Easter 08

It seems that nobody was planning on having Easter Dinner at their house this year, so we had it here. It was a houseful of people and fun times!

For some reason, Meghan was dressed up as a Nephite or something.

Someone took a photo during the prayer. I actually think the camera went off accidentally.

We had an egg hunt before everyone came over just for our kids.

 

We were even blessed with Grandma Petersen coming to dinner also! We loved having everyone over playing games, eating and having fun. Too bad I didn't take more pictures!!

And, They're Off To The Races!!

It was time for Jacob's 1st Pinewood Derby!  Too bad his dad didn't really know what he was doing in making the car!  Meghan was the one who looked online and found several plans and tips and ideas, so it turned out to be a family affair!

Jacob's car is the multi-colored one on the middle track coming in 2nd in this race, clearly beating out SpongeBob!

This race wasn't so close!  But Jacob's car was declared the winner, after the judges had to look at our camera to determine the Photo Finish!

Even after the races, and not coming in 1st overall, Jacob was still smiling and we all had a great time!  Overall, Jacob came in 4th place out of about 15 cars..Not bad!

Spring Break - Part 2

Back in California now, we spent Thursday unpacking, washing clothes, watching TV, and sleeping in our own beds!  (There is nothing like sleeping in your own bed!)

Friday we packed and headed out to the bay area, specifically San Francisco which is a favorite of ours to visit.

We arrived into the "City" on the Bay Bridge which is a very long (almost 8 1/2 miles long with a small tunnel in the middle)

The photo above was taken from the car window while driving on the Bay Bridge. You can see the Golden Gate Bridge in the background.

 

 

This photo below is of an interesting building that as we passed it, all the kids all said at once: "COOOOOLLLLL!  Look at that building!" So we had to take a photo of it.

 

We started our adventures at the "Hyde Street Pier" where there are several museums of old ships.  There are a few ships that you can actually go on and tour. We had never done this part of town before.

We then went driving and exploring a little. We drove up some of the steep (very very steep) hills and the kids were worried the car was going to roll backwards, but it didn't!

Of course we had to drive down Lombard Street - the "Most Crooked Street In The World":

 

We ended up the 2nd half of the day at The Exploratorium which the kids love. We haven't been there in a few years.

Jacob and Hannah loved the bubble area!

 

We then headed to our hotel where the kids were very excited to go swimming.

There were some guests in the pool that were not paying customers of the hotel!

 

The next day on the way home, we made some stops to geo-cache. One was in a heavily wooded area behind the Oakland Temple in the hills of "smaller" Sequoia Redwood Trees.

Along the trail, we saw several slugs - but these slugs were like the trees - HUGE!

 

Right along the trail was a huge hollowed out stump. That's what we were looking for! What was inside? The cache of course!

 

We then stopped off at the Oakland Temple for two virtual caches and to enjoy the view and the wonderful beautiful grounds. There is 2nd story terrace that goes around the entire top of the temple to offer even more views and quiet places of reflection.

I think it's one of the most beautifully landscaped Temples.

Let's Go Find Some Hidden Treasure!

 

An unlikely spot at the Ophir Cemetery!  Doug grew up just a few miles around this and lived around it for more than 15 years, and never even knew there was an Ophir Cemetery! 

This headstone dated back to 1857 and was the most visible headstone there. There were only a handful of graves there (maybe 10-15) and most were like the one below:

Or this one which didn't even have writing at all:

We did finally find the cache hidden below: See the small canister in the middle of the tree?

 

We then went over to a new regional park in Auburn called Hidden Falls where there are 1200 acres of countryside trails, rivers, and of course, some "hidden" waterfalls. Below are a few pics of the countryside, which these pictures really don't do justice as to how nice and beautiful it was!

There are over 25 caches so far in this park and the park is only a few months old!  We only focused on two this time out, as some are really involved.

 

This jagged rock was along the trail, and although we didn't find this one online as a place where a geo was, Meghan said "I bet there is a geo in there somewhere!" Shelley agreed so we went back to look at.

Sure enough, there was one in there!  When we got home, we tried to look it up and find it, but we couldn't find it anywhere, so this one was a bonus!

Geo's Feb and March

With Winter behind us now (that sounds weird to say since it's only late Feb early March), it was time to go and find more geo's since we were having nice weather.

 

This first one was called "May I Take Your Order Please" and was under the drive up speaker of the now closed Krispy Kreme close by our house.  It was an easy find.

We then headed to Lincoln for a geo called "Titan Missile" and found some never before known history about Lincoln (which is right next to Roseville where we live).

 

See the white cement that is noticeable tot he left behind the two trees below?

Here is another cement piece that is easier to see:

These are two of three underground silo's for a huge underground complex for the Titan 1 Missiles that were once housed here in Lincoln from 1959 to 1965.

Here is a photo of the Titan 1 Missile:

Anyways, back to the geo cache. It was just outside the fenced area. We wanted to go beyond the fence area and "explore" but decided against it. We were sure satellites were watching us!

Marissa found the cache just under these rocks.

It was a medium sized cache with some pretty good items in it. There was a "Travel Bug" in this one, which we took.

A Travel Bug is placed by an "owner" of the Travel Bug. Each Bug has a different number on it so it can be tracked in it's travels across the world. So when we got it, we log on to the website and type in the Bug's number. It then is marked and attached to us. We then drop it into another cache somewhere, and again log in to the website and say where we dropped it off. And then someone else does it and so on. 

Whenever we go geo-caching, we mark all our finds and even non-finds on a special geocache website. It keeps track off all our finds, our Travel Bugs, and any caches we have placed.  We have a goal of placing a cache in the next month or two. We are on the lookout for good places.

Most places are already taken. There are over 500 caches within a 20 mile radius of our house!!

 

We then headed to Auburn in the foothills, (where Doug grew up) to a new regional park called "Hidden Falls". After a hike we came to a small river just ahead of the "hidden falls".

There were several caches in the park, we only had info for two of them. One we found, and the other was a little elusive.  Shelley and Meghan went to find it because the kids were tired of hiking, and Jacob found a huge branch/root and Marissa and Hannah were playing jump rope with it!

Shelley & Meghan did finally find the cache, but it was a difficult one. It was a big one though!  It was a big storage tub full of goodies buried in the brush and weeds. After we heard that, the rest of us were disappointed we didn't go find it!

 

Here are some other pictures of the park. It's beautiful this time of year! Everything is green!