The Year in Review

As an early Christmas present, I made Brian a video/slideshow of everything we've done in 2010!  It's been a fun year and we still have a little bit left so I might still add stuff to the video...but for now it's completely up to date!!  He thought some of you might like to see it so I said I would try to figure out how to post it on here...hopefully it works!

Time to "ski"daddle out of town!

The other night I was looking over this blog and going through pictures and I can't believe that we have done so much since we've been out here!!  It's only been 5 months and I feel like we go somewhere every chance we get!  That being said...we didn't go anywhere for Thanksgiving day...instead we had one of Brian's coworkers over and my dad was actually on a layover in San Francisco so he decided to rent a car and come eat with us.  I gave everyone a typical disclaimer for someone who is a "turkey cookin' virgin" by telling them that I had no idea what I was doing and that I hope it turned out good.  To be safe, I bought a 13lb bird, greased it up with butter, covered it with foil and put it in the oven.  I didn't try to do anything fancy, I just wanted it to be edible when it came out of the oven.  I surprised my self by being able to cook all the food (mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, homemade stuffing, gravy, cranberry salad, yams, rolls and pumpkin pie!) and to have it all ready at essentially the same time!  I don't know about how everyone else felt but I was pretty impressed with my abilities!

The day after Thanksgiving, Brian and I started talking about going skiing for the day on Saturday.  Lake Tahoe had been getting dumped on with snow (which is really early in the season) so we decided that we would try to go up there since the prices were still cheap since it's officially not ski season yet.  All day we kinda hung around contemplating every possibility that comes with skiing.  Now, this was mainly me as I seem to be the over rational pessimistic person when it comes to trying new things...I would say things like "what if we need chains on our tires tomorrow?" or "what if we can't get home because the weather's bad?" or "what are we going to do with Vida?" or "are you sure we can get up there and back in one day?"  Eventually, Brian convinced me that I sounded like a 90 year old woman and that I needed to suck it up...I mean how often are we really going to live 2 hours from ski slopes...and good ones at that?!  So I decided that we would go skiing on Saturday and that I just wouldn't worry about it...although I still had to plan the day out to get some peace of mind.  I started thinking that we should just stay up there Saturday night to avoid driving home on dark icy roads and that I should just go to Sport Chalet (like a Sports Authority) and rent my skis instead of paying double at the ski resort.  A million things were going through my head so Brian made the call to go to Sport Chalet to rent me some skis around 6pm.  As we were driving in the car, I turned and looked at Brian and said, "Why don't we just leave tonight?"  Brian looked at me blankly and said "I'm sorry what?!"  He was completely thrown off guard as I am not a super spontaneous, at the last moment kind of person.  I told him that I found a hotel online before we left for super cheap that would let us bring the dog and that would save us some unnecessary unsafe driving.  He was totally in, so we went and rented my skis, for the season I might add ($180 for the entire season, now until June 1), grabbed some quick dinner, went home packed up, and then left.  We got to Tahoe around midnight, but it beats getting up at 6 to drive up there.  The roads were perfectly fine, the weather was cold, but clear and the drive was fabulous!  We went through this little town called Placerville where they must have had 100 decorated Christmas trees lining the road!  It was so cute and made me so excited for Christmas!  

Once we got to Tahoe, I just got super excited!  I forgot how much I love seeing all the snow and how different and magical places look all covered in feet of snow!  It was beautiful:)  Our hotel room was perfect and less than a mile from the slopes!  We finally got settled in our room and decided to let Vida out one last time before bed.  We put her on her leash and walked her around the courtyard in the hotel.  She was completely confused!  At first we just thought she was excited to be there as she was spazzing out and sniffing everything!  Eventually, we realized that she didn't know where to go to the bathroom so she pooped right in the middle of the walk way!!  At least we're good citizens and clean it up but it was pretty hilarious!  After that, she just started jumping in the snow and having a good time! 

Saturday morning, we got up and headed up to Heavenly Ski Resort.  As we were pulling in, it started to snow, which made it so I had to get my snow gear on in the back of the car...which was kind of a tight space but was a heck of a lot better than having snow filled, cold ski boots (they're already uncomfortable enough!).  We skied all day until the snow and clouds got so thick that it was basically white out conditions and until I turned into a popsicle!  It never fails that I get cold skiing....I'm pretty sure I could be wearing 100 layers of clothes and still get cold.  It's mainly my hands though...they get so cold that at first I can't feel them and then they start to hurt.  After a long day of skiing, which I haven't done in a few years, I realized how out of shape I really was.  My legs were killing me and I was exhausted!!  We decided to go back to the hotel and thaw out before we went to dinner.  When we got back to the room, we were pleasantly surprised to see the kick off to the Georgia/Georgia Tech game, so we cozied up on the bed and watched the game for the next few hours.  Eventually, we bundled back up and went to dinner and then went back to the room to pass out!

