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:

Renegades arrive in Sacramento

"A" 's team, The San Diego Renegades. earned a berth to the Nationals at the highest level in Softball. The ASA (A) Nationals in Sacramento. It was a 500 mile road trip that the girls and I drove On Sunday morning 7/29/07. After stopping by Merced to see my extended family ( see previous post) we made it to Sacramento. The first day was registration for the girls ( "S" likes hanging out with the big girls):
















That night we stuffed gift bags for the first team we would face. We made gift buckets for them that would give them a taste of San Diego ( our home town) ( the first team we faced, as luck would have it, came from San DIego as well):



















There was a parade of teams for opening ceremonies, and a riual of pin trading:






















The girls got a team picture looked something like this:


















and the other version looked like this:




























The girls won there two pool games, "A" got to play in one of them. She hit the ball to left field for an out, and she struck out her second time up. She played right field, and did not see anything hit to her.












Amber got a chance to play in one of the pool games. Here is her hit




















Amber stole 2nd:




















She scored from 2nd!:



















We had time to visit the state capital in the Afternoon:
















As well as Old Sacramento. There was a lot of old vintage buildings, and railroads, and boats moored along the river. it was very nice:








On the way home, we visit Muir woods:

Driving to Sacramento

We left Sunday Morning at 5:30am. the plan was to get through LA before 8:00am.
We stopped in Merced to see my Aunt Estelle, and her son Eric, and his wife Shannon.
"T" was up From Azusa. "D" was out with friends.

Here is a picture of Estelle and I: