New Years Hike

On New Years Day we took a hike near home.

It was a cool, crisp day and the hike took us up in the hills behind the house. In addition to deer tracks, we saw what we think were racoon tracks along the way.

 

 

 

We were also excited to see two B2 bombers circling overhead as they waited to fly over the rose parade in Pasadena.

Christmas Day

Christmas day was great fun with the girls and their guys here (Mike and Dave were in Denver). First, we decorated gingerbread houses. We didn't actually make them out of gingerbread; they were little wooden birdhouses. Henry had done the prep work a few days earlier.

Next, we opened presents. Everyone seemed to like their gifts.

 

After presents, we started cooking. Alicia took the lead for the tamale-making.

Kyle was the bartender. His drinks packed a real punch!

Finally, we ate our tamales.

It was great having the kids home for Christmas!

Pre-Christmas Fun & Games

We got together wtih Mark & Jenna and Kyle & Alicia  a few days before Christmas. We all went to Dave & Buster's for dinner and games.

There are all kinds of silly games there; everyone seemed to have fun!

And at the end you use your game tickets to buy prizes. Great choices, ladies!

A Visit from Mike

Henry's son Mike came to visit for a few days. He works and lives in Tokyo, and was on his way to Denver for the holidays. Henry and Mike went to the California Science Center to see the shuttle.

We took a hike in the Deukmajian wilderness park near our house. It was a beautiful, crisp winter's day.

We had a lot of fun and hope Mike can visit for longer next time!

Birthday in the Desert

We took a 3-day weekend trip to the desert for my birthday. It was clear, sunny, and a very comfortable temperature for hiking. On Friday we visited "The Living Desert" in Palm Desert, where they displayed plants and animals from all of the deserts in the world.

 

 

  


On Saturday we hiked over 7 miles in the southern region of Joshua Tree National Park.

 

 

 We were hiking to the Lost Palms Oasis - a bunch of palm trees in a canyon in the middle of the desert.

On Sunday we took the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway up to Mt. San Jacinto. It took us up to 8500 feet, where it was kind of chilly - 50 degrees. But once we started hiking, the sweaters came off and it was gorgeous. We hiked up to about 9000 feet and then back down to the tram station where we enjoyed lunch in a restaurant with a spectacular view.

It was a great trip. Henry really indulged me for my birthday - he even agreed to stop at an outlet mall on the way home! Thanks, Henry!

Welcome, Christmas!

This weekend we welcomed in the Christmas season. We decorated the house...

And had friends over.  On Christmas Day I'm planning a gingerbread house decorating activity, so we did a dry run of the event to make sure I had the right materials. At first the guys pretended to not be interested...

 

 

but they got into it and helped. Look at these masterpieces!

 

 

 

I was cooking, so Henry pretty much did ours by himself. And he won the "best engineered" award! Take a close look at the roof - rather than waste a bunch of time decorating the roof to look "cute," he spent his time putting ridge caps on the roof to keep out the rain!

 

 

And no simple fencing for Henry. Note his classic midwestern fence. When asked why he built this more difficult fence, he responded, "To keep out the cows, of course!" Hahaha!

 

 

 

It was a fun evening, as usual. And a great start to the season.