New Year's Day

To a better year, with less chaos and loss.

To more reading, learning and living in the present.

To running a 5K, a 10K and a Half-Marathon in 2018.

To the next chapter and most likely yet another move.

To loving my family and appreciating the beauty in our everyday lives.

Happy Birthday Mom

Today is my mom's birthday.  She would have been 70, a milestone birthday.  I miss her horribly and thought of her all day.

Thanksgiving and my mom's birthday have always been tied together.  On some years her birthday would fall on Thanksgiving and we would celebrate both.

I am thankful for my mom and the time I had with her.  I'm glad that she knew and loved my daughters and that they knew and loved her.

Road Trip: California to Rhode Island

Back in February, we were on the road again!  This time, though, we were moving across the county to Rhode Island.

We decided on a less direct route, mainly to visit friends, but also to avoid bad weather.  We took two weeks, seeing friends and family the whole way.  But first, we had to make a treacherous crossing through Los Angeles on a rainy Friday afternoon.  It took us roughly more than four hours to cover 120 miles.  The good news is that that was the worst part of the entire trip.

The rest was a ton of fun.  We saw my dad in Tucson.  We saw Brandon's parents in Fredericksburg, TX, where we also hiked and ate German food.  We also stayed in an amazing rental house made of stone.

We ate barbecue in Austin.  We saw good friends in Houston.  We made a pit stop in Breaux Bridge, LA, which was decorated for Mardi Gras.

We had some glorious days in Jacksonville with our old neighbors.  We got to drive through the Virginia countryside.  We had good beer in Philadelphia with even better friends.  It was the best way to move away from what I consider paradise (California).  But it's still hard to leave family.

Mammoth Lakes, California

This summer we did another fun trip with Brandon's sister, her husband, and their four kids.  My mom and my brother joined us for the fun, too.  I love watching the cousins play and seeing how much they've grown over the year.  We stayed for almost a week in Mammoth Lakes.

We took the tram to the peak at Mammoth Resort.  Amazing!

We were up so high!

Freakishly high!

We just stood around at the top, staring and taking pictures.  The Eastern Sierras are amazing.

And posing under this sign, of course.

These tough wildflowers were among the few plants to grow here.

It was cold and windy at the top.  More than a few of us wished we had brought sweatshirts.

My beautiful in-laws.

 Handsome guy and I.

 We celebrated Amberly's and Lucas's birthdays on our trip with a ginormous cake.

 We did smores on the grill.

I think the girls liked them a little bit.

Brighton and Jules, so content.  I like to think those are looks of mutual admiration and esteem.

And maybe we watched a little TV.

 And then, one morning, a bear wandered into the backyard!

We kept the backyard door closed after that!

The girls took advantage of the opportunity to attend lessons at the Eastern Sierra Swim School.

Brandon and I chilled in lawn chairs and watched them "swim."

Our vacation was wonderful.  We also did a few side trips to Bodie State Park, Mono Lake, and the Devil's Post Pile.  I can't wait to go back someday!

Mono Lake State Natural Reserve

As part of our drive to Bodie State Park, we stopped at Mono Lake to check out the tufa towers.

Mono Lake is saltier than Salt Lake in Utah.  But according to Amberly and my nieces and nephews, not as smelly.  The lake was pretty interesting and the kids liked splashing around in the brine.

The cousins loved playing together.

Amberly and McKinley gave Paige and Jules the best hairdos.

Such a beautiful and fun family!

Bodie California State Park

We did a few day trips from Mammoth Lakes, during our family vacation last summer, including a drive to Bodie State Park.  To get there, you head north towards Mono Lake, veer left, and then head east through the sage brush on a very long dirt road.  A very long dirt road.

Bodie, once a gold rush town, is now a "ghost town" that the State of California preserves.

Everthing has been left in place amongst the sage brush.

Here is detail of some of the interior wall coverings in one of the houses.

The same house's kitchen.

The cousins loved exploring Bodie.

Inside the apothecary window, an old glass bottle of lotion.

Exterior siding.

My brother and I.

My brother, with the mines in the background.

What's in here guys?

An old Shell gasoline station.

An old dress form in the general store.

I highly recommend Bodie if you can make it out there.