Mammoth Lakes

After a long hot summer, Brian and I really needed to ditch town for the weekend. My dad was kind enough to watch the store a few weeks back on Friday and Saturday so I could get a MUCH needed break. I told Brian to take Friday off and I'd surprise him with somewhere fun to go. Well, first I thought Monterey...then Tahoe...then when I was all out of ideas I called my brother who told me to check out Mammoth Lakes. Wow, I'm sure glad we did because it was B--E--A--Utiful! Three days is really not enough time to enjoy all it has to offer.
When I hear about Mammoth, my first thought is ski resort...and it is BIG for that, but the summertime is gorgeous and the hotels are cheap! There are lots of mountain bikers as some of the ski slopes are transformed for summer fun. It has a cozy feel and the town has a free little trolley that will take you all around. We really had a blast. We went hiking to some beautiful sites and just hung around the town, but the highlight of our trip was DEFINETLY the horse back ride.

Wow...

That's really all I have to say about that...

It all started because Brian has never been horseback riding. A friend I had when I was young had horses and a little ranch so I was familiar with them and then in high school one of my besties had horses that we would take and ride around the neighorhood and out onto some trails. Anyway, I thought it would be a blast to ride around with Brian on the beach in Monterey. It seemed totally romantic. Well, when we saw the sign for horseback trail rides around beautiful Mammoth, we had to give it a try. Again...wow.
We picked a trail that went around a few lakes and the description sounded perfect. "Beautiful scenic ride through wooded forest, wildflower covered hills, and spectacular views of Lake Mary and Lake George." From the sounds of it, two hours was not enough time to take all that in! It was quite the experience. I knew we were in for it when we were asked if we wanted a helmet and to sign a waiver in case anything were to happen to us on our ride. So, we bravely got on our horses and started out in our group...Brian on a giant named Dar and me bringing up the rear with Blackie. The guy getting me situated told me that Blackie could get lazy so I'd have to give him a few hard kicks to keep up. Great. There were 8 of us brave souls on this ride with two guides. One at the front and one four horses back..Brian and I were at the very end of the line. Not the place for a beginner and someone who hasn't been on a horse in forever! Right off the bat I got a little uncomfortable. I was hoping it would be a little more elementary school field trip style where there's a leader in the front and a leader in the back. But nope, it was just me and Blackie at the end. Not the place I would have positioned Mr. Lazy pants. About 5 minutes into the ride my horse and I could barely see the group ahead despite all the kicking and clicking. The guide finally came back to me and handed me a stick to smack my horse with everytime we fell back. What a nightmare. Two hours suddenly looked like it was going to last an eternity. I'd smack Blackie with the stick and he'd gallop about two strides and then I'd have to smack him again. As for the scenic tour--yes, there were parts that were beautiful, but the majority of the time, my personal scenic tour involved a huge horse's rear and a few bathroom breaks along the way. Sounded just like the brochure to me!
A little before halfway I started to get really anxious to the point where I really wasn't having fun anymore. I was just ready to be done. We were not just cruising along flat ground, our horses were hiking up rocky steep hills to these outlooks of the lakes and in my mind I realized we'd have to go back down them. Getting up there was scary enough! As Blackie went down the rocky steps I'd have to lean waaaaay back in my saddle to stay on because he'd put his two front legs down and then wait a second before getting his other feet down. Ugh, the stomach ache is coming back to me now.
We finally got safely back to the corral and I've never been more happy to be on my own two feet instead of Blackie's four. Definitely not the romantic horseback ride I envisioned Brian and I going on, but it sure makes a great story for the rest of you!
Anyway, our trip was too short and we will surely be back to Mammoth again in the future...next time though, we'll be skipping the horses.

Here we are at Mammoth Mountain

An great view of the Minerets; a group of mountains in between Mammoth and Yosemite.

We hiked down to rainbow falls one morning to see the beautiful place.

The ridiculous stairmaster to get down to the falls.

Brian looking teeny tiny next to the monstrous falls.

This is Devil's Postpile..a national monument that was made from volcanos and ice a few hundred years back...I didn't really get the whole story, but the kid walking next to us said the rocks looks like giant french fries...I concur. ;)


The sign that started it all...

The real "scenic view" they forget to tell you about.

Alright, excuse the horrific posture, but really, my face says it all. And if you look closely, you can see the stick I taunted Mr. Blackie with the whole ride.

A truly spectacular view of one of the many lakes around, I think this was Lake George

On our way out, we ventured over to Bodie, a real live ghost town.

Work!! Work!! Work!!

So August for our family doesn't mean a last ditch effort to squeeze in summer fun...we basically kiss our summer goodbye after the 4th of July...it's been work work work from then on! Only now are we getting to relax and recoop...(and blog..). So here's a look at my life in the month of August...

 

The smile was purely for the camera as it was above 100 degrees I'm sure...glad those days are almost done!

