Tracy Park

Maiden voyage for TG......

2010-08-24T15:35:00.000-07:00

So, Jim got a new (read used) kayak just recently. I've had a kayak for over 4 years and I love to just go out in the middle of any body of water and just paddle and listen. It is sooo serene to be out in the middle of a lake. It is just beautiful and has such a calming affect.

Anyway, back to TG (dog) and her maiden voyage. She really wasn't too sure of this 'thing' out on the not so stable wet surface. I think it might take a few outings to get her used to the bobbing on the water feel. But over all she did quite well for her first time out. I stayed on shore so that she understood she just couldn't jump out anytime she saw land in her immediate sight. It took a few tries in and out of the kayak before she knew it wasn't going to eat her alive. And I hope Jim never tips the kayak over or I am sure there will be more learning lessons for the poor dog before she will get comfortable again. All in all it is a great thing to kayak with your faithful dog!

à la prochaine

Amazing sky......

2010-08-24T12:57:00.000-07:00

I always have this sense of wonderment when I see a sky like this. This is our morning sky. It's just gorgeous and sets the tone for the whole day. This month has been momentous in so many somber ways but this too shall pass. The weather has been on the cool side of summer, very odd. The evenings are cool enough to don warmer garments - NOT the way August is supposed to be. Isn't there something about 'Hot August nights'? Just saying...... Haven't looked at the Farmer's Almanac to see what they are predicting for our winter this year. Should be interesting. If we continue on with this weather autumn will come sooner than normal. I can't complain, I love autumn colors. Although, if it's a really cold winter I might want to be reminded of that last sentence at the halfway point of the winter months!

à la prochaine

Ha, didn't quite make it to a year of non posting.....

2010-08-09T17:51:00.000-07:00

To say I've neglected my blog would be an understatement. Have had quite a year but not documented any of it. What does that say about me? Lazy....uninterested....boring? None of those apply. Just busy in life and all it's aspects.

*Sigh* So sorry I've not paid attention to you dear blog but now you will get the busiest catch up posts all.at.one.time. so you don't feel so neglected.

I have lived in northern California for over ten years now and have never been to the local cardboard boat races that have been held in the little man-made lake nearby. And, yes you read that correctly...cardboard boat races in WATER. I had my doubts but after witnessing said races it was to say the least, a riot! They cart in the cardboard, tape, clear plastic and cutting utensils and you have everything you need to build your cardboard 'boat'. These races by the way are held only for kids. There are three classes divided by ages. Some made it to the water, some didn't quite make it off the starting line, some didn't finish and some sank. But a fun time was had by all rest assured. It was soooo hot so the dunking in the water was an instant relief from the heat. Here are some pictures to enjoy.

Broken Bones

2009-10-15T18:36:00.000-07:00

Well, in August Seattle broke her leg. Poor thing. It took her awhile to figure out the crutches but she did. Here she is getting comfy for a movie we were going to watch on the computer. Click here for more pictures.

Stuff around home

2009-10-15T18:10:00.000-07:00

I am so enjoying taking photos recently. So many textures... Here a few taken around the house! See album here.

Quail are everywhere.....

2009-10-15T17:44:00.000-07:00

It is so neat to watch these birds as they search for food in huge groups. There is always one or two birds that are the 'watch dogs' and they take their job very seriously! And drive the cats crazy....

Nesting Boxes

2009-06-06T12:05:00.000-07:00

The spring/summer process has begun. The two nesting boxes we have already have babies! We have bluebirds and tree swallows. The birds have been feeding their little ones all day long....bugs, bugs and more bugs. That's protein all the time. Yum!

Bluebird - male

Tree Swallow

{to view album click here}

Oops, he did it again..................

2009-06-03T17:16:00.000-07:00

Okay, here we are again...... Bradley got bit and it turned into an abscess. Blah, I wish the merry-go-round of cat fights would stop. Poor guy, he does look really pathetic doesn't he? While he was 'under' we had the vet clip his hair as well. Now he looks like a sheared lamb! It was pretty matted and had a few fox tails attached to the hair, ahhhh summer! He's going to be couped up in the front porch for awhile and he is not pleased.

His new "summer" do!

This is pretty much how he has acted towards me since he came home from the vet.

Ouch....the drain.

He looks like he has "spats" on, doesn't he?

Nefer Graduated!!!

2009-05-28T14:26:00.000-07:00

Well, she finally did it!! I'm soooo proud of my niece. Graduated from California State University Sacramento with a degree in Psychology - WOW! It was a lot of hard work. We all got together at the graduation and I had soooo much fun taking pictures, too! Here are a few of the pictures taken. (and I do mean a FEW)

The Graduate!

