~To continue~
Another project for Etsy...
The blue one I came up with in the middle of night.
After making the blue one, I thought I should try another color. So the yellow one got created.
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| A few days later I sat down to complete the set with two more colors and sell them in a set of 4, one of each color. I had a hard time coming up with another shape of petal to make a different flower. I looked on Pinterest but couldn't find anything quite what I was looking for. Actually there was nothing really even close to what I was trying to do. So I came up these two... Matthew has another idea for a petal shape, though, so I might be making one more color of flower! |
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I took this in the late afternoon, but the next morning when warm light flooded the porch,
I found it is an excellent spot to take pictures! |
Babysat Bodi one afternoon for a few hours.
Hopefully the video plays, he's singing about the Big Bad Wolf, so he claims!
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| Some of Aunt Polly's flowers. |
So one evening we went to Brad and Vanessa's so I could give Matthew a haircut. He decided to do selfies with everyone, so here are a few.... I love my in-laws by the way :)
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| Pretty day on Camp San Luis |
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| Grizzly Games |
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Layout of a quilt I made for Cassidey, Kevin and Addie's baby.
And here's what I did to myself later on.... |
Gaviota Wind Caves!
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| Here you can see 101 heading south. It goes through rough mountains and then you come out to the ocean and drive along the shore. |
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| Train going over the bridge. |
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| The last gently rolling hill for awhile! |
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A rugged land!
Once again we wished to have Sean Hulburt with us! |
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| We climbed up into a few of those caves. |
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| A tunnel. |
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| The black area is hollowed out into the sandstone. |
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We ate lunch perched upon this boulder. After clambering down,
I walked a few steps and looked back. Kind of surprising to realize that
there was a tunnel right underneath us! |
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| Matthew poking his head out of a tunnel. |
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In the middle upper half of this picture you may see a dot of grey.
That's Matthew, he decided to go rock climbing and got into a
little more than he was expecting.
I followed the trail and met him at the top. |
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| One of the caves. |
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View from one of the tunnels up near the very top of where we climbed.
What a view! |
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Monarch butterflies!
There were lots of them. |
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| Looking up the hill I thought the different shades of dry grass was neat. |
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| This is looking back to where we were climbing. |
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Going out to Brophy Brothers for dinner.
Yummy seafood...
not exactly anniversary atmosphere, but an adventure for sure :) |
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| Coffee and peppermint tea at Starbucks on our way back to the hotel. |
Sunday Matthew hadn't made any plans beyond researching a place I could get breakfast, he knows the important things :) It was called Backyard Bowls. You can get cold bowls of granolas, fruit and stuff, or hot bowls of steel cut oats with different toppings. Also smoothies. It was very yummy! We drove to a parking lot on the beach and watched the people walking, running, biking, skateboarding, etc on the trail. Quite interesting :) A young family comes along, the 6ish year old boy on a bike. He stops right in front of our parked vehicle and sits there looking at our car, oblivious to us inside. He hollers back to his parents, "SHINY! I LIKE this car!" and just sat there looking at it. That totally made our day, especially since 'shiny' is one of Matthew's descriptive words for anything new, techy, cool, whatever.
Then Matthew researched where we could hike on the way back home. We found a short hike that looked neat, but first we found a Ross Dress for Less! store so I could get a t-shirt to wear since I forgot to pack one! Then we headed up San Marcos Pass, branching off after a bit to go to Lizard's Mouth.
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| We hoped there wouldn't be an earthquake while we were parked right here! |
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In the middle of this picture is the top of the lizard's snout.
We climbed around on the other rocks a bit first. |
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| This is looking out over the city to the Pacific Ocean. |
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| Interesting holes and hollows all over the place. |
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Narrow passage between two rocks.
So much fun wandering around exploring. |
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| Another one looking out over the city. You can barely see the tops of the Channel Islands on the horizon. |
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| All I wanted was some nice warm water to take a bath! |
These next three were fun to take!
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| So I got this far and had to lay down. Something about the slant with the height was just doing weird things to me! My palms were sweaty, I was nauseous, the world was tilting.... and Matthew was laughing at me. |
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| He went on further... |
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| I'm guessing this one is for Mom! |
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| I went below and took pictures looking up at him standing on the lizard's snout. |
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When he joined me, some other people came to look over the edge up there, and he was kinda like,
"Oh, that's what it feels like to watch someone do that!"
