Yosemite

I'm coming to terms with the reality that I'll probably never blog the rest of our summer road trip.  As it's November.  [eye roll]  But I can at least share the very end of it.  After heading down California along the coast, we came home inland, and visited different things on the way home.  Our last stop was Yosemite.  

I'm embarrassed to say we'd never been before.  It's only a few hours from us.  

Bridal Veil Falls

Grammy and the girls wandered off for a bit.  I looked up from checking out a charred stump, and didn't know where they'd gone.  So I stayed put, knowing they'd come back to Matilda minivan at some point.  Grammy took this lakeside photo.

Next time we'll plan better.  But I'm usually a "roll with it" kinda gal, so that's what we did.  Lunch was a random assortment of things from one of the stores in the park.  Obviously not the most balanced or economical choice, but it kept us going.  

A covered bridge

Okay, this one is outside the park.  The bear was outside a restaurant we ate at the night before Yosemite, in Oakhurst.

Our first get out and stretch your legs and experience some nature stop inside the park.

There was, of course, a raging fire when we were there, so the air quality was not great.

Grammy

Matilda was quite a trooper through the whole 11 days.  

Grammy & the girls coming back from their lakeside adventure.

Hungry wildlife

Coyote crossing

I'm really glad travel has come a long way since these vehicles.

They're quaint and all, but I like my a/c in the summertime.  

The night after Yosemite, we stayed in a cabin on the other (homeward) side of the park.  

They hand out s'mores kits every night.

Katie and Hannah in the cabin

Breakfast the next morning

We stopped in a little ghost town on the way home.

There were lots of rocks, so I thought of Brianna, who has an online rock shop.

Grammy hopped out to make friends with a flock of pea hens.  We saw peacocks, too, but I don't seem to have a picture of those.

Upon arrival at home.  We covered almost 1900 miles in 11 days, and saw 3 missions, 2 traveling exhibits, a botanical garden, 4 museums, a zoo, 2 ghost towns, 2 national parks, an art gallery, and 4 other major attractions (Hearst Castle, Winchester Mystery House, Santa Cruz Boardwalk, and La Brea Tar Pits).  Plus the little unplanned things, like the elephant seals on the beach, and license plates from 49 different places.  

It was a good trip.  

Since Thanksgiving

Still playing catch up with all the pictures I've taken and life I haven't posted about.  

Since we had our Thanksgiving on Wednesday, Thursday turned into a game day.  

Jack beat me at both Battleship and Connect 4.  I'm not sure I like this phase of life.  

The traditional post Thanksgiving Turkey Enchilada Casserole, with one "no olives" piece in honor of Eli, who always had me leave olives off his part.  Gosh, I miss my kids!

 

And then just like that, we slam into the Holidaze.  The tree is up at church, and since it matched Katie's dress, I took a picture.  

Even the Honda dealership is festive.  This was taken when I ran Matilda in for maintenance.  The light came on after Josiah's graduation.  

I set up my little militree, after saying I wasn't going to do a tree this year, and now I'm kinda wishing I hadn't.  The ornaments are too heavy for the little branches, and the cats keep messing with it.  Honestly, it doesn't make me happy; it just reminds me that my boys aren't here.  Bah.  Humbug.  

Tis the season for Science Fair, one of Dante's lesser known circles of hell.  

Hannah decided to make a small and medium catapult and see which sent a projectile further.  

Katie decided to combine vinegar with various substances and see what happened.  

I knew what she was going for, but I also knew she missed it by a mile.  I decided to let it be a learning experience.  

She was very disappointed when nothing exploded, even when she shook them up.  She now understands that there's a difference between soda and baking soda.  

My kindergarten class decorated gingerbread characters, which I put up around this month's smart cookie bulletin board.  

I'm pretty sure I never got around to showing last month's finished BB.  Not my greatest work, but I liked the tree trunk.  

At the beginning of the school year, someone cleaned out a craft room and donated scads of craft supplies to the school.  There were a few tables in the cafeteria covered in stuff, and we were told to go snag what we wanted.  I picked up a mini Christmas tree, new in box, and told myself not to forget about it come December.  Well, when I started looking at ornaments, I realized they were going to be more expensive than what I wanted to spend on this venture.  I ended up buying a pack of dollhouse decoration books (affiliate link), spending what I would have spent on a single ornament, and making lots of them.  I used gold thread as the "hangars."  

My little book tree has been popular with the students.  

Here's an example of the me I think I am, vs. the me I actually am.  "I'm going to reserve this biography of Winston Churchill, and learn more about what made him the man he was."  Also, "Oooh, look, murder mysteries!"  The biography has yet to be opened.  :sigh:  

Chocolate advent calendars from the grandparents.  I promise, they were happy, but it was a "Hey, let me take this picture real quick before we leave for work/school/work!" moment.  

I love my students.  They call me Mrs. B in the library, and one of them turned in this November reading log with a little extra artwork.  

Grumman and Fiona set aside their differences to be warm.

We've entered the wet season.  I'm not fond of the wet season.  Katie figured out rainbows (with some help) this year.  

We use reusable cloth bags and paper tags for our Christmas wrap.  I've finally started laminating tags, as they get pretty ratty after a couple of uses.  I try to keep them from getting thrown out with the Christmas morning trash, but we loose a few here and there, so I laminated 4 pages of new tags.  Also, this is a new laminator (affiliate link).  My old one ATE the last thing I tried to laminate a while back.  Josiah and Paul each took a whack at it and told me to buy a new one.  Fortunately, they're pretty cheap, and the prior one lasted me 9 years.  

Some books from a display I did for Pearl Harbor Day.  I talked about PHD with my 4th & 5th graders.

Last year, Biscuit wore the Santa hat.  This year, it's on angry dinosaur.  The kids were amused.

Hannah and a friend asked to be dropped off at the city library.  They got books then walked to a tea shop for boba.  Friend's dad picked them up and took them to youth group afterwards.  I think it was really good for her to have a new experience.  

Speaking of new experiences, I had Katie watch the door for me while I was in the shower, and she handled the whole grocery delivery by herself.  I was very pleased.