The show, and the Snow

Saturday started off with The girls and I going to the international motocycle show in Long Beach Convention center. We picked up Kelly, and made our way up to LA. 2hrs.
All the manufacturers were there with their new models, and all kinds of vendors, and exibitors with there new products, and liquidating their old products. The girls got all kinds of stickers, sat on bikes, and watched a streetbike stunt show. Kelly and I got our eyes filled with other eye candy as well.



Sunday morning was a break in the rain. We loaded up the trunk, and we took Kelly, and went to the Cuyamaca mountains outside of San Diego. It is about a 45min drive, and we were in snow!
We took a few pictures, threw a few snowballs, and drove to a lake resort and got a cup of hot chocolate. We drove to the Indian reservation, where there is a outlet mall. bought a few items. We had to.. its Kims law! Had some dinner at the Casino, at the outletmall/ Casino. and we made our way home







My first snowball in years

Chino Hills Holiday Classic

We had another overnight tournament this past weekend. IT was cold! The Chino Hills Holiday Classic. was almost rained out, but the facility has artificial turf. This stuff is top of the line stuff. The pouring rain had minimal effect on it.during the day it was 50-55 deg., and when the sun went down, it dipped to 35 deg.. We bundled up, used heaters and blankets. We could see snow in the mountains just north of us about 10-15 miles away. The 14u team that I coach, and 'A' plays on, made it to the semi finals, where we met a very strong team from Cerritos, and lost 9-1. We tried everything, but just couldn't hit the ball. The 10u team met some girls that were obviously overaged, and outsized us. The 10's gave everyone they met, the best they could, but when you are playing teams from Orange county, lets face it, they are the best in the U.S. which makes them the best in the world. Softball is done for now. we will take about 1-2 months off, and we are going to try to go riding, and do some golf. We got the Christmas lights up on Monday, but I did not get any pictures yet.

We are the Champions!

What a great Thanksgiving Day weekend we had.
We went out to Las Vegas for the Annual T-giving classic Softball tournament. Every year we finish aroiund .500 win vs. loss. This was also the first year that Mira Mesa had a 10u team for the little ones. The 10u team is new, and had a large learning curve., But 'S' hit for the cycle ( a single, double, tripple, and home-run) her home run was hit very far, and recieved a huge ovation. She played 2nd base very well, and even turned a double play.

The 14u team Which I coach, and 'A' plays on, had a great weekend. We had 2 wins, and a tie on Saturday, and @ wins on Sunday to win it all A' was aable to pitch quite a bit, and did very well. She also played shortstop. She batted well, and is showing a lot of power in her hitting. We had a nail-biter of a game for the Championship against Pico Rivera, we led 5-0, the they tied it up 5-5, then we squezed in 2 runs by bunting, to lead 7-5. 'A' was the pitcher for the first 4 iniings, and was taken out. Our relief pitcher was hit in the face by a one-hop shot, and it took her out of the game. Amber came back in, and two girls hit hard off of her, and we caught them out in the outfield, to seal the win.
It was a glories win that I am still high from. The girls played great, and were sooo happy. here are some pictures:
















We had one poor young girl pitching, and the batter drove a ball back, and drilled her after it bounced once, and she went down, and needed attention for her contusion. check out the lump:

Overnight in the Desert

We finally took the whole family for an overnight trip to the Desert. More specifically, the sand dunes of Glamis Ca. It is a recreational area of thousands of acres of san dunes. It was a busy weekend, with about 40k - 50k people. The camping areas were very full, and the dunes were not too bad. We stayed with a great group of people from our softball community. Some family's had trailers, campers, RV's, and tents. We set up a tent, that was designed for warm weather camping ( such as the desert). The only problem with that is that it can get very cold at night in the desert. There were a few drawbacks, too many people, dust, noise, one of our quads broke down, got cold at night.
On the plus side, Kim came out with us.
The riding was great.
The kids were able to learn lots of riding techniques in the sand, and the sand hills. We had a veriety of vehicles to ride, and share. Quads, dune buggies, motorcycles, a razor, and a jeep.

We rode out to a big sand hill named "Oldsmobile" and the girls had never seen something so big, and they were able to get on some quads, or motorcycles that were strong enough to make it up. Both "A" and "S" went up the hill by themselves. Yahoo!
Here are some pictures:

Halloween 2007

The fires have died down. The Harris fire To the South, and East of San Diego, is 100% contained. So it was safe to go out trick or treating. "A" dressed up as little miss Muffet, and "S" was a pirate girl.





















Kim like every year went as a witch. :)


















The dog even got into the spirit.

Fire and Desert

Well at the end of the week the fires started to disapate, but the skys were still red, and yellow. got a picture of the sunset.


















