The Adventures of Carol & DB

Baby Paige is Born

2012-01-30T18:25:00.001-08:00

Last Friday I was planning to fly to Southern California for a baby shower for Erica. But, our plans changed when Paige decided to be 4 weeks early. She was a petite 5 lbs. 4 ozs. and 18 nches long. It was such a treat to see her at the hospital instead of having a shower with lot of gifts. Well, the shower would have been wonderful, but I loved going to the hospital and holding Paige. I also got to spend time with brother Zachary and also a visit with Kevin, Katie and their three kids. It was a very busy and fun weekend. Welcome Paige.

These are the hospital pictures

This is my visit with Kevin and Katie

Women retreat at Asilomar 2012

2012-01-09T20:50:00.000-08:00

The First Presbyterian Women's retreat is always at Asilomar in January, but this year was just amazing weather. My friend Fran came from Bend, OR to join us at the retreat and my friend Kathy was our other roommate. Kathy and I biked part of the 17 mile drive. The we joined friend for lunch in Pacific Grove. We went to see the Monarch Butterlies. We walked on the beach and went to Spanish Bay to listen to the bag pipper and have a glass of wine. Oh yes, and the retreat was wonderful too. In fact, the retreat was outstanding. So, here are some pictures from the weekend.

The Cabin at the end of 2011

2011-12-31T20:41:00.000-08:00

We had a great visit with the Kevin Smylie family at the cabin. It was sort of our New Year's trip, but we came home on Dec. 31st. Last year the Smylie's made this trip and they had lots of snow and ended up taking more than 24 hours to get home since the grapevine was closed. Claire was a few weeks old at the time. This year the weather was beautiful. We did lots of outdoor play. We threw rocks at the pond (which was frozen, but the weather was warm). We went to Manzanita Lake and fed the ducks and explored. And I think Kevin and Katie made it home in a lot less time. I love pictures more than words, so you can see that we played hard, made gingerbread men, played Mario on the TV and Jump Start on the computer. It was great fun. See for yourself.

Did I mention that today (Dec. 30th) was DB's birthday. A low key celebration.

Water play is always good to keep babies happy.

Kevin is determine to break though the 4 inches of ice at the pond.

A very tired baby.

Chistmas 2011

2011-12-31T19:49:00.001-08:00

Here are just a few pictures of our wonderful trip to Portland for Christmas. We had lots of fun and stayed busy every second. FUN!

We started our Christmas fun with a trip to the nutcracker in Portland. It was fun to go with the girls for the first time.

Then we celebrated my birthday at Chevy's. Maryn and Lucy loved the hat and Chris and Jess enjoyed the Margarita.

The girls are opening some Christmas eve gifts with Chris. They really do love to get gifts.

Maryn looking lovely.Laurel and Ananda joined in for the Christmas Celebrations

Yes, I got a picture of Chris and Jess together in their kitchen. That doesn't happen very often, but aren't they cute.

Lucy is taking her dog GoGo for a walk

Don prepares the lobster for our Christmas Eve Dinner.

Pasta sauce with lobster was yummy. Especially good because Do has caught the lobster. There were 10 of us for dinner which we enjoyed after our Christmas ever service.

Here is Ananda helping Jess clean up after Christmas morning brunch. We did a lot of eating and the brunch was delicious.

Here is Lucy with her new Doll from Santa.

Jess and her mom on Christmas Day

Lucy looking cute with her doll

Our Christmas Photo

Maryn and Lucy playing with the doll house at Grandma Kathy's.

And of course, there is always time for a ballet show.

The whole gang at the Drury's.

Two Grandma's and a Lucy

Don and I stayed at great Hotel with a pool. We used it a lot and the girls loved it.

Mary Memories

2011-12-08T19:01:00.000-08:00

Here are some memories of my sister Mary. We lost her to pancreatic cancer this week. It's still hard to believe that she is gone. But, we have a lot of wonderful memories of her in pictures and these are just a few. Mary loved the Lord and she loved life. I am happy that there is no doubt that she is with our Lord now. I hope you enjoy these pictures as much as I do.

Mary in High School

Betty Sue and Mary

Here are Mary and Sue in New York

Mary and her Great Grandson Shepard

Here is Mary and Jim when they got marriedHere they are 50 years later

Mary & Susie

Here is a picture of us on a Rogue River Rafting Trip many years ago. Mary is the 3rd from the left. Her daughter Susie is next to her. Great Memory!

Here is Mary being her total goofball self. She loved to get people to laugh.

I will miss you Mary!

Matilda's 100th Birthday Party

2011-11-20T19:47:00.000-08:00

Today was Matilda's 100th Birthday. It is such a pleasure to know her. She is a loving, caring, appreciative women who loves the Lord and let's everyone know that. It was so much fun to be part of her birthday celebration. Her house was packed with family, friends, neighbors and people that care so much about her. Thank you Matilda for teaching me so much! I want to be like you when I grow up.

A Nancy Tea Party

2011-11-16T17:02:00.000-08:00

Erica had a small tea party to let some of us talk about Nancy and share special times we had with her. Nancy has been gone for 6 years and she is still having an impact on the lives of many. I think that is just what God wants each of us to do with our lives. It was a treat to have a Nancy Tea Party.

