Tidepooling at 5:30 am. Yes, you heard me; AM!

Sam found out a couple of days ago that the early morning low tide would be the lowest all year at 5:30 am yesterday. So, he hatched a plan to get us all up at 4:30 and drive north of Santa Cruz to Davenport, where they are supposed to have great tidepools. There are tidepools closer, but they're south and since he works north and had to get there when we were done, north was better. I was skeptical he could do it, he's not much of a morning person.



But, we all got up and headed north before dawn. We spent a couple of hours poking around the tidepools, seeing all kinds of cool critters. We had breakfast at a little cafe overlooking the ocean and still got him to work by 9:15. I think we'll do it again, the next extra low tide is July 22nd. We saw LOTS of sea anemones in all different colors, this turquoise one is my favorite.


Meghan, seeing what she can find. And, below, a couple of sea stars.




Crabby, hunting for his breakfast.



There are a few more pics on my facebook page. :0)

Too much excitement.

So, I left yesterday morning, with a long list of errands to run, expecting to be gone most of the day. Then, I was going to get home with JUST enough time to finish up my Activity Days lesson and get back to Monterey for that. About noon-ish, my sister (who is staying next door with my parents for the summer) called and said to look out my window. I told her I wasn't home to look. She told me the barn next door was on fire. And, that the road was closed because they had 14 fire trucks, two slurry bombers, two helicopters and approximately 350,000 firefighters. So, I might as well take my time. Great, I had just bought groceries. It couldn't start BEFORE I had perishables in my trunk. Usually here, it's not a huge deal, it just doesn't get that hot. But, it was hot by Monterey standards yesterday, between 75 and 80. Definitely too hot to leave milk in the car.

Keri took these pictures from Mom's house. I tried to convince the roadblock dudes that I really needed to get home, but no go, too much equipment in the way. I couldn't see my house from there, so I tried driving around the back way, down the hill on the other side of the valley. It was closed too, but I could see that the fire had burned the barn down, and then headed east, through my property and through two more ten acre lots before they got it stopped. It melted my pretty PVC horse fence on our street line, did a number on a couple of my cypress trees (although i think they'll survive, actually). But, they still wouldn't let me through. I went back to the first roadblock, and asked how long it would be. He estimated an hour. I parked the car in the shade and Meg and I walked the last mile and half home, uphill, of course. The road ended up closed for about another three hours. Some reporter saw me walking up my driveway and stopped me, but they ask such stupid questions, so I gave them kind of stupid answers. I guess I wasn't exciting enough, so I didn't get any news time. Dad did though, you can see it at the news website . You can see my house in that video, too. And yes, my giant Christmas star is still up there...it was too hard to get up to take it down.

The road opened just in time for me to make it to my Activity Days thing. I got home to a sink full of dirty dishes and no water. The pressure pump on the well was out, and when that happens we only have a teeny little trickle. It took 40 minutes this morning to fill up the sink to do the dishes. At least we still have SOME water, and don't have to have five gallon bottles to flush the toilet. We just can't go to the bathroom more than once per hour. It fills up eventually. :0) The well dude came this morning and fixed it, we won't know how much until the bill comes. I guess Dad didn't ask for an estimate, probably figuring that it had to be fixed so it doesn't matter. Between buying new fence, a new pressure pump, and plane tickets for Ry and Sue to come over the 4th, I'm officially going to be poor.

I am VERY glad, however, that I spent that $400 to have someone come mow our tall grass. Things might have been MUCH worse.

Ok, Now I'm just showing off...

Pics Sam took at sunset last night at Pt Pinos in Pacific Grove. There are more on my facebook page...

Yosemite

Pictures of our trip to Yosemite over Mother's Day weekend (yeah, I know...they're a month old, but whatever). This first one is the "gang", my friends Wendy and Jim, Sam, Meg (only her eyes, lol) and I.

