The Great Trip of '09

On pain of death from Miss Golden Delicious, I have committed to recording our California trip - without any more delay!!  

 I will skip the pictures of driving, driving, driving, and the yummy breakfast we had with family in Winnemucca (because I don't have pictures of that....) So the trip will begin when we arrive in Rhonert Park, CA, home of Gravenstein and ... Oh no! No alias for lovely wife!.....I will create one.....Pixie crunch? No.  Grimes Golden?  I don't think so.  How about Cameo, Sweet Alford, or Pink Lady?  We will go with Cameo until further notice.

Let the games begin!

We stayed at the Doubletree, with Alaskan Wild Berry and C. (who are you, C?? this alias stuff is hard work, I may just go to initials...)

The pool was great and it was a good sleeping spot after our daily events. 

Big Springs Float

Beautiful, clear water, sand hill cranes calling goodnight, and mist on the water at the end of the float.  Perfect.

My Birthday

This was my best birthday in years!  To quote Gravenstein, "look at all the LOOT I got!"  I am spoiled.  First, I went out to lunch with the family, and then in the evening we had brownies and ice cream with mom and dad and Grandma.  

Braeburn gave me a bottle of Martinelli's with candy bars - yum!  Mom gave me a beautiful crabapple apron with my NAME embroidered on it - only the best!  Grandma gave me little pruning scissors for my garden.  I'm going to check them out this morning cutting off strawberry runners.  The Spy twins and Granny Smith were busy all day in the shop.  Nova Spy made me a leather belt buckle with my initials on it.   Prairie Spy made the beautiful "Crabapple Farm, Welcome" sign that you see in the picture, and also a sign that says, "mom i love you".  Granny Smith made me beautiful leather designs and a tiny red sail boat for the bathtub.

Dad came back from Tennessee with the most fabulous finds from an antique store there.  He gave me the tin eggs sign with "chicken chowder" and "Hen chow".  The sign is going to be installed in the mud room today.  And best of all, a butter press so I can make beautiful pats of my own golden butter.  The top of the butter press has two stalks of wheat on it.  Perfect!

And to top it off,  I talked with both my brothers.  

Thank you everyone for such a great birthday.

Object Lessons

There is not much of a warning before the huge drop of Mesa Falls.  The water goes a bit faster as it tips towards the edge, but until you are right on the brink, there is no way to tell how deep and far it really is.   By then, it is much too late to do anything.

There is a tree that is right on the falls that has amazed me for several seasons.  I like to go back every year and make sure it's still there.  I always expect that the water will have carried it away.

This time I noticed that the tree is growing out of a rock.  It's roots are sunk deeply into the rock and there is no way to erode the tree's foundation.

"And now, my sons, remember, remember that is is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall."

Helaman 5:12

 

But spiritually, If you were carried downstream by the water, and didn't heed the warning signs, and were swept over the falls all is still not lost.  Alma teaches in the book of Mormon that the Lord, through the Atonement, can snatch us from destruction if we repent.

I love the word snatch and imagine a person being swept over the falls with nothing to save him from the sharp rocks and destruction at the bottom.  And then to have the Lord reach out and snatch him and put him on safe ground again.

Nature is full of great object lessons.

Mesa Falls

Coming home from the cabin we decided to take the scenic byway and check out Mesa Falls.

Since it was memorial day we had to share the place with tons of other people, mostly from Utah.  (I start feeling quite possessive).  We only stopped at upper Mesa falls because they have a really neat old restored cabin that has lots of animal skins and nests and neat stuff to look at.  It's also great to imagine you lived in the 1920's and stopped at the falls for the evening on your way up to West Yellowstone via train.  So Romantic!

Cabin Walk

We had a great time up at the cabin this weekend.  I fell in love with the water up there again.  I forget every winter how clear and beautiful it is, and then I see it again, and then I start pining about having a cabin on the water and other difficult to impossible things.

We also went for a walk through the woods across the street from our cabin.  It was very peaceful and beautiful and then the kids saw this track.  I am not great with tracks, but either this is a bear track or else we have a big foot with claws around Island Park.  Our walk back to the cabin was noisier and faster than the walk out.  I'm still not sure if It's a bear track.  If you know about these things, please enlighten.

Golden Delicious' 8th Grade Graduation

As Grandpa Tracy would say, "I could pick her out of a pen full". 

I am proud of Golden Delicious.  She made it through a really tough year and she did it with flying colors!  (Her lowest grade was a 97.2).  She's looking forward to being a mighty freshman next year at the local high school.  Braeburn is busy coaching her on what and what not to take.  Also, he's scaring us with tales of hours and hours of homework, but since we see no evidence of that in his life, the jury is still out on that one.

Here's G. D. with the principal, Mrs. H-T.  This photo is strictly for posterity.  I imagine my grand children (children of the 4 boys specifically)  being told stories like, "well, I know Mrs. So and So is not your favorite, but let me tell you about Mrs. H-T... " or since the spy twins swear they will never be so mean as to send their children to public school it will be more along the lines of, " shape up and do your work or else you'll have to go to public school, and you KNOW what I've told you about the teachers there!"

This is Mrs. Rice, 6th Grade teacher.  Fantastic teacher and lady!  Love Her.

And this is Mr. E, who G. D. had as a teacher this year.  (Sorry I'm missing the 7th grade teacher, who was G. D. all time favorite).  Mr. E.  was a good teacher who also teaches jujitsu.  Good skills to have with an 8th grade class.  To my knowledge he was never forced to display his skills in class.

You know, though, my kids really have it easy.  Imagine if I had pictures of my old teachers like  Mrs. Lloyd or Mrs. Blattner, or Mrs. Kelly, or Mrs. Mc Creedy.  Uggh.  After such a run of  teachers it's really amazing I know anything at all.  

Mrs. Lloyd did say I would never amount to anything, which  I can't agree with, since being mom to Golden Delicious is definitely something, and something good.