Pinnacles National Park

After several days of indulging and indoor play, we were ready for an outdoor adventure. Daddy-o was able to take the day off and we went to Pinnacles National Park for a full day of hiking.

The kids and I had been once, almost 4 years ago, but this was our first family trip to this park, which is our closest National Park (just under 2 hours!)

We started with the Bear Gulch/Moses Springs trail. The caves were closed on one stretch, but the trail that skirts around them still had a couple cave areas that we were able to go through. It's a very different hike than most that we do.

There were little areas of fall colors.

And this gorgeous mossy staircase at the end. . .

which leads up to a small reservoir.

We took a break to eat snacks and throw rocks in the water. It was turning into a gorgeous day with temperatures just right for hiking.

More fungi! These were cute little upside down cups. I need to get better at identifying what I'm finding because I usually have no idea!

We took the Rim Trail back down, 

and found some incredible moss. Pinnacles has such a variety of environments--rough, rocky cliffs, caves, and these wet forest areas.

We took a lunch break after our first hike. We've really embraced the warm camping lunches while on day hikes and it's really fun. We heated up water for soup bowls and a couple Mountain House backpacking meals and pretty soon, everyone was stuffed and happy. I've finally learned that this is so important for hiking happiness, especially for Peanut.

I wanted to explore the Sycamore Trail that runs along a creek bed next. Bean stayed back by the car, reading, because she'd strained her ankle the day before and didn't want to push it too much.

 I thought Peanut would opt to stay back as well, but like I said, a full belly is key for him and he was actually the one pushing for us to go farther on this segment.  The trail ended up going downhill pretty steeply in a couple spots and Daddy-o and I were both ready to turn back so we wouldn't have all the uphill on the way back, but he wanted to see more. It was a pretty trail and I can only imagine how great it will be in a few weeks when the water is flowing freely and the trees are all starting to bud.

There was a pretty little meadow where we found several woodpeckers. And we saw deer right at the start of the trail, too.

Peanut got his reading time after all. We were meeting up with friends, the G family, for the last hike and they weren't there yet so we just relaxed for a bit. They ended up getting there an hour later than they'd expected because the park rangers weren't letting anyone through because of crowds (which was crazy because there were actually several empty parking spaces there the whole time!) But eventually they were let through.

The last hike of the day was the hardest. Condor Gulch is a whole lot of uphill, and then back down again. I'm at the point where both directions hurt almost equally, haha. But the views were amazing from the higher points. We did not see any condors up there, which was our hope. We may have seen some from the parking lot, but it's hard to know if they were vultures or condors from that distance.

The hike back down was a little rushed because we were losing daylight fast. We had slips and stumbles, bandaids, and tears, but it was mostly fun, and by that time of day, we had the trail almost completely to ourselves, so it was the least crowded conditions we'd seen all day. And I didn't get a picture of it (because pictures never do justice), but the full moon was rising as we came down and looked absolutely amazing as it came over the cliffs and treetops. It was a great way to end the day.

And. . . drumroll please. . . while we were there, we got our 1000th hour of outside time for 2020, just a couple days before the cutoff! Bug had actually finished his hours a few days earlier, but both Peanut and Bean finished theirs while we were doing that last hike. It felt like a huge accomplishment. We had to do 144 or so hours in this last month, which is no easy feat for December. Our highest month, July, was only a couple hours more than that, so I was skeptical that we'd be able to do it, but these kids were determined and they did what it took! 

Peanut wanted to celebrate by not leaving the house for the rest of the year, haha. I'm not going to force anymore hikes until January, but my guess is he'll want to ride his bike again. Instead, we stopped for dinner at A&W in Hollister on our way home. And then our two crazy teens did a double feature with the Guardians of the Galaxy movies. I can't stay up until 1 a.m. for movies, but I'm glad they have each other to be teens with and do all those things that they'd probably normally be doing with friends.

The Days After Christmas

Well, we did not save the world from a global pandemic, but a valiant effort was made! This is probably the most on-point gift of the year. Bug bought it for me and as a bonus gift, everyone agreed to play. Not sure if we'll get everyone back--I warned everyone that I'd heard this was a difficult game to win, and that it's totally normal to lose, especially when just learning how to play, but I think we've got some family members who do not enjoy cooperative games when we lose, haha.

