Special Delivery from Karaline:)

It's hard being a grandma from afar. I miss my distant grandchildren(and children!) so much! Thank goodness for the phone, blogs, email and skype! It makes it a little bit more bearable:) And thank goodness for the United States Postal Service that still delivers good old-fashioned mail!

In order to stay connected across the miles I have sent my grandchildren letters, postcards, cookies and small trinkets in the mail. And now that my oldest grandchild is four years old, I have received a few things in return, from her:) It melts my heart...I love being a grandma.
XOXOXOXOXO

Happy 1st Birthday, Jakerbug! May 29

We love you and miss you little guy!!! XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO
Grandma and Grandpa

Red, White and Blueberries

Happy Memorial Day! I am grateful to the men and women that have given their lives serving our country so that we have the privilege to live in freedom. I am especially thankful for freedom of religion and freedom of speech. I don't take these liberties for granted.

Hooray for the red, white and blue!

Speaking of blue...After a hike(of course)to Gaviota Peak we stopped at THIS blueberry patch to pick a bucket of blueberries:) It just opened for the season ten days ago. There were about two dozen people picking through the rows and rows of blueberry bushes. It was a bit on the warm side and I was slightly tired from our strenuous hike, but I was determined not to quit picking
until we had a FULL bucket of blueberries! This bucket is 2 lbs. of blueberries and represents
1 and 1/2 hours of picking by two people, believe it or not(though Jim stopped a couple of times to check on Riley-the-pup in the car). We had to really search for the bluest, ripest berries and since it's early in the season they were not so plentiful yet. Now, I just need to decide what to make with these beautiful berries...Any suggestions?

Go Take a Hike!

Doesn't he look like he's at the top of the world! Everest? Nope! Valencia Peak:)

Jim is climbing Mt. Whitney at the end of June, so has been doing many training hikes with a backpack. He started with a 25 lb. pack, but on our most recent hike the pack weighed about 55 lbs.! His strategy is that when he hikes Whitney with a 40 lb. pack, it won't be quite so bad, even with the high elevation. In the picture above(and below) we hiked(I have been joining him, without a pack) Valencia Peak in SLO. It was foggy and cold the entire hike until we reached the top...
At this point we were above the clouds and felt as though we had arrived in heaven:) Actually with this surface we felt that we were on the moon. It was very cold and windy, so it was nice to reach the car afterwards and crank up the heater!

This day we chose to hike SLO highest. It was so golden(and windy) at the top(almost). That's the Cuesta grade in the background.
Our most recent hike(besides the Orcutt hills yesterday) was in Los Osos. There were some very steep sections to scramble up...I don't know how Jim did it with his heavy pack! We were just above the town, but felt a world away! There were so many trails going every which-way up there it would have been easy for me to get lost(NO sense of direction!), but we made it out of there without going in circles! Thanks Jim!
Riley was with us...I couldn't resist this close-up of her cute cupcake collar:) Tres chic!

Love, Made to Order

My mom has been gone for 23 years(this Mother's Day month). Whenever I conjure up memories of our thirty year mother-daughter relationship, it seems that the same simple moments pop up. Nothing earth-shattering or of consequence to the world, just simple glimpses of an ordinary life that helps me to remember my mom being my mom...

If I had to pick one object that consistently pops into my head when I think of my mom, it would be a slab of homemade play-doh. But not just any play-doh...magenta play-doh. Magenta was my favorite color, straight from the crayon box and so that was what my mom made for me. Of course it was just the liquid red food coloring(McCormick) that everyone had in their cupboard, but it seemed that it was magically transformed into magenta, just for me. Never green, or blue or yellow. No, always magenta, and I loved it! I loved her for making it for me. No one else I knew had homemade play-doh, and certainly not magenta:)

Love, made to order, with a lump of play-doh:)

Thanks mom, for everything!

Just Sittin' Around!

I was tinkering around the backyard the other day, and Zeke was with me. He loves roaming around and exploring. We had been outside for only a short while when I glanced over and spotted Zeke sitting in the hose pot(a perfect fit) as happy as can be:) So cute!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SARAH!!!

Sarah at 2 mo.

Happy 28th birthday honey!!! We love you!!! Mom and Dad XOXOXOXO