Blueberry Picking

Spring and Hope were talking about going blueberry picking at the one day and it sounded like fun so I asked if I could tag along. They seemed excited to have me come, so Spring, Adam, Hope, Abigail, Faith and I were off to the Gerry's farm to pick some berries. Pop met us there and showed us which rows we were able to pick from. His company, Organic Ag, has done spreading there for years so that's how we were able to get in before the harvest.

Hope gathered quite a few and mentioned something about blueberry pancakes. YUMMM!!! That sounds like a good idea. Abigail seemed to have fun out there.

Spring found a row of berries that tasted sweeter than the ones we were picking earlier, but it was time to head out so we only got a few of those. Adam had a blast it seemed, but didn't gather too many berries. I'll have to see if I can get the one I took with my phone and add it later. I wanted to show Peter how many berries I collected. When we got home, I got out my recipe book. I think the 9 cups I gathered only lasted about a week. I made blueberry pancakes with blueberry syrup (twice, maybe three times), blueberry muffins, and a blueberry pie. DELICIOUS!!!!! I think we also had some on our cereal one morning.

Treasure Hunt with the Nephews

Spring asked Peter and I to babysit so she could go to a photography class. It was in Pasadena, so she and Brian took the oportunity for a date night, and we had the boys. I devised a little treasure hunt to keep them occupied. Here is the clue on Molly's lot.

Molly came with us on the rest of the hunt.

Gregory had to make a few baskets before we could go on to the next clue. He really loves basketball, so when we were all done, we came back out and played for quite a while.

What do you guys have here???

OH! IT'S THE TREASURE!!!

They boys have been saving up for some legos, so this treasure will halp them get to their goal. Usually they have a story before they go to bed, but Spring said they were so tired from the day that they just wanted to go straight to bed.

Choir

Tracy joined the choir at PBC (Placerita Baptist Church). The first practice was on Jan 31st, and she loves it. They lead the singing once a month, so the first time they did that was on Feb 24th. We have three services at PBC, so they sing at all three. It really wore her out. We had a Sunday school class after that and she could hardly keep up with the note taking, but they really had a great time up there. The next couple things coming up for the choir are the Good Friday and Easter services. On Friday, March 21st, PBC has a service of darkness, where the choir leads the singing and it's all about Christ's sacrifice. On Easter Sunday we return to celebrate His resurrection, and the choir leads the congregational singing again. Tracy will also be playing the chimes in one song on Easter. This will be an intense weekend for all involved at PBC so your prayers would be appreciated. If you are interested in coming to either service, please feel free to call us for more info and how to get there, or look up the church's web site www.placeritachurch.com

Happy New Year!!!

One of Peter's presents for Christmas was Prison Break Season 2. Our plan was to have a marathon to keep us up 'til the new year. As it turned out, we fell asleep on the couch around 11:30 pm. A few minutes before midnight we woke up...whew! just in time. We poured the sparkeling cider, said Happy New Year and proceeded off to bed. Not as young as we once were I guess.

Chritmas '07

Christmas kinda snuck up on us this year. Before we knew it, it was 2 weeks before, and our tree was still bare, (not a present in sight). Ordering that late online causes express delivery and excess shipping charges.

We spent Christmas Eve at Jon and Steph's house. It was a great time with family! One of the highlights was Ellie being so excited about her Snow White dress-up, and Hello Kitty slippers. It just brought warmth to our hearts. Jon and Steph also informed us about sap bubbles. We had never heard of them before, but after a few weeks, the tree starts to develope bubbles of sap. If you pop them they release the sap which drips down the bark, thus filling the room with the wonderful aroma of pine once again. But I must warn you, Spring found a really big one on her tree and it squirted in her eye, causing much discomfort for several hours. Peter and I didn't have any trouble. We popped a few everyday from then on and enjoyed the scent very much. Thanks, Jon and Steph.

