Idyllwild Spring Challenge 2010

The days leading up to the race have been pretty cold but it turned out to be a beautiful day.

Our friend Freddie, experience his first mtn bike race. He placed mid-pack and beat his personal best time.
Expo area. A nice change from last year where the only vendors were myself and the food guy.

Our booth.

Dan of Homebrewed Components came out, getting a little love from his dog Max.


Siren Bicycles were there, of course.

Sage's friend Eli racing his first race as well. Sage wanted to join him but didn't really train so hopefully he'll be out there next year.

Siren Brendan.





Ernesto helped out with the mechanics and is seen here sporting our new shirt that he came up with while watching the TV drunk! ^_^

Santa Abby. Have you been a good girl, Emi?

David's only ride of the day...leading the Kids' Race. He was more involved with the committee this year.

Local Doug Churchill won 2nd place.

Sage's friend Eli got 2nd as well.

You're all winners!

A Little Getaway

Spring break rolled around for the kids already. So we headed down to San Diego for a few days. Seeing my folks always involve drinking. Here's my mom. ^_^

The kids wanted to go to the beach so we went to Torrey Pines State Beach. When we used to live in SD we went to this beach a lot, but it's been at least a couple years since our last visit.

One reason I chose this beach was my hopes for pebbles on the sand. Jackpot! Rocks! Usually in the spring, the pebbles are exposed and I like collecting them. They're pretty around my plants.

My girls have inherited the "collecting & gathering" gene. ^_^

Despite my warning that it was going to be chilly, they still wanted to go. So I told them to bring a jacket. I guess Sage wasn't listening. And he was cold. So he made a small wall out of rocks and found a warm rock to cuddle up next to for warmth.

And then found some warm rocks to lay on.

Group pic with my folks and brother Teru.

Illustration Friday - Rescue

It's been so long since I've participated in Illustration Friday, but I'm gonna try to get back into it. This week's topic is "Rescue".

Five New Babies

It's that time again, chicky time! So we got five more, two Wyandottes, two New Hamphire Red, and one Barred Rock. They're just sooo cute at this stage, they cheep cheep all day, really brings a warm fuzzy feeling inside. Getting five chicks meant we all got to name one. Abby's chick is Superstar. Funny story, she couldn't come up with a name so she kept asking me for ideas. We came up with so many goofy ones, but when I said, How about Superstar? of course she gave me a funny look, but the chick responded to that name. It came running to me. We thought it was just coincidence, so we tried it again, and again. No way, we thought, laughing real hard each time the chick came running to me. This can't be, said Abby, so she put it across the room. But yet again, it comes running to "Superstar!" so the name stuck. ^_^ Sage named his LT after Ladanian Tomlinson of the Chargers. LT is a running back, and LT the chick happens to be a real fast runner, the fastest in the bunch. Emi named hers Luna, a pretty name, spanish for moon. Mine, for now, is Purin. It's a Japanese word for the flan custard. Mine is the brownish-yellow one so we thought that might fit. And David named his Nolina, after a desert flower.

Hula-Hooping for 1 hr 26 min

The other day Sage comes up to me and says, What do you want to bet that I can hula-hoop for an hour? I reply, How about your dinner? No, something else, he says. Why don't you just do it to see if you can, I reply, and boy was I glad I didn't bet him because he ended up hooping for an hour and twenty six minutes! That's really good, despite that fact that he coulda gone longer hadn't I pretended to throw a ball at him and say "catch!" which caused him to pause for just one second... We had been doing that to him all hour so I didn't think this time would be any different. But it was. Oh man, did I feel bad. So I gave him a Lindt white chocolate truffle, the last one in the house that I was saving. It brought a little smile to his face as he took it upstairs. The next day he asks, Is this white chocolate? Oh yeah, I forgot, he doesn't like white chocolate. Bad mommy....

Lake Cuyamaca

Went to Lake Cuyamaca near Julian, CA to take the kids rowing. Unfortunately they weren't available so we got a pedalboat. That's something else they've always wanted to do so they were still happy.

Let's chase that duck!

Emi pretended to push Abby off...

...well, Abby didn't think it was funny. ^_^

Got a bag of duck food...

...some ducks are a little more bold! Oh, I wish I coulda taken the pic from the other side but the face on the girls speak for themselves!

And then it went after Abby. Run, Abby, run!

smARTS Art Exhibit at IAA

Every other year, the kids of Idyllwild School are in an art exhibit at Idyllwild Arts Academy to display their art from the smARTS program. This year's title, "345 Artists to Watch." SmARTS is a three-times-a-year, seven sessions each art program at the school where a local artist comes in to teach them art. Every student has one piece of art on display. It's a really neat program and a great opportunity for the kids to show off their art in a gallery.

Emi's "mandala" second one from the bottom.

Abby's "tree" on the right.
Sage's "foil art", with San Diego and a wave on it.

Girls Day 2010

My girls are growing up fast. It's hard to notice when you see them everyday but when I look back at old pictures it really shows. This one is from 2005. Awwww, they're so little!

Joshua Tree NP