TRAVELS WITH MATTIE

Oh man, it's been a really fantastic couple of weeks since our last post. I guess ALL of summer is really fantastic, but anyway... After a short week in Reno we headed back to Aspendell where we met Sam and Sara, did some fishing and wandering, while waiting for Bobby to arrive to the mountains for the weekend!  We fished the South Fork (Bishop Creek), where we caught a few pretty brook trout and maybe some small rainbows. Greg tricking little trout on the South Fork. The next day we spent the morning relaxing with Sam and Sara at the cabin, then took a short hike along the South Lake shore where we were mostly unsuccessful at fishing but enjoyed the lake and sound of the waterfalls. In the evening we went to the Owens Valley to check out some petroglyphs. These are some of my favorite spiral petroglyphs anywhere. Then we noticed that the fish were hitting the surface (!?) of the Owens, so spent the evening catching rainbows and browns on d...

Well, it's been a long, happy, bittersweet, hot, cabin, camping and family-filled two weeks! What a great treat to get to see so much family. Two and a half weeks ago Greg, Mattie and I headed to Santa Monica for a moving party at Grandma and Grandpa's house in Santa Monica with the entire Horst family (except Dawn - we missed you!) and dozens of friends and neighbors. There are a lot of memories in the bones of that old home, in the fruit trees and tennis court, on the front porch under the historic portico and on countless walks down to the beach and back. Luckily, everyone gets to take those with them. We camped in the side yard (Mattie was so happy to be in a tent again), danced, drank and visited to an awesome Beatles cover band in the back, and celebrated nearly 50 years of Horsts on Alta Avenue. Mattie, cozy and sleeping in on Alta Avenue. The Horst kids. Grandpa and his trees. We went down to visit Grandpa Dave in Marina del Rey before getting back ...

Well, after nearly a year break Mattie and I are back for summer 2017 and are going to start updating the blog again! This is going to be the quickest recap ever. The three biggest pieces of news (which you all know) are: (1) Greg and I are engaged (woooo) (2) We bought a cabin that we love in Aspendell (3) Mattie Mae is still hanging out and kicking butt! She's one happy, hilarious old lady, and we love every second with her! Here are some pictures just to get the blog rolling again, from a few winter cabin trips and the past couple weeks since summer started:  THE CABIN! During a big winter, March 2017. Taken looking out our back window.  The wind whips around our cabin so fast it creates this berm. Greg in the backyard.  Those tracks are from our moonlit snowshoe adventure the night before. Yeti got us a cuckoo clock!  We absolutely love it. It is really similar to the old clock in the Idyllwild cabin. We dance when it goes off....