Zion & Bryce National Park

2011-10-08T19:40:00.001-07:00

Our Tahoe group is starting to venture out of Tahoe and California and explore other places. This year we decided to go to Bryce and Zion. We stayed in a wonderful house in Springdale and just had to walk down the street to catch the bus into Zion. The location was perfect. We enjoyed some simple hikes and a few more involved hikes. The first big hike was the Narrows. The guys hiked this while the ladies drove to St. George and went to quilt shops and lunch. We were told that the water could get up to our chest and we might have to swim. That kept me from doing it. But, as it turned out, there was no swimming involved. It did get deep in parts, but they couldn't take pictures because their cameras were in dry bags. As you can see from the pictures, it was a beautiful hike. But, the quilt shops were great and if you ever get to St. George, eat at Kneader's. We loved that place.
Our next big hike was to Angels's Landing. We started early in the morning to avoid the heat and it was beautiful. I was so glad that I did it. We skipped doing the last part with cables, but it was still a perfect hike.
We drove to Bryce for one day and enjoyed seeing all of the hoodoo's and colorful formations there. It was a perfect one day trip.
Most of the pictures speak for themselves. Zion and Bryce are majestic wonders of red rock. I loved waking up and looking out our windows and seeing the sun touching the tops of the mountains. We also layed in the dark outside and checked out the thousands of stars overhead. Another wonderful Tahoe Group adventure in Utah.

The Narrows

Here are Don and Chet trying to row a rock. What's with that?

Angel's Landing

We really enjoyed having lunch at the Zion Lodge.

This is as close as I got to the start of the Narrows.

Bryce

SUNRIVER 2011

2011-08-28T19:59:00.000-07:00

Sunriver was a meeting place of Ballantis from Oregon, California and Idaho. We also had a Kutsch (my brother) and a Calkins (my sister) that joined us. It was so much fun. We hiked, hot tubbed, minature golfed, bouncy housed, had a treasure hunt, did lots of crafts, rode bikes, lots of foosball (Chris is the champ), bananagrams, quilt shopped, visited friends in Bend and just had a great time. We visited Benham Falls, hiked in a volcanic cave and hked in very old Lava Fields at Newberry Volcanic Momument. Here are a few pictures to give you a wink at our wonderful family vacation.

Here we are at Newberry National Monument.

Gail made the best cupcakes and we got to eat them.

It's craft time. We made a bunch of fun things.

Food!!! We had lots of wonderful food.

Lots of Bananagrams. This is a very fun game that I do not excel at.

My dear friend Fran who just moved to Bend

Mosaic Show 2011

2011-08-08T14:57:00.001-07:00

Here are some of the mosaic done at our "mosaic camp" this summer. We just had our 2011 Mosaic Open House yesterday and we had about 72 come see our creations. It was a wonderful party and we were very pleased with our Mosaics.

Here is my French Poppy Mosaic. Notice how I forgot to take a picture of me with my mosaic, but I'm sure you know what I look like.

Here is Linda with her quilt mosaic with her grandchildren's hand prints in it. She created this for her daughter's mother-in-law, Susan, who passed away this year from breast cancer. What a wonderful tribute.

This is Cris with her undersea creation. This was a massive and detailed undertaking. Cris is also the generous person that lets us set up our mosaic camp at her house most of the summer. We are very thankful for her generosity.

Here is Dolores with her picture perfect dragonfly design. I love the colors.

Linda made this birdbath using the handles from mugs.

I didn't count how many stepping stones Cris made for her beautiful landscaped yard. This is one of them. But, I bet there are 45-50 of them each with it's own personality.

There are some of the pots done by Nelle and Connie

House numbers created by Linda

A flower pot created by Dolores

Connie's welcome sign

Beer Bottle Cap bowling ball. Cris, Linda and I made these with the help of many bottles of beer being consumed mostly by young people. (A special thanks to James).

I had to include the picture of Cris's Penny Bowling Ball. It's so shiny and I love the mosaic stand she designed for it.

For those of you that couldn't make the show. We hope you enjoy these pictures. The show was even more amazing with some of the wonderful mosaics from previous years.

4th of July and trip to the cabin

2011-07-13T20:11:00.000-07:00

Fairyland

Don and I took the girls to fairyland. Maryn and Lucy went there last year, but Lucy wasn't big enough to go on the merry-go-round. This time she was just over the 38 inches required to ride it. This made her day. You can also from the picture below that Lucy really loves Snow White. She told me that quite a few times. Both girls had a blast. 3 and 5 are perfect ages for this park.

Fireworks

Richmond Marina does fireworks on July 3rd. We had dinner at the house followed by fireworks from the boat. My nephew Eric and his girl friend Vinny joined us also and I'm sorry that we didn't get a picture of them. It was a very fun and busy day.

Mosaic

Maryn and Jess came to visit our mosaic studio. While there, Maryn made a mosaic trivit. She is a wonderful artist and loved making it. We finished grouting it while at the cabin. This was fun for both of us.

Bass Pro Shop

We stopped at the Bass Pro Shop on the way to the cabin. Everyone seemed to like it a lot more than they thought they would. It really is a fun destination.

Yosemite

Chris & Jess went to Yosemite and hiked to the top of Nevada Falls. They had a great hike and were amazed by the volume of water.

Bass Lake

We spent two days swimming, kayaking and playing in the sand at Bass Lake. Maryn and Lucy would have been happy to spend every day there. The water was so warm, I had no problem swimming in it. It was also fun to use our kayaks that we made the first year we were married. That was 38 year ago. Yes, they still float.

Fishing at the Pond with Grandpa DB

Maryn and Lucy caught their first fish ever at the pond by our cabin. Maryn caught two and Lucy caught one. They were so proud and DB help them have fun catching them.

Yosemite Steam Train in Fish Camp

Megan 3rd Birthday and Father's Day

2011-06-25T17:23:00.001-07:00

Katie & Kevin hosted all of us for a bluefin tuna feast for Father's Day and Megan's 3rd birthday party.

Here are Erica spinning in their twirly skirts. It's a bit blurry, but they sure had fun.

This is the apron that Erica made for Megan

Grandpa Smylie is feed Claire (the Gerber Baby).

Kevin on Father's Day with his 3 munchkins.

Claire and Zachary are certainly going to be good friends.

Our dinner was wonderful.

I love this picture. Here I am with the birthday girl and her baby sister.

