Friends

Mikey graduated from high school yesterday and we all went to his grad party in the afternoon.  Three more years and we will be doing the same thing for these three girls!  Congrats to Mikey and have a great time at San Diego.

Backyard

Along the house - notice the two dogs at the end of the walk!

Planted a bunch of ferns under the tree - hopefully the dogs won't walk all over them.

Got a couple black stools that double as tables.

More Laziest Pup Pics

So hard to stay awake during the day.

Backyard update

Moving right along....planted some plants and now need grass.

Two weekend injuries

Anytime we go out into the wilderness and have zero or only minor injuries is considered a success!  This weekend we had two minor injuries: 

• Jim's phone, above
• Tina's bee sting, no pic provided

Jim's phone some how fell out of the truck at Cherry and got run over!  It sort of works and sort of doesn't.  For example, I called him today and it had no record of me calling.  But it is on and holding a charge!

On our second nite at Cherry Tina got a bee sting in her sleeping bag in the middle of the nite.  The first day it was a small red spot the size of a quarter.  Today it is the size of her hand!  Benedryl and antibiotics are being administered!

Conference Call

Got this pic late so it didn't make it into the original Memorial Day post - but it is too funny not to include.  This is Kyle taking his conference call from a pay phone because cell service in town is terrible!  He was wandering around trying to find a spot that got service and stumbled upon this pay phone.  I am impressed that he even thought about picking it up and trying.  The phone is right on the road so he had to cover the mouthpiece when he wasn't talking or no one on the phone could hear!  Straight out of the 80's!

Stream Fishing - Woods Creek

Geared up!

We met cousins Karen, Rudy and Gary for stream fishing at Upper Woods Creek.  The weather was much nicer than last time when we fished in the snow! 

We hiked about 45 minutes to Woods Creek Meadow and then fished down the creek.  I caught a 6 inch trout right away and caught 4 more thru the morning and got lots of bites.  The creek was very low because of  the drought so the fish were small.

Fishing with Gary and Karen is such a treat for us because they have fished this area their whole lives and literally know every fishing hole in the creek!

Anna and Roy met us after to have lunch.

Highlight of the day was a bear that ran across the road on our way there!

Gary getting "wormed up"

Jim and Gary checking out flies

A bear print on our trail

Starting off in Woods Meadow

Woods Meadow was so beautiful!

Me - sneaking up on the fish!

Jim trying the hole I just caught a fish in

Lunch after the fishing trip!

Cherry Lake - Memorial Day 2015

On the boat ride in

We camped at Cherry for Memorial Day and true to history for this weekend, we had rain and hail!  We arrived mid-day on Saturday and pulled up to our camping spot in cloud cover.  Jim got off the boat to check it out and just as he gave us a thumbs up to start unloading, the clouds opened up!  It poured!  Luckily we were prepared and we covered up our gear on the boat with a tarp and quickly set up 4 tents and an easy up. 

Because the water is so low we have a good uphill hike to our camp spot.  Luckily with the rain, we didn't get to warm!

After we got unloaded and it stopped raining, we went for a boat ride to look for drift wood for fire wood.  We hauled it down from the granite, loaded in on the boat and then hauled it uphill to our fire pit....only to later find perfectly cut logs from the Rim Fire clean up about 100 yards from our camping spot!  Doh!

These are the skies that we arrived to!

William helping Grace drive

This shows the hike to our spot above the tree line

Making sure the boat didn't float off while we were unloading

Will's first Cherry Lake trip!

Hunting for firewood

Later in the evening right when it was time to start cooking dinner, we started to hear thunder.  Then we watched a big black sky head in our direction over the lake.  We literally stood down by the lake and watched it come towards us across the lake - complete with white caps. When it hit us we got rain and hail!

Set up for rain and hail

Standing in the shelter watching the hail and rain go by

Because of the rain, we had a "mess hall" tent for our food - dogs used it to get out of the rain too!

The second day greeted us with much nicer weather!   We got up early and Marty and Grace drove Jim and I in the boat and dropped us at the boat ramp so we could meet Jim's family for some stream fishing, while the rest of the crowd had a quiet day at camp.

The third day was even warmer but we had to head home.  We packed up, headed back to the cabin, cleaned up and celebrated a successful camping trip with some Cocina Michocana, while Kyle did a conference call from a pay phone down the street!

Daisy Mae taking a ride and watching the beauty!

Hops is to short to see over the sides of the boat so she has to sit on a seat to see out!

When G and M picked us up in the afternoon, we were greeted like this by Hops!

Will is a camping natural!

Ahi doesn't like the gunshots, thunder or cracking fire - so we put her in Will's baby carrier and she was much happier!

Both Labs went to bed early the second nite - we covered them up to keep them warm and they were out cold!

Because it was early in the season and wet, we were able to have a campfire!

Back at the cabin after an "in tents" camping trip!

Rigged Up

My new rig looks so pretty with my boat!

Object in Mirror is a DOPE

This is one of Hops' bestie beastie friends, Stella.  She is a total goofball.  Stella's mom captured this pic of Stella enjoying the fresh air out the window!  True to form, she looks like a dork!

Cognitive and Physical Rest Protocol

Grace has been home from school recently because the headaches from her concussion have worsened and she has been ordered to go back to the post concussion protocol of rest.  Apparently, Hops has decided she needs to participate.  These are pics of her during the day.  Seriously - laziest puppy ever!

Backyard update

Our grass in the backyard slowly died over time because it barely gets any sun.  So with the drought we let it totally die and were left with a patch of dirt.  It was making me crazy to look out there and see such a mess.

So we decided to put hard scape into the area that gets the least sun and do a tiny patch of grass for the dogs to lay on (mostly it's Daisy who likes to lay in the grass).

So here is the design:

• The crushed rock on the left side is a walkway that leads to a patio where we will have a fire pit.  The patio and walkway will be flagstone.

• The dirt area on the right will be a small patch of grass.

Stay tuned for more pics.

The workers - Drew and Luke

Yoga

Mari sent me this hilarious video of yoga with a toddler.  I have to say that my yoga is MUCH for relaxing than this!

Watch Dogs

These three goofballs make me so happy.  I love that they are each in their spot in the window watching the world go by.  Hops just started getting up there and thankfully she is giving Daisy some space or we could have an incident where the old lady falls off the window seat and breaks a hip!

They are three lucky dogs!

Indoor camping/car repair

Mari sent these pics of William playing in a tent that used to be Drew and Gracie's!  Looks like he is using as a garage or car repair shop!