Summer Time!

Alright, for the most part, Brian and I have had a pretty laid back summer. He just started a new job at the beginning of July making time off a little hard, and my busy time at work starts the end of July lending NO TIME OFF there, so seeing that September is here and Summer's gone I figured I'd post the few fun times we had.
As tradition has it, our youth took a lake trip this summer that I went along on. It was a ton of fun...(except the burning nose from all the water I inhaled..oh, and the burning skin after my sun screen washed off...) One of the leader's brought her husband along to drive the boat and he is a crazy good wake boarder. I figured if I was gonna learn to wake board, it wouldn't hurt to learn it from the best. I wish I took some video because he was doing flips and 360's...it was cool. So, I get all brave and head out with a bunch of youth wanting to learn to and the closer it got to my turn, the more the pit in my stomach grew. In fact, when it was time for me to strap in, my legs were shaking so bad I could hardly get the booties on. Whew, just thinking about it makes me a little nervous. Anyway, off into the water I went with great instructions: keep your arms close to your chest, turn the board as you get going and easy peasy, you'll pop right up.
Well, first try...the rope snapped right out of my hands. I don't think I was quite ready. Attempt number two...I got a three second ride being pulled through the water...Number three...well, the rest of my attempts were basically the same--with me inhaling more water every time I fell back. By the time I was safely in the back of the boat again, I realized what the problem was. I hate having my head go under the water. Naturally growing up at the beach I love the water...but I never did the surfing of boogie boarding thing. Sun bathing was my specialty. On occasion when we were insane enough we'd go out and jump the waves and feel them lift us high off the ground...but never did I put my head under the water. As I got ready each time on the wake board, I felt myself pull hard to try and get up and at that pivotal moment where you straighten up, I would whimp out, knowing that if I straighten out too much, I'd been falling uncomfortably forward face first and not calmly on my back.
It was terribly embarrassing because truthfully I don't like to try new things unless I am confident enough that I will succeed at least to a small degree. But no, nothing...I wasn't even close to getting up once. And thanks to a patient driver and passengers I tried for a good while before giving up...(also something I don't normally do..) I had tried wake boarding once awhile back when I was 15 or so at my annual youth lake trip so I figured I was a little more coordinated--not the case.
Anyway, despite the embarrassment, it was a good time. We all had lots of fun..and one of these days I'll be brave enough to give this wake boarding thing another go and get my head good and soaked.




This first one I was ready freddy...all smiles and confident that THIS time for sure I would get up...but, as this bottom picture shows the only thing I got better at was the splashing...hmph!

4th Of July!

Hope everyone had a happy fourth of July! I know, I'm a little late posting...usually I love posting mumbo jumbo on my blog, but when events back up, I don't look forward to playing catch up. So, anyway, my 4th of July was quite relaxing. We closed the store for a couple days before and I finished up my drapes that have been looming for like 8 months now, and we had some family in town so we just hung out and played at the parks, ate lots of good food and of course, lit some fireworks. I was a little bummed out leading up to the 4th because as a family we have gone to Lake Tahoe for the past few years and enjoyed the amazing fireworks lake side. My parents equate it to a spiritual experience...which I don't know if I'd go that far, but it does instill a tremendous sense of pride for the country we live in...and Tahoe holds a special place in my heart because I got engaged there 4 years ago. :) It turns out we had a great time just being together and laughing and playing games and building lincoln log villages.

Pump it Up!

I learned about this indoor bounce world called Pump It Up when we went there one night for mutual and have been talking about getting our family together to go there sometime. Well, my sister and her family were in town the end of june and so we decided to rent it out for an hour and go wild! It was soo much fun! They have giant blow up slides, an obstable course, jousting, boxing, basketball and whatever your imagination can dream up. It was a blast. When we first got there I felt a little embarrassed when the lady asked us how many kids there were. Luckily we had little Russell, but HEY, we all act like kids...does that count? So we had our little "adult party" she called it. Here's some shots and video of the fun!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

What IS that?

Did anyone guess spinach pasta? I know, it looks like something out of a sci-fi movie that could come to life at any moment. I've had the baking bug bad these last couple weeks. I made rolls, whole wheat bread, (which by the way, makes the BEST grilled cheese..) and then the spinach pasta. I've only made pasta once before...no, I take that back...I've WATCHED the pasta making process once before and it looked like fun to add spinach into it. So, three hours and a bicep workout later we finally had dinner. It was like 10:00pm before we even ate. You have to like knead in flour, let it rest, knead in more flour, let it rest...let's just say if I would have read through the whole recipe first, I wouldn't have bothered. It was a lot of work for some funky colored noodles. It reminds me of a friend who used to hate cooking, she said it was because it took so long to make and then was devoured in minutes. I'm siding with her on this one. NEVER AGAIN! I guess if I did it in a mixer it would have been much easier--so maybe I will do it again, because despite the hassle and time they were DELICIOUS!

