Our weekend trip and the garden

My mom came to visit on July 7th for a few weeks. Over the first weekend, since Shannon had one weekend left of no school, we took a weekend trip. Just Shannon and I and it was not a Friday night but SAturday until Sunday night. Destination being Lassen Volcanic National Park. Neither of us had ever been there and it was a long drive from here, probably about 5-6 hours I believe. We drove to La Porte to stay at the cabin over night. That would have been a 3 1/2 hour drive since there was no traffic. However, after we left, as we were only 12 miles from home, we ran over what looked like a cardboard box that flew out of a truck in front of us. Well it was a wooden dresser drawer. So we pulled over (stop #1) to check out that and see if there was any damage. No problems we could see at the time so continue on. Stop #2 was to get gas. Stop number 3 was to get lunch. As we drove out of Vacaville we could hear something flapping under the car again so next stop was the VW dealership we had just passed (stop #4). Fortunately it was some screws missing causing the splash gaurd thing to flap, the fixed it, did not charge and off we went. Next stop (#5) was in Yuba City area to get groceries. Then once we hit La Porte, we stopped in at the general store and deli to get snacks and up to the cabin we went. This is probably the longest trip I have done to get to the cabin. I believe it took about 6 hours.
The weather was perfect up at Little Grass where the cabin is. We bbq'ed dinner and relaxed. Something we did not do last trip was relax. Between Shannon working on the deck repair the entire 4 days we were there and me running around with Katie, it was not relaxing. Next morning we drove down the La Porte Quincy road to Quincy,(saw lots of chipmunks while driving) had breakfast and then drove towards Lassen. This was a beautiful drive. Something that is not normal for me was I did not take many pictures due to camera issues.
Lassen was beautiful and interesting. Snow was still there and Highway we took, 89 I think, was just cleared a few days prior of snow and opened. Yes snow and this was July 10th weekend.
We saw so many interesting things and here are the pictures.

We could hear this stream/falls rushing from the road, it looks small but it was loud enough for me to hear, so we hiked up to find it.










This is actually a frozen lake which was cool to see!



This is where we put out the blanket and had lunch.

Yes that is a live bear and I am glad we were in the car when we saw it.

We also saw deer and what may have been a Bald Eagle.
We finished off the trip by driving home via Redding (109 degrees out) and all the way home to Dublin by about 8:30 that Sunday night. Fast trip!
It was a long drive but Shannon and I had a great little road trip get away! Hope to do it again. Thanks Mom for taking care of Katie. (pictures of Grandma Sue and Katie will be on the totsite)

Garden as of today, August 1st.
I am super excited about the garden. We have our first tomatoe,
some beautiful Dahlia's)
and sweet peas did ok and were pretty while they lasted. The other exciting thing is we have broccoli and 3 PUMPKINS!!!
As you see the broccoli is tiny but the pumpkins are so exciting to me.

Wait I forgot to mention the ooddles of tomatoes, and we dont even like them that much, maybe to make salsa or pasta sauce if we dare.

I am reading the information on what to do to keep these little pumpkins alive and growing and I will try to do a weekly picture update. Its so funny how excited I am about the pumpkins. Now I want to get a Halloween costume for Katie and do a Halloween party. (what a great idea

Garden

Here are garden pictures taken on June 11th. The other is Katie giving the frog water to drink.

The garden on May 30th.


The background shows the garden quickly then you can figure out the rest.

May 2010

No idea who all actually is looking at this if anyone. Here are some things going on that are non- Katie related. Our garden looks great. Here is a picture when we first planted it around March 30th. There are 2 planter boxes and the darn weeds keep coming up and I keep pulling them, but I am still proud of my little garden. This is April 25, a month later and then May 5th. We have had a good amount of rain so its been watered fairly well. Too bad when I planted it, I had not realized the tree shading a portion of one of the boxes. (It had no leaves yet) My roses are doing the best they have in years! Anyway, here is the video also of the yard. So lately we have been busy. We went to Minnesota and Iowa and Shannon has been traveling for work. We celebrated Katie's 2nd birthday and my Dad came to visit for 2 weeks. Its been busy! If you want to see pictures of things, let me know. I am going to work on Katie's blog now. I had a great time with Katie's birthday and the decorations and cakes and everything. It came together so well and perfect weather. I would say my cake skills are 200% better than trying to make a sign.

More!!!!

She is the Dr. Not sure where she got 36! She loves the water!!

I was trying to get her to eat dinner, but she liked the magazine

More videos~

The slides have electricty, see her hair stick up?
She loves this game! This is on the train at the zoo

Katie Videos

She loves to ride the horse and this was at the end of February so the talking is her starting to talk more.
She likes to help clean

Thought I would post these here, did not have any other place to put the videos. Enjoy.

Somersaults

Cool!

I got a great birthday present. Well thats is the excuse we used to buy it. It is a VTECH Expandable Three Handset Cordless Phone with Cellulart Connection through Bluetooth! Love it. I used to miss cell calls in my house all the time, not any more!

Busy Month

Its been a busy start to 2010. Shannon has been in School for his MBA and started back Jan 16. It was fantastic to have him off and relaxed for his break. His program is 18 months long.
Jan 9th, we looked at a home to rent. Its 3 bedrooms, so 1 more room than we had and its about 8 minutes from where we lived before. They gave us the ok, we got it if we want it on Jan 12 and we gave our 30 days notice. Jan 29th we got the keys and started moving the 30th. Shannon was in class so I started moving some things the 30th. I started packing Jan 13th and Jasper helped.
Wow, busy busy, especially with Katie being as on the move as she is. Jan 31st, Shannon moved most the big stuff and we stayed in the house that night. Shannon moved most everything himself. Mike Cousineau helped move a few heavy things, I could not help with.
(Some of them are still in garage, as I still can not help move them inside)
My 40th birthday was Feb 1, it was not too exciting but Shannon got me cake and we went to dinner. We all 3 had a cold so we were beat with everything going on.

We are now officially out of San Ramon,today, Jan 12 and carpet to be cleaned monday and return the keys. I have no idea where we got so much stuff. We have a full 2 car garage with stuff I have not unpacked. I got a desk in the office on Tuesday or Wednesday this week (feb 9 or 10)however this is what I had before that.
Katie has her own room and own play area, both are just about set up as they will be.
We still have lots to move in or move around, so lots to do. Shannon is so busy with his work and classes, so I just do what I can to get things put away and straightened out. I will post pictures of the place empty but it will make more sense when you see pictures of it furnished.
Kitchen, long and narrow, view from both sides. It has a nice counter/stove/sink.

This is the cabinet under the oven.
We have a fireplace, yippeeee! Here is that area, furnished part way.
Our bedroom has green wall and dark green drapery, but its fine. It does not have a sliding door or anything as it looks to the front yard. It does have the master bathroom right there. I will remember to try not to buy a place with an open room to an open master bath, it is nice to have a wall or something.

This picture is taken from the green wall looking at the bathroom.
It should all make more sense to see pictures of it all furnished.
Oh and here is our orange tree in the front yard.