The 'bunny slippers' she wore during the ceremony! Too, cute.

Siblings

But they DO really love each other.

The Group

Oops!

2009-05-14T11:27:00.000-07:00

Forgot one.....

Wow!

2009-05-14T11:04:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I haven't blogged for almost a year! No excuses, just lazy I guess. I just had an urge to go out and take a bunch of pictures (don't you just love digital cameras). So here are a few of my favorite shots on this beautiful spring day. Enjoy.....and no I won't wait a whole year to post again....sheesh!

Cough - Hack - Sputter!

2008-06-26T16:28:00.000-07:00

And I'm not kidding. Last Saturday we had a few thunderstorms roll through the area which started over 800+ wildfires. Consequently this whole week has been horribly smokey! The following pictures tell the whole story....

Our normal view across the street

Our view for the past week

Can you say......YUCK!

2008 Bay to Breakers - This years pictures

2008-06-24T16:14:00.000-07:00

When I completed 2008 Bay to Breakers on May 19, 2008 post, the only pictures I had available were the 2007 race pictures. I now have the '2008' pictures, Yay! Everyone looks like they had such fun. There are a few runners running nude in this race that I will not post as this is more of a 'family' blog. All in all it is an interesting race, quite colorful. This was the 97th year for this race. I have lived here for most of my life and I can't believe I have NEVER heard of this race before. Enjoy the pictures......

Yes, that IS a toilet she is sitting on.

San Francisco Part Deux

2008-05-20T22:36:00.000-07:00

At the end of the relaxing day in San Francisco we decided to eat dinner at a really nice restaurant. We wanted to relax at a nice table while watching the boats, water and surf. We all decided on a place to eat and waited for the 'perfect' table with the 'perfect' view. While waiting for the 'perfect' table, the theme song of the Godfather kept playing through my mind. Hmmmmmm, wonder if 'hey, how ya' doing', and 'I'll make him an offer you can't refuse' preceded the running theme song. The food was delicious and service was good. Our waiter looked like the movie 'Ratatouille' restaurant owner. All in all, the trip was wonderful!!

San Francisco

2008-05-19T22:16:00.001-07:00

Photobucket Album

One of the main reasons I drove to San Francisco.....my brother Brandon!

The Oakland Bay Bridge

Fog beginning to roll in...

Kite surfing under the Golden Gate Bridge. You can't even see the top of the Golden Gate Bridge because of all the fog.

These murals were painted in the 1930's during the depression for the Coit Towers. They are amazing!

Bay to Breakers Run 2008

2008-05-19T15:10:00.001-07:00

Photobucket Album

So...imagine my excitement when my brother told me he would be in San Francisco for four days and did I want to come see him. Wow, get to see my brother AND visit San Francisco all at the same time? Wonderful. Jim and I drove the three hours to San Francisco and met up with Brandon. We thought it would be nice to go to the Golden Gate Park where there is among other things an arboretum and a japanese tea garden. We kept running into 'Road Closed' barriers throughout this huge park. A local resident told us that the roads were closed due to the 'beta breakers' event. What?? What the heck is a 'beta breakers'? Come to find out it is this 7.5 mile run event called 'BAY TO BREAKERS'. The run starts at the Embarcadero (bay area) and ends at the Great Highway (Pacific Ocean). There were over 75,000 runners with world wide entries. This was the 97th run. Quite awesome, although we never got to see any of the things we wanted to see at the park. But we saw quite a few other things which I will post later.

Southwest Airlines also had a costume contest. This year Southwest Airlines gave out prizes to the best “California Theme” and the best “Keep it Green Theme”. These two categories were judged based on runners’ costumes representing California or how we can keep the environment healthy and green. Some outfits were really out there as you can tell from the following pictures from the 2007 entries. As soon as this years pictures are posted I will replace these. I was so busy gawking at all these crazy clothed people I totally forgot to take pictures. (duh!)

Strange Sightings in Oklahoma

2008-05-15T10:22:00.001-07:00

Again....more snow!

2008-02-05T16:13:00.000-08:00

Strangest weather.... It would snow during the day and turn to icy/rain in the evening. The temperature should go DOWN in the evening. We have had two sunny days now but there is still snow on the ground.

The cats were NOT amused!

2008-02-05T13:23:00.000-08:00

Snow is not Bradley's cup of tea! He looks bored or....upset or....whatever!

Stripes was really digusted about the snow and acted as if it was my doing!

