Well it has been a very long time since I have posted… I apologize to all the loyal fans of this blog… of whom I am probably the only.

Anyway, life has been amazing and full, so this post will hit the highlights and then I’ll show some quick, and somewhat random photos and go to bed.

Since the last time I wrote-

Lexie was accepted to the Dual Masters Program at Cal State Eastbay. She will begin in the fall getting both a Masters in Family Therapy and a Masters in Counseling…

Lexie began taking 2 prerequisite classes at Diablo Junior College- Personality Theory and “Learning and the Brain”- so she has class 4 days a week (starting today), including class until 10 on Tuesday and Thurdsays… which is why I am sitting here writing this.

Lexie got a sweet new laptop- pictures will no doubt follow

Lexie and Jamie finally got a CAR!!!!!! and its not a Subaru wagon… it’s a 2008 Honda Civic EX… as gas approaches $5 a gallon.. that factor trumped all else… guess in the end we are more practical than anything

Jamie is still working for Competition Policy Associates!!!! Despite what everyone expected I haven’t been fired or gone of the deep end yet!

Now that the big stuff is out of the way, here are some random pictures that may tell a story and may not

As you may have guessed, this is our cat… Caya, or as Lex calls her: our “Itty Bitty Kitty”… let’s just say she’s a member of the family with full voting rights.

This is at Chelsea’s (closest on the left) first bridal shower in Santa Rosa… she is getting Married July 26- Monica (farthest on the right) is getting married 2 weeks later- Lex is clearly the trend setter in this picture.

It was VERY hot in Oakland a few weeks back… our apartment has no air conditioning and Caya was wearing a fur coat… Lex’s solution was to rub Caya down with an ice cube… turns out she LOVED it!

Jessica graduated from UOP and she got a degree in International Relations and Global studies… a department  that was thankfully small enough to have their ceremony indoors… for those of you who don’t know, UOP is in Stockton, and it was VERY hot… although, there were many free popsicles available!

As the picture above demonstrates, the Central Valley can be very beautiful… when its almost dark.

This was the Celebration of Matt Griebel’s 21st Birthday! (hence the centrally positioned booze)… what a good looking family huh?

This was an dance exhibition that was part of the San Francisco arts festival that Lex and I went and saw in Union Square… it was like dancing and climbing… also the man proposed to the woman at the end of this set.

PS- she accepted!

THis is a picture of Caya (and Lexie’s legs) playing…

A sunset on the drive up to Sonora

Matt Griebel climbing up “Wing of Bat” at the Grotto… shortly after we were both urinated on by a bat… good times

This is Lexie, Chelsea, and Jen at Chelsea’s 3rd wedding shower (the second was a lingerie… those pictures are not displayed here for obvious reasons). Lex and her mom planned and threw this shower, and it sounds like it was amazing! Go Team! (Matt and I went climbing)

I make a token appearance on this posting playing miniature golf in Twain Harte!

In case you had any doubts, Lexie is looking more gorgeous than ever.

The end!

Well, it was a week or so ago now… but I just wanted to memorialize the trip that Lex and I took to Reno… we found a car online that we thought was THE car for us… it was low miles, good shape, and super affordable… only problem was, we found it on Sunday evening… oh yea, and it was in Reno. By the time we talked to the dealer where it was at, we didn’t have enough time to make it to Reno before the dealer closed… The next day, the clouds parted for Jamie at work, and he got the go ahead to take the afternoon off… he called the dealer and made an offer below the already rock bottom price… shooting for the moon and expecting a rejection Jamie was shocked when his offer was accepted!

 This was too good to be true, so Jamie got of at 2 and we drove up to Reno… well Lexie drove… Jamie spent the whole time on the phone with insurance companies trying to get a decent rate on insurance… finally we arrived and saw the car… turns out it wasn’t an Outback Sport… but only a normal Impreza… which we decided fairly quickly that we didn’t want… and the deal we thought we were getting was actually only good not mindblowingly amazing… we went to In-N-Out Burger to talk it out, and before Jamie finished his double-double it was decided that we would be leaving Reno sans a new car…

On the plus side we went to Sierra Trading Post on the way out of town and Jamie got some running shoes… so all-in-all… not a bad trip… 7 hrs of driving for a good burger and running shoes (with no sales tax).

As we drove all over the Valley and the SoCal desert, we encountered much of the native wildlife….

Well, The trip was almost two weeks ago now, but we’re nothing if not busy. Matt Beardsley rented me a Canon 30D… do I got to shoot with an Digital SLR all weekend… now I need one… Nonetheless,I’ve put a couple of highlights on this main page, but there are more in the image gallery here… so Enjoy!

