My poor, neglected blog. I'm so sorry. You see, we've been kind of busy lately. With family in town and all, and the holidays, and birthdays, and kids home from school and such. Honestly, there is probably too much to blog about and I think I kept putting it off as it kept getting more and more overwhelming. Plus, catching up on others' was much more fun.
Because, dear blog, you are my journal of sorts, and a portal for friends and family, near and far, to get a glimpse into our little life here in Sunny California, I will not neglect you so much anymore, at least for now.
Last week, on Friday, January 2nd to be exact, we decided to take a little day trip to our local mountains (a.k.a. 'the cabin' or Frazier Park) and play with our new Christmas toys (or John's), and have some fun in the sun. You see, we've been freezing out here and had some pretty good snow - enough to at least make a pretty view out our home's windows with the snow-capped mountains way out in the distance and all. Many our friends and family won't understand why on earth would we deliberately make the trek to "go to the snow" since they have been blasted with it, but it is such a novelty here. Sorry! Bear with me.
There was not much snow at 'the cabin' anymore, but a few patches here and there. This is Ashlyn's first time in snow, so it was quite the experience. She loved it!
We ventured out to the shooting place. The place I've been to countless times as a child. The place that has not changed one bit since then. There are even still remnants of old tin cans and such from decades of shooting fun.
There were many people that joined in our fun. My bro-in-law Danny, and several of his friends along with three kids were part of our group.
We bought air-soft pistols for the kids to play with and also brought along sling shots. They were behind us, facing the opposite direction.
Safety is a must and we had ground rules that the kids were sure not to forget, along with the important ear protection. The weather was spectacularly gorgeous. I even took off my sweater at one point -- it was downright warm.
One of the friends had me try his German World War I rifle. I think it was called a Mauser or something to that effect. Imagine the stories this thing could tell!
All I know is that gun had a kick!
Before
Notice the before and after (along with the smoke). Even my hair flew back a bit.
After
After two shots, I was satisfied, or actually more concerned that I'd have a bruised shoulder and whimped out.
All the kids (except Ashlyn I think) had a turn to shoot. John got a new .22 (from me for Christmas) that we wanted to try out and it was really easy to use. I took all the kids on a little hike and around 'the cabin' for old-time sake. They had fun exploring around. I sure wish the tire swing was still there. That swing would sail forever it seemed and caused the biggest butterflies to flutter in my stomach. I know my kids would love it today. I should post a picture of 'the cabin' (along with its outhouse) and you'll then know why I say 'the cabin' in quotes! My nephew Spencer was scared to go near it as he thought it was haunted. I'll let your imaginations run wild.
After about two hours, we packed up and went around to the other side of the mountain and up, and up some more until we found some much better snow at about 8,000 feet. It was powdery, deep, and fun to play in.
It was great for making nice snowballs!
Brooke had fun falling in the deep pockets and Christian had fun most of the time.
There he goes, having fun.
We built a little snowman fun, and packed up a cooler full of snow to take home.
On Saturday morning, the kids had a great time building another snowman in front of the house. I'm sure the neighborhood got a kick out of seeing him.
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By the time we got home from church the next afternoon, he was still there, but since it was Fast Sunday, he was quite skinny. I should have taken a picture.
