My Front Porch Lookin' In: May 2015

Living in Bishop has been different than living anywhere else so far. Believe it or not, seasons exist in California. Starting October the leaves start to turn, we get wind (like Dorothy in a tornado status), and it begins to get cold (for a SoCal native's standards). We have very little winter apparel so it was fun to go to the store and dress the kids up in binis and boots. Though neither child actually liked the clothing they were wearing I thought they were adorable!

Quite put out I was making her wear a bini.

I guess I'll wear the hat and mittens but in exchange you can't take my picture.

After 3 long weeks, I finally started to get my house into shape. I took pictures to prove that it was once organized and to show off all weird and outdated features...

The kitchen, totally 70's style cabinets, brand new deep sink for gutting your fish up here apparently.

Awkward feature #2, entryway to kitchen actually has a slider door that doesn't slide. They also painted part of it to look like it was part of the doorway, but since it hangs out a little you can tell it was a door and the rest of it wasn't painted.

Bedroom, perhaps the least oddest rooms in the house. Awkward feature #3, there are no ceiling lights or fans in any of the bedrooms. Apparently, people in the 70's lit candles? There is one in the bathrooms, the living room and the dining room, but you can tell that even those were recent updates.

Master bathroom...aside from the lack of doors that should appropriately be placed for privacy in a bathroom, this one comes with several awkward features, perhaps it's the tiny shower that can barely fit one person. (Like maybe a really fit teenager can fit). Or maybe it's the lack of doors on the closet, or maybe the giant stove burner in the bedroom. Here's an idea, how about we take that awkward sliding door idea from the kitchen and use it in here!

My children's playroom, still aside from the lack of lighting, this room isn't that awkward. Oh yeah, except for 1/2 of the plugs are controlled by a light switch, the other half aren't. Also the second switch on the light switch controls the ceiling fan in the living room...

My children's bedroom, yes I force them to sleep together. Why? So I can have one room that they want to destroy while the other stays clean. Also I'd rather have them keep each other up at night than me. In this room, the light switches do the same thing. In fact one of the outlets are in an extremely awkward spot near the door. Who would have a lamp in the middle of the room? From what we can tell, the carpets are different in each room. When they upgraded the tile though, they cut the carpet too short from the doorway so you have a nice cement border to enhance your carpeting features. Most importantly, there are 4 large mirrors that cover most of the walls in this room. The landlord said at some point he had made this room into a gym room, but it's a little creepy and vain to me. Fortunately my children love to watch themselves jump on the bed, smile, etc..., so this is sort of a heaven for them.

There are a lot of awkward features to this house, including the fact that there is a heater, but not an air conditioner, and you can't lock any of the bedroom or bathroom doors (a personal paranoia for my husband). But out of all the houses we looked at to rent in Bishop this was the least awkward and weird.

Aside for the space one of my favorite things upon move in was a cherry tomato plant that was producing out back. Once we discovered what it was, it became barren pretty fast. The tomatoes were delicious and so sweet. I'm pretty sure I want to plant a cherry tomato plant in every house I live in from now on.

My children were not the only ones to enjoy the space, the dogs found the backyard to be amazing. It has lizards, bunnies, birds and bugs.

Dylan getting his belly meat all up in that grass!

Another plus from having more space was that more space meant more movement, and more movement meant everyone got tired a lot quicker.

Maddy has always been a good sleeper, but nap time became routine here.

On the other hand, I don't think anything could wear my Emmett out.

The best part about living in Bishop is how close you are to the mountains and trails. Since everyone up here explores the great outdoors, we thought we should join the crowd and explore the great outdoors. For my Clovis friends, we took Line Street (AKA the eastern 168) as far west as we could go. Aside from the mountain range we were practically in Clovis!

Beginning our hike to Lake Sabrina

The beautiful mountains that separate us from our former Clovis home.

Emmett thought that outside was amazing. We found sticks, rocks, and water. What is better than that?

Pretty stream, or is that a creek?

Maddy isn't sure what is going on here, but she is quite pleased that she gets to ride on mommy.

Emmett is thrilled to see water!

Lets get as close as we can to it.

Girls selfie!

Daddy making sure his boy's enthusiasm stays on the rock and not in the river.

Emmett found a tree root hideout, amazing!

It is very important to Emmett to have a stick. Sticks are an extension of the arm you know. You can hit things with sticks, make noise with sticks...

You can put sticks in water and see how deep it goes....

You can find more sticks with sticks...

Most importantly, you can hit the water with sticks and make a big splash....

And if you can make a big splash, then getting completely submerged in the water must be even better.

Since getting into the water wasn't an option, we settled on splashing the water with two sticks instead.

Fall in Bishop.

Love that rich orange.

The picture was blurry, but on our way back down the mountain, we saw a group of does eating on the side of the road. I tried to snap a picture and captured like 2 of the 10.

Does, bottom right and upper left.

After hiking, my car got extremely dirty, so I decided to wash it. Taylor, was still wanting to enjoy my company while I worked on the car. Unfortunately for him, our chairs did not hold up so well in the move. He fell right through. I forced him to take this picture of shame.

When we found out we were moving to Bishop, one of my conditions was to have an exercise machine. (Because running in the woods seemed slightly to tempting to the surrounding bears and pumas.) I was so excited to get my machine! Happy early Christmas to me!

Emmett loves it too!

