Swimming with Friends

Swimming with friends after school. From left to right Christine, Evelyn and Sylvia.

Superbowl Sunday 2011

From left to right: Brett, Christine, Mike "Cheesehead", and Josephine "Assistant to Cheesehead"; above is the one and only Pittsburgh fan. That was his defiant expression BEFORE the Steelers lost!

New Year's Day at the R-Ranch

Snow, snow and more snow!! When the flash is used it reflects off of the snowflakes for a wonderful effect.

New Year's Day

Falling snow

Christmas 2010

We saw 4 versions of "The Christmas Carol" this year. Once at Hollywood Presbyterian Church, the second, our traditional Albert Finney video version, the third was an animated version with Jim Carrey at the ranch, and the fourth at the Sierra Madre Playhouse with Ellis and her mom . Here are the girls just before we left for the Sierra Madre play.

Oreo enjoyed sitting under the tree and drinking the water from the tree holder.

This is one of Nana's (Tom's grandmother) homemade Christmas ornaments.

Gwen gave us a sackload of kitchen goodies for Christmas. This is only half of it!

On a sad note, Biscut died December 23rd. Here she is in hospice. We miss her.

Halloween 2010

Each Halloween, Christine invites her friends over to trick-or-treat, then dump candy on the floor and trade. It started out with one friend and has grown each year. Ellis (geek), Brett (Hobo), Christine (bat girl) , Madeline (Grrr) , Charlie (Star Wars), Abby (Glenda from "Wicked") and Gabby (Dorothy).

Oreo sporting the Halloween sweater she was forced to wear for a short time.

Christine's 12th Birthday Party

What a fabulous night time glow-in-the-dark birthday pool party! Because Christine's birthday falls so close to labor day, we usually have a party for her friends the week before. The girls ate chips and drank lemonade from glow-in-the-dark mugs. It was a hit! Thanks to Aunt Karleen.

The weather turned radically cold that day, so the jacuzzi was a must.

Karleen supplied glow-in-the-dark lizards, duckies, beach balls, and all the jewelry that we hung on the bushes behind the jacuzzi. When we went in for cake and ice cream, the girls adorned themselves with the jewelry.

The water wheel is so much fun! Each year, the party is better and better. I don't know how we will ever top this!

R-Ranch in the Sequoias

Another beautiful trip to the R-Ranch! I think Christine took this photograph. It was very cloudy on the way. In fact, that night we saw and heard a real thunderstorm. The next morning we learned that it sparked a small fire on the ranch.



Another photograph taken by Christine. She walked up the side of the red rocks at Red Rock Canyon and took a picture of our car.

Looking up from the red rocks.

I rarely get a photo of myself on the blog, so here it is, in our kitchen.

One of the three trail rides. Christine, Madeline and Tom woke up at 5:30 every morning to sign up.

Christine and Madeline befriended Meghan and Taylor. The four of them went on trail rides, swimming, visited each others' cabins, went to the general store for candy and told ghost stories.

These were the rock slides just a few minutes away from the ranch. Liz Watts, a friend of mine who introduced us to the camp, and her exchange student from Austria, Florian, took us there. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of them. A fire hose is attached on the side to climb back up . Wearing water shoes also helped to keep from slipping. I didn't slide down, but I'm told that the rocks are pretty smooth - not too hard on the bum.

These were bowl shaped rocks further above the rock slide. You could slide from one bowl into the other. They were only about chest deep on the girls. The water was COLD. The adults enjoyed dipping their feet or sunning.