This is Bridal Veil falls:

This is my Meg, taking after her Daddy:

El Capitan:

Half Dome from Glacier Point at sunset:

Yosemite Falls from the meadow:

This is the second trip we've taken with these guys and we really had a good time. They are very patient traveling companions...probably because Jim likes taking pictures as much as Sam does, so he was up for whatever. Wendy was my first Visiting Teacher when we moved down here, so she's known Meg since she was two and they are great buddies.

New post.

That's about all this is. I have about two minutes, and I'm tired of the old one, even though it was a great story.

Let's see....week before last I made a wedding dress in three days for a lady that had to get married before she got baptized. It was a simple dress, but she's six months pregnant, so it was a bit of a challenge. Took over my life for a few days. But, it came out amazingly well and she seemed happy.

Last week we just lived life. The usual too much to do, not enough time to do it. Nothing exciting.

A few weeks ago we took a weekend trip to Yosemite with some friends of ours. Jim has lived in California for almost thirty years and never been there. He's a photographer, too, so we went on a photo trip. I'll write more about it when I have time to look through some pics to post about it.

This week, Meg and I are working on Greek mythology for her very LAST stupid school project of sixth grade. Almost done...technically due today, we may have it done by tomorrow.

That's all folks!

I Love Prunetucky

So, Sunday, we're sitting in church. We sit on the front row on the side, by the organ. After I play the Sacrament hymn, I go down and sit with my family. Last Sunday was pretty hot (by Monterey standards, anyway), so they had all the doors open, trying to catch the non-existant breeze. There are a set of doors in the front of the chapel, one at the end of my row and one on the other side, by the Sacrament table.

So, as we're kind of zoning during one of the talks (early church + lack of sleep = not terribly alert) and I notice a little critter coming in the door by the Sacrament table. I look and it looks like someone's pet white rat...white with a pink nose and pink eyes. It starts scampering towards us, up against the podium. The only people who can see it are the front row people and maybe the second row people. As it gets closer, I realize that it's not a rat, it's a baby POSSUM. Just before it gets to our row, it turns and heads up the stairs to the choir seats.

By this time, the speaker and some of the bishopric can tell something is going on, but they aren't sure what. A minute after it scampers up the stairs, Brother Lente gets up, follows it up the stairs, across the back behind the podium and traps it in the corner behind the priests. Everyone is watching him, thinking he's chasing his two year old again, but the two year old is behind him. Finally, he comes down the other stairs, holding this critter. By then, half the congregation is laughing, the other half have no idea what's going on, the speaker is kind of flustered. She looks over at him and says, "Oh MY! That explains it, I was wondering if something was wrong with me!"

Brother Lente finally deposited the critter outside, but not until he held it up and showed the congregation like he was showing off his newborn baby. It was a great moment in the Prunedale ward. ;0)

Charades videos..Bailey Thing Part 364

I'm pressed for time today, so I'm just going to post the charades videos and call it good. Ok, they're not too exciting. Several of the vids he took are too big to post. When Sam EVER gets his software loaded, he's supposed to be able to downsize them. That's the price you pay for High Definition video. My favorite moment of these is Sarah's victory dance.





Oh, and I wanted to do a shout out for a program that a friend of mine started in the Utah valley area. It's called Serving with Smiles and it's a service organization for kids. It looks awesome! (Not surprising, my friend Liz Jeffrey IS amazing). There was a story about them in the latest LDS Living magazine. I know Anna especially needs somewhere else to have to take her kids. :0)

Bailey Family Thing Part 7 (I think)

OK, now I'm just using this as an excuse to not do anything else I need to do. :0)

Monday night we played charades...or rather they did, I'm just not into charades. I know that in Bailey land that's practically treasonous, but whatever. I enjoy watching, though, so I kept score. We played the "kids" against the "adults". Not that all of us "adults" are terribly grownup, nor are the "kids" kids any longer. It was entertaining, but the kids beat the socks off the adults. I shoulda cheated better on the scorecard, eh? But, it's nice to know the next generation has a good tradition base to build on there, although someone needs to clarify Sarah on the rules. :0)

The winning team:

Amy:

David:


These pics were taken Tuesday morning before we left. We got the pic of all the "cousins" only to realize that Meghan is a "cousin" even though she's the same age as the "cousins" kids.



