Camping With The Peacocks!

This weekend we went camping at Lake Solano County Park Campground. It was a nice campground with beautiful scenery...Peacocks! They were everywhere. The boys loved watching them. There is also a playground area there. It was a little bit cold at night, but we survived. These pictures aren't really in order, but here they are just the same.

Saturday morning playing Frisbee with Dad!
Bradley was getting pretty good a throwing the Frisbee.

Daniel played with his soccer ball the whole time.

This is one of the other campsites near us. Everything was so green and pretty.
This is our sacrificial pine cone. He gave his life to make the lighting of the fire more dramatic for the boys. They loved it!

The burning of the pine cone.

This is the peacock that joined us for dinner.

He wasn't too afraid of us at all. He stuck around for quite a while.

This is our little campsite.

These are pictures from the picnic area across the road from our campground. Bradley and Daniel loved climbing through the tubes.

A family picture with Lake Solano in the background.

Looking across Lake Solano.

This is a little fish pond. Every year they have a kids fishing day at the park.

We never actually saw the critter responsible for this masterpiece, but it was fun to look for him.

There are all kinds of ducks there. Bradley and Daniel loved throwing rocks, leaves, branches, anything they could get their hands on at the ducks.

Unfortunately Daniel only likes the tubes if Dad is helping!

He would sit in the middle until Andy went in after him.

They have two sand volley ball quarts. Bradley thought it was a giant sand box.

The playground.

They had this little pen of Silkie Chickens at the campground. They little feeder was out of food or we might have bought some to feed them. It was fun to watch them walk around.

Another peacock!

Bradley was feeding the peacock Dorito chips which is why this guy stuck around so long.

Lynch Canyon

Lynch Canyon is a couple miles from where we live. One of the Scout leaders takes people on tours at least once a month here. Even though there weren't any boys that showed up for the hike Andy said that they had fun and he really enjoyed it.

A grove of Eucalyptus Trees
It is hard to see, but there is an old foundation for a two story wood house that burned down in the 1970's during a wild fire. (The small white line in the valley between the hills, not the close up of the rocks on the hill.)

There are quite a few large rocks that the Indians used to grind acorns on. This is one of the holes that was ground into the rock.

There were several healthy looking steaks roaming the hills.

This a wild mustard plant. The leaves taste like spicy mustard.

Catching Up

It has been a while since I posted about the family so I thought I would try to catch up a little. Andy is still working on Base and enjoys it most of the time. Occasionally he has a long hard day, but for the most part everything is good. He is still the 11 year old scout leader. They have several hikes planned. One was this weekend, but none of the boys showed up. The leaders that came went on the hike even though there were no boys. He really enjoyed the hike and got some great pictures of the scenery.

I was recently called to be the Primary Chorister. I am still a little bit nervous, but I think I will adjust pretty quickly. Most of the songs we are learning for the Primary program this year I already know. It is also fun to see Bradley in opening exercises and singing time.

Bradley is a sunbeam now! He loves going to primary. After his first week of sunbeams I asked him what his new teachers name is. He replied with big eyes, "She is so beautiful!" Sister Faumuina is a very beautiful 18 or 19 years old Samoan. She does an excellent job with them!

Daniel is loving nursery! The last few weeks he has gone straight in without any coxing or prodding. He is now officially out of the crib. I took the side off so he could use it as a toddler bed, but he has only slept on it once in the last 2-3 weeks. He prefers to sleep on Bradley's bed with him. True be told, Bradley cries if Daniel doesn't sleep by him. Bradley does a great job of being quiet after Daniel goes to sleep, so as not to wake him. They have become great buddies.

The other night the boys started hugging and Bradley said, "Mom, get the camera!" I love their brotherly bonding!

I can't remember what this was after, but we were all tired!

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In this video Daniel was pretending to be an airplane. He likes us to say, "Ready, set, go!" and then he takes off running. Bradley's new thing is to run out of the bathroom after using if and saying, "How do I look?" He usually has only pulled up his underwear and sticks which ever hip is closest to me out. I was hoping he would do it in this video, but he didn't.

Kids Gone Wild...

For Martin Luther King Day we went to Kids Gone Wild with our cousins. We had a lot of fun! The boys ran until they were exhausted. Here are some pictures of all the fun we had.

Anna
Jake

Dad, Bradley, Daniel & Mom

Anna, Ben & Mom

Seth, Jake & Dad head first. These boys are crazy!!

Daniel couldn't get enough of the slides. He ran no stop for about 40 minutes!

Ben liked crawling around, but didn't like the sliding so much.

Daniel tried and tried to climb the stairs on this one but his pants were too slick and his legs were too short. Here he is peeking over the top!

Another example of brotherly love!

Jake

Here are a couple of short clips of all the sliding action!

A Birthday & Christmas PJ's

Since we were traveling out of town Christmas Day we celebrate Christmas early. Andy's birthday was also crammed in there. We didn't want to have a lot of cake left over so we just did a frozen pie. I love frozen pie!

We also ran out of candles so we had to use matches.
Bradley with the Birthday-Boy!

He was very excited about the camp stove.

The boys learned very quickly how to set up the stove.

Daniel and Bradley in some of their new PJ's. They got some matching dump truck PJ's from Grandma and Grandpa Shirley too.

Brotherly love!!

Merry Christmas!!!

Dec. 23-24, 2008