Warm Wishes from Santee, CA!

 At the first sign of a warm day, Elena does not hesitate to ask for her pool.

 It was a little chilly for pool time, in my opinion.  Oh, to be a child again!!

Elena had a blast!

Landscape Update, Phase 2

Our fruit trees arrived!

The trees arrived while I was battling the stomach flu.  So they sat in their box for a week until my parents were insistent to get them into the ground. Thanks Mom and Dad!

 Initially we thought we would use hard wire cloth to cover the bottom and sides of the holes to protect the trees from gophers.  After pricing out the cloth--it was way too expensive.  Instead I ended up purchasing gopher baskets.  This is how we ended up with a trench.

 Mom and Dad trenched through the soil and hardpan so the trees could be planted.

 A little soil amending.  Our soil was barren, hopefully mixing in some healthy soil will help these little trees grow strong and provide us a bountiful harvest of fruit.

 Little helper, watering.

We have mulch to put over these roots to help protect from frost and keep the roots moist.  

I'll be mulching the trees soon!

Snow in Palm Springs

After giving my parents a quick tour of San Diego, revisiting areas they have already seen, we took them over to Palm Springs.

It took nearly 2 hours to drive to Palm Springs.  It was a chilly morning but everyone was excited to ride the tram to the top of the mountains.  Carl, Elena and Papa waiting for our tram.

Here comes our tram!  Look, snow at the top of the mountain!!

Walking with Grandma down the trail...to find our own patch of snow to play in :)

Making a snow ball!

Gotcha, Papa!

I'm going to get you, Elena!

More snow balls!!

Snow is so much fun!

Especially when you get to throw it at each other.  

Look at the glee on their faces just after clobbering Papa.

Grandma Rae Grammy (Elena renamed Grandma) and Papa

This is the best I could do for a group picture.  Elena was not interested :(

The sun was a bit bright but gorgeous!

Cold, wet...all done.

Budding photographer at lunch.

Checking out the valley (Palm Springs) below us, far, far below us!

The view below.

Another try at a group shot...Elena, Elena, Elena.

Taking the tram down with her new friend, the Great Horned Owl.

Happy New Year!

 My parents flew in to watch Elena during her winter break.  Unfortunately, I didn't feel good most of December and came down with the stomach flu the day after they arrived.  After a few quiet, rainy, COLD days, we left the house.

 We went up to Mount Soledad for fantastic views of the ocean and city.

 Mount Soledad is a local monument for soldiers.  

There are thousands of plaques surrounding this cross.

 Then we headed down to the Children's Pool to watch the seals, pelicans, waves....we hoped to see whales, maybe next time. 

After lunch we drove over to Cabrillo National Monument.  There are spectacular views from the top.  We drove down to the tide pool overlook hoping to get a glimpse of whales.  There were a lot of boats, not so many whales.  Elena had fun climbing the rocks.