Sunday was a beautiful day to drive home...it was sunny and all the snow from the day before had been cleared from the roadways so the drive home was nice and easy (minus the Thanksgiving traffic of course).  We stopped a couple of times to take some pictures of Lake Tahoe since it looks completely different in the winter than it did over the summer!  All in all it was a great trip...in fact, we loved it so much that the following weekend, we decided to go skiing again, just at a different resort.  Last weekend we just made a day trip out of it though, but we got free skiing for being military so it was well worth it!

Vida in the snow...it was funny because when she came inside she had all these snow dingleberries all over the place!

Getting ready in the back of the car

It was freezing!!

About 6 inches of snow after about 3 hours of snowing.  This is at the bottom of the mountain so up where you ski there was probably a good foot or so.

Getting ready to go!

Vida on the beach...this is a sandy beach in the summer but now it's just snowy and icy.

This is a picnic table...just to show you how much snow there is.

The gondola at Heavenly up to the rest of the ski lifts.

Lake Tahoe

The snow covered trees always look like creatures to me...maybe I'm just weird.

View from the top at Alpine Meadows...you can see the lake out there.

It was seriously foggy...

Just a cute picture of Vida after our ski trip...she needs a hair cut!

Sequoia National Park

Last week, we found out that Brian was going to have a 4 day weekend for Veteran's Day.  Instead of just staying around here all weekend, we decided to go somewhere!  After some quick research about where we should go, we decided on Sequoia National Park in south eastern California.  I immediately started searching for a cabin and luckily found one that took dogs (of course we brought Vida) and that was big enough so we could invite some friends!  Within only 2 days to plan, I think we did a pretty good job at planning a vacation!  Our trip started on Thursday morning with a car packed with enough food and stuff to take care of an army for a year!  We literally packed our car full with everything we could think of!  The drive only took about 4.5 hours and the scenery was beautiful.  Now having been the person who did all of the research, I was convinced that the town right outside of the park had to be a decent sized town considering that there is only one lodge inside the park, meaning that all of the other visitors would have to stay outside of the park.  Boy oh boy was I wrong!  The town was tiny and had a gas station, a few motels, and a pizza place!  Oh well...at least we brought our own food!  Anyway, Brian and I decided to go to the park first thing so we could get the maps and information we would need for the following day.  Driving up to the park, I felt pretty optimistic about our trip, considering all the research I had done over the past few days regarding road conditions, trails, weather etc, but I'm beginning to believe in Murphy's Law more and more (Murphy's Law says that anything that can go wrong, will go wrong!).  Finally, the park gates are within sight and what do ya know?  There's a sign outside the park stating that tire chains are required to get into the main parts of the park due to snow...WHAT?!?!  I checked the weather channel about 500 times and the park website equally as much and neither mentioned anything about snow or tire chains!  I slightly freaked out when I heard that chains would cost $80/day and not to mention would ruin your car.  Oh well!  We took the information from the park ranger and proceeded to find our cabin and break the news to the rest of the group. 

Our cabin was a 4br/2ba cabin in the middle of nowhere!  It was a 7 mile drive down a super curvy, narrow, mountain road (without side rails! Yikes!) and where "wild" cows and steer liked to hang out.  Honestly, it was a beautiful drive!  We finally reached the cabin and met up with our friends who made it there minutes before we did.  Speaking of friends, two families were going with us...the Stiners and the Cones.  The Stiners (Sarah and Kollin) have a little girl names Isabel who is one and a half, and the Cones (Randall and Mindy) have a little girl named Aubrey who is 2 and a little baby named Patton who is 5 months.  We, of course, have our dogter Vida who is 3 - haha!  Back to the cabin...We walked inside and were kind of relieved to see that it was a very "lived in" place, meaning that it was very kid/dog friendly where we didn't have to worry about breaking much or ruining anything.  There were about 7 couches, a huge table, huge living room for the kids to play in, a movie projector, and 4 big bedrooms with king size beds:)  Not to mention the entire property was fenced in so Vida would just go outside and sniff around.  The only downside was that the house was solar powered so no blow dryers or toasters but we did just fine.  Thanks to our friend Kollin, we got the heat and the water heater turned on...Brian and I didn't know what a pilot light was nor how to get the appliance from pilot to on so we're lucky we brought Kollin along, otherwise we would have been taking cold showers in a really cold house.  Once everyone got there, we cooked out, let the kids (and Vida) play and then played some games.

The next morning we were up early, the Stiner's made pancakes, and then we packed up our bags and got ready to go to the park.  After some discussion, we decided that we would take our chances with the chain thing and just not do it.  If the park rangers asked, we would just tell them we had them in our car.  We piled into two cars and drove down the 7 mile windy road to the park, then proceeded up the windy roads in the park.  About 10 miles in, there was road construction that only let people through every hour on the hour.  Unfortunately (of fortunately for those of us who don't like windy mountain roads) we had to wait about 30 minutes at the construction but it was a nice break for the kids to get out of the car and to run around a little bit.  Finally, we made it into the Giant Forest and to Moro Rock.  It was significantly colder up there, and there was SNOW!  The roads were fine though and we would have been the only people with chains on our tires - apparently everyone decided to not get them!  We parked our cars and decided to hike Moro Rock.  The views were beautiful from up top!  After that, we hiked around a little bit more near the giant Sequoia trees, drove to the General Sherman tree (the largest living thing on the planet), and drove through tunnel tree.  Since it's starting to get dark earlier, we left the park around 4 and headed back down the mountain.  We cooked lasagna for dinner and watched Elf when we got back, then all headed to bed pretty early.

