Crest Fest

Mary climbed the rock wall for the first time at Crest Fest.

She did a great job.

The kids also enjoyed the hay ride, playing with friends on the green, and making ornaments in the craft condo.

We had a ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate the completion of Lakeview Lodge.

Dave and Gayle came up for Crest Fest, and Gayle brought window crayons, so the kids had fun drawing an autumn scene on the back door with her.

 I love the black oak trees.

Miwok Village

We hadn't been to Miwok Village for awhile, so we decided to hike over there.

The kids enjoyed the grinding stones as usual.

 

Autumn in the Woods

I love this time of year. Beautiful walks and happy snackers.

 

Joshua's Birthday

Most of my family came up to Oakhurst for a fall vacation. We had dinner with them the first night they were here, then met up with them again on Friday when we rode the Sugar Pine Railroad.

After the railroad, everyone came over for lunch and apple picking.

 

Photo: Michelle

Mary got to lead a group to find apples by the lake, which she thought was great.

Photo: Heather

After picking, we pressed the apples to make cider.

We finished the day off with birthday dinner for Joshua, Manhattan clam chowder in bread bowls with blueberry pie for dessert. 

Apple Snacks

We've been enjoying beautiful fall colors on our walks lately.

 We've also been picking and eating a lot of apples. The kids love to find apple trees when we are out and eat an apple for a snack.

Happy Autumn

We decorated fall leaves for the first day of autumn.

 Then Mary decided to make leaves and put them up on the windows around the house. She always likes to help decorate.

Fall Vacation

The first couple of weeks of September we enjoyed a fall vacation. We decided to stay home and explore things around the area, which was great. The only problem was that we all got sick, so that put a bit of a damper on our adventures, but we still had a good time. Our first adventure was hiking Fresno Dome.

We can see Fresno Dome from our house, and the kids really wanted to climb it.

They were great little hikers.

We had a picnic lunch on top.

Joshua took Mary and David to look over the edge.

We added another rock cairn to mark the trail.

Our next adventure was to Bass Lake were we drove around the lake and had lunch at Miller's.

The kids got to try corn dogs for the first time and weren't impressed.

We had lots of fun and tasty food on vacation, including trying a number of new recipes like Madras curried eggs and maple butter twists.

One morning we went to Bee's Bakery and got coffee, tea, and pastries.

My favorite adventure was George's Falls. We drove there and had a picnic lunch, then played in the water.

It was beautiful.

Joshua took Mary and David creek walking.

We found a little side stream that was perfect for Hannah.

We had a delicious lunch at Smokehouse 41.

We made blackberry ice cream.

At the end of our vacation, we drove to Santa Cruz because Joshua was the speaker for a fall youth retreat for a church in Fresno. The kids thought it was pretty funny to eat on the picnic table when we stopped for lunch.

Our first stop in Santa Cruz was Marianne's to get ice cream.

Then we went to Camp Santa Cruz and got settled. We were in Mission Cottage, which was a nice spot.

While Joshua was speaking Saturday morning, the kids and I went exploring and found a great eucalyptus grove with trails by a dry stream.

Joshua started teaching Mary how to play cribbage.

Saturday afternoon we went to the beach. It was chilly, but the kids had fun putting their feet in the water.

Mary built a sandcastle.

Sunday morning during speaker time we walked back to the eucalyptus trees and explored a little farther. Then we returned home, stopping to have a picnic lunch on the way.