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!

Kinga's First Rodeo!

It's hard to believe Kinga is one years old!

The game room!

The grass group.

Beth and Greg came down to celebrate!

Kinga loved the bounce house!

The grass group grew larger.

Family portrait!

The only candle at the drug store. I think we should use it for all family birthdays. 😂

Desert is served!

Another chocolate lover in the family!

We love you, Kinga!

 

Halloween Campout 2023

 This is our third time going to the Halloween campout!

There will not be one next year as our section of the campground will be closed a whole year for renovations.  We signed up for 2025.

The golf carts make life so much easier. Our campsite is a long way from the plaza.

It was super hot this weekend! There was only a few people at the plaza tables where usually there are 100's. We got a couple tables with umbrellas.

Dressed upo and ready for the haunted houses and trick or treating.

Rip and Beth from Yellowstone. Rip (Terrell) won second place ion the costume contest.

We'll be back in 2025!

Random Fall 2023

Maks turned 11! The new tradition is clapping your candles out at the family birthday.

Dan and I went to Crystal Cove for our Friday hike.

Maks had his birthday party at our house.  

There was no way this gaming truck was going to find a place to park on Becky's street.

Mia challenged Arek in Just Dance and he won!

Maks and his friends swam after the game truck left. I didn't get any pictures of him and his friends!

We camped over Anna's birthday at Crystal Cove. She was good with it as long she got to spend as much time doing nothing (which means iPad) in the loft as she wanted.

I identified a few birds but now I think this is actually a Western gull because it has pink feet.

Breakfast at The Beachcomber of course.

Happy Birthday Anna!

And back home it was the family birthday!

Anna made it to the next level in tumbling!

I took a bunch of pictures of Kinga so I could have one for the hallway. 

None of them were good enough to print a 5 x 7 according to Walgreen's. 

So her frame is still empty. :(

This one is my favorite.

Dan and I went hiking in Carbon Canyon Regional Park which has a little redwood forest. 

Apparently, in the 1970's there was a bank that gave out redwood tree seedlings and they planted a bunch of them in this park. So yes, we have a redwood grove in Orange County.

Saw a California Towhee there.

I took a picture of what I thought was a mourning dove at Mia's horseback riding arena. 

It turned out to actually be a Eurasian collared dove.

These two went to the homecoming dance with a bunch of friends and had a great time.

Anna was in an improv show with her drama class. It was actually really funny!

Here is her group.

And here's the whole class.

I went to El Dorado park to do some bird watching.

I had to have my teacher identify this one.

And another great blue heron.

We went to Knott's Scary Farm for the first time since I was 16. Anna stayed home.

Anna won an award at school. Her teacher recognized her kindness.

I've started a garden. A wish I've had for quite some time.

Mia asked me about a year ago, when she first heard the date, to take her and her friends to the Five Nights at Freddy's movie. Now was the time! They all loved it! Even Dan and I were entertained. 

I'm glad they made it PG13 rather than R.

Anna asked Becky to join her for Lunch on the Lawn at school.

She is really good with makeup.

Mia's lacrosse team had a Halloween scrimmage with the boys team. 

Mia went as Decku from My Hero Academia.

We had some good fall times.