Camping!

 Violet and I were blessed Friday to sneak in a quick 24-hour camping trip with JT, Callie and Jonah at a campground in the San Gabriel Mountains called Crystal Lake. (Cora had a previously scheduled birthday party, Stace had football, and Jim had to work too.)

Here's our setup, and Violet did all the heavy lifting for me. She's quite a camper, and really loves being in the mountains and big trees.

We made it "camping lite," with me bringing up a pizza for dinner; we cooked breakfast, and then ate sandwiches from home for lunch on Saturday.

We took a walk around the area after dinner, and enjoyed the views.

We had a look at a very old amphitheater, with a large fire pit.

Check out the holes, presumably from acorn woodpeckers.

On Saturday, after packing up, we took a walk to the lake, the only natural lake in the San Gabriel Mountains. It was a mile walk, and it was hot, so we tried to focus on shade and drinking plenty. 

But it was worth it - so beautiful!

We sat under a tree, ate our sandwiches and watched a family fishing. The lake had just been stocked, so fishing would have been fun. But carrying all the gear in the heat, and then dealing with fish and a drive home - not this trip.

I'm so glad my college bestie and I were able to make these memories with our kids (minus my big one...).f

Violet's Art Camp

Violet is a talented artist, but she hasn't wanted to take any art classes. I was thrilled when she agreed to attend a visual arts summer camp at the local community college, for junior highers exploring various careers.

The camp went from 9 to 3 for one week, and was an excellent value. Violet enjoyed it, and came home with some neat pieces, using different media: charcoal, ink, paint, etc.

This first one is a collage she made out of old National Geographic magazines. She didn't enjoy this assignment very much, but I thought she did a cool job with it.

For this, the kids were tasked to design a music album cover. Violet focused on music from her favorite anime show, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure.

This was a magazine illustration assignment. Violet chose an article about a Korean War veteran's painful memories from the frontlines. Quite a moving image she designed.

This was a book cover.

Violet enjoyed the class, and I'm so glad we found out about it. Also, on Friday, the girls were both at the college together, as Cora was there for her Spanish class. 
 

Cherry Picking!

Over the weekend, Stace, Violet and I drove up to Leona Valley to a u-pick cherry orchard. There are several to choose from, but we went to Windy Ridge Cherries, where years ago I'd interviewed the owners for a story on cherry season for the AV Press.

The trees were covered in ripe fruit!

Violet picked the Rainiers, while I focused on the deep red Bings. Stace and I appreciated her choosing to leave the house and have an outing with us, one that involved a 40-minute drive.

Stace liked checking out the old farming equipment.

A nice summer afternoon... with delicious fruit.
 

Time with Violet

Violet and I got out for a little walk, and we drove to the Iron Horse Bridge trail for a change of scenery.

I was shocked by the amount of water still in our Santa Clara River!

It wasn't deep, but it sure was wide.

Pretty sunset behind the river, under the bridge.

It was a neat moment together.

With the lovely cooler June weather we've been enjoying, Violet has been able to have a couple of more mounted archery lessons. 

At Gilchrist Farm, the baby goats and rabbits are so cute! Violet went into the petting zoo area with the goats to check out the baby bunnies in their hutches.

 

This will be her last lesson for a while, as we know the heat is coming.

Cars and things

JT and Jim spent the night after the party, and went to church with us on Sunday, which happened to be Father's Day. Our church always invites community members to bring their cooler cars for a Father's Day car show. 

We ran into Steve, Linda and Matt, and their friend, who owns this lovely Thunderbird.

This will count as our Father's Day photo opp!
 

After the party - stretching. This is obviously what you do when you reach a certain age!

Also this week, as part of Stace's birthday, we had his TT detailed. It looks fantastic!

My friend Sue's son, Paul, is an ambitious young man who started a car wash business as a young teen and has grown it into detailing and ceramic coating and paint restoration. Happy to pay him to do such amazing work!

Finally, Stace asked me to make loco moco, a Hawaiian dish with a ground beef patty over rice, with gravy and a fried egg. It was yummy!

Celebrating Stace

Stace is (turning) 50! I don't really believe it myself, but we know when he was born, and we know what year it is, so...

We had a few friends over to celebrate over the weekend (a few days early), and Colleen made this lovely chocolate cake. 

Stace is such a great man, loved by so  many, a blessing to all who know him.
 

It was great having some friends and family over for our first "party" in a long time.

Melanie and Nick both were working, so Grandma and Grandpa picked up Ellie and brought her over. She was such a good girl, alternating her time hanging out with the "Kids!" and the "Friends!" 

At one point, she was inside with the "kids" and was hopping with both feet. Lucas asked her if she was a frog. She adamantly pointed to herself and said, "I'm Ellie. I'm not a frog. Not a frog." It was adorable.

Creeks, tadpoles and skunks

Back home, and June Gloom is continuing! Making lemons out of lemonade, we'll continue to enjoy being outside and taking walks in the middle of the day, before the summer heat surely strikes in the coming weeks.

We met up with Colleen, Rigo and Liana for a walk at Placerita, and there was still so much water in the creek!

Also, there were approximately 4 million tadpoles in various states of development.

 

The nature center has improved its offerings, and one of the buildings now has a little skunk on display. So cute!

Almost as cute as our little skunk, who continues to visit us many evenings after dark, hunting for leftover birdseed under the big feeder.