Thursday, October 22, 2009

Pumpkin Patch


I love the pumpkin Patch. We have been going to Peltzer Farms for the past 3 years now and it's great (www.peltzerfarms.com). Animals, horses, pig races, corn maze and of course, pumpkins. Every year, Kaylee always picks a white pumpkin, but this year she changed things up and chose a light orange one. Corban wanted the green one (my kiddo's love the weird looking pumpkins). The good thing about little kids is that they cannot carry a big pumpkin yet...so the pumpkin patch doesn't break the bank :)








P.S.- Sorry for posting so late...it's been a crazy month :)

Friday, October 16, 2009

Apple Picking

It's that time of year. Apples, cinnamon, pumpkins, hot chocolate, apple cider, warm clothing to bundle in...except I live in California, so it's stinkin hot! However, that does not stop me from loving this time of year :) It was time to go apple picking. There is a wonderful place called Riley's Farm (www.rileysfarm.com) you can pick apples, pears, berries and more (it changes constantly, so check out their calendar). They also have a civil war reenactment (great for a homeschool fieldtrips).

We meet up with our friends: Danny, Jeni and their kiddos. I was determined to pick apples....of course, we had to hike up a mountain with a stroller (my hubby was happy about that) but we finally got there.
Heat + hiking with a stroller + crowd = This look from Ryan.

It was crazy busy because you can only pick apples on Saturday's. The kids loved picking apples and it wore them out :) Here are some more pics:

Here are some pics of Danny and Jeni's kids: Ryann and Reagan

By the way...the apples were delicious!!!!

Sunday, October 11, 2009

My Grandparents

The past couple of days have been extremely difficult. My grandma has been in the hospital for weeks and this week she made a turn for the worse.
I suppose I should back up so you can understand my relationship with my grandparents. As a young girl they have always been there...they loved spoiling their grandchildren...lets just say when it came to Christmas, they tried their best to get us everything we asked for. That's the job of grandparents right...to spoil their grandchildren? When I was in high school my parents moved our family to Lake Elsinore. My grandparents moved there as well (They lived in a different city than us), and a few months later opened a coffee shop. I started working for them to help out...it was a job. However, this "job" really brought me closer to my grandparents. We would talk constantly about life. My grandparents would tell me about their teenage years...how they met and married at 17, their experience of over 50 years of marriage, how my grandpa got into engineering, the joy of raising a family, the hardships of life. What I didn't realize at the time, is that their opinions and stories were affecting my decisions. I did not want to disappoint them. When I thought about getting a nose ring, the only thing stopping me was thinking of my grandparents reaction (not that a nose ring is bad, but their reaction would be). I worked at the coffee shop for 8 years, until I finished college. I really believe this experience not only brought me close to them, but gave me a special relationship with them .
My grandma has been in the hospital for over 5 weeks. I have been visiting a lot and it seemed like things were getting better. Then suddenly things got complicated and she ended up in the ICU. When I went in the room to visit, my grandpa went in with me. You should have seen the way he looked at her...it was like she was the most beautiful creature on the planet. You could see his deep love and admiration for her...and when he spoke to her, it was like he was a giddy teenager. This horrible hardship had brought out a side of my grandpa I had not seen before. He had always loved my grandma...but this was different. I suppose the thought of loosing someone can bring to the surface our true feelings. As I left, I was relieved because the doctors said she was "stable" and she was awake and able to talk....so things looked good. The next morning my Grandpa called me again, saying that things got worse that night and that as a family, we needed to make a decision. I hung up the phone, and went to tell my husband, but instead burst into tears. He prayed for me and my Grandma...then it was time to go...but I kept stalling trying to find things to do because I didn't want to face what might be ahead. Finally, I got out of the house and headed to the hospital. When I approached the ICU, I saw my grandpa...alone. I was the first one there. I said "hi grandpa" and gave him a hug and he started sobbing. I have NEVER seen my grandpa so sad, scared and vulnerable. I was glad I could be there for him as he and my grandma had always been there for me. He collected himself a few minutes later and my other family members came. We had two options: 1) Leave things as they were and let nature take it's course 2) Do a high risk surgery to get to the source. To us there was no option really..we had to do the surgery. It was the only hope we had of her getting better. The doctors warned us that they were mostly worried about the "recovery." That we would know how things are going to go after 8 days, to see how her body responds to recovery. She was prepped and sent into surgery right away. It was about 6 hours of waiting, but she made it through :) Now we just have to wait and see.......
This is the most recent picture I have of gradpa, grandma and my daughter Kaylee.