2007 California trip 4

I am going to take a quick step back into ancient history and publish this post I made forever ago, but never published for some reason. This is post 4 from our California Christmas 2007 series, you can click on Vacation in labels if you wish to read the preceding post.

An Unnatural occurrence!

The day after Christmas Grandpa and Grammie tried to take us to Big Trees, to see the giant Red Woods. On the way up the mountain it started snowing! As a matter of fact it started snowing hard enough that traffic control made us turn around because we did not have chains on our tires; but that did not matter to us Texans, it was snowing!!! You are more likely to see a Solar eclipse then snow in South Texas, so this was a big treat for us!

Texans in the snow!
On our way down the mountain we stopped for hamburgers, so we Texans got to get out and come in contact with this extraterrestrial substance. The first thing we did was start a snow fight (go figure). After our fingers were too frozen to pick up and throw anything anymore,

hostilities ceased enough to take this picture.

Moments before the cascarona snow ball was invented... hehehe. This picture was taken just a split second to early to document this

momentous occasion in human history.

Goofy girl

Snow cowboy

Go Texas!

This is our ugly little snowman. We used all the good clean snow in our war, so he got the left overs. This picture almost creates an optical allusion and makes him look big, in reality he was about ten inches tall.

Mommy in her element (snow) eating ice cream. The rest of us are not shown in this picture, but we are somewhere out of our element and drinking hot chocolate.

After a few more serious snow ball wars, the adults were able to pull us out of what little snow remained in the little restaurant's parking lot and we were back on our way down the mountain.

Next we went to Iron Stone Winery and Museum

One of the biggest gold nuggets in the world

A really nice saddle they had in the museum, that the girls really liked. It looks like it could have belonged to Trigger!

Cowboy Calvin and Sir Oliver of ...something.

The giant wine vats

The dining room with a very impressive organ.

Johanna next to a very nice grand piano on which she played some of Chopin's Fantasy Impromtu.

Robert honking a lions nose?

He looks like a real catch doesn't he? But let me tell you, in reality he turned out to be no more than a hard headed, iron fisted, cold hearted, shell!

Mum and Dad with twinkling Christmas lights.

2007 California trip 3

You can take the Texan out of Texas...

But you can't take the Texas out of the Texan!

Calvin blows the candles out on his cake at Grandpa and Grammie's house on his 20th birthday.


Older...but not much wiser! (at least where fire is concerned) For those of you that don't already know, Calvin is a helpless pyromaniac! In his twenty years he has achieved the record of catching the most things on fire out of all the rest of our family...combined! (Excluding only Daddy perhaps.) P.S And yes, Calvin's list of things caught on fire includes himself!

Grinning from ear to ear over "The Game" as it is called.

Daddy giving his cute cheesy smirk! :)



Merry Christmas!

Grammie's pretty tree

The motley Texan crew coming down the stairs... and yes, in our pajamas! (I just realized that is slightly embarrassing to be posting on the world wide web! (Blush) Check out that knife Calvin is baring to fight off any present thieves! (He really uses it to open his presents) And by the way that isn't Robert crowning Jo with the bunny ears, that is daddy hiding around the corner.

Grammie fufilling her traditional role as Keeper of the Camera.

Jo and Becca opening presents.

Calvin and Robert opening their stockings.

Grampa Whitey opening his GPS. "For a man that has everything but a sense of direction.", said Daddy

Grammie and Mom

This is Johanna opening her knife. Calvin and Robert gave one to each of their sisters.

Calvin and Robert putting their stamp of approval on their sister's weapons.

The running joke was "This puts a whole new meaning to Bow/Beau hunting." and "All unworthy would be beaus beware!" (I know we're really warped)

Our techno Grinch.

Balancing Boowie knife Becca, balancing on the Bongo board!

We recieved this picture from our oldest sister Jennifer back home on Christmas morning. Here she is adorably four months pregnant and proudly displaying what she called "the Guppy Bowl"

Merry Christmas!

2007 California trip 2

There at last!

After a long second day of travel we made it to our destination. We met Grampa Whitey and Grammie in Monterey where they were treating us to a high class stay at the Pacific Grove. After some time we settled down and goodnights were said, we retired for the night and retreated from the cold to a wonderful night's sleep in comfortable rooms with warm cheery fire places.