Yeah, kinda heart-in-mouth-ish |
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I saw this little pinnacle and climbed it to prove I'm not afraid of all heights!
Later I showed Matthew that it was a bit further down on the other side than I had expected!
Only 25 feet or so :) |
We headed on up the road, stopping in Solvang to walk around and look AT the shops. (That comment was kinda for Lucy!) It was packed with tourists and we didn't stay long. Quaint, but not really our cup of tea! We finished driving home and chilled for the evening.
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This is me trying out my anniversary gift!
Nice new chopping knives.
Wow, what a difference! |
The next Sunday
was the Harvest Festival race which the run club at Grizzly was competing in. Matthew has trained with the kids.
It was a really neat new experience for me.
We pulled in right behind the bus from Grizzly. As the kids piled out, they were like, "Hey, is that Mr. Pauls?" "It is!" "It's Mr.Pauls!" "Hey, you did get out of bed early!" (5:30)They were so excited to see him. We walked with them to the area where they got ready. I helped one of the girls pin her bib number on. She asked if I was going to run. I told her no, I wasn't. "Why not?!" "well, aaa, I don't really run." She told me that she didn't used to run either, but now she loves it and that if she can do it, I can do it. Wow, I was inspired and pretty much committed right then and there to run some sort of race next time! The kids have this energy of commitment, meeting a challenge, changing their lives, supporting each other, and it was inspiring to experience and be a small part of.
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| There were over 300 people entered in the full and half marathons. |
After cheering the runners off, I talked briefly to a few of the cadets' families who were there. Then I wandered around for a bit with Chief Weiss. After a bit I felt like I should stop being her shadow! The Paso Bearcats were hosting the race, and I heard one of the people in charge say that not everyone they expected had showed up to help. I asked if there was anything I could do. For awhile I carried water bottles, and then helped the football team set up tables and chairs for the breakfast that they were putting on. There was a kid from junior high that I helped or he helped me or something ;) I talked to the wrestling coach and his, um, well, lady. I'm not sure what relationship they were. Then I helped a Dani set up a tent for the beer garden. She reminded me of an ex-coworker and was there all by herself to set things up. The football team pitched in too. Then I was like, "I'd better go grab the camera, the runners should be getting in soon!" I walked all the dusty way to the car in my soaking wet shoes - freezing cold, muddy, feet! As I walked I heard behind me the first runner of the half marathon getting in. I think I was back to get the first cadet from Grizzly. He was 6th and his time was 1:27:something! I found a perch on a big fence post just before the finish line. From there I could get the kids' backs as they crossed the finish line with the time clock on the side! I had a blast sitting up there cheering and clapping for everyone and taking pictures of the cadets. Towards the end when there weren't so many people around to cheer, it was really neat to be yelling, "GO Grizzly! Wahoo!" have the kid look up and be like, "she's cheering for me!" and keep on dashing for the finish line. Most of them would sprint for it, racing whoever they were running with! Matthew and Cadet Kohler came in around 1:49:something, 10 minutes faster than Matthew thought he would do it! A little while after that Brad, Vanessa, Austin, and SB came, hoping to see Matthew cross the finish line. We chatted for awhile and cheered together. Then Kohler came up looking for Matthew. Brad and Vanessa really enjoyed meeting him. It was a little bit strange for Vanessa to hear her son being called "Mr.Pauls"! Austin and Sarah Beth were both very inspired, too, to see the kids and their enthusiasm. They stayed for about an hour before heading to meeting. It was really fun to see them and have them experience the race and being with the cadets. I stayed on my post through part of the 3rd hour, taking pictures and cheering, while Matthew got some breakfast and hung out with the kids. Then I joined them. I finally shed my sweatshirt (my red NL sweatshirt, dear ones who are patriotic....Nicole, mainly :) and my still wet shoes and socks, as my feet were going numb and the concrete was getting warm! It was below 50 when the race started, I believe.
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| Cadet Kohler and Matthew (Mr.Pauls) |
The cadets had their picture taken. I counted almost 60 kids, and with them ran Mrs.Weathersby(counselor), Chief Miller, Matthew, and a previous employee (the adults aren't in the picture).
We left right before they did. They were marching back to the bus yelling cadences at the top of their lungs, still full of energy!
Addie's baby shower
in Paige's backyard.
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