They're Off!

John and William officially began their BIG BIKE RIDE TO CALIFORNIA on Saturday afternoon, May 2nd. We drove them and their traveling companions, Adam and Andy, another set of twin brothers, to the coast where John helped them set up camp at a Biker/Hiker campsite. They rode about 30 miles on Sunday despite William's blown tire, the tire, not the tube. He found a new use for duct tape and off they went. They went another 40 or so today. Two miles of that were walked rather than biked because of that pesky tire. They're hunkered down at another campsite and hope to get a new tire in the morning. It's rainy out there today so the ride's been wet. They're still enjoying the trip despite the tire and the weather. Ahhh...to be young again!!
I apologize for the lack of photos. I had the camera but just didn't feel like taking pictures as they set up camp in the rain.

Clarktastic!

Grandma and Clark



Aunt Mimi and Clark

Grandpa and Clark

Clark and his fan club!

I had a great week with Ben, Alli and Clark. I got lots of quality time with Clark even if some of it was in the wee hours. He is a great baby and Alli and Ben are very comfortable with a newborn and are making their way just fine. Can't wait to see him when he comes to see us in July when we add another boy to our family! Big year for us!

Clark is Finally Here!

I know all of you have probably seen all of the pictures of Clark on our blog, but just in case, here is one from this morning. Clark and I got to spend some daddy/baby bonding time while mommy slept in.

THE BIRDS and the bees

No this has nothing to do with Clark and I'm not teaching "health" on the blog. We just have two new creature stories. First, the birds. We've had 10 chickens for some time now but we just got 26 new chicks and thought you'd enjoy seeing them.

The Birds and THE BEES

Ana went out to find the cats and saw a big black thing in the middle of our plum tree. She went close to inspect what it was. Her head was in the branches when she realized it was a swarm of bees. She came running in the house and we all went to see....then we called for help. Here is the swarm in our tree out by the barn. The guy we buy honey from came and put the box up on the ladder and under the swarm then shook it hard. The goal was to get the queen into the box. It must have worked. You can see them swarming after he shook them and then settled on the entrance to the box. He suggested we spray the limb where they were originally with vanilla to overpower the smell of the queen so they wouldn't return to the branch. Joseph bravely sprayed the limb since a handful of bees were going back to the branch after the bee keeper left. It worked. The limb actually has bits of wax on it where the bees were beginning to make a honeycomb or hive. We'll look at that closer after he comes back this evening and takes the box. It was a small adventure.

Look what baby got!

This came in the mail and I posted it on the Ben and Alli blog...people must think we have a very strange family! (Click the text to see the post.)

Paparazzi catches famous mom at game!

This is Mom at her first Spring Training game - A's vs. Giants in Arizona. A's beat the Giants 10 to 2!