Missing you...

Hello there Grandpa, It's me, your grownup girl.
Thinking of you as usual and missing you today.
It seems like only yesterday, you had to go away.
The leaves have turned once again, it's been seven years today.
Won't it ever get easier, missing you this way?


I think of you fondly and happily many times but on today it is always so much more painful to think of you.  How can it be 7 years and still be so hard?

I miss...your sense of humor, your outlook on life, your laughter, your teasing, and even your rare temper tantrums.  I miss riding with you, watching you work, watching you fish, even watching you play solitare with that worn out deck of cards.  Oh, how I wish I had those cards.  I miss pulling on your big ears and kissing your nose.  I miss our connection and how you got me.  I miss learning from you and being with you.  I miss our family and my childhood.  I miss you.

Wilder Ranch Hike

Today was one of those very rare and uncomfortably hot days in Northern California.  Let's be honest..California weather is so wonderful we as Californians ever rarely complain about it except when it has rained 2 days in a row or the temperature has reached into the mid 90's. As the temps neared the 100's we decided to head for the coast and visit Wilder Ranch. Ahhh...so much better with a cool breeze!  Hitting the trails today hoping to make it far enough to reach the fern grotto caves.

 

The kids did well.  There was lots of silly games and chit chat. Their own cameras came along and they took lots of shots along the way.  Their energy held out and we made it to the fern grottos today. Lots of beautiful shells were found as well.  Hikes always include a chocolate granola bar or something of the like which is a great motivator at times when the energy is running low.  Today nobody remembered it, so that's always a good sign of a fun time.

 

At the end of the hike we walked down towards the farm house.  There is a great tree in the front yard that the kids have always loved climbing from way back to their preschool days. After our hike we hit the downtown Santa Cruz for a dinner of pizza followed by ice cream at the Penny Creamery.  My most favorite ice cream place with lots of yummy homemade organic fun flavors that change daily. 

Facing the last day of 2011

Today is gorgeous.  We are at the beach, which is my very favorite place to be.  It has been a good day, good weekend.  This is the absolute perfect day to hang up 2011 on. 

As far as the year goes, it hasn't been a bad year, just a very busy one.  I haven't had as much free time as I would have liked especially with 3 kids now in elementary school. I certainly haven't spent a moment on any of those personal goals I had put forth for myself 2 years ago when I started this blog.  I'm okay with that too, as I sense that time is coming soon.  I did choose instead to give all of myself to my kids' school.  It has been a good experience and there have been plenty of rewards; being with the kids, getting to know the staff better, seeing what is up and coming and getting the opportunity to meet and know more families in the community.  Next school year I will need to find more of a balance between home, family, myself and school just so those other areas aren't entirely neglected.  Which brings me back to the present.

Standing here today, watching my family in the surf.  Feeling the sun and wind's breeze, while the water laps at my feet.  Breathing it all in and taking a respite from the busy school year and the X-mas holidays. I'm feeling calm.  And I'm thinking that just maybe, 2012 is going to be a good year, a more balanced year.

3 Things I'm Grateful for:
1) This amazing place
2) Respite
3) New Beginnings

Unplugged Sundays

What I miss most about the school year is making time on a regular basis for our family to be together for the day doing something outdoors.  It feels so good to be out there.  My mind is clear, my soul soars and I can breathe, deeply, evenly, just breathe.

I want this for beyond the summer.  But how do we hang onto this?   The weekends are so short during the school year and are filled up with just as many important activities, get togethers and daily chores.  I imagine it takes a really strong committment...an iron clad one.  It would have to be written in

stone  or for us, the family calendar. What could we committ to? Ideally Sundays would be nice but could we do every Sunday? Might need to start smaller, perhaps 2 Sundays a month?  I need to think this through some more, back to this hike.

Today was a lovely summer day. We hit Russian Ridge for a morning hike.  The kids did well.  They have endless energy but sometimes on long hikes, esp my littlest, encouragement is needed.  They carried their own backpacks, with hat, water bottle and snack. We stop often, to look at treasures found too, which helps.

