Shawn and family visit from Colorado Springs

Shawn and family (Jesse, Jenna, Shanna) flew in from Colorado Springs for a visit with us and to attend Grandma Jackson's 90th birthday celebration. They arrived Thursday afternoon and while here we spent Friday at Magic Mountain, Saturday at the Cabin and Sunday in Riverside celebrating grandma's birthday. Here are several pictures taken during their visit.

Bracken Joins the Athletics

Bracken is playing with the Athletics this year. Here are some pictures of his fielding, throwing and batting capabilities.

Playday in the snow

Stephanie, Matt, Bracken, Camden, Ainsley and their neighbors Christine and Baylor drove up Saturday to for a long, almost overnight visit at the cabin to play in the snow left by the most recent storm. When I mentioned almost overnight, I'm referring to the amount of time it took Matt to get out of our ice covered driveway. Here are some pictures showing the amount of snow at the cabin and of everyone at play; a short video as well.

Jacob tries his luck at fishing

Jacob, our oldest grandchild at 13 wanted to go to the cabin to play in the snow and maybe do some fishing. We first drove to Fern's Lake near the golf course where the grandchildren have fished before, but found it still covered in ice. We didn't have much luck finding soft snow for play either and almost got stuck trying to park on an icy shoulder just off the road to Mount Pinos. We decided to try our luck fishing at the lake in Frazier Park, but no luck there either. We drove back to the cabin where Jacob devoured multiple bowls of clam chowder. Jacob did learn the mechanics of fishing and became very proficient at casting. Jacob also showed us how great he was at playing Yars Revenge on our Atari 2600 (a new gaming system scheduled to be released in early 2010)

Christmas 2009 Decoration Highlights

Back to two trees this year; one traditional and one SciFi. The SciFi tree is decorated with Star Trek and Star Wars ornaments from the Hallmark Christmas ornament collection. Both Star Trek and Star Wars ornaments are complete series (every ornament issued) and date back to 1991. Bracken and Camden, with help from Grammie, carefully placed each ornament on the tree.

The traditional tree now includes Mom's collection of Ty Beanie Baby Teddy Bears.

Grammie (Joyce) painted the Nativity scene approximatly 30 years ago.

Decorating the Cabin for Christmas

Bracken, Camden and Ainsley help decorate the cabin for Christmas. We got 10" of snow 5 days earlier (Sunday/Monday) but the rain washed most of it away by this weekends trip.

Stealth CAM

I recently changed position of our outdoor stealth CAM and this is what was captured.

Annual Pictures of our Grandchildren (Rowley's)

This year Brent and Melinda's family photos are pictured...from left to right are: Noah, Paige, and Jacob.

Annual Pictures of our Grandchildren (Dahlberg's)

This year Shawn and Jeff's family photos are pictured...from left to right are: Jenna, Jesse, and Shanna.

Annual Pictures of our Grandchildren (Hay's)

Each year around Christmas time we receive pictures of our grandchildren. This year Stephanie and Matt's family photos are pictured...from left to right are: Brackcen, Ainsley, and Camden.

Let's Go Fishing

Since returning from their vacation at the Sacramento River Delta, Bracken and Camden have been asking when they can go fishing at the cabin again. Well, this weekend was the perfect opportunity as their cousin Noah had a special opportunity to spend 3-4 days with Pop and Grammie while his brother Jake was away at camp and his sister Paige went shopping with Mom. We headed out Saturday morning to pickup Bracken and Camden and arrived at the cabin around 9:00 AM. I rigged up 3 fishing poles, grabbed some bait and off we went to the PMC fishing hole. We were on a mission to catch some catfish. This was Bracken and Camden's second fishing trip with Pop and was Noah's first; all 3 were excited. Our first fishing outing the year before lasted about 10 minutes (short attention span) but this outing produced more excitement (3 boys) and last slightly over 30 minutes. The boy's got several bites...from fish, not mosquitoes but didn't land the big one everyone was hoping to take home. All in all everyone had a lot of fun. We went back to the cabin for lunch and playtime and then headed home. I'm sure they will be talking about the fish trip for sometime to come. Hopefully the next fishing trip will produce FISH.

Dahlberg's at the cabin planting tree

Grandchildren planting trees at our cabin in PMC has become a tradition. Jesse and Jenna planted pine trees at the cabin during their 2005 visit. This year Shanna planted her tree. You can see that Shanna and her tree are about the same size. Jesse and Jenna pointing out just how much their trees have grown (see before and after pictures below).