This moth was really confused....it thought it was a butterfly or a bat!?!

2008-01-21T17:41:00.000-08:00

Day After Thanksmas 2007

2008-01-21T14:45:00.000-08:00

Aaron, Payton, parents and grandparents spent the afternoon riding on the carousel and train. Everyone was having such fun! (even the adults)....... There was even an ice skating rink, with actual frozen ice, if you wanted to skate. All this located in an open shopping mall. The sun was warm and we had a nice cool breeze. Such a great day. Click here for more pictures.

I think Aaron was trying to choose what animal he wanted to ride. He was so patient.

Aaron chose a running rabbit and Payton wasn't so sure of any of the animals so she chose a stationary bench.

There was so much to see from the train, but they did actually wave to grandma!

Snowing......yet not!

2008-01-21T13:37:00.000-08:00

We woke up to patchy white 'stuff' this morning. This weather is really quite weird. First it snows (wet snow) then it hails.....then comes the rain. It has done this scenario at least five times today. The sun came out for a little while and the water was just dropping off the branches and catching the light. It was just too pretty to not take a picture. Click here for more pictures.

Storm of January 4th 2008

2008-01-05T09:24:00.000-08:00

Wow! What a storm this was. Rain started at 12:30 am this morning and didn't stop until 3:30 pm this afternoon. It just POURED! And the wind was the worst I have ever seen up here in Brownsville. We had sustained winds of 30 mph with gusts up to 60 mph (although it felt worse than that). It sure was a good beginning to refill all of our low resevoirs up here. The rain stopped right around sunset and the light was absolutely beautiful I HAD to take pictures. Bradley, our cat, looked at the total mess of our outside furniture that the wind left behind. Click here to see more pictures.

The wind was still blowing a little as I took a picture of the tree relected in a puddle of water. The sunset made for a warm light for all these pictures.

This picture was taken directly toward the sunset which made the rest of the picture so dark.

This is the same picture manipulated in picasa2 using more fill light in the photo. What a difference in picutures, huh!!?!!

Another Snow Day in Brownsville CA

2008-01-02T11:26:00.000-08:00

We woke up to this sight on December 28th. Not a lot of snow but we had a few inches. Such a pretty sight. We are at about 2400' in elevation and on the west side of the Sierras, so we don't see a lot of snow but when we do we LOVE it! Click here for more pictures.

Thanksmas 2007

2008-01-01T11:09:00.000-08:00

Thanksmas (that's a combination of Thanksgiving and Christmas) 2007 was again held at Trisha & Ian Keith's house (thank-you, thank-you, thank-you). A great time was held by all. Instead of the traditional holiday meal we had Thai food from a great place in Irvine. That way no one had to have the stress of making the meal. Sounds like a good idea......but we may have to go back to the traditional fare due to prohibitive costs. It tasted absolutely wonderful though! Last year all my pictures had grandchildren only and I did do better this year to include the parents and other adults. I could still improve though - I will try to improve next year. This picture is sooooo typical of pictures with little boys and little girls. Notice the huge space between Aaron and the girls (Payton, Seattle and Savannah). It was so hilarious to see them doing that. Click here to see more pictures.

There are the grandchildrens' Gingerbread 'Houses'. They are soooo cute!

Aaron and Seattle are loving the bounce 'house'. Great exercise for them as well!

Water Water Everywhere!

2007-12-19T23:37:00.000-08:00

Okay....no pictures with this post. It has been raining for the last 4 to 5 days with very few small breaks. Realistically I know that California needs water so badly but.....egads so much water at one time???? Even Bradley the cat is looking water-logged! The reservoirs up here need so much water to be replenished. You know......northern California supplies southern California with water ALWAYS!!! So we really need the water. But Gee Whizzzz.......

Pumpkins!

2007-12-18T14:43:00.000-08:00

Ahhh the art of picking and cleaning pumpkins. Aaron found the right one for him and Seattle and Savannah even seemed to enjoy cleaning the 'goop' from inside their pumpkins. Soooo cute! I know, I know this post is really late, but I had to post the pictures.

Trimming the Tree

2007-12-17T13:05:00.000-08:00

Well, it looks like Payton loves the Christmas tree! Now if they can only keep her from changing the decorations from branch to branch while the tree is up!

Three Generations

2007-12-17T13:02:00.000-08:00

Aaron 'chilling' with his Oma and Oma Bep. He really had to open wide to take a bite out of that In N Out cheeseburger!

Aaron zipping around on his bike!!!

2007-12-17T12:58:00.000-08:00

Now You See It - Now You Don't!

