Jelly Belly Birthday Beauty

Yesterday, after a morning run and Peter's morning basketball, we got the house ready for an open house and headed to Woodland to celebrate Grandma Carolyn's birthday at Vince's Mexican Restaurant. On the way we stopped at the Jelly Belly Factory. We waited in line and everything seemed fine. Then...we had to wear hats to go on the tour. Lauryn completely refused and couldn't be bribed. So she and Peter waited outside while Taylor and I went through the tour. Afterwards...

Then we visited with the Ochoa family and checked out their new, awesome house before going to Vince's.

Happy Birthday Grandma!

On the way home we saw an amazing double rainbow.

Don't worry about Lauryn, she has fully recovered.

The Good Life

When Peter quit his job, we decided that we wouldn't spend any more money on food and just live off our garden, food storage, and chicken eggs. I was not looking forward to eating. However, we've been eating better than normal around here. This was Friday's dinner: Cucumber and tomato salad,
salmon burgers and grilled zucchini

enjoyed outside on the patio.

I Think I Can

Taylor learned how to ride her bike yesterday. Peter is a good teacher. We went back to the school playground again today to practice and this time I brought the camera. The best part of this video is at the end when you can hear Taylor chanting "I think I can. I think I can."

Replacing Pebbles

This is our newest chicken. Peter says he wasn't planning on getting another chicken to replace Pebbles until he saw this beauty. She has grown up free-roaming and so when Peter was feeding her yesterday she escaped the coop and our yard. She flew right over the fence. Once I got into the neighbor's yard, she flew over another fence. After meeting more of our neighbors and explaining our predicament (which they found amusing) we finally caught her and clipped her wings right away. This was after the chase and wing-clipping. I think she was exhausted because she stood on Peter's skateboard for a long time.
I love the color of her feathers. She just started to lay eggs, they are off-white.

On the Market

Facing Reality: We can afford to be here only a couple more months...without buying food (yay for food storage, chicken eggs, and our garden). Law firms in the area have laid off many employees. The chances of Peter finding a job that will allow us to keep the house is slim. So, our house has a big FOR SALE sign and is officially on the market. You can check out pictures on our realtor's' website. We're 670 Sybil.

Cock-a-Doodle-Do

While the girls and I were in Trinidad, Peter stayed home to do some projects that we had materials for but hadn't gotten to because we didn't have time. One morning he called me around 8AM; I was still in bed. "I've been up since 6:30," he said, which isn't normal Peter behavior. Turns out, around 6AM he was having a dream in which someone kept making this awful noise. When he finally woke up he realized that Pebbles, our youngest chicken, was welcoming the morning as only a rooster can do. He took Pebbles back that day and got another hen--which I think is completely crazy considering our situation at the moment. We were very suspicious of Pebbles' rooster tail and strut. She--er He never got along with the other chickens so it's kind of a relief.

Trinidad Vacation

We have spent the last ten days on a much-needed family vacation in Trinidad, CA. Karen's family gets together there every year to go fishing and relax. Here is an overload of pictures. I'm missing pictures of our boat ride, but I'll get those from Mom later. Taylor making a necklace at the bead store.
The first five days were beautiful and warm. Lauryn loved the beach.

Taylor and cousin Josh

Peter came up on Taylor's birthday to spend the last part of the week with us. Here he is adorned with "Pretty Pretty Princess" accessories.

Happy 5th birthday Taylor! Bren made the carrot cake.

The Birthday Girl

4th of July on the Arcata plaza

Daddy shows how it's done.

Poor parenting moment.

Listening to the live music.

Fireworks on Trinidad Sate Beach

Taylor and Lauryn sporting their matching Patagonia jackets from Amy.

Auntie Bren and Lauryn

Lauren, Laura, Bren Laurel, and Lauryn

Peter put on a nice fireworks display for our group. We also enjoyed watching the fireworks of other families on the beach, especially the illegal ones.

Taylor was Daddy's helper.