Christmas Time and other things

Teresa has been taking another study course to accrue college units. This time since it is christmas there are a bunch of themed destinations possible. We've hit up a couple in the last month. We drove into town to go to a hand made candy store and watch a candy cane making demonstration. It was actually really cool.

Sign on the wall says "home of the worlds largest hand made candy cane.

This guys been at it for 30 something years. Hand pulling and mixing the candy.

What the block looks like before they stretch it and twist it into candy canes. That block makes 400 canes.

Stretching and twisting.

We went to Bass Pro after the candy shop and we're looking around until Aiden sprayed foot deodorizer right into his own face then we left. I got my picture with these guys. The line for Santa was WAY too long.

    We also went to Christmas on the BLVD. It was fun in a lancaster sort of way.

No Christmas is complete without sitting our kids on some Random (probably homeless) Santa lap.

We also went to Candy cane lane in the valley.

And some place called the light tunnels. Where a whole block covers the sidewalks with lights.

The day before Christmas santa visited us and brought the stuff too big to fit in the sleigh.

Then we drove down to Orange County where the weather was mid 70's the whole time. The kids actually played at the beach on Christmas day.

On christmas eve Grandma and the kids built a gingerbread house.

Grandma Struck the first messy blow. Frosting faces.

Aiden, being slightly OCD wanted none of it.

Zoey on the other hand...

wanted revenge.

On Xmas morning the kids woke up and came downstairs.

Aiden noticed that santa had been there to eat the cookies and drink the milk.

They spotted the pile of toys.

Mayhem ensued. Among the spoils.

Thomas the train set.

A waffle maker (not for him but he was really excited about it!)

Jake Puzzle!

Teresa was really happy about this bear rug.

There were tons of great gifts exchanged and lots of paper and boxes piled up.

That night we all got gussy'd up for our traditional chinese food dinner. We tried to take a family picture but I sorta forgot to smile. (seriously, not sarcastically)

By the time I remembered to smile the kids had had enough. Ooops...

We drove home the next day. It was a really nice christmas.

Teresa has 3 weeks off and I have a bit more than that so we're going to go finish up her class excursions and try to fill the time with sing a longs and warm dinners. (I dunno)

Till next time-

RTSZAB

Thanksgiving 2013

So,
    Thanksgiving was good. We ate, slept, watched football and enjoyed ourselves. None of that is pictured. I was to busy eating, sleeping, watching football and enjoying myself. We did some other things. The Grovers all came up and celebrated with us. They took our children to see Frozen while T and I went to see Catching Fire. Apparently both films were good. It was nice to go out. There are pictures around here somewhere.

To honor the holiday in an incredibly insensitive way we made hats like the one that Zoey made in preschool.

Teresa did an amazing job of cooking. She had some help but ran the show like a pro.

Aunt Cori helped by finding ways to placate the wild beasts.

Like I said before, this is where the pictures of the actual day end b/c then I ate.

The next day there was a parakeet in our tree. We had been hearing strange bird noises all day. There was a rescue attempt on account of the cold and the enormous vicious crows that populate Lancaster. The attempts at rescue were unsuccessful, it flew away eventually.

Gazing in concern.

When it flew away we retreated to the warmth of the house to build and decorate the tree. Garlands were hung, ornaments unwrapped, more food eaten, and Zoey danced like Max from Where The Wild Things Are.

RTSZAB

Baldy

So,
   Last week I again tried Mt Baldy. The weather here was good. I drove down there and it started to rain on me. I left the trailhead with Buster in tow at about 8:30am. I had decided this time due to weather to try and do the Ski Hut trail (4,000ft gain in 4.5 miles one way) up instead of the Devils Backbone (5.5 miles one way). The Ski Hut is much steeper but shorter and there are no sketchy passages that would be difficult to deal with in inclement weather and with a dog.

It was steep.

The ski hut is the halfway point from trailhead to summit. We stopped for a break.

Most of the way up I thought that was the summit. It's not. It's not even close. It's a false summit about 1,000 feet below the actual summit. 

Eventually we made it up to the top. At the top it was incredibly windy and really cold. I was wearing enough layers but I didn't bring gloves so I tried to hang out and eat but we left once I couldn't feel my hands.

A 360 degree pano of the summit.

There were a few people up there when I arrived huddled in those rock piles trying to stay out of the wind. You can barely make out San Giorgino (tallest in SoCal) and San Jacinto way off in the distance. After a quick snack we headed back down the ski hut trail. The way down was still steep and ended up being really punishing on my right knee but it was pretty.

We came across 3 white tailed deer and a family on their way up to the ski hut. Apparently you can rent it out for the night if you reserve it way ahead of time. 

It had taken me about 2:30 to get up the mountain and about 3:30 to get down due to the knee issue but I did the whole thing and now I am waiting for my knee to get normal so I can go do San Jacinto.

Ryan