Jo and Becca kiss Grandpa goodnight.


The morning broke cool, crisp, and beautiful. We broke our fast in the suites' charming dining room. Here we have the knights of the breakfast table round.

Sir Robert

Sir Calvin

Lady Johanna

Lady Rebecca

The Rock incident

The four of us brave knights finished our breakfast first, so we left to go do some exploring. Behind the dining room we found a wonderful pile of inviting boulders and rocks to climb on. We didn't have many big rocks to climb back home, so the temptation was irresistible... to at least two of us. The one downside to this wonderful natural jungle gym was that it was in plain view of the dining room's large windows and French doors. Calvin and I just had to climb those rocks though! There were no signs saying not to, and who cares if a few breakfasters see you climbing some rocks? Robert and Rebecca could not be convinced however, and made sure they were far enough away and out of sight so as not to be associated with us. They were sure we were going to cause an avalanche. Combined Calvin and I didn't even weigh three hundred pounds, how could we displace several thousand pound boulders? Full of adventure we climbed.

It was beautiful up there! There was a delicious breeze blowing, the gentle winter sun was warm, and you could just see glittering Monterey bay over the tree tops. We tried to persuade Robert and Rebecca up again, they really did not know what they were missing! But they were stubburn and kept reminding us of unwanted eyes watching from the dining room .

Nevertheless we enjoyed ourselves. We hopped from rock to rock, enjoyed each view, and took pictures. After some time we eventually decided to come down. Calvin started down first, as spry as a mountain goat he hopped from boulder to boulder to rock...OoPs! Calvin stumbled as the very last rock he stepped on coming down shifted loose. Three mouths gaped open, six eyes nearly popped out, all hearts stopped. Not at our brother who quickly recovered himself, but at that giant rock rolling towards that big pretty dining room French window........Thud! WHEW! It just missed and hit the side of the building instead! Four sets of hearts started again. As a matter of fact they jump started into overdrive. The thought of eyes from the dining room suddenly became an uncomfortable reality. I scrambled down as quick as I could and tried to help Calvin remove the rock from the side walk and replace it where it belonged. Hmmmm... For being so willing to roll in the first place, it sure wasn't in a hurry to get back! Twerpish Rock! We pushed, we pulled, we grunted, we strained, turned red in the face and then.....! Nothing. We never got that stupid rock to budge as much as an inch. I have no idea how Calvin bouncing on it caused it to move in the first place! It was a special act of providence, and that is all anyone can say! It was meant to be there I suppose. Our efforts to move the dumb rock were obviously futile, and when someone who had seen our shenanigans from the dining came out and suggested we just leave the despised piece of matter alone before we hurt ourselves, we took her suggestion. Who knows, to this day it might still be lying rolled up against the dining room as proof of the Martinez clowns having been there.
We were not yet done with our scene making for the morning. Later right before we left, Calvin managed to catch one of Robert's fast balls in the nose while playing catch. You would have thought that you were at a crime sceen if you saw the mess it made in the parking lot!


Monterey Bay

Later we drove down to the bay, it was beautiful. We were really looking froward to the giant twenty foot tall waves Grandpa kept telling us about.Wow! Look at that wave! To poor Grandpa's chagrin the only waves that day barely broke twenty inches, and perhaps would make a tide pool proud! (Grandpa you need to come to Texas and see some real waves!)
Waves or no waves it was beautiful.
And cold! BuRrRrR!

Lone Cypress Point

The lone Cypress is the most photographed tree in the world.

Grandpa & Grammie took us on the Seventeen mile drive.
As you can see it was quite beautiful as well!

Johanna, Rebecca, Calvin, and Robert with Lone Cypress in the background.

Mum and Dad

After Monterey we took a trip down Highway 1 and saw Big Sur

Mother and daughter

Mom backdropped by Big Sur

We stopped at the Phoenix for lunch and warmed ourselves up with hot cocoa and coffees.

Shopping in Carmel

After Big Sur we went to Carmel and saw the two houses that Great Grampa built.

A very full and good day!

(Except for the rock)