Gee, Wally!

Many times Michael has looked at Rex in the driveway with his friends working on their cars and referred to them as Wally, Lumpy and Eddie Haskell. 

Yesterday, he nailed it. Amira played the roll of the Beaver.

I guess that Makes Michael and I Ward and June.

Junior State Fair

This year Valerie and I went to the Junior State Fair in Sacramento. Usually we attend the Senior State Fair where the adults bring their (mostly wool) sheep to compete during the last days of July. The Junior State Fair is all about the FFA and 4H and having the kids under 18 compete with their animals and for showmanship as well as skills. (Yes, it's also about eating things on a stick ... but, we're not going to go there just now). Each week a new set of animals is brought in. (Next week is dairy goat week. That's an impressive but difficult one. I'm glad we don't do that). Below Madelyn and Hailey represented Chico 4-H. Valerie represented C.O.R.E. Butte FFA. Hailey will be joining Valerie's FFA chapter this year when she enters high school.

The first competition was the Champion Challenge. In this competition the students first take a written test. The top 15 scores in the categories of sheep, goats, cattle, poultry and rabbits and selected to continue on to the next challenge. During this next part, there are several tables set up and each student has 5 minutes to demonstrate a skill or knowledge to the judge at each table. So, they may be answering questions or demonstrating how to tag the ear of the animals or some other demonstration. Valerie won the Reserve Champion place for the category of sheep. She would find this out on the last day of the fair. Here she is explaining something to one of the judges.

Valerie showed a market lamb.

Valerie also prepped and showed some wool sheep. Below she is blowing the fleece of one of the Shetland Ram Lambs just before the show.

There were several days of hard work at this fair. Valerie, Madelyn and Hailey were all very supportive of each other. They all worked together to keep the pens cleaned and the animals well cared for and prepped for show. They assisted each other leading animals into the ring or standing at the exit to receive animals so that they could continue competitions for several days in a row.

Apparently it is tradition for Hailey's show coach, Derek, to give a giant hug to everyone who helps out. He knows that Valerie hates hugs, so Valerie apparently gets a very special hug that turns into a big exhibit for everyone in the barn. Hailey told me to pull out my camera for this event. It was hard to take pictures while we were all laughing so hard. Here is the hug sequence:

Below are the girls showing the Shetland sheep. The Junior State Fair is not the best place to show wool sheep as it is dominated by market animals. But the judge here actually appreciated the Shetlands as they were shown against some pretty impressive other wool breeds.

On the last day of the fair Valerie received her Reserve Champion rosette for the Champion Challenge that she undertook on the first day. It's a pretty big deal. We are, of course, very proud of her.

Once we loaded all the animals and equipment out of the barn and headed back up north, it was time to off-load animals at Carol's house. Here are the girls back in their street clothes ready to head off to the barn to feed the critters dinner and say goodnight. Good job, you show girls!

Amira is still scouting it up. It's summer and the girls opted for some fun events during July. A few weeks ago they met for bowling. Last week they met for a game night. They played a variety of games including a dance competition. They are a great group of girls. They'll be heading off to Volcano Camp at Mount Lassen in the beginning of August.

Amira texted me the below image while I was off at fair with Valerie. I laughed because it's true.

Buster is still one hungry bunny. She has scurried down the hall and sniffed out where we keep the pellets. You can also find her right at the edge of the carpet in the living room each time she hears the fridge open. She'll never miss a meal!

Ramon likes his greens too!

Valerie's rats would never turn down a treat either. They are all spoiled.

Amira talks turkey with Grandpa Alligator.

I was lamenting not having any photos of Rex or Michael for the blog on this post. But then I remembered Michael sent me a photo of himself on his trip to Mexico with his friend last month. This was before he shaved his goatee. I need to get some more recent photos of his face without the fur.

Sometimes I google my kids names and see what pops up. Interestingly, I found a photo on the local school district website with Rex in it from last October. It came with this little blurb:

CHS Engineering and Architecture Students are Busy

Alli Lockwood and Sonia Anthoin are two of Mr. Bruggeman’s Engineering Design/CAD IV students who are responsible for collecting pictures regarding the Career Technical Education program. The first picture below is of two Engineering III students, Jack Sheridan and Rex Wilhelm. They are working on parts in the classroom for a local manufacturer called Boxer Metal. Boxer does custom restoration on antique BMW motorcycles. Jack and Rex are reverse engineering two parts that are no longer available on the open mark or produced in any shop. The parts will be modeled on Solid Works to owner Chris Canterbury’s specifications. The students will then 3D print prototypes for Chris to assemble back at Boxer Metal. If successful, Chris plans to take the parts and the students to Chico State University Engineering to have them mass produced. Integration at its best.

Well, that's the haps for now. I'll try to keep you all updated as life moves swiftly forward. Summer is flying by quicker than ever this year, or so it seems.

FFF July 2017

To borrow that phrase from a friend, it's FFF! (Forced Family Fun) That's right, we are going to do things together as a family - and you're going to like it!

Well, we can get together as a family but we cannot always make them like it. On Independence Day we set out in the heat to watch a Chico Heat baseball game down at CSU Chico. We were promised fireworks after the show. And this seemed like a nice lazy way to get some fireworks action in after a long hot day. And, honestly, it's fun to root root root for the home team. Even if they don't win. They didn't. It was a shame.

The photos from our outing are priceless. You add your own caption here in the imagined little clouds above the heads of these three:

And now you can bubble in your own caption above our heads. Hey, we had fun! We partook in the chicken dance, cheering the team on and sang the YMCA loudly and proudly with hand gestures. It was a great game.