The next day, the Cones had to head back to Vacaville, but the Stiners and Brian and I were able to stay for another night.  We decided to head back into the park to hike to Tokopah Falls.  On the way up to the trail head, poor little Isabel was kinda fussy for no apparent reason.  When we were about 10 minutes away from the trail head, she got car sick:(  I felt so bad, but she apparently felt much better!!  After a few minutes of cleaning up, and getting Isabel in some clean clothes, we were back on our way.  The trial head was way up elevation wise and there was tons of snow...it was amazing!  We hiked the 1.75 miles to the waterfalls which were gorgeous!  The snow really added something to the scenery too!  Isabel felt great and rode on her daddy's back the whole time in a little carrier thing until we got to the falls, where she proceeded to eat tons of snow - haha!  That night, we ate pizza in the town of Three Rivers and then went home and played some more card games.  Our trip went by super fast but we had a great time!

 

Half of our cabin...couldn't get the whole things because trees were in the way.  There was nothing out here but the night sky was unbelievable!  I've never seen so many stars.

 

Aubrey and Isabel riding on Vida...Vida didn't even care.

At the entrance of Sequoia.

 

Waiting near the construction with a view of Moro Rock.

 Sign at the top of Moro Rock...glad it wasn't raining.

 Kollin carrying Isabel up Moro Rock.

 

Kollin, Sarah and Isabel on top of Moro Rock.

 Brian and I on top of Moro Rock.

 Brian at the end of the Moro Rock trail.

 We saw a mama bear and her baby so they aren't joking about this sign.

 Brian and I in front of a giant sequoia...they're huge!

 Hanging Rock

 

Pretty picture from the top of Moro Rock.

 Moro Rock.

 Aubrey and Isabel deciding if they should go inside the hollow Sequoia Tree.

 Me, Mindy and Aubrey inside the hollow Sequoia Tree.

 Tunnel Log

 Tunnel Log

 Hiking up to Tokopah Falls

 Hiking up to Tokopah Falls.

Snow covered Tokopah Falls

 

Tokopah Falls

 Random picture of a lady who drives on a motorcycle with her Yorkie...he actually wears the goggles.

Pretty picture as we were leaving Sequoia.

Fresh Produce

One of the main perks of living in California is the immense amount of fresh produce.  Literally minutes from my house are tons and tons of agricultural farms growing all kinds of fresh produce almost year round.  Living near all this agriculture is not only neat, but it's great for the wallet!  Everything is soooo cheap and so fresh it's amazing!  Take a look at all the great fresh food I got for only $21! 

 

 I got a huge box of strawberries, bananas, apples, tomatoes, celery, green beans, lettuce, squash, peppers, cucumbers, limes, carrots, pomegranates, and onions!  That box of strawberries alone at the grocery store would have been about $15 and it was only $6!  I love fresh food:)  Believe it or not, we ate the whole thing too!!

Brian's Birthday

Last week was Brian's 27th birthday!  To celebrate, we went over to one of our friend's houses who was also celebrating their daughter's 2nd birthday.  We had a great steak dinner along with birthday cake!  Here are some pictures...

 

Brian getting ready to blow out all 27 candles.

Brian and Aubrey celebrating their birthdays.

Halloween and Corn Maze

Not many people know that the Guinness Book of World Records 2009 largest corn maze is right here in Dixon, California.  Since we live about 25 minutes from there, it decided that we had to go!  Brian and I, along with another classmate of his named Tyson, geared up and decided to take on the corn maze...how hard could it really be?!  We're all smart kids right?  Either way, we got there and at first, we were considering trying to beat the corn maze without a map, but after talking to a few of the employees, we decided that we should probably use a map since none of us brought a flashlight along and it was about 5 p.m. and boy oh boy are we glad we did!  Even with the map it took us about 2.5 hours to get out of the maze and we didn't even make that many mistakes...it was actually getting dark when we finished and the maze is not lighted which would make it really hard to find your way around.  We took turns navigating and had a great time!  Afterwards, Brian and I picked out some pumpkins and went home and decorated out house for Halloween:)

Ok so this sign says 2007 Guinness Book of World Records but their website says 2009 so I'm going with that:)

 Pumpkin patch and teepee

 Entering the corn maze

Brian already feels lost...

 I know this looks like a crossword puzzle but believe it or not, it's actually the map.

Pretty sky with corn...

Picture from the top of one of the pit stops in the middle of the maze.

Sunset over the corn..

Our carved pumpkins and Uga.

Our spooky house - haha!