DB fishes while I play in Irvine

2011-06-25T16:59:00.000-07:00

Don went fishing on the Royal Star for a week while I played with Erica, Andrew and Zachary. It was a fun week. Don caught lots of bluefin tuna while I had a great visit in Irvine. Here are a few pictures. Fishing, making twirly skirts, playing in the water table with Zachary and going berry picking were just a few of the highlights of our trip.

Notice that Erica is sewing on my mother's sewing machine.

Look at her first sewing project.

Zachary love his water table. We used it daily.

We got to go berry picking only 10 minutes from Erica's house. Now that was so much fun.

France - Provence and Burgundy

2011-06-10T22:31:00.000-07:00

Our trip to Southen France was so much fun. Uniworld did an amazing job of making everything on the trip perfect. We we never stopped having a wonderful time. Betty and I took hundreds of pictures and there was no way I could post everything that we did, so here is just a glimps of our trip on the Rhone River. If you haven't checked out my food blog from this trip, don't miss that. The food was really amazing.
Arles
Arles is a Provencal Mediterranean town known for the famous painter Vincent van Gogh. Van Gogh painted many of the his paintings while in Arles including Starry Night over the Rhone. We visited the town square, Roman Amphitheather where gladiator once fought and the hospital where van Gogh sought treatment. I love the shops in Arles that had all the beautiful Provencal fabrics.

In the afternoon we drove to an Olive farm and did an olive oil tasting. Then went to the Medieval village of Les Baux-de-Provence. It was high on a hill and full of wonderful shops and quaint streets.

Olive Tasting. Very fun!

This is the picture that Van Gogh painted of the above scene. Isn't that cool?

Here we are in Les Baux-de-Provence

Notice the Mistral Winds were blowing in France. They are sort of like our Santa Ana Winds.

Avignon

Avignon is a Medieval city with a fortification wall. It also houses the Popes Palace built between 1335 and 1364 to protect various popes. It is a massive structure that did a great job of protecting the popes.

In the afternoon we went to the Pont Du Gard Aqueduct which was built in the middle of the 1st century. The entire structure was built without mortar. An impressive feat.

We concluded our tour with another winery tour where they talked about blending grapes to make wine and of course we tasted some of there wine.

Pope's Palace

Pont du Gard Aqueduct

Wine Tasting

Viviers

This town was founded in the 5th Century and it has a lot of that ancient charm. The don't let many changes take place in this town. Our guide grew up there but now lives outside of the town where she can actually have a garden. They narrow streets mean you have to walk to your house with your groceries. It's a quiet little town.

Tournon/Tain l'Hermitage

These twin cities are surrounded by vineyards. We did wine tasting on our tour of the city.

This is the spot on the boat where you can get an internet connection and a latte 24 hours a day. I liked this spot.

These red poppies are everywhere. I just love them. I'm thinking that I will do a mosaic of red poppies this year.We walked past lots of vineyards on our morning walk. We are in Burgundy at this point.

Lyon

Lyon is at the confluence of the Rhone and Saone Rivers. Julius Ceasar found the city 2000 years ago. This was the largest city that we visited and had lots of intereting les traboules, which are famous passages hidden behind the doors of Renaissance facades. We also visited the Roman Grand Theater and Notre Dame de Fouviere. We had plenty of time to stroll though some of a wonderful shops.

A Birthday Celebration - We met some great friends on boat. So we are celebrating Susan's birthday with her. She didn't think the cruise people would know it was her birthday. No one told them, but they just know this sort of thing. She was certainly surprised.

Here we are having drinks before dinner with our friends. We had a great time on the trip with these ladies.

Susan's sister Irene toasts her for her birthday.

Our group at the captain's dinner.

Chalon sur Saone & Beaune

Our final stop was in Chalon sur Saone. We are now on the Saone River. Our tour today took us to Beaune though the Burgundy vineyards. In Beaune we toured the Hospices de Beaune which founded in 1443. The is still working hospital for the poor at a nearby location. We also spent a lot of time in the outdoor marketplace. Fresh produce, amazing breads and lots of great cheese was a big part of the market.

Amazing Cruise Food

2011-06-02T20:26:00.001-07:00

The food on our Rhone River Cruise was outstanding. I really enjoyed eating every bite of it. Breakfast Lunch and Dinner were equally outstanding. So, rather than tell you how wonderful the food was, I took lots of pictures. You can almost taste it when you look at the pictures. The wine flowed freely at dinner, which was nice. This was the best food I've ever had on a cruise. I also like the fact that the portions weren't too big, so you could finish all the courses. Yum!

London 2011

2011-05-31T20:42:00.001-07:00

Betty and I made a stop in London for a visit with my friend Marianna. It was so nice to be able to stay with Marianna and Pat. Instead of just doing tourist attractions, we did some things that Marianna knows and loves. We went to tea at the Dukes Hotel, joined her at a pub with her American friends (that's the picture of us with the hats on), went to Borough Market (fun and amazing), cruised on the Thames, went to Evensong at Westminster Abbey, went to Greenwich, walked the Regent Canal with Marianna and Pat on our way to a Camden Town tour, took a downtown walking tour, and just had the greatest time. It was so relaxing staying at Marianna & Pat's place and eating some wonderful dinners there. I just loved their espresso machine (I really did) and I always looked forward to getting up to a magnificent up a coffee each morning.

Camden Town
Regent's Canal

Princess Anne was going to have dinner here in the evening.

Abbey Road

This is were we stayed.

Camden Town

Borough Market

At the Pub for a drink

Tea at Dukes Hotel

Portland in March

2011-04-12T19:50:00.000-07:00

I went to visit Portland (Chris, Jess, Maryn & Lucy) in March and I am now finally getting around to adding these pictures to my blog. My problem is that I can’t limit the number of pictures that I wanted to post. We did so much and had such a great time. We went to the Tillamook Factory, explored a park with friends, went to the Oregon Museum of Science, did lots of fashion shows, went shopping (their favorite was Ikea), played games, did indoor water play and foot massages (Maryn and Lucy loved this). I had such a great time. The fun just never stopped. 3 and 5 is a perfect age for fun. So, here are the pictures without too much comment.