Christmas day we started out at home, just the two of us. It was great having our first Christmas together. Being a Monday, Peter had to go into work for a few hours, and then we went to the Holladays' later in the day and spent time with the family. Peter's birthday is the 26th so we also celebrated that while we were there. It was a bit tough for Peter not being with his family the the 24th, and me not being with mine on the 25th. But it was all very joyful.

Our 1st tree

On December 1st, we all went to Green Thumb in Ventura to pick out Christmas trees. "This one's perfect, Honey! Hope, can you take our picture? We forgot our camera."

For many years, Peter has been the one who cuts the bottom of the tree just before it goes into the water, so it will last longer. First was Mom and Pop's, then Hope and Viktor, then Spring and Brian, and then we took ours home.

Brian and Peter 'unveiling' the tree at Mom and Pop's.

Peter by our first tree. It was just the right size.

This is one of the first ornaments we got. It is a bride and groom riding away in the get away car. It was on one of the packages Tracy opened at her bridal shower. She also got a Barbie ballerina, and a 2007 snowflake at the shower. On our honeymoon, we took a day trip to Virginia City and got a couple ornaments there, at a Christmas store that is open all year. We also got a couple in Tahoe. It was fun shopping for our first tree and all the trimmin's.

Honeymoon pics at Lake Tahoe

Cruisin' on the MS Dixie. It takes a trip across the lake to Emerald Cove and goes around Emerald Island where the Tea House is.

The Fireman Museum in Virginia City.

We went down into a Mark Twain Museum. He worked for this newspaper or magazine here in Virginia City before the great fire of 1875. Most of the town burned to the ground, but this underground printshop survived. It was here that he got his pen name, but he had to leave suddenly. He had written an article that wasn't too popular with some of the nobles since it had slanderous things to say about some of their wives....that's how the story goes.

Sweethearts behind bars...

If you click on the above pic, you may be able to read the history of the table below, and find out why it's called suicide table.

A beautiful view from the the balcony outside the Fox and Hound. A little place we went for a couple meals. It was pretty close to our Condo so when we didn't feel like going very far we would drive down there and bring the food back with us.

One fun thing to do was to take a carraige ride. We picked it up in town and they rode us all around the back streets of town we never would have seen otherwise. We saw Sonny Bono's former residence, and Joe Montana had a place built there. His was easy to identify with the statue of a football player in the yard.

"When you go to Tahoe, you gotta ride the Gondolahs." That's all we kept hearing and about how awesome they were...'what a view' they would say. Well they shut them down for 3 weeks... 3WEEKS during the year for 'scheduled' maintanance, and that's when we were there. We were so looking forward to going on them too.

Views of the lake. This is Emerald Island in the middle of Emerald bay.

Here we are with the island in the background.

This is the view from Zephyr Cove, just before we boarded the MS Dixie.

On Saturday, we took a tour around the lake. It began to get cloudy and look like rain so we had to hustle through.

Another attraction that is closed for the winter. I guess we will have to come back in the spring or summer to see all that Tahoehas to offer.

And just when you think you've seen it all...
It was raining when we went to bed that night. Al we heard all night was the patter of the rain. In the morning it finally seemed quite so Peter took a peak outside. This is the railing outside our room!!! Isn't it BEAUTIFUL!

EH?!

I'll pose for one more picture, but you better hold me tight, 'cause it's cold out here.

Aaaaaahhh! much better cozied up by the fire. It was great to have a fireplace in our livingroom.

We went out a little later and played in the snow. We built a little snowman. There was plaenty for us to build a bigger one, but time was tickin'. It was Sunday and we had a long drive home.

This is the name of the resort we stayed at. Tracy's parents were generous enough to loan us their timeshare for the week.

A couple hours down the road and it's still snowing. Peter had only seen it snow a couple times before, so He REALLY didn't want to leave.

Had to get a picture of the snowplow. They were able to keep up with the snow, and didn't have to close any roads down...at least not before we made it out. ;)