Captain Vestal

2013 brought us exciting news that our Son-in-Law had been promoted to the rank of Captain in his Fire District!!

 

We are so proud of him and grateful that he is a dedicated Husband and Daddy...

 

Best of luck to him in his new assignment !

 

 

Merry Christmas 2012

  ~ Sending you all the very warmest of holiday wishes ~

 

This year I am fortunate to have my family together for four full days

beginning the day after Christmas.

 

May you all be blessed with a wonderful holiday season!!

 

♥ - Harlow 11 months ♥

Sweet Harlow is now up and mobile, enjoying her new home

in Roseville with her Mommy & Daddy...

 

She loves having her very own kitchen drawer and playing peek-a-boo!

 

Much time is spent emptying and refilling pots, bowls and drawers.

 

♥ Harlow - 9 months & 10 months ♥

Baby girl is growing like a weed!

 

She is walking now, and is showing us all her independence early...  Her teeth are continuing to come in and she loves to clap and play peek-a boo!!!

♥ Harlow - 7 months & 8 months ♥

Our 'baby' granddaughter is growing much too fast...

Harlow is now sitting, crawling and standing on her own, she is SO close to walking :-)

7 months

8 months

Seattle!!!

We recently travelled to Seattle to visit Son and Daughter-in-Law ~

It's always a pleasure to visit family and the beautifully green State of Washington!!! 

This trip was made more special by it being our granddaughters first airplane ride. 

Baby girl slept most of the flight and arrived with smiles!!

We all enjoyed having everyone together, it had been 6 months

since Uncle Bubba had seen his niece and Aunt Little Feet

hadn't seen her since she was two weeks old!!

Baby girl immediately took to her Uncle, who had her laughing all week ♥

For the last three years part of the family has participated in a

half marathon/marathon in the Seattle area. 

This was my 5th half marathon this year and

brings my lifetime total of half marathons to 12!!!

We were fortunate enough to catch the Dale Chihuly display ~ 

Trust me when I say if this display comes to a city near you GO.SEE.IT!!!

Absolutely fabulous display of glass blowing genius...

After 31 years and 4 trips to Seattle, SIL (PC) finally visited the Space Needle!!

Our visit came to a close following a backyard BBQ

with several of our Seattle 'family' in attendance. 

As you can see the Sun made an appearance!!

Uncle Bubba feeding Baby Girl fresh fruit...

Until next time... Goodbye Seattle and all of your lovely greenery ♥ ♥

5 years later and a baby

In celebration of dear daughter and her prince charming marking

 their 5th wedding anniversary and their daughter turning 6 months,

we recently visited the site of their wedding for pictures.

Their wedding photographer Randy of Borel Photography

took some amazing shots and Grandpa and I were humbled

to be included in the shoot!!

Amazing to see our Ohana growing!!!

.**Copyright released to Clent by Borel Photography**

Where have I been...

Yes, I have been missing and trust me I have been busy!

We took a hike in the foothills with daughter, son-in-law and baby girl, her first real hike...  It was a 2 mile hike into the falls with a jog stroller friendly trail until the last 1/4 mile.  We ditched the stroller and carried the baby the rest of the way and were treated with amazing scenery at the falls.

I ran my 1st half marathon (13.1 miles) of the season and have 9 more planned :-) 

This run was our local Shamrock'n run for St. Patricks Day, and is very popular!!  This year the total of runners was 5,600... The run starts at Raley Field, the triple A affiliate to our local MLB team the Oakland A's playing field.  We finish the race by running into the stadium from center field and your finish is broadcast on the big screen!!  We, as runners aren't able to see it, but your friends and family are able to...  Here I am with my co-worker Shelley as we entered Old Town Sacramento.  My daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter surprised me by coming out to cheer us to the finish line!  I finished with a respectable time of 2:31

We have a new car!!!

Dear hubs and I went to the dealership to look at purchasing a used car and came home with a 2012 Acura TL, my dream car...  She is a beauty and has so many bells and whistled and I feel so blessed to have her.

Ran my 2nd half marathon of the season!!

This was my first time running the River City half and almost thought we would be running it in the rain.  It rained all night the night before and on our drive to the venue.  Fortunately, by the time we made it to the start line we were able to ditch our garbage bags (which kept us dry and warm) before the gun sounded.  This was a much smaller race, only about 500 runners and we ran a portion of the bike trail that I have never run before.  I felt many times like I was out there alone as we were all so spread out.  Dear daughter & son-in-law finished in 1:53, while I finished in 2:33.

We have been watching this little one grow like a weed!!!  Baby girl is just the sweetest natured little one, she is always smiling and loves to MOVE!!  She loves to kick her feet and is so happy to be standing.  She has a walker that she sits in and is so interested at reaching out to play with all the toys on the walker.  She is definately teething and tries to put everything in her mouth.  As you can see her smile just lights up a room...

and finally, I wanted to share with you the sounds

 that warm our hearts more than I can begin to tell you...

Dear hubs watches babygirl on the days her Mommy & Daddy both work.  Once a month I have been taking a vacation day and going with him.  We have the best time taking care of her and her Grandpa can get her giggling everytime!

I hope you all have enjoyed the first quarter of 2012 as much as we have!!!

The K family

I recently was offered the opportunity to take pictures for my Sister's family.  I am learning and still have so much to learn, but with the help of great subjects and my Sister's prop I think they came out well.

Uncle Tommy's visit

Dear Son came for a visit from Seattle to see his niece.

I get super excited when I see his plane arrive :-)

We put Uncle Tommy right to work feeding the baby...

Next day we hosted a brunch for the family and shared our baked goods ~

Hubs and I had made swedish tea ring and sweet rolls...

Granddaughter Harlow & her 2nd cousin Jake 'performing for the family'

We put the babies in the center of the floor and

they kept everyone entertained for nearly an hour!! 

It was great to see them together :-)

Harlow & her Uncle spent some time watching the NFL playoff game

Uncle Tommy just cracks me up!!!



It was a great visit, always wonderful to have my family together ~ ♥

Uncle Tommy was able to spend quality time with his niece

and we look forward to the next visit!!

Nature Bike Ride

I've been itching to get out and take some nature shots,

so once it warmed up to 40 degrees today we set out on our bikes...

We were in search of some gorgeous wood ducks,

but they were off somewhere else, naturally!

Found some cinnamon teal... Which we don't see much of around here!

Beautiful mallard hen and drake

Crazy way to get a meal :-)

A great white heron 

A cattle egret who had an 'admirer'...

The egret was frightened off by the cat, who was then frightened off by the egrets pals!! 



The little otters were my bonus today!

Saw them swimming around and I was able to catch them playing on the bank near their den...

And finally, my railroad track shot ~  There is just something about them so intriguing to me!



I wish you all a great week -

We are preparing for my Son to visit from Washington this weekend,

which works out perfectly with my Nephew & his wife arriving from Idaho.  

They will be here to meet the newest family member, my other nephew's new son. 

It will be nice to see the cousins all together

and enjoy having the second cousins play too!