Hiking and Dining

Cora had Monday off from school for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, so we three girls spent part of our morning on a hike/walk on the hill above our neighborhood.

Violet said this was her horsey tree.

It was a stunning January day, which seems to be typical for this particular holiday weekend in SoCal. I can remember many heat waves in mid-January. This time around, oddly enough, the 70-degree day came a week after record-setting cold.

 We had our snack on the limbs of this beautiful old oak tree. Cora was excited to lead the way on our hike, since she has been up here a few times before.

 Also this weekend, we replaced our dining set.

Our old set came from my dear grandmother, who passed away a couple of months after Stacey and I got married. We inherited her table and chairs and two love seats, which are still in our playroom.

In recent months, Stace has had to repair and strengthen all the chairs, so we've had a new set on our mind.

 I figured we'd start shopping at the furniture stores, when I saw an ad Sunday on Craig's List. We ended up purchasing this set from a nice local couple who said they bought it when they got married 47 years ago. You know what they say about paying for quality: you'd never know this solid wood set was that old.

We are absolutely tickled to have found it, and at a great deal too. The couple parted with it for less than what two of the chairs would have cost - even used chairs!

The table has two leaves, so it will extend to seat 12. Next time we host an event, we can leave the patio table outside.

We had been looking for a set with a bench, so Stace might make one in the future.

And I can see us reupholstering the chairs in the future, since black isn't one of our typical color choices. But, at least it's a color that hides dirt, right?

A special thanks to Genia and John for letting us borrow their SUV so we could pick it all up in one trip!