Although a bit toasty, we managed to find some shade and had a good view. Our seats were along the first base line, but Valerie and Amira scored a couple of seats behind home plate from our neighbors for whom they were house sitting.

Now, the fireworks show paled in comparison to the show we usually see up at Donner Lake. But I must say, we didn't have to drive far or pack anything. So, it all worked out. I think the kids bucked up in the end when the scorching sun set and we got a little show. Rex even navigated the crowds and drove us home. The baseball stadium was in his stomping grounds close to the high school where he had been driving all year. It was our pleasure to turn to the driving over to him.

A couple days past the baseball game we were ready to head out for family camping. Rex looked honestly surprised that we had a planned family camping trip and announced that he was going camping with another family over the same dates. At that point we looked honestly surprised that he had these plans. But, alas, it would just be us and the girls. 

This was to be our mulligan from the 2012 camping experience at Lake Siskiyou when we were rained out. The campground it up near Mt. Shasta and offers wonderful campsites, fishing, boating, swimming, hiking and a "fun zone" of inflatable lake toys. We were unable to enjoy some of that due to the massive deluge that hit us five years ago. You can click here to see our previous experience for comparison.

Michael and the girls and I showed up on a gorgeously sunny Thursday afternoon to camp site 78 and settled ourselves and immediately traipsed off to the beach. Look at Mt. Shasta in the background! What a view. The water was refreshing and not frigid with snow melt as one might expect (or experience at Donner Lake). The altitude here was around 4,000 feet. So, we were slightly lower in altitude than Truckee. But the nights were pleasantly cool, not cold. And the water temperature was the same - pleasantly cool, not cold.

One of the best parts about camping, for the girls, is getting to eat all sorts of chips and cookies and s'mores and stuff that we don't regularly keep in the house. It was nice to unplug and enjoy each other's company. We played many a card game and Valerie practiced her card tricks on us.

Something about fire beckons Michael to take charge. He built the best fires for cooking. We cooked everything over his fires. We had burgers, sausages, pancakes and bacon. He really does make the best fires.

Valerie stumbled upon the holy grail, Jiffypop popcorn (or, as Michael calls it, Jiffylube popcorn), at the local camp store. She was in heaven preparing it over the fire.

Amira swooped in to enjoy this exotic treasure.

There were more card games and cheerful banter at the picnic table.

Friday morning we all checked out the fishing. We could see the fish. They weren't biting this time. But just hanging out on the dock with a line in the water surrounded by the mountain views was so wonderful and relaxing. We have all been spoiled by fishing off Grampa Choo Choo's fishing dock in South Carolina. The fish just pretty much jump on your hook there.

Following a morning of fishing, or should I say relaxing on the fishing dock, we headed back down to the beach. The Fun Zone beckoned to the girls. Actually, it looked fun to me and Michael too. It was $8 for one hour out there or $15 for four hours. With prices set like that, we knew we would be tuckered out after one hour. So, all for of us swam out there and learned how incredibly difficult it can be to swing the lower body out of the water and up onto these floaties. It was really satisfying when Michael and I were able to get up onto them.  Some were more difficult than others. This area was swarmed with teenagers. I would totally do it again.

Although we had only paid for an hour of fun here, the guys were generous and were going to throw in another 20 minutes for free. At about one hour into the fun, we had to come in anyway. Valerie either slipped or was pushed off one of the floaties down onto Amira's wrist causing an injury.

We swam back to the snack shack and got some ice for her arm and asked where the closest emergency room was. The young guy behind the counter had no idea. So, thank goodness for asking Siri where it was. We then headed into the town of Mt. Shasta where we found a great doctor who saw her right away and sent her to the hospital next door for x-rays.

It turns out that there is no visible fracture but it is likely sprained. Amira said she didn't want to cut camping short. She was going to have to be in a brace with ice on it here or at home. And she really wanted to have another campfire with s'mores. What a trooper.

Here she is pictured cradling her injured arm outside the scenic hospital with more views of snow capped Mt. Shasta in the background.

Valerie was pretty stoked too that we didn't have to cut the camping trip short. Here she is making a meal of her flaming marshmallow on a stick.

On our last morning, Michael and I got up to see a package of our hot dog buns laying in the dirt in the middle of camp. I picked them up and went to put them back into the bag with our bread products. Oddly, that bag was conspicuously absent from our campsite. The bag with all the chips and cookies was still there. But the bag that had the bagels, bread, pancake mix, etc. was totally gone. Who or what would take a bag of gluten free bread products? They are not the tastiest. One would only eat them if they had to. We checked for animal tracks or other disturbances. Nothing.

Michael and I walked around the camp grounds and saw deer in some people's sites. He checked the antlers in case our bag could be seen hanging from them. No dice.

Well, since bagels were the breakfast planned for that morning, we decided to pack up camp and head into town to the original Black Bear diner for breakfast. I had never eaten at Black Bear before. That place is DELICIOUS! And I love that their orange juice is fresh squeezed and there is no high fructose corn syrup in any of their products. Also, I didn't have to do camp dishes that morning. Bonus.

Here are the girls digging into their breakfasts at the diner. Amira's non-dominant hand is all braced up and the diner gave us a bag of ice for her hand on the way out. What a great trip. We all agreed, we would totally come back camping here again. But it looks like the rest of our summer is already booked up. I would totally love to carve out time to come back and bring Rex if we could.