Columbia, CA--Stage Coach Ride

Today we went to Columbia, CA, Historical State Park. We had a great time. As many of you know my kids and husband love to play cowboys in the house and the backyard. So the thought of being able to go to a real "cowboy" town had us all excited. The town has been preserved and looks much like it did in the mid-1800s.

We even got to ride on a real stage coach. This was not a reproduction either, the coach is an original, restored stage coach. The kids were so excited. They couldn't wait to get on it.


Here we are enjoying the bumpy ride. Chloe couldn't get over how bumpy the ride was. Aidan was thrilled with the whole experience and couldn't get enough. Brenna loved it at first but when the coach started moving she started crying. Once she had Mom she calmed down and enjoyed herself.




Here is the coach crossing Main Street. The street is blocked off for pedestrians and horse-drawn vehicles.

We took this family photo right before the stage coach was stopped by a "robber".

Here is the robber looking for gold. He didn't find anything and let us go on our way. The kids thought it was great. They couldn't believe that they got to see a "bad guy".

Here are some more pictures of us enjoying the ride.

Relaxing At the Condo

Gold & Rattle Snake Country

Today we went exploring a little bit (actually we had to drive 30 minutes to the nearest Wal-Mart). Here are some pictures of our mini-road trip...

This is the cabin of Samuel Clemmins (Mark Twain) where he lived while in California. This is the cabin where he wrote, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calavaras County. Angels Camp is in Calavaras County. So as you can imagine Mark Twain and frogs are very popular here. The picture is not great but we are deep into rattle snake country (not to mention all of the poison oak) and I was not about to get out of the car to get a good picture.

These pictures are taken with our Nikon, while the car is moving. I love our camera. We don't miss anything!

If you look in the middle of these mountain you will see a large grouping of rocks. That is an old gold mine.



As you can see most of this country is very dry. It is full of canyons, valleys and hills. After driving these winding, twisting, dangerous roads, I have a new respect for the pioneers who settled this area. It couldn't of been easy maneuvering a covered wagon over these hills and canyons.

VACATION!!!

We made it safely to Angels Camp. I am currently sitting in our condo on the window seat checking out the view of Oak Trees. Very relaxing. I will post pictures (***promise) but we have been so busy having fun that I haven't taken any. Bad mom, I know! I will take the camera out of the bag today!

The trip down here was very long but the kids were troopers. They all did awesome in the car. They played, colored, ate, slept and woke up to do it all over again. Did I mention that it was a VERY LONG car ride? =)

We spent almost three hours in the pool yesterday with the kids. They loved it, none of them wanted to get out. We also had barbeque hot dogs and hamburgers which the kids loved. Brenna has decided that she loves Poppa George's onions and ate quite a bit of those last night with her hot dog and cheese. Today we are going to do a bit of sightseeing and explore the "Gold Country" a bit. Tomorrow we head to real 1850s Town that has been completely preserved. Should be fun!

Rock Box

Our kids love to dig in the dirt. They can spend hours digging holes in the backyard. Which would be fine, but we are trying to re-landscape some of the backyard. They are undoing everything we are doing. So in an effort to give our kids a place to dig and save ourselves from redoing our work; Matt built a rock box. Technically it is a sandbox, but who wants to deal with sand, not to mention all the neighborhood cats who would visit it, so we filled it with pea gravel. The kids LOVE it!

Our little digger...

Even Brenna gets into the act...

Don't get between a little man and his rocks...

Matt did such a great job building this rock box. We are going to build a canopy to go over the top to keep the leaves and pine needles out of it.

Here is my man working hard to conquer the ivy that is trying to take over our backyard...

Road Rash

Poor Little Bit! She is working so hard trying to keep up with her older brother and sister. Sometimes she just has to learn the hard way that she is not quite up to their speeds yet. Today she fell off the curb and got a bad case of road rash.


The dangers of learning to walk. The pictures do not do her shiner justice. It will heal.

Sun, Swings & Smiles!

The laughter of a child is the sweetest sound in the world. Multiply it by three and my heart is filled abundantly!

Reception