California Dreamin'

We recently returned from our annual trip to California. We had a great time visiting family and friends and places...

Madeline loves bubbles. PaPaw bought a bubble gun for her, and that is all she wanted to do- play bubbles.

Here is Madeline with Grandpa. Grandpa showed her the fine art of bubble twirling.


One of Mom's Yorkies had puppies recently, and Madeline had a great time playing with them.. They are tiny (the fit in the palm of your hand at 8 weeks old) so Madeline toted them around. She even put one of them in an Easter basket and carried it around.

This is Grandma and Madeline with a couple of the puppies. It was great to have Madeline spend time with her. My Grandma has Alzheimer's Disease, so this was precious time spent with her.

These are my parents, Wayne and Grace...aka, PaPaw and MiMi.


While in fabulous Fresno, CA, we took Madeline to the Fresno Chaffee Zoo. We've actually been there twice before with Madeline, but this is the first time that she really enjoyed (and knew) all of the animals.



Daddy's wing span.....Maddie's wing span.....

I'm not quite sure what to say. But if you know my hubby, no words are necessary....
I think the elephants are by far Madeline's favorite animal to see at the zoo. They always seem to be doing something fascinating to her. Last fall we took her to the NC Zoo and the elephants were throwing dirt on their backs to keep cool...and this trip they were slinging mud on their backs. I seriously think we could have spent the entire day just watching them and she would have been very happy!


Here is our little turtle....


Chico. Many great memories. Chico is a town of about 90,000 full time residents about 90 miles north of Sacramento, and home to California State University, Chico- aka Chico State, and my alma mater. Chris has heard so many stories about Chico that I was excited to finally take him there. We met up with one of my college roomies Clarette and her 2 boys. It was great to be able to take my little girl there. Although I doubt that her college years will be spent at Chico State, a girl can dream.....

This is the administration building at Chico State.
Here is Madeline in the free speech area. Chico, and especially the college is very hippie-dippie, and you never know what you'll see. From political rallies to the Chico Cannabis Club to the Dairy Science Club bringing a cow to be milked during Farm-City week, it all took place in the free speech area.


Madeline and I in front of Plumas Hall- the College of Agriculture.

While in Chico, we went to visit the University Farm. I have logged MANY hours there- from 1am milkings at the dairy, learning how to AI a cow, conducting plant studies, fundraisers...the list goes on.
Madeline loved the animals....

Ahh, the dairy unit. I have seen many hours here. Milking at 1am and 1pm. Milking cows, loosing my rubber boot in mud up to my knee, clipping cows for shows, feeding calves, throwing hay, driving the silage truck- I can do it all.

Well, here it is- the proof that Chris really does like dogs. OK, only a select few, but Merokie grew on him.

There are my brother and sister-in-laws 2 huge dogs, Dex (sitting on Madeline) and Merokie. Madeline loved them cause they were just about as tall as her. Merokie loves bubbles almost as much as she does, so the 2 of them spend a lot of time blowing and chasing bubbles together.