Our Christmas Tree

Well, during the first couple days of December, I decided it was time to get the idea to Daddy about how it was time to get a Christmas Tree. I thought about the past couple of years during Christmas time, and thought about how sad it was watching our poor tree get torn down and thrown away. I thought and thought, until I decided something. One of the things we had as a goal in "OUR FAMILY WAY" was to try to go completely green. So you know what I did? I decided to get Daddy into the idea of get a live baby Christmas Tree. Another good thing about getting a live Christmas Tree is that it will live forever and ever and more. It will be like a growing tree for a growing family. My brothers, Daddy, and I voted, and it was unanamous.......... Everybody wanted  a live baby tree!!

About 1 1/2 weeks later, I got sick. Guess what... I went over to Daddy's house while my brothers went to fencing (which for your information is sword fighting not putting up fences), and standing there in the middle of the piano was......A BABY CHRISTMAS TREE!!! Finding out that the tree was from Dusseldorf, Germany narrowed the name options down a bit, but just a little bit. We went on the computer to look up German names for her and guess how many there were, only 3!!! I'm kidding. There were HUNDREDS!!! It took forever but we finnaly found a good name. Our Christmas Tree is officially named Tatiana Tannenbaum (pronounced tat-tee-on-a), which means Beautiful Christmas Tree in German. Now you know about our beautiful Christmas Tree A.k.a Tatiana Tannebaum. (Ha Ha Ha). And.......We live happily ever after.

                                             Signed ... g

Camping at Trinity Lake (Day 5 Homeward)

Saturday 8/14/2010

Woke up

Struck Camp

Left the Lake

Went to Starbucks in Weaverville

Checked out a couple of Antique stores

Hit the road to Redding HWY 5 south

Stopped at Olive Farm to eat lunch

   mediocre sandwiches 

Home by 7pm 

Camping at Trinity Lake (Day 4)

Friday 8/13/2010

Got up

Had Breakfast

Decided to go North Fishing and swimming

At 10:00 headed up to the north end the Trinity Lake

Saw outskirts of the Diggin’s

Rements of the digging operations that took place in the 1800’s

Basically turned the trinity river upside down in search for gold

Stopped at first river

J saw many Gopher Snakes sunbathing on the rocks

Found another huge deep pool under the bridge

G was the only one who got their head wet

Had so much fun we forgot to eat lunch

Got in the car and drove to the Diggin’s 

Saw a nice little pond 

Fished in it

Squid = nothing

Lures = nothing

J with no fishing pole = nothing

Saw some trout

C and daddy tried salmon eggs

BIG SUCCESS

Daddy caught the first trout

Had to keep it because of swallowed hook

Everybody tried salmon eggs

Lots of trout caught by everybody but J :(

By 4:00 we were tired, hungry, but happy

C caught the two biggest trout

Headed to the local coffee cream store for ice cream and cold drinks to celebrate

Went back to the camp

Daddy cleaned the fish

Swam and cooled off

Had Hamburgers and chili (J's turn to cook)

Everybody made fun of him for 2:00 hrs. non-stop

Waited till dark

Drove to the beach again to see the Shooting Stars

C Came

Laid on the blanket

Didn’t see as many Shooting Stars

Less normal Stars

J went to bed while others had a campfire

Everybody to bed

Camping at Trinity Lake (Day 3)

Thursday 8/12/2010

Got up

Had breakfast of cereal, milk, and cake

Got in the car and drove down to Stuart’s Fork to Fly Fish

J and D each caught a small trout

Had a great time playing in the water

Came back and had a late lunch of sandwiches (C's turn to cook today)

Decided to go fly fishing at another bridge

No fish caught

Found a great pool to swim in till dark

Came back 

Steak , Ceasor salad, 2005 Stubbs FP wine (C)

Made a campfire

No s’mores

Told stories

Sent J had to cut up an oak tree

Met a carpenter named Jeff who helped with the cutting

Offered him some wood

Used that for the fire

C went to bed early after having a great day

Others went don to the lake to see the Shooting stars

SO MANY STARS OUT THERE

Most in whole life

Laid back on the blankets and watched the light display

AWESOME

J: 30

G: 38

Finally went back to the campsite

Watched part-2 of Old Dogs

Bed

Camping at Trinity Lake (Day 2)