This preserve offers many smaller loops that are doable for younger children.  My favorite here is touring the pond and watching for frogs or bunnies in the grasses.  We decided to take another trail today that lead us away from the pond.  It was a little warmer out in the open then we were used to, but I'm happy to say my kids did great.  There were lots of finds along the way, banana slugs in the forest, lizards on the hot rocks, ground squirrels, all kinds of bugs, esp. ticks.  Many checks after our hike.  Boys especially love finding the perfect stick.  Bubba could carry back an armload if we let him as there are so many sticks he falls in love with.  There are sticks for walking, sticks that make good tools and of course, sticks that make good swords. 

It was pretty brown on our hike and we looked forward to small spots of color. This was such a happy splash of sunshine on our walk. The kids are naturally drawn to them, the state flower in California...the poppy

Big daddy on our last hike mentioned he would really like to see a snake in person. Now, I'm happy he has really gotten into our hikes and has things he wants to discover too, but I must admit I froze a bit when he threw that lovely wish out to the Universe.  Be careful what you wish for, the Universe does have a way of granting said wishes.  We naturally spotted a snake on our last hike and on this hike the little fellow below gave us quite a fright as we almost sat down on him during our snack time. There was a bend in the road with a lovely bit of shade from a lone tree. Well this guy was enjoying the shade as well and came right on out to greet us.  Amazingly, we all jumped up quite fast and moved down a ways.  Always important to look around

closely before sitting down. 

My favorite moment on this hike was Boy Wonder offering his hand to Busy Girl when she felt she was too tired to go on.

After our hike we had good intentions of heading down the road to Alice's.  There aren't many restaurants in the area but even still, this can be a fun spot with good food.  It's at the corner ot two country hwys and it's fun to people watch here. Very diverse and interesting crowd can be found here.  From mountain bike riders to motorcycles riders to sports car drivers.  It's very popular though, and the service can be a bit unhand holding when it's busy.  Unfortunately, it was too busy today and we grudgingly moved on.  We continued on Hwy 9 for quite a while and eventually found ourselves down in Felton.

I have a lot of fond memories of Felton from my childhood.  We used to camp here every summer with friends.  I'm always happy to return and look around. 

We eventually ate and walked over to the park with the historic covered bridge.  The park included a playground and it was nice to run and climb and burn off the energy gained from lunch.

Here is Felton's historic Covered Bridge.  Through it's only used for pedestrians now,  it's still considered to be the tallest covered bridge in the country.   Now that's pretty cool!                                                               The kids were pretty much beat after this. We piled back in the car and Big Daddy and I had a very enjoyable and hand holding drive back home.  The three littles were all passed out in the back. Now that is my kind of unplugged Sunday. 

Three things I'm Grateful For:

1) A free Sunday

 2) A little hand holding

3) Chocolate covered donuts on the ride home

The Great Backyard Campout

The kids have been planning a campout forever.  To celebrate the end of their week long camp and also to support The Great American Backyard Campout

 we pitched a tent in the backyard, roasted hotdogs and corn on the cobb and of course smores. 

We slept outside in the tent 2 nights in a row.  It was already up and of course the kids were so excited the first night they didn't sleep quite as well as the second night.  It was a beautiful clear night...the crickets were in full swing and of course the wild dogs in the neighborhood could be heard too.

The great thing about putting up the tent...they played and slept in it for hours.  We sure enjoyed a quite morning to ourselves both days.  We do hope to camp beyond the backyard this summer, but for now, this was nice too.

Three things I'm grateful for:
1.  Sleeping kids in the backyard
2. Warm cups of coffee
3.  The summer still far ahead of us

First day of summer...

Ah...that was worth waiting for.  Gotta love being able to sleep in and make a hot breakfast other than oatmeal for a change.  The summer is looking good already.

Three Things I'm grateful for:
1. Sunny mornings
2. Huge homemade breakfast
3. First day of camp

Disneyland