2007-12-17T12:25:00.000-08:00

It's absolutely incredible how fast the weather can change, even in California where the weather supposedly is predictable! The following pictures are views from the front of our house. The time difference between the two pictures is about 1 hour. Fog gives such wonderful images for the brain to decipher. Or......the beginnings of a sci-fi movie! To see the whole album click here.

Payton

2007-11-28T14:06:00.000-08:00

How can you NOT love this face. This is my granddaughter Payton doing what she loves best playing at the park. It's not often she sits still enough for pictures to be captured.

Mt. Lassen

2007-11-28T12:07:00.000-08:00

That is Mt. Lassen you can barely see in the distance in the first picture. Helen and I took a long drive to see the park. Mt. Lassen, in northern California, is what's left of a huge volcano that erupted back in the early 1900's. It's still active as you can see by the thermals below. It's really awesome to stand beside the thermals and actually feel the boiling beneath you, smell the sulfur and feel the rumble of the boiling resonate through your body. The sidewalk and road are really warm to the touch. It's almost unbelievable that you can stand on top of all this activity right beneath your feet. Amazing! To see more pictures click here.

Ahhhh Southern California!

2007-11-28T11:30:00.000-08:00

I visited my brother, Brandon, recently in southern California. We walked along the Huntington Beach pier, although it WAS cold. There were quite a few people fishing from the pier and what about those crazy people IN the water surfing! Nothing like the Pacific Ocean at sunset. More southern California pictures click here.

An outing with Grandma!

2007-11-27T17:43:00.000-08:00

Seattle and I took a drive into the hills to see if some of our favorite spots had been burned in the most recent fire. Thank goodness the pumpkin farm was safe, we love to go there every year and sometimes more than once a year. We then drove further into the foothill to look at Bouquet Falls. That's Seattle standing in front of the stream right below the falls. No damage there either. But there was devastation as we drove to these favorite spots. Fire is weird in that it just picks and chooses what it wants to devour. There would be a group of 4 or 5 houses and just one or two of them had been burned completely down....the others would be untouched. Amazing! Seattle kept asking over and over again to go down to the water but it was so cold and the water would have been much worse. Alas, Grandma had to say no.....drats!

Savannah

2007-11-27T17:17:00.000-08:00

It's very traumatic when your one and only "favorite" blanket is being washed and dried. It is almost like you will NEVER see your favorite blanket again. Sooooo, everyone must suffer her loss for that hour or two. Sorry about the blurry pictures but Savannah was moving around the room so fast in this her dramatic scenario. Actually, at this age everything is either in black or white, good or bad and I am sure she sees this as a bad thing!

Campfires!

2007-11-27T16:57:00.000-08:00

I just love the smell and warmth of campfires. Which is why I probably loved camping so much. We decided to build our own - no store bought fire pits for us! With a little ingenuity and spare parts around the property, we had our very own fire pit. I love it! Unless it is completely freezing that's where you are going to find us - around the fire. Yeah!

Aaron's Great Train Adventure!

2007-10-12T18:51:00.000-07:00

Gramps, Aaron, Trisha (mom) and Ian (dad) had a grand time on Aaron's first train ride from Irvine to San Juan Capistrano. Now if we could just tone down the train and horn noise we would have it made. Gramps and Aaron had the time of their lives. Isn't it amazing looking at something we take for an everyday occurrence through young new eyes. Life sure is wonderful! Click here to see entire trip album.

Seattle's First Day of Preschool!

2007-10-10T11:33:00.000-07:00

The morning finally came, much to my granddaughter Seattle's delight, she was so excited to go to preschool. She carried her 'new' lunchbox, 'new' backpack and wore her 'new' shoes. Her sister Savannah tagged along to go to her new daycare.

Showing off her new lunch box and ready to go!

Seattle explaining what 'homework' is to Grandma!

Savannah 'smiling' for the camera. (I think she knew the flash was coming!)

Come on everyone.....we are going to be late!

Open, open, open.....look at all the kids.

And the fun begins!

Fall

2007-10-09T16:12:00.000-07:00

I guess we are officially into the fall season! Our hill up here in northern California has beautiful fall colors. I thought I would share some of them. It's so gorgeous. The air is crisp and clear. The Sierra Mountains, just 2,000 ft above us, is expecting snow in the next two days. What a change of weather!

Newbie!

2007-10-07T17:55:00.000-07:00

Hi!

I am sure this blog page will change many times as I learn the 'ins' and 'outs' of blogging. Any suggestions or advice will be greatly appreciated. Well.......here I go!!!