Easter on the Dairy

This year we celebrated Easter with our church family on Gramma Jean's dairy.  We've had some great Easter celebrations over the past decade and this year was no exception!  While I got to talk and visit with  friends I see all the time and friends I only see on special occasions, my girls got to live out the dream life of every farm kid...

 They raced pedal tractors around the calf pens and milk house.

 They climbed in with the JUST newborn calves and gave their soft, clean fur a pat.

 They offered their fingers to the calves for sucking.  (Ella has given her entire fist to this particular calf, I was seriously worried she would choke it!)

 They frolicked with Buddy, the Saint Bernard who is as big as they are.

 They helped at feeding time, delivering bottles off the wagon to the hungry calves.

And then there was traditional the Easter Egg Hunt on the lawn and garden.  The amount of candy that came home in the Easter baskets rivals that of Halloween.  We're stocked with chocolate for a while!

Checking out the loot.

When I tucked my girls into bed tonight, about 2 hours past their bedtime because we stayed until dark having so much fun, they were covered in dirt and smelled like cows.  It's not necessarily what I would have ever called "A Perfect Easter" in the past, but now that this is our life, I wouldn't want anything different!

Happy Easter!

All this week I've been telling my little students the story of Jesus and Easter.  As I described a friend's betrayal, an arrest, abuse that made Jesus bleed, a pokey crown of thorns, nails in his hands and eventually his murder, I had to think pretty seriously about all this.  Why in the world was I telling 3 and 4 year olds this terrible tale? The gory details of it are things I would work to protect my students and daughters from in everyday media!  The peace I found in teaching this sad, sad story is, of course, its happy ending.  "It's Friday, but Sunday is coming!" The empty tomb was indeed something to celebrate!  My students showed me they got it when they said things like, "God is more powerful than the bad guys!" or "I believe this story, so I'm going to heaven!"  Once again it hit me anew how this sad story is really the ultimate love story-- a God who is so in love with us, he gives up his own life to repair and maintain a relationship with us, his naughty children.  After experiencing Holy Week in preschool, I know again with certainty that "Jesus Loves Me" and it is my prayer each of my sweet students learned this truth again too.

Jesus loves you too!  Happy Easter, Dear Family and Friends!

Love, Dave, Jen, Ella and Delia

#tbt

Okay, so I'm a little late in getting this on the blog for it actually count as a Throwback Thursday memory, but that's such a catchy title.  Will you pretend with me? ;)

The girls and I had tons of fun looking back at old videos during our day off today.  Though there were many of preschool aged Ella and Delia (same wonderful, adorable age as my beloved students), that melted my heart and brought me a huge smile, this one seemed especially appropriate to share for Easter.  "Jesus died on the cross.  He arose again.  Happy Easter!  Happy Easter!"

Open House/Program

This is one of those posts that is probably not the most interesting to read if you are not a member of our immediate family.  I write it for my own memory preservation.  We had such a lovely time visiting the girls' classrooms, hearing them perform in the annual K-3 program and chatting with their teachers and friends.  What's worth noting about this year's program is that it was Delia's first. since she was so sick last year, and Ella's last, since it ends after 3rd grade.

  

Though I am at school every day, I don't really ever get to help in the girls' classes anymore.  It was very nice to get tours from Ella and Delia and see them proudly show off all their creative work.  Above, Delia reads Dave one of the class books her first grade put together.  Below, Ella poses with her 3-D self portrait.  

The program was fun to watch too!  This year the theme was "Songs from Around the World", so we got to hear our kids sing in French, Italian, Japanese and various African languages.  They were so excited to perform and everyone did a great job. (See if you can pick out Ella and Delia in these group shots.)

And here are some pictures the girls requested that I take of them with their best friends.  I have always prayed that my girls would be surrounded by encouraging piers who would be a good example to them.  I am blessed to see that their closest friends are all sweet gals, whose parents I have enjoyed getting to know also! :)

 Delia and Anika

 Ella and Avery (a new good friend this year!)

 Ella and Emilia

 Ella and Chloe

Ella and Olivia (a little buddy from preschool, who just this year started attending our school.  Ella was thrilled to reunite with this "old" friend!)

Pinnacles NP

For a long time now, Pinnacles National Park has been on my list of places to check out.  Though everything I read about it sounded like a fantastic adventure-- red rock formations reminiscent of those in the Southwest, long hikes through pitch-black bat caves, a natural condor refuge-- its location is just far enough away to put it out of our day-trip range.  So, this Spring Break it was my goal to put together a little getaway that would finally make a trip to Pinnacles possible.  We broke up the driving with a night and second destination by the coast.  This was the perfect way to tackle Pinnacles and a nice grand finale to what has been a really excellent Spring Break. 

In many ways, Pinnacles NP is in the middle of nowhere.  We drove into the park not really sure what we'd get.  But once we parked and started hiking, the impressive red rock monoliths were immediately visible.

In fact, it didn't take long until our hiking path had us squeezing through the red rocks!

