Christmas 2023

 We started Christmas on the 23rd with Carolyn and John over for dinner. But, alas, no pictures. On Christmas Eve our neighbors came over, along with Kelly's sister, Kat, and his dad, Tru.

We enjoyed green chili chicken enchiladas. For an appetizer Dan made his salsa and Kelly made his guacamole. After dinner we played a snowball game. But first the kids asked if they could have a snowball fight. Yes, but only if you clean it all up right afterward.

And they did.

They had one minute to scoop as many cotton balls into the bowl as possible.

Hanah was the winner!

The kids picked names this year for gifts, bought the gifts (with our money, of course) and then opened the gifts, all with zero help from any adult. 

There are times when its great to have two housefuls of teenagers!

The next day Becky and Arek's family came over for dinner, along with my dad. 

Dar and Sean came over after dinner.

Becky made the beautiful pastry.

Dan got an Arsenal jacket!

My sisters and I gave my dad a line dancing basket.

And then it was day 2 of the snowball game!

Kinga loved the snowballs!

Christmas has changed a lot for me since 1969.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Eaton Canyon

 Today's Friday hike was to the waterfall in Eaton Canyon, just above Pasadena. It was a beautiful day with temps in the 60's.  It's pretty dry out there without much rain since last spring.

We had to cross the creek ten times back and forth across rocks like this.  

Yes, I slipped and fell in the creek. 

Since it happened on the way down I was only wet for the hike down and the 45 minute drive home in the car.🙄

Eaton Canyon has had some major floods.

There was a teeny tiny bit of fall color.

There are several ruins of "water mining" around. 

This is what they called getting water from the foothills down to the areas below.

This is an abandoned water tunnel. It's been since filled in so people can't crawl through it.

They are all over Eaton Canyon.

This bridge was part of an original toll toad built in 1912 that was going to go to Mt. Wilson. 

It is no longer open to cars.

Here sits a yellow dumped warbler.

We made it to the falls!

Random November 2023

Sometimes I don't have enough pictures of an event to give it its own post so I'm going to do a random photo post at the end of every month.

Anna and Paige made meringue cookies while Paige was here for Kinga's birthday.

It's always nice when you get to swim in November.

We've been going to horseback riding here for three years and I never noticed this tree growing out of the bucket. The root to the left belongs to the tree. I'm guessing that bucket has been there for at least twenty years. I only noticed it because I was watching a bird walking about.

We met Karen and Joe in Vegas for an REO Speedwagon concert.  

I never really listened the band much before but they give a good show.

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We came home to a power point presentation of Anna's Christmas list.

At least she was productive while we were gone.  😂

We love watching Kinga on Thursdays. She helped me wrap presents.

My box got a good cleaning out thanks to her! 

I went on two birding field trips with my class in November. 

This was our leader for the second one, Brad.

He taught us to tell the difference between crows and ravens, other than size.

This is a raven.

Dan and I graduated from Bridge 1! 

We also graduated from Bridge 1 three years ago but we needed a refresher after the pandemic.

The den is now a den rather than a bedroom. 

It's only used a couple of times a year as a guest room but many days a week as a TV/gaming room so it made more sense to switch out the bed for a sofa bed.

Anna got a fabulous new haircut!

It took me awhile to identify this bird on the wire outside. Once he opened his wings and I saw the white spot I could safely say he was a Northern mockingbird.

Hello December!

Forever Wild Exotic Animal Sanctuary

 We decided to include the girls in any decision we made as to what we did over Thanksgiving break. They definitely said no to a national park. :( Mia said she wanted to go to an animal sanctuary and Anna agreed. So we found the last one in Southern California we hadn't been to yet. 

Forever Wild takes in exotic animals that owners can no longer take care of plus other abandoned animals.

The girls got to experience feeding some of them. 

Anna chose the raccoons and...

...monkeys.

Mia chose the one-legged leopard and...

...the tiger.

Mia also chose to feed some of the barn animals.

It was a longish drive and these two had stayed up late the night before.

We only have one other activity planned for the break as we are doing some deep cleaning of the bedrooms and decorating for Christmas, after Thanksgiving of course!