Thanskgiving - Part I @ the Ranch

 

This Thanksgiving was a little different than previous years b/c of Covid. We decided to spend several days at a ranch in Wickenburg AZ - the girls had a blast learning to ride horses and going out on trail rides lead by wrangles.  Alex, Mardi Gras, Tuxedo, and Rivett our trusty steeds guided us through the desert with ease. The chow was good with three squares a day. A good change of pace and scenery for us while I got to live out my cowboy dreams for a few days.

 

Car ride silliness! 

 

 

We embraced our ranch experience boots, hats, and all!

 

 

 

 

The horses were driven to the Corral in the morning and out to pasture in the evening. We enjoyed watching the ~80 horses on the property run out and back each day.

 

 

At the corral there was always activity as the wranglers would saddle up the horses for morning and afternoon rides, feed, and water them. The girls enjoyed watching the horses and picking out their favorites and their personalities. 

We enjoyed several trail rides. A great way to breath in some fresh air and take in the scenery. Early on in our stay the girls did a 30 min. lesson to learn how to handle their horse and from there they were good to hit the trails. Wranglers would take small groups of 6 to 8 out on 1.5 to 2 hr trail rides.

 

After a long day on the trail we would enjoy a nice diner in our Sunday best.  Leisurely for sure.....on ranch time...they would take ~2hrs!

 

Saturday night they took us out a few miles into the desert for a cookout under the open desert skies for a BBQ. A couple old timey cowboy's entertained about 50 of us with cowboy and folk songs.

 

 

 

I escaped on Sunday afternoon sole and shot some clay targets.....hit 14 out of 25, so not too bad.

Tuesday afternoon we packed-up the car and drove down to Phoenix (stay tuned for part II). 

 

 

 

Halloween

Halloween 2020 - a bit different with Covid but we made the most of it. First, it was a on a Saturday, with a full moon (first in 76 years), and Daylight Savings ending on Sunday morning. 

For costumes this year we went with an Alice in Wonderland theme with Ellie as Alice, Emily as the Cheshire Cat, mom as the Queen of Hearts, and me as the Mad Hatter. 

On our street we essentially had a block party in the ally. Neighbors opened up their garage doors for a trunk-or-treat type of event with garages decorated in different themes and with some games etc. To go with our Alice in Wonderland theme the girls decorated our garage in the spirit of the "painting the roses red" scene complete with some croquet in our side yard with candy for those who could get it through the wickets.

We also walked the neighborhood a bit although maybe only 15%-20% of the houses were handing out candy. Some had gotten very creative using long, downward sloping PVC pipe to deliver candy while being socially distant.

Full moon rising over SoCal.

 

 

 

Costume dress-up with the car pool kids!  

Ellie as Alice: 

 

 

Emily as the Cheshire Cat:

 

 

Silverado Fire

 In 2020 anything can happen including Irvine almost burning to the ground!! Heavy winds Sunday night and Monday caused a fire in the foothills East of Irvine which quickly got out of control. By Monday afternoon a good chunk of Irvine was under a mandatory evacuation. 

Here is Aliso, we were a good 10 to 12 miles from the action but our air quality quickly went south and the sky took on an eerie apocolyptic look. By late Monday and into Tuesday everything smelled like a campfire and ash was falling from the sky.

Luckily very few structures were lost in the fire and over the past few days the fire has been largely contained and put out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ellie Girl Scout Bridging

 

Last week Ellie bridged from a Brownie Scout to a Juniors Scout. The Troop leaders held a nice ceremony to celebrate. They were supposed do this last Spring but with Covid it was delayed. Anyhow, better late than never!

 

 

October Update

 

Girls have been going to school in-person now for a couple weeks and so far so good. For the first time in, well forever, we don't have a daycare option lined-up so the girls are just coming home after school. I am allowed into the office a couple days a week and Darcy is still working from home full time so one or both of us are always home when the girls get back. We have our car pool going full tilt so we really only have to do drop-off / pick-up once or twice a week, which is REALLY nice.

Here is a picture from last week, the first day everyone, was going back in-person. It was a joyous occasion!

 

Ellie had a double header scrimmage out in Fullerton last weekend. It was great to see the girls out playing again, it has been a long time! We played a couple of travel teams, lost both games, but the girls played hard.

Emily is having a couple softball and soccer practices a week. She is trying to learn to pitch, gulp.......Here she is during one of her recent soccer practices (in the blue shirt). I am helping coach both softball teams and Darcy is helping coach soccer......so we are busy but the the girls enjoy being out running around with friends.

With girls going to school and practices it seems like things are slowly getting back to normal......fingers crossed.