Sonoma County spring

Bubba and the kids just returned from 5 nights in Santa Rosa. Bubba is working on a hiking guide for the Wine Country, so while I stayed here and worked, the kids had a blast at Grandma Camp and Bubba turned his legs to rubber on the trails every day.

Last month saw a similar trip, but I came down and joined in for the second half. The first day I spent down there, my parents came with us on an outing to the coast, which I'd had an itch to do for months.  First we hit up Armstrong Redwoods:




always climbing


a tree she can reach? Or more likely, it just looked like a big stick to hold


discussing different types of sequoia foliage


fallen giants make an inviting playground




under two years of life stands next to 1000

From there we proceeded out along the river to the coast and stopped at Goat Rock.


happy baby on the way


so exciting for this mountain boy to see the ocean again!



Carson really wanted someone to stand with him near the water, but he was not too sure about getting his feet wet.





Laramie was happy just to play with the sand. She tried eating some too.





We took a little walk up to the river's end, and the kids were fortunate to find two different driftwood shelters.

















Laramie hitched a ride on the way back:







Such a lovely day. More adventures followed on the next...

Who needs preschool? I mean, grad school.

Carson is always eager to visit the animal hospital and see what's going on there. I'm sure my kind coworkers' willingness to engage with him and hear his thoughts is a big reason for that. He knows that mom and "the clinickers" help sick dogs and cats get better, but I didn't realize he was such an expert in my field until this month.

He happened to drop in with dad one morning as we were examining this little corgi for lameness. "What's wrong with the dog?", he asked.
"It has a sore leg."
"Hm, I think it's a problem with the bone. Here, let me squeeze all the legs so I can tell you which one it is." (He had to run off and put on exam gloves, since he certainly couldn't examine a dog without them.)
..."This one has a bone... and this one has a bone..." Then, identifying the leg the owner had asked us to check: "It's that one."