Both Christmas day, and the day after, we ended up down at the church grounds to play with new toys. Bean got a long board and has been having so much fun learning to ride it. Peanut got a new bike, and the boys got new baseball mitts, so there has been a lot of catch going on, too. By happy coincidence, our friends, the G family, showed up at the same time on Christmas (thus, the masks), and then we met up again on Saturday. It was our first interaction with friends since before Thanksgiving and it was so nice to see them! We figure if we can go to a park and social distance from strangers, then we should be able to do the same with people we know. The kids are zipping around on scooters, bikes, roller blades, and skateboards, and the adults actually got to have a couple conversations with people not in our house--it's the little things in life these days.

We also got to take a culinary field trip to Italy thanks to the Universal Yums subscription Rara got us for Christmas. It was so fun learning about and sampling all of these traditional snacks and most of them were delicious (the ketchup flavored potato chips were the least popular item.) I'm excited to see where we go next month (and curious if we'll run into weirder and less delicious items when we go to less familiar areas. I'm thinking not everything will be met with as much enthusiasm, haha.)

And more and more games! We got 5 new games for Christmas and played three of them within the first 3 days. Cover Your Assets and Not Parent Approved were a little more fun than Pandemic--lots of laughing. We actually ended up playing Not Parent Approved right through dinner because we were having so much fun (it's like Apples to Apples, but more bathroom humor.)

 

Christmas 2020

Merry Christmas! Our day was filled with love, presents galore, zoom calls with family, delicious food, sweets, and treats.

Daddy-o went all out on dinner--pot roast, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, glazed carrots, and rolls (well, I helped with those last two).

Because Harry Potter has been such a key part of our year, and we've read and watched half a dozen different versions of A Christmas Carol this month, I got English crackers to go with our sort-of old fashioned dinner.

The crowns, toys, and jokes were fun.

Good day all around. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night! 

It's a Wonderful Life

Christmas Eve--one of the best days of the year. So much excitement and anticipation, hurried finishing of presents and surprises, mixed with lazing around the house. I thought we were more done than we ended up being, but we got things taken care of by dinner time and then were able to relax with Chinese take out and It's a Wonderful Life. 

I'm so glad that our kids love that movie as much as we do because it's a must-see movie every year in our house. I cry every single time, and this year, I think Peanut got a lot more out of it than he has in the past. He was a little choked up at the end, and then was so sweet when he told us, "It really makes you think how much every person matters. How everyone's life is important." It was such a sincere realization.  Something good for each of us to remember, all the time. He came and snuggled with me for several minutes after that.

After that, we made a fire, read the story of Christ's birth from the bible, sang Silent Night with Bug accompanying us on the piano, and listened to Daddy-o read An Aussie Night Before Christmas, which just might be our favorite rendition of the poem.

Then, it was time for cookies and milk for Santa (and carrots for the reindeer, of course!) and off to bed. 

Celebrating the Shortest Day

The kids and I went for a solstice hike and found fog! It was perfect for the first day of winter. We may not get snow, but fog and the damp cold feel very wintery to us.

I chose a section of the Bay Area Ridge Trail near the John Muir National Historic Site. We climbed Mt. Wanda, where he roamed with his daughters when he lived there. I think we would have had beautiful views if it hadn't been foggy, but we'll have to check it out on another day.

Mushrooms! I'm always excited to find fungi :).

After lunch, it had mostly cleared up and we did get a view of the hills with Mt. Diablo in the background from the hilltops on the other side of John Muir's home. We never made it close enough or high enough to get the Bay View that is there, but we had heard fog horns all morning and could see a layer of fog over what I think must have been the edge of the Suisun bay.

We did see a LOT of cows. Some were right next to the trail and made us a little nervous, but they mostly just stared at us.

The spot where the trail goes under the freeway and right past the John Muir site has murals from spots that John Muir loved. It was a fun surprise when we came to this spot. I still want to come back some time when the house and grounds are open so we can see the orchards and other parts of the property, but with all the shut downs around the state right now, we knew this would be a hiking only day.

