Apple Hill

The family picking out a Christmas tree for my mom's house.

The tree in behind us.

Found dad a sliver tip. Andy cut it down.

Jewels "I can hold grandpas tree all by myself."

Andy and Jonathan getting mom's tree down. It took her about two hours to find the right one.

Daddy's little girl.

Second family shot.

Mom and her three kids.

Mom -- "This could be the one."

Andy -- "Nope there's a tree behind it so it will be bear on that side."

Mom -- "Oaky let's keep looking."

High five Santa.

1st time Jewels sat on Santa's lap.

The magic trick was to have grandma with her.

Making music while searching for trees.

It looked like a little man. Page holding it up.

Found grandma's spot.

After the storm

Tuesday, October 13, 2009 was a big storm for most of the central valley. I have two photos from the day and a few two days later showing the mess it made around my town.

I went over to weather.com to find out how the day really was.
Stats of the day:
High: 64 degrees.
Low: 51 degrees.
Precipitation: 1.45 inches.
Wind: said to be around 40 mph

It was heavy wind/rain.

Here is a shot out my window. You can see the wind on the Palm tree.

On my way to work.

This is our local dog park. No dog could use it for days. Ducks were having some fun though.

Now the local pond.

All chained up -- No dogs could use the park.

Leaves covered the town and you can see the water from the street in the dog park.

Some tree lost their braches at the dog park.

Our neighbor filled up the trash can and the yard/garden can.

We even had few things in the back yard destroyed.

Our chairs were all over the place.

Some people lost their trees.

The trees at General Mills were tore up.

Every tree was messed up. Not one stood normal.

I think I could have taken a picture of every tree. They were all different looking.

Tons of pine needles on this stretch of road.

They lost that tree.

Two trees down at the middles school next to my house.

My mom's backyard was a MESS.

Along with the front yard too.

My mom's neighbors tree were tore up

The little table in the backyard is a goner I think.

The little pond was filled with leaves.

And her pool which was drained to be cleaned out now has water again.

And someones fence was knocked down.

And I had two pictures of our pool with the leave at the bottom and the pool cleaner filled with leaves, but I never downloaded them. Oh well.

Hope you enjoyed the "After the Storm" photos.

Davis Ranch (Pumpkin time)

Jonathan, Page, Jewels and I went to the Davis Ranch in Sloughhouse on Jackson road today to get me some pumpkins and to have some fun.
http://www.davisranchproduce.com/index.html

Here's the first shot of the days of the four of us on the wagon to head out to the fields where all the pumpkins grow. We got to pick them right off the vein. I've never done that before so that was pretty cool.



Jewels has her sights of a pumpkin already and we haven't even stopped yet.

Here's the land of all the pumpkins. So many to pick from.

Look at those BIG pumpkins.

Some people are already out picking pumpkins and having fun.

Eye level of the pumpkin.

There were some orange pumpkins......

Green pumpkins.......

and orange and green pumpkins. I grabbed the one in the upper left corner.

More of the field of pumpkins.

My feet with some little orange pumpkins.

My feet with the little ghost pumpkin. I think I have started something with my feet. I stated it in Disneyland (in my shoes).

http://monkeylove1414.blogspot.com/2009/09/in-my-shoes.html

I took another shot at another farm a little over than a week ago.

(Here's the shot of my flickr)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/70045388@N00/3972383852/in/set-72157618122759278/

The pumpkin flower next to a ghost pumpkin.

Jonathan found this "old" pumpkin.

A little lady bug on top of a ghost pumpkin.

My feet with the big dark orange pumpkin which did not make it home. Jonathan found me a better one.

And here's the one Jonathan found for me.

Here's the two next to each other. The one we brought home is the one Jonathan is next to.

Back on the wagon to head back.

Here's how we got around.

The farm also sells Christmas trees. All kinds and sizes only $35.

My feet on the wagon ride back.

This little thing in the middle we thought was maybe grape vines, but it's goard. You can see some hanging in the middles, but I have some better shots in the next few pictures.

View from the side.

Here's a better shot to see the hanging goards. They are near the white area at the bottom.

Here's the best shot of the goard.

Eating the carmel corn in the yellow wagon.

Riding in the yellow wagon looking for more pumpkins.

"I can do it by my self daddy"

Jewels wanted to pull the wagon.

And she went hauling.

These are called Cinderella pumpkins. Here they look more green, but next to some of the other pumpkins, such as the white and orange ones they look a little blue. Page and I bought one of these. You can see it later.

These were sick pumpkins (not really), but they had a little bumpies all over them.

These were a little different too.

Jewels on the big pumpkin.

A pumpkin carving contest was going on. Seven pumpkins were lined up and the public got to vote for the winner. I only took pictures of three which I thought were the best.

This one was the one Jonathan, Page and I voted for.

I thought this one was pretty good since it had a goard as a nose and fur for eyebrows.

Here's the third one I took a shot of. It was eating little pumpkin. There's two in his "tummy" and one in his mouth.

I couldn't believe it when I saw a trailer truck (or like a taco truck) for Cold Stone ice cream.

Jewels going down the blow up slide in the jump house. She was having so much fun. She kept going back into the house and down the slide.

Jewels inside the jump house. "Hi auntie."

The ranch also had an area where people could pick their own strawberries.

Here's a white flower with an unripe strawberry. I like the dark and shadows in this shot.

Another view of the strawberry area.

Another thing the ranch had was a veggie and fruit area. We could fit through the entire area, since we had the yellow wagon.

I've never seen purple bell peppers. The colors were so vibrant.

These eggplants were so big and some had little "faces" on the. Page "modeled" the veggie.

Here's all the pumpkins I brought home. From left to right: the green/orange, the normal one for James, the ghost, a really odd yellow/green/orange and the Cindrella (see it looks a little blue here). On the bottom is the BIG darm orange pumpkin -- This one will be the one I crave for Halloween.

After we left the ranch we went to Red Robin in Elk Grove. Here's my strawberry lemonade.