Here we are after our first night of camping in Many months….

Here some purple flowers (as you can see we learned all the scientific names) and Lake Isabella and the desert in the background…

A random beautiful valley we drove through…

This is my beautiful wife…. with Red Rock State Park….

And the star of the show Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve…

It was really windy when we were there, so the poppies weren’t open, so we lost some of the color… but still pretty nice.

And some flowers posing with Lexie…

For More see the Gallery Here!

I don’t have time to post more pics… but I will later… for now here are 3 panoramas from our trip to SoCal to see wildflowers… click on the images to see the FULL SIZE panoramas.

Well, despite popular opinion, the reason for not updating this blog is not that our lives have become boring… instead, the inactivity on this site is do to our large amount of activities… all of which take priority of me sitting in front of the computer and typing… nonetheless, Lexie is taking a nap before we go to a church event, and we got some pretty fun pictures over the past little bit so I figured I’d throw up an update… First off we have gone to 2 pretty sweet weddings in the past 3 weeks… Scott and Nataly Peterson’s 2 weeks ago in St. Helena, and Russell and Erin Johnston’s last night in Lodi. Both had receptions at wineries, and both were boatloads of fun.

Here’s Scott and Nataly… Scott was one of Jamie’s best friends all through elementary school- a true MLAJAite… click the pic to check out their website!

Here are Jamie, Troy, and Scott… child hood friends… known as the Three Musketeers… after the famous trio of the same name.

I didn’t get any bride and groom pics at Erin and Russell’s Wedding, but here’s some other random pics

Monica, clearly stoked to be here

Matt Beardsley… in his professional capacity!

And here are Lex, Chelsea, and Monica

Another one of those feisty deer that are taking advantage of the safety provided by our national park. Lady (Mullins’ dog) is in the lower corner looking tough, deer is in the upper corner looking quizzical, and mildly amused. (Image Courtesy of Chris Mullins Photography)

Here we are with the always Handsome (and beautiful in Laurie’s case) Beardsleys (Courtesy of Chris Mullins Photography)

This is the quaint little cabin we get to stay in.. (Courtesy of Chris Mullins Photography)

The Merced River in Winter (Courtesy of Chris Mullins Photography)

The Meadow across the street from the cabin (Courtesy of Chris Mullins Photography)

One more stunningly gorgeous winter scene (Courtesy of Chris Mullins Photography)

Well we spent last weekend up in Yosemite with the Mullins parents and our good friend Matt and Laurie Beardsley and their 4 month old son Josiah.

We made it up at like 11 on Friday night (we were delayed because Matt was helping me buy the components to build us a new computer at Fry’s… where he works) (and also the snow that delayed us too). We had to put chains on at the park entrance, but had pretty smooth sailing all the way. We were able to take Matt and Laurie to In-N-Out for the first time… which is always an amazing thing to be able to share with people.

Saturday was overcast, but not too cold up in “our” little cabin in the Valley. Dr. Mullins saw one patient while we were up visiting, and it turned out to be the only patient he saw all week (to be fair though, he saw the patient at 3:30 in the morning). Nonetheless, there was much hanging out and relaxing. We took a walk, and a bunch of Asian tourists got all excited about Lady (my folks’ old dog)… it was great.Here we are in front of Yosemite Falls, and they want to take pictures with the dog… I on the other hand snapped a picture of the falls.

On this walk we also saw a bobcat, which was pretty cool. Made it seem like we were really in a national park.

Well, all day Saturday Lexie was wishing for snow… and the forecasts seemed to be indicating that she would get her wish.

It started snowing Sat afternoon, and kept at it all night… by Sunday morning there was a bit of accumulation. Here’s the Camry on Sunday morning.

We had scrapped the snow off the truck to put down the bags we’d carried down.We don’t actually have an automatic truck de-icer. yet

Thankfully we were able to get out (we had left the chains on, and had a shovel… and the Camry is a CHAMP)

Here we are on the drive out…

Besides being inconvinient, the snow was also beautiful.

Here’s the Bridalveil Falls (just a trickle)

And here’s El Cap, with a bit of a cloud veil. It’s been great to be able to go up to Yosemite in all the different seasons to visit the folks… now we’re looking forward to Spring!

We are proud to introduce (for the second time on this blog) our wonderful cat… who now has a name!

CAYA!!!

She is named after Volcan Pacaya in Guatemala, which is the erupting volcano that Lexie and I visited while we were there. Please see images below and note resemmblence…

   

And so our cute little kitty got her name.