October is Ending

Well only one more day in October, seems like another month just flew by.  We should be experiencing fall weather, however the daytime temps have been above normal more than half the time.  The chickens are growing and now giving us some great eggs we are getting about 3 to 4 a day (very colorful too as you can see in the picture).

Being October we are now quickly approaching 1-year since we brought Lauren home and 6 -years since we were in China to bring Hannah home. We just took the picture of mom, dad, and Lauren today and have to gather a few pictures from the last couple months for the 1 -year update that goes to China. Life with Lauren still has its challenges, although she does not have the degree of reactive attachment disorder that we dealt with in the past, she has attachment issues that we are working on. On the bright side she did say last night she loved us and knew we loved her ! One thing I know we discussed before is that Lauren definitely did not have the degree of schooling that the paperwork stated as we have had to go back to very basic school items with her. Chinese writing is so intricate and more difficult than English and Lauren has trouble printing her letters unless she is tracing them.



Some pictures from this weekend:

Picture of Lauren, Dad, and Mom
taken today.

Cameron going "gangsta" with the
pneumatic staple gun as we work on
expanding the chickens area behind
the barn. 

Some of the colorful eggs from the
last couple of days.

Mission Inn Photos - 3

Some more photos from our stay at the Mission Inn Hotel last weekend.


The first two photos are along the street where the original Mission Wing (built 1903) meets up with the Cloister Wing (built 1910).  The buttresses are not structural and were only built as a decorative feature. The next photo is one of the walks near the lobby area.

The Amistad Dome (left) houses the Bridal Suite and the interior view from the Rotunda Wing looking towards the Cloister Wing (right).

The Carmel Dome on the left based on the Carmel Mission and the Romona Dome on the right, the stained glass has the characters of Helen Hunt Jackson's novel Romona on them.

Mission Inn Photos - 2

As promised here are some more pictures from the Mission Inn Hotel.

These first group of pictures are from the Rotunda Wing which was built in 1930-31. This wing also houses the St. Francis Chapel and the Fliers Wall which honors famous aviators including the Wright Brothers, John Glenn, and Amelia Earhart.

St. Francis Chapel

Fliers Wall

Atrio outside the chapel.

Walkway from Atrio to old Annex for staff.

Looking down at the Spanish Patio
from the 4th Floor balcony.

Here are some photos from the lobby area of the hotel with various artifacts and furniture that was collected by Frank Miller the original owner of the hotel.

Mission Inn Photos - 1

As promised here is the start of a series of photos that we will post from the Mission Inn Hotel.  These photos are from the front of the hotel part of the original wing called the Mission Wing built in 1902-03 and includes the entrance and walkway.  (also some from Casey's Cupcakes, while we were waiting for our tour to begin we gave ourselves each a treat to a cupcake and coffee)

View from our room toward the pool
hotel entrance.

Nanking Bell which was shipped
following the Boxer Rebellion
in China.

Walkway - looking toward our room .
We were in the corner suite.

Casey's Cupcakes!

Casey is the daughter of the current owners and the cupcakes were the winners of the Food Network Cupcake Challenge.

28th Anniversary!

Today was our 28th Wedding Anniversary, to celebrate yesterday we went to the Mission Inn in Riverside where we had a tour of the Historic Hotel, Dinner on the Spanish Patio and spent the night in one of the suites.

Amber and Eddie came and spent the night at the house to help Cameron watch the girls and they all went to see the movie Cars 2 today.

We had such a wonderful time it was interesting to see the architecture and find out about the history of the hotel and the man who built it. It was also inspiring to us to continue the projects we have been doing and planned for our property.

Here are just a few photos from yesterday and this morning, we will have to post some more later as there was so much to see and appreciate at the hotel.

Review - October So Far

Not much going on outside of the routine this last week.  School for the girls, projects around the house and property. and all the little things we get done each week.

So we just thought we would take the opportunity to post some pictures from the last two weeks that we left off the previous postings.

It's Guava Juice Time!

Our pink pineapple guava tree is producing a lot of fruit, a little later this year than in the past - but seems like there is more fruit than before.  Today Lynda picked the fruit that was ripe (there is still more that will be ready to pick in a few days) and made guava juice.  After juicing we ended up with 1-1/2 gallons!!

The chickens loved the guava that the birds had started to peck on the tree and they rewarded us with 4 eggs today!