4/9/09-6/14/11

my grandpa made it to 102!

 

(this is 99)






my grandpa loved spam and eggs for breakfast and for a joke his friend would give him cases of spam on his birthday every year. i feel very lucky to have had my grandpa for so many years, really glad he passed peacefully in his sleep at home without the hospital setting. hoping the family can take its time going through his house and belongings, want to hold on to him a little longer.

local parks

as the weather has warmed up a bit we have had the itch to check out the park scene. i am so happy my girls still love to go to the park and play on the equipment, i know pretty soon they will whine and complain at the suggestion... or maybe not.

 

we are lucky enough to be surrounded by large regional parks and a nature center (along with the community gardens where i have a plot) PLUS the wetlands (we are trying to save) is just down the street and goes all the way to the beach. this is just a tiny oasis in a jungle of cement and its almost enough to keep me here forever...









enjoying my new cell phone camera



here's to a weekend off... we are headed to the pacific marine mammal center in laguna beach to take a tour of the facilities and earn a marine patch (camp fire group). i spent a summer interning there when i was in college and it made a profound influence on me. check out the website and if you are local, it's worth a visit. the drive through laguna canyon is gorgeous and you can go on the freeway or up/down the coast.

fly up

lizzie flew up!

starflight level, 2nd fly up... camp fire usa
pinned!
celebrating at the flagpole, these kids have completed two years of camp fire already. time sure flies!

new pets

for a year the girls have been asking for a pet rat and i have been putting it off and putting it off. honestly, i struggle so hard to keep up with the housework and over the years my standard of cleanliness has drastically dropped to almost disgusting at times. i just can't work full time and run two camp fire groups and keep a spotless house as well, just can't do it. not to mention i am sick of house cleaning, not rewarding when five minutes after the house is clean someone messes it up again... anyways! the thought of rats and all that comes with them made me cringe. i love animals and pets are important but the MESS! ugh! so finally i agreed that if the girls showed me some real effort in keeping their rooms clean and to help with other chores to lesson the work i have to do, i would THINK about it. i was surprised that for months on end, the "we might get a rat if you keep your room clean" actually worked...

proud mamas to "cupcake" and "lily"

catch up, round 2

lots of camp fire meetings going on...

rootbeer making with the little guys
salsa making with the big girls
love this shot, emily's hat is so fun
concerts and open house visits



lots of rush rush to work to camp fire meetings to school activities... luckily i have had some time to go to the gym (in love with the aquafit class, amazing!) and looking forward to putting up our pool and taking bike rides down to the beach. the weather is finally warming up and summer is fast approaching. life is racing past...

catch up, round 1

so what's it like not having the internet for a week? well weird at first and then you get used to it and then when it comes back on you realize you need to get caught up... so that's what i shall do...

the biggest wetlands clean up EVER!! we have come a long way in restoring this beautiful place

we surprised a killdeer on its nest and had heard some serious complaining as we walked by as careful as we could... hoping we wouldn't squash it's eggs and can you believe we didn't? look at these eggs!! (yes that's it's nest in the middle of the road)

what is really cool about having camp fire kids out at the wetlands is that it was my DREAM to merge my two favorite nonprofit groups together so that each helps the other. camp fire usa (and organizations like it) are struggling to survive, people feel its too expensive to have their kids in a program that requires commitment year after year (actually camp fire is super cheap for what you get) or any kind of commitment seems overwhelming and of course, the wetlands are off the radar so few people are aware of the life and death struggle going on between the fragile soil/plants/animals and urban development. camp fire kids + los cerritos wetlands = friends forever.

actual arches

here are few more photos from our trip that show some of the amazing arches you see at "arches national park" emily and i took a solo hike together and enjoyed trying to stay on the trail and the wide open space, the desert is so massive it feels like an ocean when you get deep into it.

katie, chris and liz take a break



free range kids











skyline arch at our campground



one of the arches emily and i found on our solo hike






even in the rain, we pressed on to see the sand dune arch



then crossed back over our desert "ocean" to get back to camp






someone had placed stacks of rocks along this entire trail and several times it really helped us out of a jam. emily put tiny rocks on top and/or fixed stacks that had fallen over along the way



so glad we took the plunge to hike this together, 2 hours of up and down and round and round, searching for the trail and finding the hidden arches was just what i needed on this trip!