New Purse!

This weekend mom and I went to the quilting store...she and my aunt wanted a pattern for a Christmas tree quilt. While there I saw a pattern for a purse that I thought looked wayyyyy cute! Here's how it turned out!

I had so much fun making this purse & I know it wouldn't have turned out as well with out mom's help. Thanks mom!

What is this...Day 4?

Ok, so we started out leaving Mammoth, with the intention of driving to Vegas. We stopped in Bishop for lunch, and figured we'd stop at the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest too; after all it's on the way. The Ancient Bristlecone Pines are the oldest recorded living things.I was surprised once we were inside the park how desert like it was. There were really cool rock formations.I love the way trees can grow out of rocks. Isn't it crazy, trees can grow out of rocks and I can't keep anything alive?

This is a picture of a pinecone skeleton. Pretty cool huh! At this point it had starting raining on us. Notice the rain drops on the rocks...So we hop in the car and drive up to the big trees. By the time we reach 9,000 feet it was SNOWING on us. Wait a second, isn't this June? Yep, and 29 degrees. I was wearing carpi's and Jeff was wearing shorts.

Here's where you'd get out to go to the big trees. We made it there and it was snowing BIG time. Jeff took a look at the sign and it was a 4.5 mile loop to get to them. Needless to say, you won't be seeing any pictures of the big trees.

We sure had fun - and what an adventure driving down the side of the mountain with little visibility (and no guardrails). Needless to say, we never made it to Vegas. It took us 3.5 hours to get through the park, so we turned around and went back to Bishop for the night. So here we are this morning, with no idea of where we'll go next. Who wants to guess where tomorrow will find us?

Hugs,

Aub

Day 3

So we stayed another day in Mammoth. This is the view out our hotel room. Can't beat that - plus the temp is 53 degrees...man, it's great. We went out to see if we could find some trails we could drive. While out on one Jeff spotted this stump. He thought it was pretty cool looking, so I took this picture for him.

We then drove through the town of Benton Hot Springs (you're seeing most of it here). It was a pretty neat little place though.

Then we went back off-road. Jeff wanted to get some pictures of some cows that were out in a field. Turns out we were on someone's property, so as we were trying to leave we spotted this outhouse - you've gotta take a picture of that right?

While driving out to Hot Creek, I saw this tree. It lined up so beautifully with the clouds, I asked Jeff to back up so I could "make its picture" (in the words of my late Granny).

I took a bunch of pictures, but there's only so much you guys want to look at and Jeff's ready to hit the road. I'll try and update today's events tonight.

Blessings,

Aub

Vacation Day 2

We got up this morning and drove around Tahoe for a bit. It is REALLY pretty there, but it seemed all the roads were under construction - and we quickly got frustrated. So once we had lunch at the local brewery - we left town. Unfortunately I didn't take many pictures there.

So we decided to head to Mammoth. It's one of our favorite places. While driving I asked Jeff to pull over so I could get this shot of the road. Jeff hopped out while I was doing this to take pictures of something else...I look back and tell Jeff "the truck is moving" so at this point Jeff and I are chasing the SUV down the road. Luckily Jeff caught it before it went down this big hill on its own. Little tip folks - always put it in park! :)

Just another view from the side of the road - this was on the road between Bodie & Mammoth.

We stopped by Mono Lake. We got there just in time to capture the pretty light - what a stroke of luck!
Here's some of the Tuftas.

They built a boardwalk to get you out to the lake - they don't want you walking on/destroying the wetlands. I thought the boardwalk itself was cool.

Ok, so now we're in Mammoth - I'll be taking pictures there in the morning - thanks for putting up with my long posts!

Blessings,

Aubrey

Baby Needs A Break

Jeff's been working awfully hard lately - and I told him he should take some time off and just relax. So he took 9 days off and we figured we'd go somewhere. Only problem was, we couldn't figure out where we wanted to go. I wanted to go up where there'd be trees, and streams, and trails - and Jeff was thinking more along the lines of Tombstone, Bisbee, different ghost towns, etc...

So we packed, loaded up the SUV, and stood in the driveway and flipped a quarter...heads we go north - tails we go south. It was heads. So we drove for a while and ended up staying the night in Merced.