Good times at IKEA

Oregon Museum of Science

These are the little chickie toys that I brought them from Mexico.

These pastries were so good. It's a must try if you are ever in Beaverton.

This technique is called something like, underdogging. Only young mothers can do it or the swing clobbers you. Jess is running under Lucy on the upswing.

Aren't these pretty? They were blooming by the front door.

Foot Massage time!

Here weare at Tillamook!

Let the fashion show begin!

Here is Maryn looking quite lovely.

Lucy has a special sense of fashion. She not only wore this bathing suit out on a cold day when we were shopping, but she also slept in it.

Here we are at The Gap. Maryn is still in her fashion mode. Priceless!

Oh, this must be the tea party for the stuffed animals.

Ixtapan dela Sal in February

2011-03-24T19:48:00.001-07:00

This is the second year I've headed to this spa in Mexico with friends in February. It is such a wonderful luxury and fun time. We have massages daily, facials, hair treatments, manicures, reflexology, golf lessons, salsa classes, morning walks and much more. Here are a few pictures to give you an idea of what it is like. One of my favorite events is the open market on Sundays in the local town. It gives a real sense of life in this lovely town. (I'm really slow at posting this, but I decided that I needed to do it. At the end of the year I look at my posts to see what I have been up to and I needed to include this.)

Here is Cris, Linda and me standing by one of the many fountains near the pool.
This was after I had my hair styled. We thought we should take pictures before we messed it up.

This was taken while we shopped in the town of Taxco.

Here we are headed into Taxco. It is about an hour from Ixtapan dela Sal.

One of my golf lessons. Since I only play in Mexico, I was pleased to find out that I could actually hit the ball fairly straight. One of our yummy lunches!

We had cocktail hour in one of our rooms every evening. Here I am with Cris, my roommate.

Linda, Carol Y. and Cris in town at the marketplace. The next group of pictures are all from our visit to Ixtapan on Sunday. It's colorful and busy.

Here we are having drink before our last dinner at the spa.

This was one of our spa lunches outside by the pool. It's pretty easy to get used to spa life. I highly recommend it.

San Francisco Bay in January - Stunning

2011-01-22T19:04:00.000-08:00

Laurel suggest that we go out on the boat today. I thought it would be way too cold in January to take the boat out. Well, it was beautiful. We cruised around Angel Island with a stop near the Golden Gate Bridge. We then headed over to Paradise for some food. Can you believe that there was no fishing? But, it was a beautiful day. We enjoyed meeting and getting to know Laurel's friend, Anand. Another great day on the bay.
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New Years at the Cabin with Katie & Kevin

2011-01-18T21:07:00.001-08:00

Kevin, Katie and their three kids (4 weeks, 2 years and 4 years) came up to the cabin to celebrate New Years with us. It was really cold. The warmest we ever got the cabin was 66 degrees and that was with heaters and a fire going. We had enough snow so the kids could play. They got to go to the pond and do "pond bowling". They really liked that. Enjoy our adventure in pictures!

Now this picture just makes me shiver, but Steven decided that he wanted to walk in the snow with his bare feet. Burrrrr!

Here I am with sweet baby Claire.

Pond Bowling - It's a good thing!

Megan was really into DB's fish. Fish guts didn't bother her a bit.

The kids liked helping DB open some of his birthday gifts.

Christmas in Portland 2010

2010-12-28T20:48:00.000-08:00

I love Christmas because it is time for the family to be together and have fun. We were so busy doing that. We went to Christmas Eve service at Chris & Jess's church. Then was came back to their house and had our traditional tamales dinner with Jess's parents joining us. Earlier on Christmas Eve, we took Maryn and Lucy to our hotel for a swim. They loved that. While some of us were at the pool, Chris and Don worked on the bathroom plumbing. After 4 trips to the hardware store, they actually fixed it. (That's amazing because Don hates plumbing) When we returned, Chris focused on his computer that crashed earlier in the morning. Another miracle happened. With the help of a friend of Laurel's and two trips to Best Buy, Chris was able to replace the power source and the computer worked. Chris said he couldn't imagine that both of these big projects could be fixed on Christmas Eve. It was a good Christmas Eve for him. The girls also had fun opening some of their gifts. Then there was the horseracing game that Maryn won. What a wonderful Christmas Eve.

The next morning the we arrived at the Portland Ballanti's early and watched more opening of gifts. It was fun to see the girl so excited about their presents. At 11 we gathered for Christmas brunch. We had exotic fruit provided by Laurel, Nancy's Egg Dish and Christmas Bread made by Jess and smoky links. Yum! Jess's family including her brother Tom and his wife Brit, who just flew in joined us. This was great family time.

Later in the day, we had an outstanding Prime Rib for dinner at Kathy & Doug's house. This was a great Christmas! Check out the pictures for a glance of our Christmas.

Here are Chris and Laurel.
This is Doug working on his fabulous meal. Check out that hunk of meat!

This was the table all set for brunch on Christmas Eve.

Oh, here is the plumbing and computer projects. I can't leave those out.

Here is Maryn all set up for "horse" racing.

This is Matt with Eli. Chris and Jess used to live with Matt and Jess in Carpenteria. I was glad to meet their new addition. Here is Maryn busy with her leapster Explorer.

Oh, and I had to include the picture of everyone playing bananagrams.

And here are two of my favorite girls dressed in their costumes that Santa brought them.

It was a very Merry Christmas!

