Just Hangin' Out

Zach was so adorable while he stood and watched the ball game in the backyard on Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving Day Before and After

Here is a picture of Kenny pitching in the fiercely competitive game of backyard whiffle ball on Thanksgiving day:




Here's a picture of Kenny the day after his Thanksgiving Day pitching experience:

For the full story, and the picture of what happened in between, you'll have to visit their blog (Johnson family on my sidebar). I'll leave the full story telling to them...

Sally's Famous Cheese Ball

Not much (food-wise) reminds me of the holidays like Sally's Cheese ball. I made a couple today for Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve. I wanted to eat it all right away. I didn't and I couldn't have, but it sounded appealing at the time!

Anybody else's mouth watering (particularly my family)?

Hope Springs Eternal

Such a lofty title for the fact that some of the grass seed is actually turning into grass!

Sick and Cozy

Luke woke up with a little stomach flu on Saturday night. Derek brought him downstairs and they both crashed on the couch together watching TV.

World's BIggest Dinosaurs

For years we have driven the 10 east to Phoenix and seen these big dinosaurs by the side of the road but never considered stopping. This year we took a field trip there with a homeschool group to learn a little about dinosaurs and pan for precious jewels. The kids had a lot of fun, mostly panning for jewels and digging for dinosaur 'bones' in the sand pit. We also enjoyed our trek to the top of the T-Rex pictured below.


This is picture is from the parking lot on the freeway side. Behind the gate by the tail there is an entrance into the Dino.

After climbing a few flights of stairs including a steep spiral staircase at the end, we made it to the head/mouth of T-Rex. This is a picture of the kids getting eaten by a Dinosour.

You have a prettty good view from inside the teeth. The mesh is easier to look through in person.

They panned for a lot of different things. They found granite and some semi-precious stones. A couple in the group found some rubies and we found a couple of raw emeralds. Not nearly as sparkling as they are in the jewelry store!

A More Beautiful Sight

A week ago today the pictures that I took from our balcony were awesome, but in a more ominous way with the billowing clouds of smoke and the flames running up and down the hills. A week ago hundreds of homes were lost. Tonight the sunset from our porch was a beautiful glow of color in the sky. Orange like the flames, but much more pleasant to the eyes. It is much more beautiful in person, as it always is with things like this, but I thought I'd share some of the beauty that we enjoyed tonight.


The most colorful section.

I used to be amazed how the mountains and hills look so fake in the early morning or evening. They look like they were painted there with beautiful colors. This picture reminds me of all those setting and rising suns we've seen in over a decade in beautiful Southern California.

In person, the clouds were much more defined stripes across the sky.