A big hug from nature

Yesterday was bad.  Too many errands to run, disaster of a house, piles of papers to grade, and tired and grumpy individuals (myself included).  So today I was determined to do a better job.  More smiles.  More laughter.  Less needs, and more wants.  A perfect excuse to soak up some nature at a 775 acre wild space just minutes away from us.  With the kids on scooters while I was on foot, we tooled around the park for hours, spotting woodpeckers, deer, a hawk, wild turkeys, and about four hundred thousand ground squirrels. 

And we did smile.  And laugh.  We chatted away the afternoon as we explored path after path, and tree after tree.  And I may have taken a few pictures....

   

We're much better now.  Nothing like a big hug from nature to put the spring back in your step.

Mount Washmore

Perhaps I should do the laundry today.

Happy Easter

As always, that generous old Easter Bunny filled up all of our plastic eggs and hid them all around the house and backyard. 

The eggs were filled with everything from cereal and animal crackers to Lego and nail polish.  There was even a teensy bit of chocolate.  :)

And since the Easter Bunny always has a couple of items too big to fit in eggs, he left some letters that spelled out words, that made a sentence.

The kids were sent to look in the dryer, where they discovered two of those skippy twist things, which I did not photograph, because Clara's skippy thing crashed into the table leg the first time she tried it, and it split in half.  Disappointment followed, and a lot of masking tape followed that, and I'm sure duct tape will come to the rescue in the near future.  In any case, I was too busy taping and consoling to photograph.  Maybe I'm losing my edge.

Later on, we hosted a full-on (but not well-photographed) Easter feaster for the family with ham and all the fixings.  I'm told the ham was tasty, and I can tell you fist-hand that the scalloped potatoes rocked.  More importantly, there are leftovers.  :)
Happy Easter!

Easter Eve

Easter at the end of Spring Break feels a bit weird, so maybe that explains why our Easter preparations were a bit unusual this year.

For instance, we dyed eggs, which we virtually never do, mainly because hard-boiled eggs really gross me out.  I used the blowing method on a few eggs, though, which was exponentially harder than I remember it being when I was a kid.  I think I blew a few blood vessels from the effort.  Remind me not to take up the trumpet.        

There was a bit of synchronized hooping going on to gear up for the Bunny's arrival.  (Hooping in lieu of hopping, perhaps?)

And the kids decided that their names for the day were Baylor and Trekker.  Okay then.

But the baskets of plastic eggs are ready for the Easter Bunny's arrival, and a nice, juicy carrot is waiting to be eaten.

Getaway!

It really is good to blow this popsicle stand and have a little getaway every once in a while.  In our case, it's been a dog's age, at least.  Maybe two or three dogs.  So Chad and I sent the kids off to Camp Grammy and Grampy while we headed for somewhere with more wine and less whine.  Calistoga, baby!

I'm always a fan of hotels that have robes in the room, and this place didn't disappoint.  As an added bonus, the robes helped to protect us from hypothermia.  "Spring" Break, my foot.  Where is global warming these days?
So, we'd been talking about seeking out a restaurant we remembered from the last time we came to Calistoga, 15 years ago (I know, pathetic....we just don't get out much...).  And we found it! Everything was so unbelievably delicious that we ate here both nights.  Only the second night was a tiny bit less delicious, because Chad spent the entire evening convinced that Jeff Goldblum was at the table right behind us.  Your taste buds just don't work as well when you're: a) convinced that you're eavesdropping on a celebrity's conversation, or b) trying to convince your husband that he's wrong about someone's identity.  Regardless, it's always fabulous eating somewhere that doesn't have chicken nuggets or macaroni and cheese on the menu.

A hike up Mount St. Helena was the perfect way to burn off the ninety-four thousand calories we'd consumed.  A lot of the trail was on an actual, full-sized road which goes all the way to the very top.  So, not the most naturey and woodsy hike in the world, but fun nonetheless.The craziest and coolest thing was that we found an arrowhead!  Here's how it went down:  I was walking along and happened to look down and see something shiny and black on the side of the road.  I said, "Look!  I think that's obsidian!" and Chad said, "Maybe it's an arrowhead!".  So we dug it up.  And it was an arrowhead!  Okay, so the story doesn't sound all that exciting now that I'm typing it, but trust me, we were stoked.  Imagine what this thing has seen!
The view from the top would have been prettier on a blue sky day, but even with the gray it wasn't too shabby.  We posed.
We posed again, this time in a spot that makes it look like we're teetering on the edge of a cliff.  Heh heh.  Trick photography.  Look how daring we are.
Good thing neither of us was hearing the, ahem, "call of nature", because the privy up at the summit was not for the faint of heart.  And I don't particularly need any splinters in my nether regions, thank you very much. I took a couple of panoramas on the way down, and a couple more self-timers, and some pictures of trees and slugs and rocks and whatnot, until Chad gave me the, "Okay, Honey, You're getting a bit out of control with the camera" look, so I put it away.  Perhaps I've mentioned how much I love my camera.  But maybe I haven't mentioned that fact that you can set it to take 10 self-timers in a row.
Relaxed.  Refreshed.  Well-fed.  Ahhh.  We must do this again soon.