Thursday, March 19, 2009

Home again...

Our short trip to beautiful Northern California has come to an end and we are back to the routines we left behind in Michigan. Spring is slow to arrive to this part of the country but we are enjoying our slightly above freezing weather and the return of the chirping birds. We have just contented ourselves with the warm and wonderful memories of our trip across the country this past week...


This is the view of Mt. Shasta that is visible from my parents deck. I can't even begin to express how beautiful this little corner of the world is.


This is another view of Mt. Shasta during the day and from a much higher vantage point.


During the fist few days of our visit Tom's mom joined us and we traveled to several wonderful little towns throughout the Siskiyous and beyond. Connor's favorite town was Jacksonville because it had a wonderful toy shop where his Oma bought him a rather noisy toy.


One of the little towns that we past through had a small motel that was made up of 20 or so old rail cars. It also sat at the bottom of another natural wonder of the area known as the Castle Craigs.


Here is another view of the Castle Craigs. The photo does not do it justice.


We took the long way back to Sacramento through tiny towns like Ferndale and Weaverville. Most of the time was spent peeking into adorable little shops and enjoying the scenery.


We stayed at a wonderful little Victorian Inn in Ferndale with period furniture and everything. I woke up in the middle of the night hoping to see a ghost of some sort but alas...no luck.


I was surprised to not see a ghost as we were right next to one of the oddest cemeteries I had ever seen. It stretched all the way up this little hill and was really quite old. Many of the graves belonged to individuals who died in the late 1800's. Too cool, but that's the forensic anthropologist in me speaking.


We also drove through a section of the Redwoods known as the Valley of the Giants which was absolutely amazing. It was so dark and peaceful beneath those gigantic trees.


What a wonderful adventure. And the best news of all...


Connor took his first steps on his own on Wednesday! Yay!!!!!

Have a wonderful weekend everybody...cheers!

Friday, March 13, 2009

California

My goodness...life never seems to slow down. Right now I am so grateful for Spring break and my parents as I am writing this post from their house at the base of Mt. Shasta in sunny and warm California. I absolutely refuse to go back to Michigan now! I can't even begin to describe the beauty that surrounds us in this little corner of the world. I will be sure to post some pictures as soon as possible. So far we have been all over Siskiyou and Shasta County and are planning a trip out to the coast this weekend.

In other news Connor is now standing on his own. He hasn't quite made any steps without our help but he teeters about the room quite quickly with Mommy or Daddy in hand. He is quite the little dancer now too and loves to dance to just about any kind of music. This morning it was Bach. What a character.