Mountain Cabin - Part 4

Need to do a little catch up here. Yesterday morning Catie and I got up early and headed back into Big Bear to do some caching. Most of the caches involved a bit a hiking. Catie was my little eagle eye this morning. The first two finds Yikes and Discovery Center Kach she was the one who found them. The cammo on these was really good. We finished up by stopping at Starbucks for coffee and hot chocolate. It was a fun one on one morning for the two of us.

We spend the afternoon playing board games and watching DVD’s on our portable player. I’ve really enjoyed not having TV, radio or the internet this week. We have focused our energy on being together and enjoying each others company. There have been many laughs and hardly any tears... and those were from laughing too hard!

As we finish up our breakfast and begin packing up, I can’t believe our week hear is over. Time truly does fly when you are having fun. I can’t help but be reminded of the amazing blessing that Chris and the kids are in my life. They make me complete.

Mountain Cabin - Part 3

Got up early this morning and was on the road by 7:00am for a few hours of caching. I was able to find 8 in the Big Bear area. The north shore area of the lake is much more quiet and laid back than the south shore which is were all the tourists and skiing are located. I got back to the cabin just in time for lunch with the gang. After lunch we took a nice hike around Green Valley Lake and were able to grab a quick cache along the way. In honor of Nik we had burgers and fries followed by a relaxing evening of movies.

Mountain Cabin - Part 2

Slept is late this morning, the gang didn’t really get started with breakfast until after 9:00am. I got out for an hour of caching after breakfast. After lunch we headed into Big Bear Lake to see the movie Cheaper by the Dozen 2. We all enjoyed the show. After a bit of shopping we set out to find firewood for the night’s fire. In my effort to save some money I visited several places and ultimately had two of my options close before I could go back and make my purchase. Finally, I ended up spending $12 for two puny little bundles of wood. So much for trying to save money!

Now that the fire I going, we are enjoying a nice game of Scrabble with Alex, Catie and I. We also enjoyed reading the guest journal. One in particular was pretty funny. Here is an excerpt.

The snow continues to pile up outside. Our stores ran out five days ago, and we subsist by consuming the occasional spider and rationing our one remaining role of fruit flavored Certs. Each time I look at Joanna she appears more like a meal than a person. I fear this will be our last entry as I no longer have the strength to write…but seriously…we had a wonderful time at your cabin and offer our deepest thanks for the scope of your benevolence.
- Sunday July 6, 2003

Of course this is tongue in cheek as in July it was probably 80 degrees. We are here at the end of December and it is 55 degrees during the day and 35 degrees at night. We had hoped to find some snow to ski in, but no luck this trip.

Mountain Cabin - Part 1

We arrived in Green Valley Lake last night just after dark. This was our first look at the cabin we had rented, and we were pleasantly surprised. Judging from the construction and the décor I’d have to say it was built sometime in the late 50’s or early 60’s. The main level includes the living room, dining room kitchen, bathroom and one bedroom with two single beds. There is also a loft that has a queen bed. The décor is rustic, but it fits in very nicely with the community of Green Valley Lake, very quite and laid back, not like the mad house that Big Bear is this time of year.

Today we spent the morning relaxing. Alex and Catie spent part of the morning collecting kindling for our fire tonight. I spent several hours learning how to use my new Garman 60cs GPS receiver. I got it all set up and also entered the 38 cache waypoints I had printed out for the area. Alex and Catie spent the morning playing Animal Crossing on their Nintendo DS. It’s pretty cool, they connect to each others DS via Wi-Fi so they can play the game together at the same time.

After a yummy lunch of tortilla soup we headed into Big Bear Lake to do some caching. We did a total of six caches, with no DNF’s, which is always great. Chris did all but one of them with me. I really enjoyed having her with me. I think I’ve turning her around a little bit on the whole caching thing! After caching we had a nice dinner at Sizzler. The night ended with us watching DVD’s on my laptop with a great fire warming our cabin.

Christmas Eve

It's mid afternoon on Christmas eve. The decorations are up, gifts are all wrapped, the Christmas cards are finally in the mail. Chris is at the grocery store buying the final ingredients for Christmas eve dinner. We will be heading to Grace Baptist Church at 4:00pm for Christmas eve service. It's not our usual church, but Grace is a bit more traditional. Traditional is not what I want for a home church, but on Christmas eve it's kind of nice. Chris is kind of sad that we are not going to be celebrating Christmas with our family in WI this year, especially since we have been there three of the last four years. She is being a trooper though. We keep reminding ourselves that even though this is not our ideal Christmas, we need to make it special for the kids. We are making the memories they will have for the rest of there lives, so we need to make this good ones! Catie has inspected every package under the tree, comparing all of her's to her wish list, trying to figure out what could be in each package. She has related that several of them have her stumped. That's good I tell her. That way it will be more fun to open them! The WI clan are all meeting for Christmas eve at my brother Daves house. That is what I miss the most living out here during the holidays is being with the whole clan. We always have such a great time. I'm praying for a safe Christmas for all of us, near and far. Also that our soldiers over in the Middle East are safe and that they are able to have a meaningful Christmas even though they are far from family and loved ones.

