Granny and Grandpa boat the Trinity with Forrest!

Today was a special day. It was Forrest's very first time in a paddle boat down our river. AND....his Granny and Grandpa were along for the ride along with myself! Yep, veteren boater Alex held down the fort with baby T as we braved the near 100 degree heat, miles of lovely river, and those BIG, (okay, so really smallish!) rapids. But, with my own Mom and my 3 year old in the boat, those smaller rapids seemed all the sudden pretty tricky!
Everyone did great! My Dad and I rowed us down 10 miles of river, Forrest did as well as a 3 year old could do and even swam with his lifejacket in the river, and my Mom was our Pilot...or coxswain...or just our leader, keeping us all in line :-)
We picnicked, enjoyed several dives off rocks, and braved the rapids.

Forrest enjoyed the front of the raft the whole way!

Granny and Grandpa

Squirt gun fights are never ending for this kid!

The whole crew!

Finding the perfect jumping rocks

Granny, holding down the fort...errr....boat...

Grandpa....river diving, it's an Olympic sport right! A perfect 10!!!!

"Best dive all year...."

Forrest found his own sauna...;-)

Granny, the leader of our ship!

Forrest takes a cooling dunk :-)

First trip of many for this family I do hope!

Our Dinner Entertainment....

 As we finished up our delicious meal of pork roast with homemade applesauce, delectable cornbread stuffing, steamed asparagus, and bulgar wheat rasberry pinenut salad, finished with homemade peach pie, (Thank you Mom!!!), who do we find outside our window having a wonderful plum snack, but Mr. Bear!

 Some people enjoy TV during dining, others enjoy music, we tend to enjoy wildlife, at least at certain times of the year. I was lucky enough to creep close enough to snap a few photos while Alex, Granny, Matt, and the kiddies stayed safetly inside the house watching from an open window. I never felt threatened, but evidently Alex was reading the "bear language" differently and was waiting with some fire power, (yikes!)

But, this guy was loving the plums. He stuck around for about 15 minutes and then ran off as I escaped the mosquitos and ran back into the house. As we were digging into the last of the dinner, Mr. Buck shows up to the very same plum tree to enjoy his dinner snack! And then he leaves, and Mr. Bear is back...a regular plum diner we have outside our house!

Stop in, stay awhile, plum juice is our special!

The Garden Masterminds Taking a Gander...

Flowering artichokes in the foreground with the two masterminds conversing over coffee.

 This morning Matt and Alex took a little garden walk through to assess the status of our wonderful veggies growing away. While they discussed the correct ratios of fertilizer, adjustments on the drip irrigation, and marveled at the wonderful corn that is shooting up at an amazing rate, I took the time to snap a few photos in the morning light.

MMMM, sweet corn in 1 months time?? We can only hope!

dewdrops on our asparagus plants

flowering pole beans climbing our teepee

A ton of green tomatoes! How long will it be till the red starts to creep out?

We actually have NOTHING in the garden now ripe to eat, minus a few strawberries. This is the waiting time, especially with our late summer. But oh in a month or so, it will be a great feast!

Granny is Here!!! and...Wonderful Neighborhood Beach BBQ's, and......Summer is Wonderful....etc. etc.

Talin and Grandma Gloria enjoy the shade

The most wonderful neighborhood beach party!

Baby Talin, Matt, and Granny enjoying the sand

Forrest and friend Bryce having a kiddie cocktail at our neighbor's wonderful deck overlooking the river

The two grandma's and T baby enjoying the garden strawberries

My mom is here for her annual summer visit. It is SO nice when she is here, I really cannot fully put it in words! It would be incredibly nice to have her closer her ALL the time, (Hint Hint!!)
But, nonetheless, we enjoy her summer visits immensely. We are enjoying our river life here more than ever. With the kiddies, it is so hard to travel, and the fact we live in a place where most people travel to vacation is wonderful for our current life! July and August are paradise up here...hot paradise, but great overall with the river flowing by.
With our little neighborhood group and their fabulous houses and outdoor spaces they love to share, all of our family and friends visiting, and the river and the fun that goes with it, we are soaking it up!

Oh to sleep like a baby....

'Ode to Aunt Nat and Happy 4th Everyone!

Just a little check in here as we take off to our neighbors for our own little ""Block Party" (?dirt road party??) Alex, Matt (come visit him friends!!) and Forrest just took off on the quad and T baby is finishing up on a evening cat nap, so we'll be joining him soon.
Today we went to the Arcata 4th of July Festival with both kiddies and Forrest fell in love with fire trucks all over again. He was lucky enough to ride on TWO old timey trucks around the city, first in the back with Mom and last up front helping drive with Dad. He then wanted a chance to ride on the BIG truck with the mammoth ladder, (how tall is that thing anyways Nat?) We told him he would have to ask his Aunt about that one, given her firefighting expertise in Massachusetts. We may need an insider for that request!

And...there is little T baby waking up from his evening nap. Hopefully he will be a fully recharged 13 month old for the neighborhood fireworks session with goodies and drinks. Gotta love the River Bender neighborhood! Happy 4th of July everyone!!!

Snipits of Summer

Home made popsicle love, Talin's first!!!

Late June beautiful Ranch afternoon

Swing Bliss

Rockin the funky hats on our walk

Cutest watermelon face you ever did see!!!

The "bear hunters..." who only found bear poop but no real deal this time!

And to end it, yes, that's ground squirrel. The enemy of our family and garden. They and 15 of their cousins are now toast, (figuratively NOT literally) and the garden lives on, much to Alex's delight! (he's been having fun with his new vermit hunting gun....boys will be boys...)

Kings River 2012

Our annual family reunion/camping trip was last weekend and the kiddies had a blast! Despite the fact our little guys live next to their own river, the fact that they got to camp on the Kings River surrounded by 30 + family members all celebrating birthdays, vacations, and the like was very cool. Add in boat rides, homemade ice cream, pinata's, the best slip 'n slide EVER and loving aunties, cousins, Granny's, and Grandpa's and you have a memorable trip! (minus the toddler and baby meltdowns, and mama meltdown's just to mix it up a bit ;-)
Pictures follow....

Cousin Chelsea giving the two little's a ride!

Best baby cousins...Talin and Troy

River Fun with Grandpa

Aunt Meg and Mike

My crazy boy ;-)

Yummo birthday cake!!!

Once the Kindergarten teacher, ALWAYS the kindergarten teacher!!!

Best birthday cake ever!!! Thanks Mom!

Happy Birthday to me!!!

Grandma Sheila joins in on the birthday fun

Talin loving the sand fun

"Papa" and Forrest, enjoying the boat

Alex got a little wrapped up in our sea serpent!

Great boat ride with Uncle Jesse

Forrest and Alex get to drive!

I'm ready Mom!!!

Sea serpent fun

River boys

Loving Troy's Trike....this may be in our future!

Fun with Aunt Meg

Chelsea on the BEST slip n slide ever!!!

Little Cole having fun

Beautiful preggo Jen and Kyle carrying baby boy # how many? for family!

Jesse and Janet....newly retired and looking very nice!

Whew, if you're exhausted by the pictures you have a right to be! And this is minus float fun, ski ride craziness, flip cup action, pinata play, homemade ice cream deliciousness, and a ton of other great stuff. All of that crammed into 2.3 days. Fun times, great people, and the Kings River will always be there for us come next year :-)