Birthday Girl Redux

Late birthday presents arrived today from Grandpa Dave and Grandma Lynn. Fun!

5th of July

This year, with our annual REI rebate, we purchased a GPS unit. I thought geocaching would be a fun thing to do with the kids this summer, and perhaps it would be a good motivation to get outside more often. (Last summer, when I was back working at "that park" I noticed that there were geocaches at a lot of the really cool, secret spots).

It has taken me a while to figure out how it works. But, today was the day. It was tempting to stay at home and clean the house, but "Kit" was insistent that we needed to go for a hike.

First, I got carsick trying to program it on the way up the mountain. Then, we couldn't find the first simple geocache we were attempting to locate, so we went on to the complicated multi-cache. After we ran into a ranger, and even he couldn't help us, I thought we might be doomed, but we finally found the wonderful trail along the ditch and flume.

Kit was frustrated, because we never located a single cache, but I figured the GPS unit did its job-- it helped us locate a trail I never would have found on my own (and the forest service websites haven't been much of a help).

The Boy, indulging in his recently acquired herring-addiction, had brought along 4 cans of tinned fish. He accidentally dropped one into the ditch, and had to go in after it (and a second one he lost trying to catch the first). We apprehended the two cans, but he decided it was so much fun to hike in the ditch, that' s just what he did the rest of the hike. Made for slow going upstream. (I have to wonder why people don't bring tubes and use the ditch as a flume ride, its perfect for it.)

Then he and Lulu stopped for a herring snack (she likes the leftovers). Kit and Dad had to backtrack to make sure that we hadn't missed the clues somehow.

We never did find any of the caches there, but we found some great trails, a really awesome small campground right on the river, and some nice swimming holes.

On the way out, we were able to locate the first geocache we had attempted, so we got an idea of how it is supposed to work. We'll be doing more of this! It had an amazing way of keeping the kids focused on the hike, in anticipation of finding the treasure. Fun!

(I just noticed he's wearing the same shirt on the 4th and 5th. That's the way it is these days. I understand they grow out of it eventually. . .)

4th of July

Ok, so "the boy" still has never caught a fish in the wild. I know, I know, it seems, well, pathetic.

But that's the truth. (May be related to his father being a vegetarian, but lets leave that to the shrinks when he gets older. . .)

So, on 4th of July, they decided it was time to go fishing. And, it was "free fishing day" (no license required for the adults), so the boy and his dad decided to go catch some fish.

Then, my car broke down. (The most dependable one, too, the Honda. I think it has to do with the fact that "the dad" was researching new cars to buy all day, and it was some sort of cosmic retribution). So, they had to come rescue me, and the dog and I joined them. We went down to camp 9, on the Stanislaus. It was very nice. But, still no fish.

We stayed until dark, then I threw "the boy" a can of herring, and he "caught" some fish.

Birthday Girl

Kit turned 10 in May! She still has not finished her thank-you cards (but she will!)

She particularly liked this present made for her by Kathy.

Insects at Bakerland

Before she discovered gophers, the cat was bringing in very large moths (above), almost every night. We still haven't looked them up. The large beetle was another interesting and un-identified insect we discovered on a warm evening in the yard.

Gopher Predator

Kit's kitten (now a cat) is a gopher-catcher! Yay! Yay! Yay!

This one was just a baby, which was too bad, because it was so cute, but it still would grow up to be an evil, plant destroying adult.

For 4 days in a row, Chessie brought in a gopher every night, and proudly displayed it for Kit, who just screamed hysterically, which made the cat very puzzled.

I made sure she knew how pleased I was for her gifts. Way better than those live lizards she likes to leave around the house all of the time. The bell seems to deter most bird predation.

UCSC

Dorm Room.

Last week we visited UCSC and Amanda on her last day of her first year of college. She goes to Merrill, just like Dad and some of his friends did. The boy checked out the mailboxes (where we meant to send mail, but never got around to it). We also bought matching T-shirts at Pizza my Heart (waaaay cheaper than those darn UCSC shirts, tshirt and a slice for only $5! Whoa!), and Grandma bought the kids season passes for the Boardwalk, so we all went and rode the rides.

For all of my friends we didn't visit on this trip--sorry! There will be other trips this summer, and I promise we'll catch up!