Mad as a Hatter!

Samantha turned 16 in May.  

She had a jammin party in Wonderland!

Here are a few of the highlights.

Clean cup.  Move down!


Here's little Kebs bustin' a move at Club Roberts:

Disneyland or BUST!

While we knew Lindsay had some time off between jobs, we couldn't quite figure out where to spend it.  We had gone back and forth with the ideas of Disneyland, camping, cruise, etc.  The cruise lost because I don't believe in old ships.  So camping it was and then we decided at the last minute that we'd leave for Disneyland the day after we got home from Lindsay's play date with the raccoons.  Don't worry, we had our laptop at the campground and was able to book our Anaheim hotel using Priceline just 48 hours prior to arriving in LA.  Holiday Inn for $45!  HOLLA!  It was really nice!  My only issue was that it definitely was NOT walking distance from the park.  it was on the outskirts of the Disneyland Resort area.  However, it had a very nice pool, free parking, and did I mention it was only $45 a night?

Off to "Disnleleland" we go! 

Here we are on Jumpin Jellyfish.  

It's like the Maliboomer but for sissies...and I'm a sissy when it comes to that stuff!

Mom Finch joined us for the day.  

It was really fun spending time with her.

Here we are on in a doom buggie...

...and the comedy tour known as the Jungle Cruith (wink)...

Watch out Mr. Toad, Lindsay's on a mission!

While Lindsay had had the opportunity to eat at the Blue Bayou in years gone by, I had not.  We made sure we had reservations this time.  Here is the inside of the Blue Bayou, home of the Monte Cristo sandwich, an interesting specimen.  

Our table overlooked the bayou filled with pirate ships full of noisy buccaneers...who happened to know the words to "Party in the USA"...AND down the shoot they go.

While over at California Adventure, I came across my very favorite toy ever, the new Lindsay doll from Toy Story 3.  She's super fun and it's the hottest thing out there!

Don't worry folks, she comes with Ken, I mean, John!  

Here we are on one of our Toy Story Mania excursions...

where Lindsay beat me every time!

If you've never seen the flag ceremony at Disneyland, it's pretty neat.

It was wonderful to meet up with other wildlife like Emmalee and her Jon for the evening at dinner in the Rainforest Cafe.  Let's do it again some time kids!

Olema Camping: Year One

While Lindsay had a small break between jobs back in May, we decided to go spend time in the "wilderness" over in Point Reyes, Olema Ranch Campground, where my family has been camping for bajillions of years.  It was really nice just to get away and spend a lot of time doing nothing.  

Costco had this SUPER cool camp stove...wait, did I say "stove?  I meant stove and OVEN!  Check this bad boy out - I was so stinkin' excited to try this thing out.  We'll consider it an addition to the food storage portion of the garage, you know, for when the world ends, which is why we needed to buy it. Right?  We made this really yummy and SUPER EASY chicken bake thingie from the back of the Stove Top box.  Here's the recipe.   If you ever get tired of wieners and beans while staying in the wilderness, then this is a great substitution...with this nifty camp stove, of course!  Our neighbors enjoyed it too, mkay!

Corn on the cob?  Fresh from the fire!

 

Here's my little wilderness goddess heating up her rib eye!

There's really a lot to do around Point Reyes.  Stinson Beach is a mere 20 minutes from the campground while Muir Woods is about 30 minutes.  SF is 45 minutes away.  Trails GALORE leading to the beach, mountains, etc, begin about 5 minutes away.  The little town of Point Reyes is super close and has cute little shops.  One thing that I hadn't done in probably 10 years was visit the Point Reyes lighthouse.  It's about a 45 minute drive on a windy little road out to the peninsula.  You drive through a few dairy farms where the cows roam on the street with you.  Here's one little friend that was holding up our drive...

Once you get to the lighthouse grounds, you walk about half a mile to get to the visitor's center...which is the beginning of a stairway consisting of 300 stairs!

We're blocking the stairs but you can see the lighthouse in the background.

Here is another view of the stairs from the bottom.  I remember climbing these things as kids and loving it, thinking that was the coolest thing ever!

Here's a closeup of the lighthouse and a peek at the inside.

