Visit from the Austrians

We were happy to have Ernst and Ingrid and their family and friends from Austria come visit for several days. Ingrid was my family's exchange student when we were in high school!
We were able to visit them when we went to Europe last summer.










The penguins and jelly fish are some of our favorie exhibits.





A visit to the Monterey Peninsula would not be complete with out going to the aquarium and hiking at Point Lobos.
This fat little squirrel packed in several dog cookies that I found in my pocket!

San Diego, Catalina Island and Ensenada Mexico!

Dad enjoyed going to the museum behind this HUGE statue of the famous photo. It is in San Diego and called the USS Midway.
We took a taxi out to La Bufadora, a natural blow hole that you can see only fizzled when we were there. The trip out was about 20 miles and was pretty sad to see such poverty.
Overall, it was a great time with family and friends, relaxing, sight seeing and EATING!

Cruising to Mexico!

On July 16, 35 of us went on a 5 day cruise to celebrate Educational Resources of Monterey County's tenth anniversary! The weather was perfect and everyone had a great time!
Grandpa enjoyed all the food. Marilyn was not feeling well the entire week and actually ended up in emergency on the way home due to a pinched nerve.


Catalina Island was very fun to explore. We rented a golf cart with the McGowan's and were able to see where the recent fire was, check out expensive homes and enjoy incredible views!

Summertime in Salinas.

Annie, almost 13, making her morning trek up our long driveway to bring up the newspaper. She is completely deaf and her legs often give out. We don't want to think about not having her around.
Phil and Diane, Matthew and friend Micah came down from Portland for a visit. We had a great time together and enjoyed a fun dinner at Kianti's in Santa Cruz.
Here's our freshly painted home decked out for the Fourth of July! We had a great view of fireworks all over the valley.

Family Times

On Father's Day, we drove to Sacramento to celebrate with my parents and Jim's family. Gracie was about to turn two so she got to open some gifts early, with Noah's help!
It was 97 degrees there and when we arrived home 3 hours later, it was 30 degrees cooler!






Stacey came home for a quick visit after her school let out in Florida. Eric wasn't able to come with her but she had fun playing Hand and Foot with Grandma and Grandpa, visiting friends from Santa Cruz and filling her suitcase with goodies from California!

Kristy's Hartnell College Graduation!

On June 1, Kristy graduated Summa Cum Laude (at 18!) from Hartnell College. Here she is before the ceremony, and then afterwards with her favorite professor, Mr. Rand. He said he wanted to adopt her until she said she already was adopted!
Sam and Cody shared in the special celebration.
The next day, we held a graduation ceremony at the ranch honoring home schooled students that had graduated from 8th grade, high school and college. Kristy is with the 2 other college graduates. In September, she will transfer to Cal Poly with a degree in animal science, hoping to end up as a horse trainer and breeder.