New Cabin Trees!

I almost forgot to post pics of my new trees at the cabin!  My folks gave Jim and I trees for xmas this year and we were so excited to go pick them out and get them planted.

Water running into the pipe

Timer

Watering system run along the bottom of the deck

The stick trees in the pic are our trees. The colorful pics are what they will look like when they grow up. Right now they are 8 and 12 feet tall. The one on the left is a Chinese Pistache. The one on the right is a Liquid Amber.  Jim set up a wireless watering system so he can water from his phone in SJ! Best Xmas gift ever!

New Trail

Last time we were at the cabin, we found a new hiking spot.  It is off of Ferretti just past Tuolumne Trails.  It has nice wide dirt roads and a single track trail that was littered with fallen trees.  So many trees that we spent a good part of the time crawling thru them or climbing over them.  It was probably a 2 to 3 mile loop.

Lots of dead trees

Ahi loves to hike!

Sometimes...if the sock fits....

The last 6 months have been trying in many ways.  Lots of hospitalizations for family members, the loss of my dear Daisy Mae, big life changes, lots of challenging moments...

To help me cope, Grace gifted me her "Ringmaster of the Shit Show" socks!   They are so appropriate as that is the way I have felt much of the time.

The big message from the last 6 months:  Find humor and recognize gifts and blessings that occur during tough times.  Those things will keep you going!

Brew Dogs Calendar - Stop 1 - Discretion Brewery - Soquel

Mr C being silly

My friend Ann made a Brew Dogs Calendar as a fundraiser for CCI.  She went to different brewery around the Bay Area and took pics of the brewery dogs and the CCI dogs and made a calendar.  So each month is a different brewery.  TNDC has decided to do a field trip each month and go to the brewery that is featured.

The first one was Discretion Brewery in Soquel.   We decided to do a hike in the Forest of Nisene Marks State Park first.

It was a nice mellow hike through the forest for about and hour and then we went and drank beer and ate delicious food.  In fact, the overall consensus was the food was better than the beer.  Although they did have a beer called "Uncle Dave's" so the men all took a pic of themselves with the beer to send to Uncle Dave in Kentucky!

Again - Mr C being silly

Next stop - Clandestine Brewery in San Jose.  If anyone is interested in joining us, let me know.

Happy Second Birthday Oakley!

Oakley turned 2 and of course we had a party!  Grace made a doggie cake with pumpkin, applesauce, peanut butter and greek yogurt.  Grace also made her a birthday scarf and got balloons.  A good time was had by all and the dogs loved the cake.

Granite

Drew just finished 2 weeks at Granite - his first job out of college.  This week he came home with his white hard hat!  That means he is not a "greenhorn" who wears a yellow one!  Overall he loves the work and is learning every day.

Healing Quilt

Grace made a quilt over winter break.  We went on the second day she was home and picked out all the fabric based on the camel flannel fabric for the back.

 It turned out really good and the design is awesome!  I love picking out all the fabric.

Happy Graduation

It's a wrap....Drew graduated from College!  Woot!  Happy dance!  Cheering!

We had a small party to celebrate and catered a taco guy.  He made three different types of meat and had all the fixing plus rice and beans.  Drew managed to eat 13 tacos!

After we ate we played a game called Kahoot where you make a game of questions and everyone answers them on their phone.   Questions included:

• Where did Drew go to Preschool?
• What is Drew's worst habit?
• What is Drew's dog's middle name?
• Plus 18 more questions about Drew!

My girlfriend, Heather, won!  We go on walks a lot so she has heard a lot of Drew stories!

We were so happy that our friends and family came together to celebrate this great achievement.  And we are so proud that Drew graduated AND has a great job lined up with Granite Construction doing exactly what he wants to do.  It's an exciting time!

Cousins!