Early "Christmas Eve" in Southern California

2010-12-20T17:06:00.000-08:00

This was our Southern California Christmas aka Tamale Party aka Meet Claire for the first time.
We had a wonderful party at Katie and Kevin's. I'm just sharing a few of the pictures. We opened lots of presents and ate lots of wonderful food and got to see cute babies, happy children and a wonderful family.
Here is the first tamale dinner. Notice that Erica got the "special" tamale with the M&M's in it. Here is Grandpa Smylie with 3 or his 4 grandchildren. I think DB was holding Claire at this time. Megan got a few princess outfits for Christmas.

Here is papa Kevin with the very quiet star of the show. I think we all got a chance to hold sweet Claire.

Maureen thinks that Claire looks like Steven and after looking at a baby picture of Steven, I think she might be right.

Merry Christmas to you from Carol and Don

2010-12-07T20:04:00.000-08:00

Every year I try to send out a Christmas Letter filled with all the things we have been up to during the year, but if you scan my blog, you will get the idea about what we have been up to. I love pictures, so I post them often. I've posted lots of trips and things we like to do. What the pictures don't say is that I'm so thankful for our family. As we celebrate the birth of Christ, I am so thankful for all He has giving us.

Chris and his family are doing great. Chris continues to work at Standard Insurance. Jess is a wonderful daughter-in-law who makes sure that Maryn and Lucy talk to us often. She is also a wonderful and creative mother. Maryn and Lucy constantly entertain us. They are sweet and adorable. They have been to California 4 times this year and that makes us very happy. We will go up to Portland for Christmas. So, there is always a chance we will have a White Christmas.

Laurel is doing great. She recently moved to a great place in Berkeley. She continues to work at a software company and is an amazing jock. She gets up at 5 AM a couple of mornings a week to go to "boot camp" where she is on staff. She is constantly busy, loves to travel and having a great time. She managed to spend 2 1/2 weeks in Maui while her Maui cousin toured the mainland. She is a great housesitter and loves to have fun. She also rowed the Rogue River this summer. It's fun to see her thriving.

Don and I seem to be stuck in a fairly predictable rut. Now, that's not a bad thing. We work, volunteer, play, walk, talk about aches and pains, take trips, skype and eat more things than our aging bodies should. But, Life is Good and we feel very blessed. This picture should be of Don fishing because that is what he loves to do and he does it often. But, I loved this picture of us cross country skiing at near Bader Pass in Yosemite.

Here is the recipe that I always love to include in my Christmas greatings. It is a simple but delicious cookie recipe. We make this in the kitchen at church and it is always a success. If you need me to email this to you, just let me know. I hope you like like. By browning the butter, it gets a really nice flavor.

BROWN SUGAR COOKIES

14 tablespoons (1 3/4 sticks) unsalted butter (10 Tbs plus 4 Tbs Separated)
1¾ cups packed dark brown sugar
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons (about 10 2/3 ounces) unbleached all purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon table salt
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Combine for rolling cookie dough in before baking.
¼ Cup Brown Sugar
¼ Cup White sugar

1. Melt 10 tablespoons of the butter in a 10 inch skillet over medium heat, about 2 minutes. Continue to cook, stirring the pan constantly until the butter is dark golden brown and has a nutty aroma, 1 to 3 minutes. Transfer browned butter to a large heat proof bowl. Stir in the remaining 4 tablespoons of butter into hot butter to melt. Set aside for 15 minutes. . Add 1 ¾ Brown Sugar to cooled Butter mixture.
2. Mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
3. Beat Sugar Butter Mixture until there are no lumps. Beat in Egg and extra yolk and vanilla. Mix for about 30 seconds until fully incorporated. Add flour mixture and mix until combined, about 1 minute.
4. Scoop into 1 ½ in balls and roll in white & brown sugar mixture. Put on parchment. Tap down a bit.
5. Bake at 350 for 12 to 14 minutes. Centers should be cracker but look raw in between the cracks.

Dolores First Birthday on the Intrepid

2010-12-07T15:58:00.000-08:00

Today I celebrated Dolores's first birthday on her new sail boat with her. What a picture perfect day in December to have a boat party. Evelyn and I were able to join her for a fun little celebration at the Berkeley Marina.
♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥ ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪ HAPPY BIRTHDAY DOLORES! ♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥ ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥ ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪ ♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥ ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪
Here is Dolores with her Olson 25~

It just makes my day when I see Great Egrets flying right by me.

Thanksgiving 2010

2010-12-04T21:48:00.000-08:00

We had a snowy Thanksgiving at our cabin. I don't remember it being this cold at the cabin before. But, we had a wonderful time with Steve and Debbie. It was just the 4 of us, but it was very pleasant. The guys got to fish and Debbie and I got to visit and relax. It was a wonderful winter wonderland. Or Don would point out that it was a fall wonderland, as it isn't winter yet. Happy Thanksgiving to all. We are bless with so much to be thankful for. Here are picture of our new outdoor sport, "Pond bowling". Steve and Don tried to see who could toss the snowball across the pond. It added a bit a competition to our weekend.

Here we are on the back porch on Thanksgiving. They had to shovel snow so we could BBQ the turkey on the back porch.

Maryn & Lucy visit the Bay Area

2010-11-09T20:25:00.000-08:00

Jess, Maryn and Lucy came to the bay area for a quick visit. They were here for two full days and we managed to squeeze in quite a few fun things. There was lots of babie play. They loved the fountain in the back yard and that became Barbie's swimming pool. We also went to the Little Farm in Berkeley, Fairyland, Fenton's Ice Cream, visits with Laurel, a visit to see their Great Grandmother, a trip to the Discovery Museum in Marin and a lot of play and fun. Jess got to spend a day in the city with friends and her friend Stephanie stayed and drove back to Portland with her. We had such a great time. Here a just a few of the pictures I took of the visit.
Tilden Park

Play at Grandma and Grandpa's house

Making Cookies with Laurel

Fairyland

Fentons Ice Cream

Maryn and Lucy visit Laurel's house

Laurel stops by to visit the ballerinas

A visit with Great Grandmother Ginny

Discovery Museum - Fort Baker

The girls are swimming and watching themselves on "TV".

