocolate and 2 cookies.   Lunch out, visiting a friend I went to school with. Covered bridge, pointing out local flora & fauna. The alpaca ranch! Even though it was raining, this was a fun outing.  The alpaca rancher was very knowledgeable and personable.  There's a small gift shop, with some lovely knitted and felted items made ..read more

I know, it's been months since I've blogged.  But we finally did something blog worthy.  We took a road trip up to Oregon for spring break.  My motivation was to see a Shakespeare play in Ashland.  But, of course, it turned into so much more.   Fiona gets a little concerned when the suitcase comes out.  Jack was responsible for the animals while I was gone, so it's a valid worry.   The drive up north was a bit rainy, and it was whooshing windy when we stopped in Weed.   We went to the Wildlife Safari in Winston.  I got our t ..read more

I'm coming to terms with the reality that I'll probably never blog the rest of our summer road trip.  As it's November.  [eye roll]  But I can at least share the very end of it.  After heading down California along the coast, we came home inland, and visited different things on the way home.  Our last stop was Yosemite.   I'm embarrassed to say we'd never been before.  It's only a few hours from us.   Bridal Veil Falls Grammy and the girls wandered off for a bit.  I looked up from checking out a charred stump, and didn't know whe ..read more

We've acclimated to the school year routine.  We're weathering the cooler temperatures.  The nights are getting dark earlier.  All signs that winter (my least favorite season) is on it's way.   I appreciated this reminder not to let the turkeys get me down.   Terrible dark pictures of Katie roller skating at a birthday party.   I'm thrilled she's so capable.  I don't roller skate, so it's awe inspiring to me.   I'm reading my 5th/6th graders The Horse and His Boy this year.  (We did Magician's Nephew last y ..read more

Gah!  I got distracted and stopped blogging.  Again.  Let's see if I can do a photo dump and catch up a little.   Presents for the grandkids from our road trip.   The girls attended a week of Hand Camp again this summer.   Such a blessing!  They had a great time, and it does my heart good to have them in an environment where limb differences are totally normal.   They came home tired, of course. Grumman, impersonating a normal cat.  He doesn't usually do boxes.   Oh, those pinterest ideas.  Sigh ..read more

This was the last mission we visited, but far from our last stop.  The mission was hosting the Michelangelo Sistine Chapel Exhibition while we were there.   Various artworks had been reproduced on a large scale so we could walk around and enjoy them up close.   Standing before this panel, I was focused on the book, but Katie wanted to know when her arms would get bigger.  She obsessed about arm size for most of this visit, and has brought it up a few times since.   "Mom!  Look!  A caduceus!"  I may have been a little proud at the eye ..read more

The next day of our trip we visited two missions.  First, San Miguel Archangel, to the east of Hearst Castle.   Even though it's a complicated part of California's history, I'm glad the missions were preserved (or rebuilt).   There's a tranquility about them that belies the suffering that occurred long ago.   I think with the 3 we saw on this trip, I've now been to 10 of the 21 missions.   Hannah took this picture for me.  Notice I happen to be wearing a skirt that day.  We took a walk outside the mission, and my mom wanted a ..read more

As we drove away from Hearst Castle, I saw a sign and pulled over for a quick peek.   Turns out there's elephant seals on this beach.  It's a thing.   The wind was chilly, the seals were stinky, and the humans might have been a wee bit crabby, so we didn't walk far or stay long, but I was glad we took a minute to appreciate these funny creatures flipping sand over themselves.   I could use more ocean and more nature in my life.   ..read more

After leaving Santa Cruz, we drove to San Simeon to visit Hearst Castle.  We ended up arriving 5 minutes late, so instead of the "accessible" (less stairs) tour I'd booked, we were dumped into the next available tour group.   The way it works, you park, go through the ticketing area, go to a theater, watch a movie with the history of the castle, wander around a mini museum, and then you take a tour bus up to the actual site.  This is a Good Thing, because it's up a mountain, with narrow, windy roads.  I imagine tourists would crash on the regular.   I ..read more

The California Missions are a complicated part of our history.  They're a thought provoking relic of the past that I've always had a soft spot for, even though my understanding of them has changed over the years.   California has 21 missions, built by the Spanish during colonialization.   We've been to several of them, and I would love to see them all someday.   The teaching when I was a school child was along the lines of, "The European settlers came in and civilized the heathen natives."  (Or Indians, as they were called then.)  But as M ..read more