Pick-Up Trucks

Alright, so this happened a couple weeks ago, but I remembered it and told Brian the other day so I thought I'd share it with you. I was coming home from work one day and waiting at one of the 50 billion stop lights I get stuck at..(sometimes I count how many times I really have to stop at a light and have contests from day to day...but then it gets depressing counting all the precious time i'm wasting.)

ANYWAY...out of the corner of my eye I saw this guy in a truck waving his arm around. He was motioning me to roll my window down. I thought for a second and then rolled my window down to see what he needed. He asked me how to get to a certain street from the one we were on and I had no idea. You'd think after 4 years of living in Sacramento I'd know my way around, but no. Anyway...I told him I knew he could get there from the freeway but we were a few miles away from there. Then the next thing he asked me was, "Is that a wedding ring you're wearing?" I said, "yes." Then he was like, "awww..man...I know where I'm going, I was just trying to work my magic." Wowsers...then I really didn't know what to say...I just kept chanting in my head, "green light...green light.." Then he asked me if I was happy, I of course said yes. What a creep. Then after what seemed like eternity the light turned green and I zoomed away.
So, there you have it. The ultimate 'pick-up' truck.

Tagged!

1. What was I doing ten years ago?

Rejoicing for summertime between 7th & 8th grade. I was never much a fan of school and LIVED for the three short months we had in between. As I look back though, middle school was definitely the most fun. I won't even tell you that my husband was just getting home from his mission ten years ago, that's another story. ;)


2. What are five things on your to do list?

a. Make it through this week. I must admit, even though I took a day off, I have yet to recover from the mountains of drama going on and on and on and on...
b. Go on a date with my hubby...(yes it's on my to do list since I'm such a homebody, I like to stay in on the weekends and he wants to get out!)
c. Finish my living room curtains.
d. Wash & vacuum my car..
e. Clean bedroom #3 (that's been on the list for as long as we've lived in our house...it's the perpetual 'thing to do' when all others are done, hence the reason it's been so neglected.)


3. What snacks do you enjoy?

During the summertime, FRUIT! Especially berries and watermelon...mmmm...also apples and cheese (don't knock it till you've tried it..), and natural cheetos (sounds like an oxymoron I know, but they're tasty).


4. What would you do if you were a billionaire?

QUIT MY JOB!! Get a great financial advisor and invest the majority of it to keep giving me back...then I think I'd go to culinary school just for the heck of it and open a bakery. Sell my house and buy a better one, maybe not a bigger one, but a better one, with a big backyard, and then I'd buy my doggie back. I am a cheap skate at heart, so I'd mostly hoard it and watch it grow.


5. List three bad habits.

a. I love to bake sweets. Not normally a bad thing, but lately I've been trying to watch what I eat and so I've had to fight the urge to play with flour and sugar.
b. I don't talk about my feelings. Again, not normally a bad thing except that once it gets to be too much I can't really function properly.
c. I enjoy teasing my husband to the point that he gets irritated...definitely a bad thing. :)


6. Places you have lived.

Grover Beach, Nipomo, Provo, Citrus Heights, Rancho Cordova



7. List five jobs you have had

a. Flyer girl (you know those annoying fliers on your doorstep? Yep! That was me! As a cute little 10 year old, it was a good gig.)
b. Hallmark Employee
c. MTC cleaning supervisor...yes, a blue vest girl. Someone had to keep that brass shiny shiny!
d. Bookstore manager
e.


8. List five things people may not know about you.

a. I love roller coasters! The faster and higher the better!
b. I sweat A LOT! Something I just found out about myself in the last couple years...I've always lived in mild weather so I thought I never sweat but in the heat in Sacramento...well, let's just say, triple digits and I are not friends.
c. I enjoy doing "handy man" jobs.
d. I love a nice relaxing bubble bath, but can only handle it for 15 minutes, then I'm done.
e. I can wiggle my ears.

Bible?

Alright, I just have to share this for all you book-ies out there. We've been going through our store to send out books we have an excess of and one of our great employees asked me if he could type in the ISBN and it would tell him the author to look up. Well, the book was The Oxford Study Bible and I happened to know the author to avoid him doing extra work. It's just listed under "bible" for the author and he told me he was tempted to look the book up under "God."
So, maybe you had to be there, but it made for a much needed Friday afternoon laugh!

SUMMER OLYMPICS

I've been getting excited these past few weeks for the Summer Olympics to start. I know August is still a couple months out (thank goodness!), but I love watching them on tv; Summer especially! One day, I'd love to go to the opening ceremonies and catch a couple of events. I'll have to get over my issue with crowded places, but then I'M GOING. After watching this video and knowing my aversion to crowds and maintaining personal space...China is far from my dream Olympic experience. So, I'll happily watch this year's events from the cheap seats in my living room.