Ragnar Photos - Another Great Race!!

Pictured here is Team Big Kahunas. The race started in Ventura at approx. 8 a.m. on Friday and 31 hours, 55 minutes, we ended with the whole team running through the finish line at Salt Creek State Beach in Dana Point. Great effort!
Since Nemo is the team mascot, we got a picture of him jumping out of the water at Huntington Beach. He didn't let us down this year.
The Christensen girls did a great job running their legs of the race. . .thanks to Nicky and Ashley (and Nathan) for making the trip from Utah.
Ellie is pictured here with Grammie and Grampie at the start of the race. Way to cheer us on!
The picnic at Salt Creek State Beach was a real highlight. . .the day was lovely and best of all, we were done running the 200.3 mile Southern California Ragnar Relay for 2010. We had the best team in the whole race. . .if not in time, then definitely in spirit.

Wilderness Walk

When Vulcan Materials shut down the City of Duarte's ability to take people up to Fish Canyon Falls on the Wilderness Walk (which had been allowed for many previous years), LA County Supervisor Mike Antonovich secured a helicopter to take Margaret, Congresswoman Judy Chu and Save Our Canyon reps. up to see the destruction caused to the mountains by the mining that has been allowed. We also were able to see all of the run off from Fish Canyon Falls from the air. One of the highlights of the day for Brielle and Gavin was to see the helicopter land and take off.
Gavin was pretty excited to see the "hullah" up close.
Gavin and Brielle watch with their moms as the helicopter was getting ready to take off from Encanto Park.
Margaret and Congresswoman Judy Chu prepare to take off to view the mining and the falls.
The beautiful Fish Canyon Falls from the air.

Easter Weekend, Volume 2

It was a beautiful Saturday before Easter when we went to the Ranch for the Easter Egg Hunt. Annie and Ian are shown here with Vov and Yogi just before the Easter Egg hunt.

All the girls got together for a picture - Nicky, Deirdre, Annie, Erin, Allison, Meg, Elise, Megster, Ellie and Stephanie.

We had a delicious lunch out on the lawn overlooking the ranch and the cattle.

On Easter Sunday, Brad and Margaret got up early to head over to Forest Lawn in West Covina, where the Southern California Mormon Choir sang for the Easter Sunrise Service. The music was beautiful, even though there wasn't much of a sunrise due to the cloud cover.
On our way home from the Ranch, we all stopped to see Bob and Julie Davey and their new home. They were as hospitable as ever and we loved seeing them. Their home is beautiful - just made us realize how much we miss them in Duarte.

Work, Fun and Kids at Morro Bay

We spent the weekend at Morro Bay. . .initially to fix James and Megster's car. But then we saw that the picket fence needed fixing so we started on that. Gavin and Ellie got new sleeping bags so they enjoyed playing in those instead of sleeping in them.

First it was the dogs that played in the planter area. . .and now the kids are taking it over. Elise and Ethan thought it was great fun.

At low tide, we took a break and went out to look for crabs under the rocks. Both Ellie and Gavin liked to hold the hermit crabs in their hands.

We took some of the wood pieces down because of wood rot and replaced them, after priming and painting the trim. We are pretty well done with the fence but are using vinyl this time instead for the pickets.

James and I took the kids to the Salt Water Taffy shop to get Uncle Evan's favorite flavor to send to him. As noted, both Ellie and Gavin have "sampled" some of the taffy while picking out Evan's taffy.

Easter Weekend

We started out the weekend with Breakfast with the Easter Bunny for Rotary. Erin came down for a visit as did Ian and Annie. The little kids liked the breakfast but were a little bit wary of the big rabbit. Then it was off to the ranch for the Easter Egg Hunt.
Gavin got a lot of eggs and immediately opened them to check out the treats. We had to explain that he needed to collect all that he could first and then open them.
Ellie bagged a lot of Easter eggs in the hunt.
Ethan and Elise had a lot of fun playing with the eggs that someone else had collected. They didn't know that there was candy inside of the eggs though.