We finished off our day with roasting hot dogs over the fire and a warm bistro salad that I've fallen in love with (and convinced everyone else that it's pretty tasty, too.) Daddy-o had to go inside after dinner to teach an English class that he's been doing on Monday nights through our church (though attendance was pretty light--he's hoping it's just because of the holidays and that people will come back in January, but the person over the program is convinced that the consistency is important so they will continue to hold class each week no matter the time of year, and for the few who did come, it probably is very important.)

The kids and I stayed outside by the fire, reading a couple of books about winter and advent, and then telling jokes and playing games. There was a lot of laughing, a lot of being cold, and a lot of sugar consumed. It wasn't the same as our solstice parties we've had the past couple of years, but same as the evening I spent camping alone with the kids this summer, I realized that when we invite other families to join us, I pretty much don't interact with my kids. They're with their friends, I'm talking with mine. This year has been full of traditions with the twist of turning them into true family time, and I kind of like it. Having a balance would be best of all, but for now, we'll keep embracing all the dedicated family events.

And finally, Bean and Peanut continued their celebration by sleeping out in the backyard to get their hour requirements in the range of doable for the last 10 days of the year while the rest of us went in to get warm, haha. They actually slept very cozily in our smallest tent and didn't get up until after 10 the next morning, so I'd say they were comfortable enough!

The days only get longer from here!

December Adventures

It's been a month of hiking (and catching a beautiful sunset at Del Valle).

Sometimes it's just the kids and I, but we love it when Daddy-o gets to come with us.

Peanut and I continued our Christmas Carol study with a chalk pastel of some symbols that represent the story. Peanut was very taken with this book and has loved all the different versions of the story.

We've taken a LOT of walks to see the lights around our neighborhood, and to get those 1000 hours outside.

I can't always convince anyone else to do a chalk pastel lesson, and this is one I wanted to do last winter and never got around to, so I sat down one evening with Nana from You Are an Artist and did this one on my own. I love little birds.

Our city put together a geocache style hunt that took us around the city, including a couple new spots that we hadn't visited before. It also has gotten us out for a really long walk one evening and a bike ride another.

Peanut and I made "snow" from baking soda and shaving cream and had fun playing with our artic animals.

We haven't baked quite as much as we usually do, and haven't done any marathon baking days, but I almost like this better. I made snickerdoodles one day. A few days later, Daddy-o and Peanut made Mexican wedding cookies, and then the kids had a gingerbread man baking zoom call with friends one day. It's meant that we've had a pretty steady stream of cookies all month.

Bean was with them most of the call, but then she had to go.

I love how the cookies turned out. We usually make buttercream frosting because I think it tastes better, but royal icing is the way to go for pretty cookies. 

There have been a lot of games played, many outdoors. Really, in order to get those outside hours, we've been taking everything we can outside. Peanut had fun learning how to play chess.

Peanut and I collected sticks to make these fun decorations.

Peanut and I had a surprise visit with the Grinch when we were dropping off a food donation.

The kids and I also had a fun winter picnic in the backyard--hot chocolate with all the fixings, cookies, a nutcracker picture book. 

We even made some fun shrinky dinks while we were out there.

An outdoor dinner on one of the warmish evenings. And notice the tent in the background--the boys slept outside for 3 nights in a row in order to make a dent in those hours they needed. They were the three warmest nights of the month, but it was still a little chilly.

We went hiking near Berkeley one Saturday, grabbed dinner at a Jewish deli, and then stopped by the Oakland Temple on the way home to see the lights.

If I had to pick, I'd say lights and outdoors are our theme for the month. We have been on every street in our neighborhood, as well as a couple other neighborhoods as well. We went to visit another spot one evening to do a decoration scavenger hunt (we had to go somewhere that none of us were familiar with, or the boys and I who had done the most neighborhood walks would have had an advantage.) We had so much fun running around for 45 minutes seeing what we could find. Daddy-o and Bean found a couple more items than the boys and I did, but they were a couple minutes late getting back to the car, so we're calling it a tie (and excited for a re-match next year!)

It's been a pretty fabulous month.