Pumpkin Farm

Drove into the foothills to a beautiful spot called Oak Glen where the orchards and farms are. Cloudy, cold & drizzly... Who could ask for a better fall day!

Oh that's us at Costco afterwards. And last night's puzzle completion.

Reagan Nat'l Library

We took a little drive to Simi Valley to the Presidential library/museum there. Lotta fun!

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Visitors from Chicago

Picked up Nana & Papou from the airport for their week long visit. Kids are very excited. Planning to goto the Reagan Library this week. Great weather for it: 70s.

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4th of July Oh-Nine

We had a super fantastic time this 4th. With a full schedule of visitors, there was never a lack of space, tasty food or things to do! Fri (3rd) we had Jason & Amy Porter down from Edwards for the day, along with their 2 boys, Isaac and Andrew. Moments later, Mike, Becky & Andy arrived to stay the weekend. After a light lunch of sandwiches, we hung out and then went out back to take some batting practice. Despite the 100 deg temperature, a nice Godsent cloud hovered over the field for a full 2 hrs keeping us relatively cool for the slugfest. We retired back to the house so Scott could fire up the grill for some pollo asada (spiced grilled mexican chicken); mmm mmm, lemme tell you! After dinner, coffee "appeared" like it always does around here, and then we stepped out back and played a beanbag game called cornhole, thanks to Ang's construction/craft/sewing skillz. Wind correction is everything w/ cornhole! Given the advanced conditions, this game went on for-EV-er! The Porters packed up the worn out boys and headed back home. Was great to hang out with them! And Gib was so incredibly happy to have other boys his age around. That night we snuck in a quick Halo competition on the Xbox 360.

That was just the 3rd! The 4th afforded us a lazy morning, breakfast, coffee (standard!), hanging out & playtime and then a light sandwich lunch. After lunch the Johnsons arrived with their 4 kiddos and the parent-to-kid ratio was way skewed! :) In a short period of time we packed in a pool party out back, highly requested DVR'd episode of Wipe-Out, fresh smoked salsa, and Ang's excellent turkey tacos. Sadie and Andy gained confidence on their tiptoes in the water. And Wipe-Out was a source of some serious laughter and shouting. After dinner, coffee, and then we packed up and drove to the local Minor League baseball game, the High Desert Mavericks.

How do those Mavericks do it? No kidding, just like last year, they tried to lose the game, were down a couple runs in the bottom of the 9th and then somehow tied it up with a base hit and a big triple. Then the next thing you know, the opposing pitcher hits a batter to load the bases with 2 outs and then throws a wild pitch to allow the winning run to steal home! Mayhem ensued after the storybook ending which closely mirrored last year's 9th inning walk-off victory. Then the big fireworks show began. Wow, from our grassy hillside directly beneath the fireworks, we were dazzled, no engulfed by the impressive bursts overhead. Not bad for $3 grass seats!

Kids inside, kids outside, good food all around. That's Andrew in brown and Andy in green. And Mike busy w/ utensil at work. Amy can't choose a salad dressing.

Laney takes photos of Jason & Scott's neverending cornhole duel.

Amy and Andrew on the swings, the cornhole game, Chip entertains the little ones and Sadie, Isaac and Andy figure it's just another day at the park.

Pool time is how you beat the 100 deg temp! Little troy did awesome with his floaty vest, and Katie was quite dangerous with a squirtgun. Andy is good to go (with ball and Mom within reach!).

Sadie slowly became comfortable on her feet with patient Chip.

Troy and Mike enjoy the game from the grassy hillside seats.

Scott and kids watchin' the game from the blanket.

Mavericks celebrating the walk-off win!

Post-game 4th of July fireworks extravaganza!

Science Fair: Solar System

The kids with their saturn project.

More sun fun

There were some awesome waves!

Watching people help others!

We stopped by a chilly extreme home makeover set with aunt linda and uncle george.

Makin' Bar Soap

The boys and their soap loaf.

Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving Day
Originally uploaded by scottie_ang

Thanksgiving Day
Originally uploaded by scottie_ang

Thanksgiving Day
Originally uploaded by scottie_ang

Thanksgiving Day
Originally uploaded by scottie_ang

Thanksgiving Day
Originally uploaded by scottie_ang

Thanksgiving Day
Originally uploaded by scottie_ang

Don & Chip starting the XR500 on loan from a friend in Vegas... the beast lives!

Shooting skeet in the neighbor's backyard... The whole group is pretty much an even mix of neighbor Tom's extended family and of the guys in our bible study. Don & Chip got to try out the .20 & .12 gauge shotguns Don brought back from Turkey in '02. Thanks to neighbor Tom, we just showed up and bought ammo and clay pigeons by the boxful there. This was Tom's family's first Thanksgiving in their newly built house.


Don gave Gibson a half-hour fun ride on my Husky TE250. The ground
was damp, the air was cool--perfect conditions.

That evening we had our Thanksgiving feast. The Johnsons (Kim & Troy, and their kids, Ali, Stephanie, Katie, and Lil Troy) came over to join Don, Chip & our family at our house. This is the kids' table in the front room. The smoked turkey turned out AMAZING! We took 1 thawed 22 lb turkey, injected Lawry's Steak-n-Chip marinade into the meat, then cooked the turkey in the Orion smoker (link) for 2 hrs with the temperature probe attached. EASY and superdelicious.

Halloween pic

Here's a pic of the kids - it's slightly disturbing, so enjoy with caution.

Friday Night Goof-offs

Here we are, up to no good, but having lots of fun. The kids are urging me to get back to this game of '007' on the Xbox. Duty calls. :)








Note the poor black beetle trying to carefully yet swiftly escape the "dance of the giants!"

motoMONDAY

Laney rides the XR50! Today was her second day on the bike, but her first day unassisted, and first day on the dirt! And she did an outstanding job -- shifting out of neutral, working the throttle, getting her feet up on the pegs, and using that engine kill switch when she tipped over in the sand. She didn't mind the soft landings. Mya happily shouted reassuring wishes, "watch out for snakes!!" Laney was all tired & sweaty when she was done--telltale signs of a good ride.