Wednesday 8/11/2010

Got up early

Out of KOA at 7:10

More phone calls and Starbucks

Ended at 9:30

Got a dream catcher

Got dad a camp chair

Headed back to the KOA

Saw the fisherman in Stuart’s Fork

  Decided to go fishing that afternoon

Had Hot Dogs (G's turn to cook today) 

Cleaned up

Drove car down to the beach

Tried fishing

Lost J's fishing pole

Stayed for a long time

Went to the pool

Came back to campsite 

Had beans and sausages for dinner (G's turn!)

Went back to the lake

Stayed till dark

Went back to campsite

Built campfire

Made rest of the s’mores

Lots of talking and joking about food, camping, dirt and smelly tent

Watched Old Dogs Part 1

Went to bed

Camping at Trinity Lake (Day 1)

Tuesday 8/10/2010

Dad up at six

In the car (again) at 7:00 AM

Cruised down to weaverville for cell signal

Dad had phone call for an hour

Kids watched Everybody Hates Chris

Kids had hot chocolate

G and C watch Fantastic Mr. Fox.

Got some ice

Cruised up to Trinity Lake 

40 mi.

Dad made lunch

Good Sandwiches

G didn’t like them

Went walking along the river

Everything was very dusty

Found a bucket

Cricket lost one flip flop

J lost his retainer 

- Uh Oh!

Marked the spot where it was lost with a crossed stick and a pile of white rocks

Spent next 3 hrs. looking into the river for the retainer

Made a chant:

Tick tock 

               flip flop

Hip hop 

               rock to rock

Things found, some things lost

               Dot dot dot

Walked to the lake 

Saw an intertube

Walked to the other fork of the river

C and G went back to camp to go Poop

J and Dad stayed on the river

Daddy and J split up

J and Daddy went back to find G and C

Found them coming out of the woods as J and Daddy went on the road

Went back to river to take one more look for retainer 

Started walking up the river

   Made a bunch of jokes about 'fish with retainers...' 

 

Decided 2:00 hours later to go back to camp

 Had to make our own way, there was no paths here

Found a break in the folige

Went through to find:

OUR CAMPGROUND!!!

Dad made: 

Steak

Corn

    Salad

    fruit with cremefresh

                and had a bottle of 2005 cabernet

J made a couple of arrowheads  :) 

Went out to big outdoor theater - Saw Morgan Fawcett

Native American Indian flute player 

             has a lot of flutes 

             short-term memory loss because of FASD

Started One Heart Creations to help people with FASD

He travels around the USA to play his flute and collect donation for OHC

Made a big campfire

Made lots o’ s’mores

Went to bed

CAMPING AT TRINITY LAKE

Monday 8/9/10 - ROAD TRIP

Came and saw a awesome car in the driveway

Packed up

Left at 1:00 pm

1-hour late

Went into Petaluma

Got oma’s campstove

One last run through safeway

Got panini for lunch 

Played around with the new car technology

Set the ball  in motion by heading north to HWY 12 rather than backtracking south

Headed up through Calistoga

Passed CHATEU MONTELENA

Had to stop !

Saw old faithful Geyser (What??? I thought this was in Wyoming or something! ) 

They planted  bamboo so you have to pay to see it

Came up through central valley

Stopped at a farmer’s market

Intersected HWY 5 

Hit redding at 7:00 pm

Took 45 min. to decide where to stop to eat

Pulled into a family-run  Italian place 

No customers exept for a couple with 1 bottle of wine

Daddy: seafood feticcine

J: ham tortilline

TERRIBLE 

C: Pizza

G: ravioli

Started up the mountain to Weaverville

  Following Iphone instructions

Turned north on HWY 3

Destined for the trinity alps

45 min. later saw signs for KOA

Pulled into wrong entrance

In pitch black,  The Tentmaster (_G!) guided us to set up tent

Pulled sleeping bags into tent

Fell asleep