I have a few more pics, of the museum on campus that we visited and a couple of videos of Charades, but Sam just called to have me go and get feed for the silly birds before the feed place closes because he isn't going to make it in time. Hopefully, you won't have to wait until Monday for the exciting (?) conclusion.

Bailey Family Thing Part 6

On Tuesday, Sam wanted to drive down to City of Rocks, a park about 30 minutes away. At first there weren't too many takers, but eventually, I think just about everyone went. It was a beautiful day, a little chilly, but sunny. Unfortunately, we hadn't counted on trying to keep track of 25 kids in a maze of giant rocks, cliffs, caves, holes, etc. Many of us came out of there with a lot more grey hair. But the kids seemed to love it. After about half an hour, most of the moms had had enough, so they took off back to Albion and lunch. Sam and Grandma Bailey and I went through a drive through the rest of the park. It was an amazing, beautiful place and we enjoyed it.




Hayden finds a hole to peek through.

Sarah tries to hang on to her munchkins.


We took this pictures of the "Four Little Boys" in the parking lot there.

Bailey Family Thing, Part 5

So, Monday so many things went on that I don't exactly remember the order of anything. One thing the kids did was an Airsoft war in the old theater (above). I didn't venture in, but Sam told me it was a cool/creepy place (depending on whether you were a kid or an adult...Sam is still a kid, so he thought it was cool). It was pretty dark in there, and after I posted the above picture (which was taken with Sam's ridiculously high ISO camera) several of our moms decided that it was better that it was dark so they couldn't see how creepy it was. The kids had fun shooting each other and Sam had a good time exploring the pigeon poo-infested building. Think I'm glad I missed that one. Bet that theater was great in it's day, though.

Amanda and Jenny also had some crafts for the kids to do. They made bracelets, painted ceramics, decorated frames and planted tiny little plants (Meg's sprouted already, she's very excited).


There were these cool tricyles that we rented and the kids and some of the grown-ups had a good time riding all over the campus. This is Gus, taking it for a spin.


Sam was out taking pics and came across this baby owlet, perched in one of the boarded up windows of another building. Cool, huh.


A bunch of the little kids spent alot of their time in the sandpit/volleyball court. Here they are pushing a giant soccer ball around.



The big expedition was to City of Rocks state/national park. It deserves it's own post, though. Probably won't get to it today, though.

Bailey Family Thing, Part 4

So, Sunday afternoon, we FINALLY get to Albion, where most of the rest of the gang was already unloading and getting somewhat organized. We stayed at a Miller Hall, part of the former Albion Normal School. The school has been closed since the 50's, I think, but this family has purchased the campus and is in the process of restoring stuff. The building we stayed in was a former dorm. They did a great job of restoring it and it was very comfortable. Except for the beds, which Mary and I agreed were like sleeping on concrete.

The picture above is the hall that is restored where we stayed. This picture is of one of the other buildings that isn't restored yet.



One of the buildings was taken over by chickens and a couple of turkeys. The kids said they were vicious, but I'm guessing that the kids terrorized them and the poor chickens were just defending their territory.



There was a hot tub, which was used almost exclusively by the kids. All at once.



Amy, Katie and Jenny (with other help) got dinner on pretty quickly the first night. Yummy potato-cheese soup and rolls.



Here's Mark showing off his new physique. He's lost approximately a third of a Mark since January. Good job!



Violet, enjoying her soup and roll.



'Kay, that's all for tonight, it's past my bedtime.

Bailey Family Thing Part 3

So, Sunday morning, after going back to Craters (since we got there just before dark the night before), we headed to Idaho Falls, where we saw the temple and had a lovely lunch. The sky was heavily overcast when we got there, but by the time we ate lunch, it had cleared somewhat.