We woke up and thought we'd head to Sonora to go see my sister, Jennifer. Well somehow we got distracted, drove right past our exit, and ended up in Modesto. (That's taking the long way to get to Jenn's house!) So we stopped at a fruit stand (to find out what town we were even in). Got some great strawberries and cherries there.

While trying to get to Jenn we saw this cool barn - the road is littered with scenes like this!

We eventually made it to Sonora and had lunch with Jennifer and Quentin. We stayed and visited for a while and then we were back on the road. We drove the 108 to the Sonora Pass. Here's some of those pictures.

There was a beautiful field of flowers - the light was so beautiful.This was taken under a historic wooden bridge - lovely!Even the roads are cool.
I don't know if you can see it, but there was snow on the mountains - this was some of the run-off.
It was raining/snowing on us - but I had to hop out of the car and get the shot of this tree. It smelled amazing out in the forest with the rain.

This was at the end of the Sonora Pass. The light and colors were amazing. We turned off here and went to Lake Tahoe for the night. I'll let you know how that goes!

11th Grader

Oh my...my baby is an 11th grader now. It seems like I was just in the 11th grade. Running around with my friends, talking on the phone, NOT doing homework. I can't believe that my kiddo is in the 11th grade. He's had an excellent 10th grade. He got great grades, was captain of the football team, and earned the first letterman jacket at his high school. I'm so proud of him.

Another Desert Drive

A couple of weeks ago I posted some pictures from our drive through the Anza-Borrego Desert. I promised to try to go back and catch the desert in bloom...here's some of the shots I got Saturday. Last year I purchased a pamphlet called Wildflowers of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. I used it as sort of a scavenger hunt to see how many I could find and photograph on this trip. Of the 57, I found 21, (not so hot huh!). Oh well, it was lots of fun anyway - plus I had a great day with my family. Here's what I found: (*plant name under each photo*)

CACTI

#4 on the list: Beavertail

#6 Gander's Cholla

#7 Teddybear Cholla


TREES AND SHRUBS

#10 Mohave Yucca

#12 Chuparosa

#13 Ocotillo

#17 Indigo Bush

#23 Desert Cassia

#24 Brittlebush

#25 Creosote Bush

ANNUAL WILDFLOWERS

#26 Desert Lily

#33 Desert Chicory

#34 Fremont Pincushion

#35 Popcorn Flower

#37 Desert Star

#40 Spanish Needles

#46 Sand Verbena

#47 Wild Heliotrope

#50 Arizona Lupine

#52 Desert Dandelion

# 55 Fiddleneck

It was a really fun day. And I think if you pull off the road sometime - get out - wander around...you'll be surprised at what you can find. There's real beauty to be found...sometimes in the most unlikely places.

Blessings,

Aubrey

Desert Season

About an hour from our house is a great State Park - the Anza Borrego Desert State Park. At the beginning of Spring each year the desert blossoms and it's so beautiful. I grew up in the state of Arizona, surrounded by desert. I have to admit, I never paid any attention to whether the desert was blossoming or not. I definitely paid attention when it was over 110 degrees out. I loved to be outside when it was storming (rain was so rare!). But now that I've grown up and moved to San Diego, when I get the chance to drive through the desert and see it blooming, it amazes me with it's beauty. Isn't funny how something can be right in front of you for years and you never notice it?!This first shot is of the Ocotillo. These are so pretty and can grow to be quite tall. Below is a close up of their blossoms.

I don't know what type of flower this is; but they were everywhere. Jeff really liked their red center.Here's another cluster of flowers. I'm not certain of their name either but I'm sure Bob Ross would say "there is a lovely flower with a bunch of his happy friends!" Miss ya Bob!

I loved these cactus. It was so cool, we were driving by at just the right time to catch the light hitting their tops so that they looked like they were glowing. It was so neat.

Now out in the midst of all this. What did we run across...power lines. But you know, even though they're out of place out there, they do add their own architectural contribution to the scene. Besides that, if they weren't there I probably wouldn't be able to share these pictures with you! :)

Here was one of the last shots I took on our way out.

I think we were still a couple weeks early to catch the desert in full color. Usually there's lots of white, orange, red, purple, and yellow flowers. We really only saw the yellow & white this trip. Plus there were lots of buds that hadn't opened yet. If we get the chance I'll try and go back in a couple of weeks and show you how pretty it really can be.

Blessings!

Aubrey