Boating- It would be a trip to the Bay Area without a trip to Grandpa's boat.

Pajaro Dunes

2010-11-01T20:36:00.001-07:00

Our Tahoe group decided to do something different this year. I think we have been going to Tahoe for over 25 years. But, this year we headed to Pajaro Dunes. It is between Santa Cruz and Monterey. This meant that the ladies could go shopping and have lunch in Carmel. We could bike the 17 mile drive, go to the aquarium, walk on the beach and get to know Elkhorn Slough. We had a beautiful house on the beach. This was a delightful change and I think we all loved it. Every year when we go on vacation, we figure out how long we have been married. We have collectively been married to the same people for 148 years. We also still love to vacation with each other. They are a wonderful group of people and it was such a lovely vacation. Here are some of the pictures to give you a visual.

Elkhorn Slough

We took a guided walk at Elkhorn Slough Reserve. It was fantastic. It was our own private tour and we had 2 guides for 8 of us. If you are ever in the area, I highly recommend this tour.

I think I have had too many encounters with snakes this year. This one is just tiny and I didn't step on it, but it's my fourth snake this year. They just like me and I hate them. This was at Elkhorn Slough

Moss Landing

This was a raft of otters at Moss Landing. They are so cute. We saw more in the wild than we did at the aquarium. At the Monterey Bay Aquarium, they cover themselves in black hoods and don't talk when they feed the otters because they love to bond with people.

This otter has a clam in it's hand that it is eating. This guys spent a long time diving, getting a clam and eating. They are hungry little guys...... or girls.

This was a vegetable stand in Moss Landing. It just happend to be near a coffee shop that we seemed to stop at really often.
Quiet Life at Pajaro
Paula and Chet out on the patio.

This was taken from our lower deck.

Monterey Aquarium

We went to the Monterey Bay Aquaium. I hadn't been there since our kids were small. We took a behind the scenes tour and learned lots of interesting behind he scene details.

On the Beach by the house

We took lots of strolls on the beach. As you can see, we never turned our backs to the water. but, the tide was much higher on our walk back to the house than we thought it would be. We had to scramble up on the rocks to stay out of the water. Surprise!

Point Lobos

The next few pictures were taken at Point Lobos. We stopped at the Whaler's Museum and took a short hike.

OK, DB and Paula aren't a couple, but I really liked this picture of them.

We saw lots of blue herons. Also there were plenty of Great Egrets and Snow Egrets. Great place for birding.

Rocky Point Restaurant. Great food, perfect weather and a beautiful view. This isn't very far from Point Lobos.

Biking on the 17 Mile Drive.

When DB Goes Fishing, Carol Visits Family

2010-10-15T20:28:00.000-07:00

On our drive down to Southern Califoria, we decided to stop by and surprise my nephew Jeff with a quick visit. He loves to decorate for Halloween and here he is with a few of his scary decorations. It was fun to see him and it was really fun to surprise him.

After dropping DB in San Diego for a 5 day trip, I spent that time with Erica, Andrew and Zachary. Zachary is such a sweet baby. It was so much fun to see Erica being such a super mom. We played, took walks, made cookies, played bridge and even went to a block party. It was such a fun visit. Here are a few pictures from my visit.

We went to Katie and Kevin's for lunch one afternoon. Kevin came home from work for lunch to join us. Steve also drove over for the afternoon. It was a great gathering. Here is a picture of Megan and Steven. Megan is wearing the twirly skirt that I made for her. I love how they are willing to pose for me.

Steven started preschool. Here is some of his handy work.

Grandpa Steve and Megan

I drove down to San Diego to pick DB up from the trip and we stopped by for him to see how much Zachary grew from his last fishing trip. The pictures tell it all. A wonderful family trip.

A Small Gathering to Honor Katie

2010-10-09T18:12:00.000-07:00

A few of us went to Ramos House in San Juan Capistrano to celebrate Katie and Kevin's baby Clare. We had a wonderful brunch and a nice time of visiting. I included pictures of food in this group of pictures because the food was really wonderful. I wish you could taste it.

Happy Baby Katie!

A One Day Visit From the Oregon Ballanti's

2010-09-29T21:01:00.000-07:00

We had a 19 hour visit from Chris, Jess, Maryn, Lucy, Doug and Kathy. It was a great visit filled with good conversation, a lot of Barbie play (especially Barbie in the waterfall), decorating pumpkins, opening Birthday presents (Maryn is turning 5), food and drink. It was so much fun! I wish they cold have stayed a lot longer, but they were headed to Southern Cal for a wedding, visiting family and Disneyland. Doug & Kathy relax in the El Cerrito heat after a long drive.

Maryn and Lucy put whip cream

and raspberries on Pots de Creme

and decorate the pumpkins.

A Family Photo!

Paula, Carol and Laurel spend the day in San Francisco

2010-08-18T14:54:00.000-07:00

Paula came over last night and had a sleepover. Now, I've known Paula since high school and do you know that she has never done a sleepover at my house. Paula and I were also RA's in our college dorm at the same time, but never did a sleepover. Oh, and Don took Paula to his senior prom, but she never did a sleepover (at least I don't think she did). But, yesterday she came over aroun 4:30 and we had a great time chatting, followed by dinner and more chatting. Then this morning Laurel joined us for a trip to the city to see the Impressionist at the DeYoung Museum. That was wonderful. We then took Paula to mosaic steps (see the picture of Laurel and Auntie Paula below). After that we went to Green for an outstanding lunch. Check out those pictures below. They have amazing food. What a wonderful day. Paula is BARTing back to her house in Fremont right now. We all agreed that we need to do this more often.