Christmas Greetings 2005

From our family to yours, we bring you Christmas greetings and holiday cheer. As always our year has been filled with many blessings and opportunities. As many of you may know, my Dad has found a sole mate. He and Bonnie Basting where married on April 2nd this past year. The two of them are very happy together and we are grateful they found each other.

We had several fun travel adventures this year. We spent a week in Wisconsin, primarily for Dad and Bonnie’s Wedding. We were also able to include an overnight in Door County, a first for Chris and the Kids. Our summer road trip took us to four California National Parks, Sequoia, Kings Canyon, Yosemite, Lake Tahoe and Devils Postpile. Chris also had a trip to Wisconsin for Cookie Lee. She was able to spend time with many of our family and friends. Our final trip was to Tucson, AZ as part of our Thanksgiving Holiday week with Dad and Bonnie.

Chris is doing very well with Cookie Lee Jewelry Co. She was promoted to Sales Director this year and has 29 sales reps in her down line. She loves the fact that she can have a rewording career that allows her to put the kids needs first and still provides an income. What a blessing. Chris is still putting her culinary skills to good use entertaining family, friends and her Cookie Sisters.

Nik is now 16 and a Junior at Golden Valley High School. He loves to learn and is a sponge of knowledge. Need to know any obscure fact, don’t ask Jeeves, Ask Nik instead! He is still big time into trains, and loves to travel on our family road trips. He is now lobbying hard to visit New York City, or as Nik would say, The Big Apple. We don’t have our 2006 travel plans set, but rest assured Nik will be there when we go!

Alex is now 14 years old and Freshman also at Golden Valley High School. His biggest passion in NFL Football, with the Jacksonville Jaguars being his favorite team. One of his highlights this year was seeing the Jaguars play the Arizona Cardinals in Phoenix over Thanksgiving weekend. Grandpa and Uncle Keith joined us. The Jaguars won, in a close and exiting game, even though Grandpa and Keith were cheering for the Cardinals...the nerve!

Catie turned 10 in May and is a 5th grader at Fair Oaks Elementary. She continues to be very involved in the Santa Clarita Ballet Company. This year she also got involved in our community theatre company. She played the role of Gatekeeper in their production of The Wizard of Oz in June. The group did a second Oz in the fall where Catie was in the ensemble cast in 5 different numbers. She is also a regular anchor person for the Falcon Television Network (FTN) the schools morning video announcement. She is quite the little performer.

I’m now coming up on 22 years at Quad/Graphics. I can’t believe it, the time has gone so fast. My friend Tom Ayres and I made our annual pilgrimage to Indianapolis for the USGP again this year. I’m still active in photography and Geocaching. Chris gave me a new GPS for my birthday, so look out Dave and Duane!

In closing, I want to thank my sister Julie, cousin Dana and Dad and Bonnie for visiting us over the past year. It means a lot to have family in the house, we truly appreciate it. Gods blessings to all of you. Praying for peace in our time. Happy Holidays!

45, That's not Old!

I celebrated my 45th birthday yesterday. I received several wonderful gifts from my loving family, including Disk Golf Disks, a Disk golf bag and A NEW GPS! I am soo spoiled I can't stand it. Chris and the kids made me a yummy breakfast of French toast (or as Dubya would call it...Freedom Toast) and sausage, a cheese cake birthday cake, orange juice and coffee. Delicious! I followed breakfast by watching the amazing Packers pull defeat from the jaws of victory. What a shame that Brett is going to end his amazing career on such a low note. I still think he should continue to start. No way Aaron Rogers does any better with the current level of talent. After the game we all went out and did some Geocaching. We went 4 of 4, in including finding Mr Ski's Chi Chi cache, one that I had DNF'd on three other attempts. Thanks to Nik for his eagle eye on finding this one! It was a nice sunny day with crystal blue sky. It was however extremely windy which made the 62 degree high seem much colder. We had a great time, being together. I think Chris even had fun. Could it be I'm converting her after all these years? Finally, we ended the day with dinner at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants, El Presidente. I was a wonderful day, Thank you to my lovely bride and children for making it special.