The caves were what we were most excited to hike.  I guess there is a pretty significant bat population that makes its home in the Pinnacles caves.  To protect these bats, the caves are only all the way open in the spring.  We timed it right and got to hike the entire cave system, and we didn't have to bump into any bats.  Now, let me just say...we've been in caves before.  You know, those touristy caverns with guides that take groups of people down some stairs and show them funny shaped rock formations.  These caves were not at all like that.  These caves were for real, yo.  Flashlights were definitely required as we navigated rough steps, streams, low hanging rocks and dark tunnels by ourselves.

Let me also just say that the first trip through the caves had the girls pretty freaked out.  They were clinging to us and wishing for it to be over.  When Dave suggested we all turn our lights off and just stand in the dark listening to the waterfall...FORGET IT!  But, later when we had the option of taking a looping path back to the car, or returning through the caves, the girls chose to go back through the caves!  And once we reached the end, they begged to turn around and do it ALL OVER!  So, once again we had some pride that our kids faced an initial fear, but then totally conquered it!

To help us find our way in the dark, the walls were marked with these white arrows.  The girls thought it was a huge adventure to find them and lead us.  They also thought it was pretty hilarious when they could squeeze through crevices that Dave and I had to crawl through.  We adults definitely had our share of scrapes and head bumps!

The end of the cave hike opened up into this beautiful reservoir where we ate our picnic lunch.

Then we walked on a high cliffs trail for about half a mile.  This trail led to some great views of the canyon that the condors supposedly swoop over.  The park ranger told us that the condors are pretty active and not hard to find, but we didn't see any on this day.  Though, when Delia manned the binoculars she was certain every single bird she saw was a condor, even little ones!

It took some driving to get here and some bravery to conquer the trail through the caves, but with each new turn at Pinnacles, Dave and I were just in awe that we have access to some of the most unique and fun hiking we've EVER done.  We already started talking about which adventurous family members will love to come back here some day and see it with us. Anna?  Kyle? :)

Video in the Dark

Just for fun, here's a quick video we shot in the dark in the caves at Pinnacles.  I'm having a hard time describing exactly how cool this hike was, so this is another taste (I'd say "peek", but you can't see anything!).  FYI, this was the third time through, so the girls are okay with turning their flashlights off at this point.

  

By the Sea

As mentioned, we broke up the Pinnacles trip with an overnight by the coast.  A friend recently showed me how I can use my library card to get free tickets to museums all over our state and I am in heaven!  We tried it out for the first time by securing 4 free passes to the Seymore Marine Discovery Center.  Now, having been members at the Monterey Aquarium, my expectations for this small educational facility connected to the University of California were not high.  I thought we'd maybe spend an hour here and feel thankful that our tickets were free.  We were so wrong!  We spent over 3 hours and viewed this stop as a real highlight!

What we loved about this place was having it ourselves.  Dave and I talked about how the aquarium is so huge, you always feel the need to keep moving quickly to see it all.  Since this place had only a fraction of the exhibits and a friendly volunteer at each one to educate us with interesting information, we spent a long time engaging in Q&A and hands-on activity about various ocean animals.

One of the many cool things we got to do here was pet a shark!  We were taught that of the 500 some species of sharks, really only about 5 are dangerous and even capable of biting a person.  The sharks in this tank are nice ones.  They felt like sandpaper.  The girls are excited to tell their friends that they hiked through caves and petted sharks this Spring Break!

We also spent a very long time at the starfish touch pool.  The volunteer here even asked if we'd ever seen a starfish turn itself over.  Um, no we hadn't.  So, she flipped one for us and we sat for 15 minutes watching the starfish do a slow, but fascinating, somersault. (Open the pic below to see it for yourself.)

My favorite is always the octopus and today I fell even more in love with this amazing creature.  He was active today so we watched him traverse his entire tank, changing from bright red to sand color to seaweed color.  He opened all up and showed off his 8 tentacle-y legs and he squished all up into a shell and crawled around looking like a crab.  He is a true master of disguise and to spend a long time watching this great show with no other crowds was quite the treat!

We also took a guided tour behind the scenes and learned interesting things, while visiting with dolphins that are being studied and monk seals that have been rescued (couldn't take any pics of the tanks that hold research animals, though).  After this taste of marine biology, Ella has picked a new college and future career!

We ended our time at the Marine Discovery Center with some otter watching out in the ocean.

Then we spent the afternoon at the cutest beach ever.  It had these colorful little beach houses, and a long wharf to walk down, and an inlet of water that wasn't quite so freezing or wavy to play in, and a whole crowd of friends from our church and school!  It was fun to bump into some familiar faces and visit for a while.

Our beach had a super fun little downtown area to roam around too.  We let the girls pick out a salt water taffy treat for the drive home.

It's only been a week, but we feel like our Spring Break has gone on forever (in a good way), because each day has held something different.  It started with a nice weekend in SF, then 3 days of dinners, playdates and sleepovers with friends, some productivity, plenty of time to read and relax and watch Frozen, and now this mini-vacay.  It's back to life as usual in just a few days, but before we know it, summer will be here!