Mosaic Four Art Studio Party

2010-08-08T20:26:00.001-07:00

Today the Mosaic Four had a wonderful Mosaic Show at Linda's house. It was fun to have a bunch of people come by and be thrill with our summer projects. They all came out so well. I hope you enjoy them as much as we do.

Here is Cris with her Blue Heron. I love this and would love to do something like it next year.Here I am with my Golden Gate Bridge. I now anxious to have Don install it in my back yard.

Here is Dolores's Dolphin mosaic. This is perfect for her as she is a sailor. I'm sorry that I forgot to take her picture with her mosaic.

This is Linda's Koi fish. It is mounted right above her outdoor pond. She used broken Asian plates to make most of the fish. I looks great.

Here is a birdbath that Linda made.

This is Cris's bowling ball mosaic. She had this perfect dog stand that it fit in perfectly. I just started working on my own bowling ball. It'll be done in a week or two.

Portland visit July 2010

2010-08-01T19:38:00.000-07:00

I spent a busy 5 days with the Portland Ballanti's. I had a wonderful time. I played a lot of princess/barbie/my little pony with Maryn and Lucy. They are both so full of play and make believe. We also did lots of outdoor play. I couldn't put those pictures in here because they kept taking off their clothes and running through the sprinklers and playing with barbies in the water play table. I went to the park a few times, picked raspberries, went to the Rose Garden in Portland and my sister Mary came over from the coast for an ovenight visit. We also got to go watch Chris play volleyball. Wow, I'm almost tired just mentioning some of the things we did. It was a great visit. Here are some pictures to give you an idea of what we were up to. Enjoy!

Golden Gate Bridge Mosaic

2010-07-23T13:58:00.000-07:00

I finished my San Francisco Mosaic. I have 4 spots that I will complete when it is installed on our outside wall. But, I have to wait to install it unitl after we have our 2010 Mosaic Art Show. You are invited to Linda's house in Pinole on August 8th from 2 to 4 for the show. Let me know if you are coming and I will give you her address. Included in my mosaic is blue glass from windows taken out of our backyard, a piece of china found in the backyard that says "made in occupied Japan", coca cola bottles and sauvignon blanc wine bottles. If you have any old plates, glass or unique bottles or tile, save it for me. I am always looking for new materials. If you don't make it to the Art Show, feel free to come by my house and check our my latest creation. I had a blast doing it.

Rogue River 2010

2010-07-18T19:19:00.000-07:00

This was a wonderful relaxing river trip. We had lots of layover days and 18 adventureous and fun people to share the trip. Here are just a "few" of the 926 pictures that I took on the river.

Please ignore the labels if they are in the wrong place. I really dislike the format of blogs. It's hard to line them up. But, the pictures really tell the story.
The Put-in at Almeda Bar:

Costume Night: Our theme this year was Electric (or ecclectic) Ninja Pirates and Cowboys in Space.

The Ballanti's on the Rogue

The Wongs on the Rogue: Ok The Wongs are included in here because Oscar and Owen are just so cute.

Rapids: Here we are scouting rapids and running them. The big ones one the Rogue are Rainie Falls and Blossom Bar. The other place that the kayakers rolled up their kayaks was Mule Creek Canyon. There are no big rapids but a narrow turbulant canyon makes it a problem for small boats. The first two pictures are from scouting of Blossom Bar.

Laurel is describing to Brel, how to run Blossom Bar

Here are Jeff & Kim entering Mule Creek Canyon.

Rainie Fall aka The fish ladder: Here we are at Rainie Falls. This is a class 5 rapid on the river. That means, if you run it, you will probably flip. Therefore, our boat go down the fish ladder. Owen, Oscar, Auntie Deb and I walk around and took pictures. The second picture down is Oscar and Owen giving the OK sign to the boats going down the fish ladder. That means the boat ahead of them came down the fish ladder and didn't get stuck. The next boat can proceed. Doing the fish ladder is sort of like bumper boats. There isn't a lot of control. I personally perfer to take pictures.

Laurel and her Hula Hoop Laurel carried her hula hoop with her down the mighty Rogue River. Here are just a few places that she hula hooped.

Games on the River:

There were some people that just love jumping into a rapid and floating down the river.

Beach Volleyball was fun. We also sat around and just enjoyed life. I believe that is Jeff and Kim doing a beer tasting in the middle of the river.

Whoever called "Moon" first on the river was a winner.

This was part of the laser show. Very cool!

Water Ballet

Drew and Stasha doing their singing (upside down). This was very cute!

Banana Grams

Bocci was fun!

Rogue River Ranch :This working ranch was a short hike up Mule Creek from our campsite on the river. They have drinkable running water and a great museum that you can visit. I just like using the hose to get wet as it was very warm.

Whisky Creek Ranch:Here are a few picture from on old house near the river. Note the two seater outhouse. Now, those were the days!

Meals on the river: We had wonderful food on the river. Our five dinners were, Blue Fin Tuna Burgers, Chicken Ceasar Salad, Filet Mignon, Chicken Fajitas, and Pasta with Italian Sausages. Yum! Below is my cook crew. We were only in charge of cooking for one day on the trip, so we were able to relax most days while others were preparing our meals. It's a good system. Please note that there were no forest fires started while making our smores. Plus we had our own fireman with us on the trip. The picture below does look like Deb's head is on fire (just trick photography).

Here is a picture of us filtering water in the green bag and the red one has our wine stash.

Animals on the river: Here are pictures of a river otter, eagle, blue heron and turtle. We saw a lot of other animals. Most the them were birds. I decided not to include the dead snake that we found in our camp or the snake that I missed stepping on by about one inch. Yikes! I really don't like snakes.

Napping on the river!!!! We were active on this trip, but as you can see, a lot of napping happened.

