Our new house

We've been in our new house since January and are loving it! All of the snow from the big storm has melted. We've had some tiny storms come through a few times where about an inch is left and melted the next day. We just had a small storm a couple days ago, and there is still some snow on our front deck because the sun isn't able to hit some areas. We are luckily surrounded by many pine trees, so we will have ample shade in the summer when we have to open our windows and let the cool air in. We don't have an air conditioner (first time in my life!) I'm not too worried though since there are so many trees, and we've been told it is usually around 80-90 degrees on the hottest days, which is nothing like the 108+ we got in Victorville. Not having an AC will help on the electricity bill too! :) Here are some pictures of our house I'm finally getting posted.

Upstairs living room.. where we hang out in the evenings to watch TV and spend time as a family. We are getting a new sectional sofa in a couple weeks, so I will post new pics then.

Notice the pretty wood-beamed ceiling and windows. We get a lot of natural light throughout the day upstairs.

Dining room view from living room. The dining room and kitchen are upstairs also. We do most of our living up here.

Kitchen view from dining table.

Master bedroom. Small, but adequate. This is also upstairs and this is the view from the bedroom window. Can't wait until that tree blooms! There is a huge mountain across the street filled with pine trees. It will never have homes on it because of the river bed below it. Just gorgeous.

Upstairs bathroom. We gave up having a master bathroom in the bedroom when we moved here, but it has worked out fine. Both bathrooms are small, but have the needed space.

I kinda posted the pics backwards, but here is the view when you open the front door. Staircase to right and hallway to the left. When you get to the top of the stairs, two bedrooms, and a bathroom are on the left. The kitchen, dining room, and living room are to the right. The downstairs mirrors the upstairs layout minus the kitchen of course. There is a laundry room downstairs and the living room is bigger.

Downstairs bathroom.

Downstairs living room/play room/office. The green couch from upstairs will come down here after we get the new sectional. This room also has a massive fireplace like upstairs, but it covered in boxes right now (still!) The sliding glass door goes out to the backyard.

Front door and porch with a little snow leftover from yesterday.

House and nice GREEN yard from street. It's so beautiful up here. I never want to move.

Annie at 7 months in her highchair.

Gracie decided to decorate around the flowers and put enough stuffed animals to surround the vase.

Barry's favorite pasttime

We are lucky enough to live next to a fishing lake, well really it's a pond. However, right now it's drained, so we have to drive about 1 1/2 hours to Lake Gregory, which is one of our favorite places to go. Barry's all-time favorite thing to do is fish. He gets to go a few times a year, and this year, we went at 5am on a Saturday morning before the kids woke up. It was breathtaking to see the sun rise on the deserted lake. We were the only ones there fishing. Probably because it was about 20 degrees. There were a few people hiking around with their dogs, but not many. We didn't catch anything, but like most things in life, it's not about the destination, it's about the journey. It was a nice morning with my honey.

I wish this last picture would have come out clear. My hottie :)

St. Patrick's Day fun

Every St. Patrick's Day, MCLB Barstow puts on a free, one hour show for the public. It is amazing! The band is called "The Commandant's Own" and is a drum & bugle corps. You can learn more about them at www.drumcorps.mbw.usmc.mil/ . I have always loved band music, but this was by far one of the most impressive I have ever seen.

The Silent Drill Platoon was equally as wonderful. The whole drill was done silently. They kept in sync and at one point, the "leader" walked up the line and picked out two men to "inspect"... they did a show of their rifle, threw it back and forth, and tossed it in the air like a baton. Interestingly, their rifles are fully functional. Learn more about them at www.mbw.usmc.mil/parades.asp

Just a side note: you gotta love a man in uniform, but I really miss when Barry was in the Marine Corps. There's a certain pride you have when you serve the country, and it was so touching to see his fellow Marines do this performance. It made me proud to be associated with the Corps and to be an American. I highly recommend anyone to see this next year!

L.A. Zoo

After our Disneyland passes expired, we decided to take a trip to the L.A. Zoo with Barry's mom, Mary, on March 13th. We found it wasn't much more to get an annual pass for the family, so we opted to do that and we plan to go back again several times this year.

Gracie took this picture. I love it.

Gracie being camera-shy on Daddy's shoulders.

Mary with the meerkats. Her favorite part was the tiger exhibit.

Luckily, they had a playground at one end of the park, so we could stop and let the kids get their wiggles out.

When I was little, I got to ride on a real camel. This will have to do for my children :)

Flamingos are so pretty, but they sure do stink!

Daddy and Annie. Sweet picture.

Beautiful girl.

Gracie and Chloe had to get right up to the glass to see the seal. They love ocean animals. Well, they love ALL animals :)

A beach day!

After the snowstorm of a lifetime this winter, I was so excited to see the weather change to a nice, warm temperature. Luckily, we made a trip to the beach right before the weather got cold again and saw more snow. It was Annie's first trip to the beach and Fischer and I hadn't been since August, so it was way overdue. Some of our good friends met up with us and we enjoyed a fun day together. It was so peaceful :) We usually go to Santa Monica beach and pier, but we decided to try a new spot at Corona del Mar. It was really nice.

Gracie and Chloe digging in the sand.

Maria picked a perfect spot with a big hole in front of us. The kids had fun playing in the sand and trying to bury Fischer in the hole. That was captured on the video camera, so I don't have pictures of it here, but it was cute.

Fischer bought a boogie board and had fun playing in the waves. The ocean is truly is his and my happy spot.

Corona del Mar beach. The houses and neighborhoods around there were amazing.

Gracie decided to do a mud massage on Fischer :)

"Cheeeese"

Annie after her ocean dip. Had to change her from swimsuit to clothes. Her ocean pictures are also captured on the video camera. She thought the water was really cold!

The ride home. The girls passed out right away. Notice the bumper to bumper traffic behind us. It took 3 1/2 hours to get home! But it was so worth it.

Snowboarding/Skiing

It has been 7 years since the last time I went skiing. For a couple years, I had a season pass and would go several times each season. Then I moved to Victorville and never made it up to the ski resorts around here. After moving to Wrightwood (a ski resort town), there was no way I could pass up another season, so a couple weeks ago Fischer and I went to Mountain High for a few hours to play around. We had so much fun and are going again tomorrow. I love that the ski resort is only 5 miles from our house. It's time to buy skiis for me and a snowboard for Fischer! If I could only convince Barry it's so worth the cost, he might try it too. I love being in the mountains! I am finally "HOME" :)