We decided to get out of the heat and the dust of the fire,...... and go out to the desert to get away. The girls got to ride two quads that we borrowed. They had a good time, but riding the quads was a learning experience. "S" had one rough little get off, but the quad never tipped over, and she try to bail off only to get her legs hung up, and she had to ride it out. Quite frankly she was a little scared, but it Looked funny. She is a tough cookie. she got right back on, and off we went.
Here she is doing a photo op.

still under fire

Not much better today. We have had a few friends evacuated. We wish them the best of luck (Thomas' , Fischer')
Just a few more pictures to let you know what it looks like. The Stadium is an evacuation center. You can see the smokie haze/ overcast in the background. Some nieghborhoods are surrounded by fire. We have lost 1,000 houses, or bussiness'.

San Diego is ablaze

We were trying to figure out what we were going to have for dinner tonight. I suggested we just go outside with a couple of hotdogs on a stick.












Yesterday (Sunday) a few fires started, and by nightfall the skies all over San Diego were smoke filled. They are saying this is bigger then the Crest fire 5 years ago. We step out of our house and it smells like a bonfire was extinguished. While driving from north County down to our house ( about 24 miles) the headlights were all yellow, and visibillity was poor. Not much has changed this morning. The 15 freeway is shut down, entire cities/ communities are being evacuated over 250,000 people have been evacuated. I will try to get some more pictures up later, but they also want people to stay off the streets, and off the cell

Well, Another busy weekend. We made some progress on the shed. Dallas came up, and we put the walls up, the roof on ( what a pain that was). 'S' and 'A' helped, and we even managed to get some siding up. We finished the weekend by putting some shingles on.
Both 'A' and 'S' had games this weekend. Unfortunatly 'A' hurt her back and saw limited play time. 'S' got a few hits in her game, her hitting is developing well.






Here are some of the girls playing ball( 'A' had hurt her back, and didn't play much, and hit ok) here is 'S'
















And 'A' with her hit:



















here are some pictures:
showing progress we are adding the roof






















putting up the walls:

Weekend games

Both "A" and "S" played this weekend, and Both had double headers ( two games back-to-back against the same team) and they both went 1 and 1. "S" had some errors that did not start her day off well, but she Did get a great hit over the second basemans head for the only hit of the game, and the only RBI ( she drove in a run) they won the second game, but "S" did not have any highlights.
"A" had got on base almost everytime she went to bat, and got a tripple. She pitched the Second game, and That is the game they won. I only got pictures of "A"....

Back yard shed

I gathered up some boards to help build our backyard shed. Kim's Dad came to the rescue for the remainder ( which turned out to be ther bulk of it) We made two Home Depot runs, and we still aren't done. We started by setting some cement piers in the ground ( we will call it ground for this article, but it is mostly just a bed of rocks) we cut 2x6's pressure treated boards to the size of our deck frame, and then nailed in cross beams. We had to do some re-squaring of the frame, but we finally got the deck boards on.











Then we started on the walls.

First day of school 9/4/2007

The girls curled their hair, bought some new clothes, and shoes. They got their schedules, and headed off to get their learnin on.

Labor Day weekend

We went to the beach over the weekend, 3 times. Once at night, and twice during the day. The beach was very crowded, but it was a bit cooler then the inland areas. On Sunday, we took The dog to Ocean beach which is a "Dog friendly beach" She had a good time swimmng, running, and sniffing. The kids found a baby leopard shark, that was dead. It was about a foot long. We also went truck shopping, and The kids did some last minute school shopping.
We met up with Freddie, and Virgie who were in town for the weekend. We went out for BBQ ribs, and went to the beach, and the women got some Temporary Henna Tattoo's.

Sleepover

"A" had a end of summer sleep over. They set up some tents in the back yard, and roughed it. They had an extension cord leading to the tent, and watched a scary movie til the wee hours.
I will add a picture tonight.

Rock crawling in the mountains Jeep Jam

We left early Sunday morning, and "S" and I went with Big Eric, and his faithful Jeep TJ ( nicknamed the little Jeep that could).
We met up with some friends of his. They really had some decked out jeeps ( lift kits, big tires, winch's, you name it)
Here is a picture as we gassed up for a ride through a mountain trail called "Bronco Peak".



















It is about an hour east of San Diego, at about 3,600ft elev. We made our way tpo the begining of the trail where another Jeeper asked to join us. He made a comment that Eric's jeep was not tall enough, or robust enough to make it through the trail, and its unforgiving terrain. As it turns out we made it up rocky hills that him and others got stuck on, and had to be winched off.













I found out that sometimes you get by with clearance, and some time it is better to be a great driver. We aslo had a narrower wheel base that helped, and a lower center of gravity.
My daughter "S" had a great time, and was quite patiant. she took pictures, and jumped out and help spot the trail. And she got very dirty.
Here is a picture of some trails:
























Here is a picture of Sidewinder,















and the climb that the little jeep got through:















and the big jeep got stuck: