Mountains Without Kayaks or Snowboards!

Super Sequoia (note handful of garbage)

So with a little persuading Devon agreed to going to the Sierras with no kayak or snowboard (ask him about the skateboard when his elbow and back feel better).

We took off out of the santa cruz fog for the weekend as we had forgotten what the sun felt like and headed to a place that one could kayak but instead camped sedately and lounged by Dinkey Creek in the Sierra National Forest, about 4 hours drive east of us.

It was beautiful and relaxing and most of all sunny. Fiona enjoyed camping including cooking on a little stove, sleeping in the back of the truck(we decided against the tent out of lazyness), and most of all playing in cool mountain streams and climbing granite.

We enjoyed the time away from real life. We all slept well. We saw amazing things like giant Sequoias more than 2000 years old and people-including children-who litter deliberately in our forests and rivers. We remembered old skills like openning wine bottles with a knife and unbogging a truck from fine sand in a remote location. It's great to pull out our skills again after so long around the house.

Driving back and forth was marred on the way there by our search for a fuel canister for our backpacking stove in Fresno where people are not so inclined, and on the way back with fionas' busy bladder. Lots of stops. But what can you do?

Beside the road in the valley

Sleeping in the truck

Fiona eating dinner al fresco

Above: Joy de Creek. and below: on granite.

The Sharing Report

We are about three weeks into the sharing experiment, and still no blood has been shed. There are good days and bad days as Fiona and Violetta try their best to share things bilingually. This morning there was a tiff over the who had which napkin at the breakfast table and who had the horse costume. All in all, its good.The girls play well together and the parents are getting used to a few more tantrums than they would prefer. Here is some photographic evidence of the good behaviour:


Both helping to blow out candles of devon's cupcakes, decorated of course by both

Both making cookies
and both pushing the stroller

A Friend to Stay

We have houseguests again! A friend Ana (from Columbia/Mexico: its compicated) and her almost four year old daughter Violetta have moved in for a month or two. We have been working on preparing Fiona for the obvious sharing situations that arise with two fours trying to negotiate the use of limited hobby horse resources. No bloodshed yet. Violetta is attending preschool with Fiona while she is here and we are doing our best to avoid too much chaos on the other days.

They are learning spanish and english and tolerance from eachother. It seems that giggles cross language and culture well.