A Birthday and Mt Baden Powell

So,
    Despite the previous weeks celebration we also celebrated Aidens birthday on his actual birthday. There were gifts and cake. He is happy to be 3 years old.

A 3 year old and a 4 year old.

anticipation building!!!!

Pile of presents

His very own LAWNMOWER!!!! YEAH!!!

And a Minion Mobile!!!

He was really excited about the cake. Picked it out himself.

Blew out all of his own candles.

Then didn't eat ANY of it. Turns out he doesn't like cake (now). We tried scraping off the frosting still no go. With Ice Cream? NOPE. so we gave him some M&M's. He was happy with that.

Aiden is a good little dude. He's very gentle and kind, smart and curious. We're happy to have him in our family.

Then on Saturday I set out to hike Mt Baden Powell. It's on the PCT and a good warm up for MT Baldy. I brought Buster along and he did great. I let him off leash on the way down and he was amazing, he was happy as could be. It was about 8 miles round trip and 3,800 ft of gain/ loss up to 9,400 ft. As usual people all along the way were warm and friendly. Met an 85 yr old guy at the summit who was cracking jokes and entertaining. Also met a guy going up Whitney this week (lottery spot thief).

Summit Marker, Buster, Shadow

Monument to Lord Baden Powell, Boy Scout Founder. Guy in Red shirt on left is 85 years old. Fer reals.

Crazy Crooked Tree at summit.

This tree is 1,500 yrs old and marks the PCT junction.

Mt Baldy, 10,049 ft and next.

Fun ridge walk back from summit.

Buster Leading the way down the hill.

Downtown LA is about 30 miles away and 8,000ft down. Also could see Mt Wilson the last one I  hiked.

Punchbowl is on the left (previous hike) and my house is in the top left green belt.

Buster is in the shade of the car. He crashed hard after the hike but for a 4 month old puppy he was great to have along.

Happy Hiker.

That's all for now.

RTSZAB

Kernville again.

So,
    Last weekend we headed out to Kernville for a little fishing and relaxation. On Thursday Grandpa G and I left to do a little solo fishing. I didn't catch anything the whole trip. He caught a few minnows. We traveled up the canyon a bit to get out of town. The river was really low but it was pretty.

On our way back into town that night we came across a few deer by the road.

The next day the ladies, kids and dogs were set to join us so we headed out for a longer drive up the winding canyon before they arrived knowing that they would definitely not be in the mood for more driving and winding roads. We ended up at the Trail of 100 Giants in the Sequoia national forest.

One fell down 2 years ago and I stood on top of it from one end. The other end is way over there.

So hard to get a good shot of the sheer mass of these trees.

Helps to have a context.

Everyone else arrived in the afternoon. We had some bbq and and early birthday for Aiden.

The rest of the trip was spent walking around, eating amazing food, fishing and relaxing. Pictures.

Z Kept trying and trying to catch something.

She even did the "here Fishy Fishy" Shuffle

No luck for anyone except grandpa.

Even his luck wasn't very good.

Till Next Time,


RTSZAB

Grandparents.

So,
   I've not really brought out the camera in a long time. This is mostly the explanation for the lack of recent posts. We are trying to train Buster, Z is doing great in preschool and the rest of us seem to be getting by ok. The big event recently was having Grandma and Grandpa Cheney come over the weekend. They arrived on Saturday morning and we went to a park. Then I took my turn on the "Make Grandpa Work Tour" and he helped me install a ceiling fan in the dining room. It's pretty great. If you remember I had tried to do it before but run into a bunch of trouble once I got into the ceiling and eventually I gave up (recap here). Grandpa had the know-how to get the job done and we pulled it of in a few hours.

Before:

After:

In the evening we went to an Americana type celebration on the boulevard downtown. It had a ton of really cool cars, games, food etc. Grandpa took pictures.

On Sunday we went to the Blackbird Airpark then on to Bry and Lisas house in Santa Clarita. Bry cooked up a great Tri-tip and we visited. On Monday the grandparents visited again and then today they took off for UT. It was really great to visit, catch up, and see them. We sure loved having them in town.

Next week we head to Kernville again and I bring you a post of me with fish, after fish, after fish...

Till then,

RTSZAB

Z Preschool

Z went to her first day of preschool yesterday. She says she had lots of fun. the teachers reported that she was very skilled verbally and behaved very well. She sang and answered questions and played well. She liked the snacks and playing outside. Some obligatory pictures despite the fact that she was in no mood for pictures yesterday morning and was SURE she didn't want to go to preschool.

This is what most of the pictures from that morning look like.

Right before she walked through the door to preschool.

We're really proud of her. She's super smart and happy. We know she'll do well.

RTSZAB