Mother's Group 30th Anniversary

2010-07-04T16:44:00.000-07:00

This group of wonderful women (and men) have been together for 30 years. We met at a class for first time mothers given at Albany Adult School. When we first started out we met weekly for play group. When our second children went to kindergarten, we decided to meet monthly for mother's dinner. We have eaten a lot of wonderful dinners together. Through the years, we have had Christmas parties, Halloween parties, swim parties etc. So, for our 30th we had a pot luck dinner at my house, followed by firework at the Richmond Marina viewed from Don's boat. We had dessert on the boat. Check out the picture below of Georgia and Tommy by the English Triffle. Yum!

What an amazing group of people. I so appreciate them. We really are family. We raised our kids together and sought advise from each other throughout the years. Now, as empty nesters, we continue to enjoy each other. We would live in a much more stable world if everyone had the positive attitudes and commitment that this group has. I appreciate everyone of you. I think we are shooting for another 30 years.

Happy 45th Anniversary Betty & Brian

2010-07-03T11:34:00.001-07:00

Isn't this a great picture? It was taken by Colette at Union Station in LA. I think it is a perfect tribute to Betty and Brian on their 45th Anniversary.

Fun at the Cabin and Yosemite

2010-06-18T21:31:00.000-07:00

I went up to the cabin with Katie, Steven, Megan and Maureen (Katie's mother). We had a great time. The kids loved playing in the water, throwing rocks and climbing rocks. We did that wherever we went. The pictures tell most of the story. It was beautiful.

Steven enjoy climbing those big rocks too. These are rocks right near the spider caves.

Check out Yosemite Falls. It was really big!

Don't you just love the wind from the falls?

Here is Bridalveil from a distance. It is bigger than I ever remember. Here are a few photos right near the Awahnee Hotel. We took a break there.

Here is Steven tossing rocks in the pond at the cabin.

Megan finds and tosses rocks too.

Here they are at Bass Lake. Once again, they are tossing rocks. I'm convinced that they would be content doing this all day long.

I convinced the kids that they should paint the back porch with water. They had fun doing that, but it's not as good as tossing rocks.

Laurel does Mermaid Sprint Triathlon

2010-06-17T21:23:00.000-07:00

Don and I got to watch Laurel do her second sprint triathlon in Alameda. Her first one was in San Diego and she had undiagnosed mono at the time. It was so fun to see her out there swimming, biking and running and having a pretty easy time doing it.

Here she is before the race.

The Swim - Can you find her? There were different starting times for each group. She was in the final group.

The Ride

The Run - She switched from biking to running so fast, that I couldn't even get a good picture of her.

Here she is minutes after the race. Doesn't she look great?

And here she is with her proud parents.

A beautiful baby Zachary

2010-06-16T21:50:00.000-07:00

Here are a few of the amazing pictures that Colette took of Baby Zachary. She does such wonderful and professional pictures. If you want to check out her website go to

http://www.liltoesphotography.com/

Here are a few of the pictures that I took of this very precious baby while I was visiting. I can hardly wait to go visit him again.

DB on the Royal Star

2010-06-16T21:06:00.000-07:00

Don has been fishing on the Royal Star out of San Diego for years, but this year I drove down with him and (no I didn't go fishing) Idropped him off at the boat. It was fun to see him be greeted by people that he knew from other trips. The captains wife, Tracy, greeted him by name. He was in his fishing element.

While he fished for 8 days, I went to Erica's house and hung out with her, Andrew and two week old Zachary. That was a blast. It was fun to have this special time with all of them.

Here are a few of the pictures. The first two are before the trip and the next two are after. He caught loads of blue fin tuna and we are now enjoying his catch. It is delicious.

Rachel & Andy's Yosemite Wedding

2010-05-25T21:14:00.000-07:00

Rachel and Andy got married in Yosemite on May 15. The wedding was in the meadows right next to the Ahwahnee Hotel. The weather was picture perfect. Two days later there were snow flurries in Yosemite Valley, but on this day, we were blessed with weather perfection. The reception was at the historic Wawona Hotel in Yosemite and was a beautiful indoor/outdoor setting. I can hardly wait to see the professional pictures at http://www.austindara.com/ . In the mean time, here are a few that Laurel and I took during this wonderful celebration. I pray that Rachel and Andy have years of joy and adventure together.

They made a quick stop for pictures on the ride from the Ahwahnee to Wawona.

They arrive at the Wawona for the reception.

Father of the bride with two of his brothers.

Steve and Deb loved every moment of this celebration

Rachel and Andy had a great time too.

Ok, I had to include a family picture. But, I was sorry that we didn't get one of Jess and the girls with us too.

Yosemite 2010 -Everything but the wedding

2010-05-20T17:06:00.000-07:00

Yosemite Falls was very full. It was a bit wet when this picture was taken.

Here we are having heavy hord'oeuvres at the Wawona. We ate lots of cheese, nuts and hummus instead of having dinner. Oh, we also had plenty of fun drinks. It was a fun and social time.
We hiked to the Chilnualna Falls near Wawona the day after Rachel's wedding. I had never been there before. It was an easy hike and beautiful. All of the falls were so full of water. May is a perfect time of year to go to Yosemite.

Here all all the Ballanti Boys and their wives.

And here we have the wives, with the fall misting us from behind.

And the 4 Ballanti Boys (I mean men).

And here they are goofing off. Steve is the victim and Ron is trying to save him.

And here is DB's foot trying to help Steve. NOT!
A close up of Chilnualna Falls!

and this is Mr. Rattlesnake that just happened to be on the path we were hiking.

I love this picture. We decided to picnic at the Group Campground that Rachel reserved for anyone that wanted to camp. It was fun because Andy's best friend proposed to his girl friend while we were having lunch. We all got to celebrate with them. Check out Mr. & Mrs. Buck on the right side next to Laurel. What a beautiful weekend.