We play in the backyard a lot. A new game Emmett found was playing chase and tag with the dogs. I like it because it doesn't have to involve me. I do however enjoy watching my child wrestle with the dogs to get their Frisbee back. Emmett doesn't appreciate it when the dogs win though. He gets mad and throws a fit. It's quite enjoyable to watch.

He really does put all his strength into it, but so does the dog.

Emmett's idea of chase is that the dogs chase him...

Random picture, my daughter is so cute. She still refuses to try and walk. She believes crawling and /or being carried is a much more efficient form of transportation.

I solemnly swear I'm up to no good.

As a child I used to love it when my dad would catch lizards at the fire station and let me play with them. So I thought, perhaps my son would like that too. Not only did I realize how fast these lizards are but how much of a game of the minds it is. You have to anticipate the lizard's movements. After about an hour I finally caught one! I'm not sure who was more shocked, me or the lizard, because I was pretty impressed with myself.

Emmett wasn't as thrilled with the lizard as I remember being, but perhaps that was because I was older and understood that the lizard is scared silly, so it won't move while you look at it.

Since the lizard didn't move on command, I decided to have a little fun with it instead. I let Emmett hold it in his hand as long as he didn't squeeze it. Thinking it would just jump from his hand to the ground I assumed this game wouldn't last very long. Instead, the lizard found a nice perch on Emmett's back and hung out for at least a half hour before I recaptured it and released it.

Not sure where the lizard went...

Oh well, better go play...

Proof that there were no lizards harmed in the fun of this experiment. He was happily returned to his habitat.

Another thing we decided to capture was giant caterpillars... This one was a giant tomato worm! I thought he was exceptionally beautiful. Just like Absolom in Alice in Wonderland.

Absolom up and close.

In October, we planned a trip to my parent's home in Laughlin. It was nice to relax after moving and putting and unpacking a house. We really enjoyed our time there.

Emmett playing my dad's slot machines.

The men playing poker. Emmett was very good at hitting the cash out button. Except when you cash out at grandma and grandpa's house, there's nothing to cash out, so the machine just goes crazy.

Emmett loves playing with the exercise ball, but he really loved playing on top of grandpa on top of the exercise ball.

Going out to eat.

Everyday at the river, it is customary to hawl everything down to the beach. Since the temperature is in the high 80's in October, beach time was still quite enjoyable.
Maddy thought the sand was less than ideal and the water a bit too cold for her taste, but she did enjoy laying out on the beach blanket and do what she does best... eat and pose for pictures!

Maddy looking adorable as ever!

Emmett loved the water. He was so excited to splash, find sticks, throw rocks and build sandcastles.

Splashing!

What a cute boy!

Getting greetings from the ducks.

In the middle of the day Maddy felt like
she could tolerate the water for a picture. But she wasn't thrilled.

Getting a bit more excited.

Trying to get the ducks to float near Maddy...

When you are on vacation....you play on your laptop?

Happy boy, he had a canned apple juice.

Sword play with grandpa!

What a cutie pie! I love this girl!

Helping build sandcastles with grandpa.

While we were up in Laughlin, we ate at a really good Italian/Mexican restaurant. Yup, those were the nationality of food choices....

Old school high chairs...

So hungry I'm going to eat my toys!

After dinner, we ate cake at grandma and grandpa's house to celebrate Madison's upcoming 1st birthday. She was a little more graceful with her cake than brother was at her age.

More please!

So excited...

Birthday presents!

Yay for bead mazes!

Maddy loved her bead maze and her talking kitty!
Thank you grandma and grandpa!

During our trip, Taylor and I got a little date and took a ride on the Rhino out in the desert.

We saw some bighorn sheep. (center)

My grandparents and my aunt Connie and Uncle Steve also came out to visit us!

4 generational photo.

Grandma holding her great-grandbaby!

Emmett disappointed grandpa by not being a huge fan of the
jet skis, so they attempted to go out in the Rhino with much more success!

After visiting the river house, we made a quick stop at the Bishop home and then drove down south. Taylor had a work trip planned so we thought, since we are all already packed, we should go too!

Maddy playing with Uncle Joseph!

The cousins were down during our trip too! It was a lot of fun to see family! Emmett and a few cousins decided to play swords!

Samuri in training...

The battle commences...

Maddy is so cute, even when she eats!

Loving the swing!

Emmett has now been promoted to the big swing!

Vroom!!!!

Grandma and grandpa have the most amazing back yard. There are infinite possibilities of fun! Aside from the swing and the airplane seesaw, they also have a treehouse!

Ahoy Captain!

ARRRRGGGG Matey!

Emmett taunts the tortoise...

I don't think it's going to stand down.

Emmett loves the pigs!

They make silly noises!

He likes to look but touching was a little much.

Cute boy.

At the end of the day, Emmett loves to snuggle up with grandpa and go to bed. Thanks for being such a great pillow grandpa!

After and enjoyable trip down south we were ready to get into a routine in Bishop. Since the kids have never slept in the same room before this was an enjoyable change...for Emmett. In the morning, he started to crawl into bed with his sister and play with her. She isn't always thrilled to see him that early in the morning and so she lets us all know she needs to be rescued. Oh to be the younger sibling....

Then came Halloween. Apparently since the town is so small, our church doesn't do a trunk or treat, the entire town does! Though Emmett had the flu on Halloween and so we couldn't take him out we celebrated a little differently...