Tick Walk

We went down to the state land again but tried a different spot. As you can see there were some small hills and lots of open fields. It was a beautiful afternoon.

I was surprised to see some milkweed fluff still hanging on after months of winter and all the wind we have had of late. It was so sparkly in the afternoon sun I had to take a picture.

















Some of the apple trees are already past their peak flower wise but this one on the edge of the field near the river is just about ready to flower. I am glad you can see how blue the sky was.

Gus is always ready for a walk and hard to rein in for a picture. This was taken just before we discovered Jim and I were covered with ticks! I picked about 40 off Jim and he found at least 20 on me. My skin has been crawling ever since. Gus however seems to have avoided the wrath of the little blood suckers probably due to the fact he takes a flea and tick prevention med year round. I may start using his stuff if this continues to be a problem. I guess everyone is right when they say this is a bad season for ticks.

Fun in Livermore

Friday we walked down Main Street and enjoyed a Life-like Sculptures exhibit. Some of them were so real looking, especially from a distance. Saturday morning, while Brian played sand volleyball, Mom, Dad, and I hiked in Brushy Peak Regional Park which is just 10 minutes from our house. The wildflowers were beautiful, peeking out of the green grass.

Article about my meet

There was an article written about the meet I competed in over the weekend.

Andy Grant, Laura Val and Celeste Miller Each Set Multiple USMS National Records at Pacific Masters Championships

Mckenna and all the animals

Me and one of the baby lambs
Mckenna feeding the lamb a bottle
Mckenna loving every minute of hanging out with the lambs
Mckenna with a bunch of the lambs
Mckenna's favorite at small animals day the Mama cow she gave her a kiss and everything
Nana and Mckenna and Papa at small animals day
More of Mckenna with the Mama cow she didn't want to leave her
the baby pig
Day old ducklings she thought they were pretty cool
once she started petting this chicken she wouldn't stop

Andy Swims to National Records

Andy is now in the 25-29 Age Group in Masters Swimming and having a blast doing it. Last night he swam the 200* yard Freestyle event; today, the 500* Free, 50 Backstroke, and 100* Butterfly. More tomorrow. Of course we all were there to watch the fun. 900 other swimmers were there -- they enjoyed seeing him swim, too!


* New national record

Interview with Dana

Dana did a nice 30 minute interview over the weekend and the video of it is online now. Enjoy.

Dana's Swimming World Interview

Bridge Over Troubled Waters

Okay now for starters remember this is SPRING break. The first 2 pictures show what happened Wednesday night/Thursday morning. Tuesday it was cold but that didn't stop Jim and his friend Carl Werner from heading out to Jim's blind to start work on the bridge Jim has been planning for ages. They cut the 15' long cedar pieces and got them in place.


This is the finished bridge. Don and Jim finished the assembly work, split with a chain saw the planks you see and nailed everything together with galvanized 7" spikes.

As you can see it holds the 4-wheeler just fine and will be able to handle all the deer Jim and Tom can haul out of there in the future. It was a huge job and they worked really hard on it. Also shored up Jim's blind, made a new ladder so he can get into it easily, cleared some additional lanes for Don or maybe just extended them. Hopefully one of them will expand on that or you can ask them.

Also we need a first aid kit at the cabin. Don attempted to amputate his leg with the chain saw however he must have tough knee caps because it ended up not being as serious as the clothing rips and blood indicated! The only thing we had to doctor it up with was lighter fluid and a couple of bandages that were not even suitable for a paper cut. He is doing fine and hopefully took care of it when he arrived home this afternoon.

As for me I read a lot and learned 4 days at the cabin is my limit! We were there 5.

Toledo Zoo

Ayla posing Love this Pic
Me AKA Elle Phant
Nicole and Me
This is what is a result of an AWESOME time at the zoo
Love Em Elephants Rock
The Giraffe's were so in love with eachother
Mommy and Mckenna watching the seals
Ayla and Mckenna
Ayla with her Aunt Colie
My Nephew Aiden
This guy was Giant

Easter pics

Mckenna playing some frisbee
Ayla in her Easter Dress she looks so beautiful
Look Chocolate eggs
Ayla and Herb bright and early
Mommy and Mckenna on an egg hunt making out pretty good

Easter at Folks

As always good food and good company was abundant. We missed those that weren't there but know you did special things to celebrate where you are. The Easter egg hunt was lots of fun and the idea of having each child assigned a color and only pick up those eggs worked great. Michael, Stephen, and Laura were the hider's of the the bootie and were quite creative if I do say so myself.

Instructions were given for the egg hunt.

Mckenna showing Lauren how many eggs she found with the help of her mother.

Mckenna looked adorable in the dress I crocheted for her and Ayla looked so grown up in the dress she wore for the Daddy/Daughter dance last month. Ayla is a wonderful big sister and will have lots of fun with Mckenna this week.


A Blood Root in the backyard. It is amazing to see all the blossoms out there. I always look forward to seeing the yard in the spring.

Just thought it would be good to have a picture of the adults. Sharon & Brian you will have to crop yourselves in and then it would be complete. I remember this same type of photo with Grandma Jessup and the boys & their wives being taken many times.


Caitlin wanted a picture of just her and her folks so here it is. Reminds me of Senior Night for basketball. Same pose just a different background.

Four Generation Picture

We had a great five days in Santa Cruz playing volleyball on the beach, hot tubbing, and body surfing on the waves (once). Volleyball occupied most of our time out on the beach. Kyla's dad (blue shirt) joined us for a few games. At the end of one day, Brian, David, and Andy braved the cold water to catch a wave.
Our evenings were spent playing Boggle and cards after relaxing in the rooftop hot tub, which has a view of the lighthouse and Boardwalk.

The end of our stay came too quickly.