Memorial Weekend Adventure

(Side Note: I got my camera back already!! and I feel like I'm learning it all over again.)

In celebration of having the whole three-day weekend off together (it's the first since I quit my job), we decided to hit the road for one night.

Saturday we got out of town early enough. We drove south on Highway 49 and stopped at various small towns and historical markers along the way. The most exciting one was Mark Twain's cabin which is a replica but the chimney is original. Wow was it tiny. Because of the rain (yes rain on Memorial Day weekend in California!), we went to Jamestown and toured an old railroad station and museum and also rode on the old steam train. On our way back to Angels Camp, where we were staying for the night, we stopped in a historical state park called Columbia. It's an old preserved miners town. The buildings were mostly brick, the streets shut down to traffic and the shop keepers dressed in period clothing. We had sasaparilla in a saloon and walked the trail to the old schoolhouse.


On Sunday, the skies seemed promising and we headed straight up the mountain to Calaveras Big Trees state park for a mile and a half hike through Giant Sequoias. Unfortunately, it started raining again halfway through the hike so we were all cold and wet by the time we got done. The trail and trees were stunning anyway. We stopped in Murphys for a warm lunch and to walk the streets of the cute old town. Finally, before we headed home, we went to Moaning Cavern and climbed down a 100 foot spiral staircase. Wow, what a huge cavern and what nerve wracking climb down.

We had a wonderful, two day, family trip. It's so nice to be able to get out together and go see new places that are basically in our back yard.

To view more photos, go to http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/5023630_W8uK4#301666539_9sfkd
and here
http://thielfam.smugmug.com/gallery/5034349_jYxGU#302379934_hEt3f

Open House

We had Open House last night at Josh's school. His room was overly decorated with class projects. Here are two of Josh's...

This is Josh's imaginary insect created from various art supplies. It is called the Eye Bull and it's full size is as big as a classroom and he likes to eat human heads.


This is Josh's "come alive" lunch. He had to write a short story about a food that comes alive and then create a place setting of it.

Also big news, Josh lost two teeth over the weekend. He looks a little bit like a jack-o-lantern now.

Ending the school year...

Rounding out the school year means lots of extra special events. We have two field trips, Open House, class parties, an award ceremony, a class play and a preschool graduation all this month.

Last week, Carley had her last field trip with her preschool class. They went to Fairytale Town, which is just south of downtown Sacramento. Here are a few pictures of Carley, her classmates and some of the fun.





Camera note... I've been spoiled for the last 4 months with a new Nikon D40. I really have come to love that camera and it is usually on my hip at all times. It currently stopped working correctly, the exposure meter was way off, so it's at the repair shop and I've been using a Panosonic (of all things) point-and-shoot. I'm happy to have a functioning camera but boy, I can't wait until I get my baby back. There will be a LOT more pictures to share.

Also, I think I'm going to like the blogging thing to share our lives with friends and family. One thing I plan to do is post links to a better photo hosting site, such as Flickr, so those who want to see more pictures will be able to do so without having a login. I don't have that set up yet but I will soon. If you would like to see the pictures larger, they can be clicked for a full screen view.

Mother's Day weekend

We went to the Whole Earth Festival in Davis on the Saturday before Mother's Day. We traditionally go every Mother's Day but this year we thought we'd see more friends or family on Saturday. Boy, was it a lot more crowded. Back to Sundays for us next year. The kids had fun, actually we all did. It's great music, a ton of different booths and of course, face painting. Josh came up with the idea for a third eye, or maybe he wanted to be a cyclops. Carley, girly girl Carley, wanted to be a wolf.

On Sunday, Mother's Day, we went for a hike outside of Auburn, under the Forest Hill bridge. We had a picnic, played by the river and walked over the bridge we were under on our way home. It was a terrific family weekend.

Just the beginning...

As most of you know, I've been running family picture sharing through Phanfare. Phanfare just recently "upgraded" and now requires viewers to create an account. They say it's for "the consumers" privacy or photo safety but one of the reasons I picked them to begin with is so our family and friends could watch our children grow and be a part of our lives through the internet. I don't want to bog everyone down with more accounts and logins.

I figured I'll give Blogger and blogging a shot. It seems easy enough. Now you can save my blog link and pop in anytime to see what's going on with the Thiel family. I'll try to keep all the out of town family updated on the happenings of our lives and the growth of Josh and Carley through this site. Feel free to comment if you desire. You can always email me at nikithiel@comcast.net .

Family and close friends are important to us and we love to have you as part of our lives.


Here are some pictures from our Mother's Day hike.