We walked one of the trails beginning at the Bear Valley Visitor's Center which lead us to a cliff on the ocean.  Fantastic!  The trails were beautiful and green.  It was about a seven mile round trip walk/hike.  Here are some pictures of the journey, including one of a us in a tree poking our heads through a cute little heart shaped hole.

Aunt Tammy joined us for a few days.  She and I got in a game of Phase 10 while Lindsay tested her mad fire building skills. I was VERY impressed! 

Overall, a very fun camping trip!  

Be sure to ask Lindsay about the raccoons...

Growing Veggies

Some of you may know that I've been wanting a garden of my very own over the past few years.  My attempt at growing seven varieties of tomatoes a few years back failed when 1) the bugs got to my tomatoes before I could and 2) their growing receptacles were not nearly as big enough as they should have been.  I really wanted to build some planter boxes but since we're hoping to be up out of this here home in the next year or so, I opted for some mobile wine barrel gardening.  I was determined to get some tomatoes this year.

I came across this blog:  Love Apple Farm.  They had some really terrific advice on growing organically, including the use of bone meal, organic fertilizer, aspirin, fish head and crushed egg shells...WHAAAA???!  Yes, for reals!  Supposedly the fish head is a source of nitrogen and calcium.  Who would have thought that the questionable use of a shopping space known as Koreana Market would come in handy for us white folk?!  The aspirin is to boost yield and the immune system of the tomatoes, making them more disease resistant.  The egg shells are for extra calcium as well.

Here are my little poopsies.

I've planted four different varieties in two wine barrels:

Big Beef, Black Russian Heirloom, 

Green Grape, and Pineapple Tomato

We're about 45 days into this and here is the progress thus far:

DAY 1

DAY 17

  

DAY 28                                    DAY 35

Grandma gave me two Topsy Turvy planters.  They were very intriguing.  (Don't try and deny you had thought about buying one too! Everyone has at some point!)  In one, I have cherry tomatoes.  In the other we have strawberries (which aren't doing so hot) and lemon cucumber (down at the bottom).  Stay tuned for the results!

TOPSY TURVY

(Cherry tomato (L) and strawberry/lemon cucumber (R))

Aren't they cute and precious?!

Lemon cucs

There's the Turner garden so far.  

Let's hope that we get a chance to partake before some disease or stupid little bug does!

Lindsay's most recent happenings...

Lindsay here, FINALLY contributing to the family blog- this means I actually have free time !  :)

• I am happy to report I no longer work at the lumber company... WOOO-EEEE!  They called me "short-timer" before I left because I only worked there three months... but I don't feel sad about it at all. :)
• I accepted a job with the CA Department of Health Care Services- Office of Public Affairs.  I work in the same building John just left (I often wish he was just a floor below me so we could take romantic walks and lunches together... oh well). I am finally working in the field of Public Relations and in the "downtown city".  I find it quite exciting to take the light rail to work and to be able to walk the grounds of the state capitol almost daily.  I enjoy the people- the office reminds me of my good ole' days with BYU Public Affairs. 
• I LOVE teaching my cake decorating classes.  I still drive to the Michael's in Folsom 3-4 nights a week to teach Decorating Basics, Flowers/Cake Design, and Fondant/GumPaste classes.  My students are great and we manage to have lots of fun while learning.  (I'm still not sick of buttercream icing, dang it!  I guess this is a curse from my grandmother that will just never go away.) 
• The only bummer with all this, is that I see John for .02 seconds after work/before I head to class and for about an hour afterwards until my eyes sink into the back of my head from exhaustion.  Loving what I do makes it easier to manage- but I sure enjoy furloughs and the weekend to help renew my energy.

All in all, LIFE IS GOOD... GREAT, actually.  I am reminded daily of the best choice I ever made- marrying John.  He is so helpful and is probably the only reason I manage to survive my crazy schedule: he makes me breakfast to-go, fills up my water bottle before I leave, packs my lunch, does the laundry, and prepares delicious dinners hot-and-ready no matter what time I get home.  It's all the little things... that add up to great things... that remind me just how lucky I really am! 

Here's a photo I keep on my desktop, thought I'd share: