U-pick Fruitstands in Brentwood

This Saturday we tried something new as a family - picking nectarines, blackberries, apricots and pluots at some fruit orchards in Brentwood.  We have done apple picking every September at Gizdich Ranch in Watsonville for a few years now and love it, but didn't even know about all the fruit orchards in Brentwood until this summer, which is only a 35 minute drive away instead of the 1 1/2 hour trek to Watsonville.  And wow, are we ever glad we made this discovery!  

We went hoping for peaches but when we got there, we realized that there are many small family orchards all along a few roads, kind of clustered together, and each had signs out letting us know what was available there.  The orchards even have maps with 60 different orchards listed along with what produce they grow and sell, where you can pick it yourself, and months each variety is available for picking.  We had already found a place called "Mike's" online and went there first, only to learn we had missed their peaches but that their yellow nectarines were ripe. 

It was fun picking the nectarines, which were plentiful and low enough that the girls were able to easily reach them to pick and then add to our bucket.  In fact, it was almost a little TOO easy because in a few minutes we already had more nectarines that I'm afraid we are going to be able to eat!  There were ladders spaced through the orchard to help you reach the nectarines higher up in the trees, but we didn't need to use them because the orchard hadn't been picked over at all yet.

Clara was thrilled to find multiple ladybugs.  She doesn't have any problem with creepy crawlies and will hold ladybugs, roly polies, and worms without hesitating.  She is afraid of spiders though.

After picking nectarines, we weren't ready to go home just because we had reached our limit of how much we thought we might be able to consume.  5 minutes of fruit picking is not nearly long enough and that's basically all it took for us to get a bucketful of nectarines!  So we decided to drive around and see what other orchards had to offer.  We ended up spotting signs for blackberries, which sounded fun to pick, and stopped at Chan's fruitstand where they had strawberries and blackberries for picking.  The blackberries were AMAZING.  Easily the most delicious, sweetest, juiciest blackberries I have ever tasted in my life.  The girls and Paul and I ate as many as we pleased while taking our time filling our box with the plumpest, biggest blackberries we could find.  At $3/lb., they aren't cheap, but oh many it is worth it for such perfect, delicious fruit that you pick right off the bush and pop straight into your mouth.  And the blackberry bushes were absolutely loaded in ripe berries!  

Blackberry picking was more fun than nectarine picking from an experience standpoint because it took longer and they were also easier to eat right there.  And I already have ideas for how to use up the box full of blackberries we ended up with, starting with Blackberry Swirl Ice Cream that we are going to have for dessert today on top of a nectarine and blackberry crumble!

Rose ended up with purple juice stains all around her little mouth and fingers because she ate so many blackberries.  Clara was pleased as anything to find "the biggest, most perfect berries" for us to eat.  Paul, who doesn't normally even really care for blackberries, was raving about how delicious they were.  And I got twice the enjoyment because I got to practice photography and document the fun as well as eat the berries that the girls would bring to me.

You can tell by Rose's face especially how much she enjoyed this family activity!  What a goofball.

After blackberries, we really were planning to head home but as we were driving we mentioned wishing we could have found some apricots to pick just as we drove past a fruitstand that had a "U-pick apricots" sign.  So we pulled over at Annie's Happy Farm and spent another half an hour filling a bucket with apricots and (joy!) pluots!  Clara loves, loves, loves pluots and was super thrilled about picking them and eating them right there in the orchard after I cleaned them off.  They were super sweet, with green skin on the outside and bright red and orange flesh on the inside.  The juice got everywhere but it was totally worth it.  The apricots and pluots were a little higher up, so they weren't as easy for Rose to pick, but she was still able to snag some of the lower hanging fruit.  Clara was tall enough to not have much of a problem and was pretty good about looking for only the best apricots and pluots to collect in our bucket.

It had been overcast all morning, which was nice for fruit picking because the weather has been so warm here that if the sun had been up it would have gotten much hotter, much earlier.  I'm not quite sure how we are going to get through all this fruit as I'm afraid our eyes and grabby hands were bigger than our stomachs, but we are certainly going to try.  And we are planning to go back again later in July for yellow peaches!  This just might be a new summer tradition.

Point Reyes National Seashore on Memorial Day

On Memorial Day this year, we did a day-trip over to Point Reyes National Seashore.  It has been on my list of California places to see for years now and it's not even that far away.  The drive was just gorgeous with beautiful trees and fields filled with cows grazing on wildflowers and tall early summer grasses.  We stopped to stretch our legs at Inverness in Tomales Bay when we saw this interesting old boat that had been abandoned on the shore.  Turns out it is a bit of a local landmark that has been around for decades and just this past February somebody set off fireworks in the back of the boat and it caught fire, nearly destroying it.  The front still looks good but the backside is all burnt out now.  The girls enjoyed walking across a "balance beam" (log laid across that little stream in front of the boat) and then searching for tiny hermit crabs in the sand on the other side where the tide was going out.  

As we got closer to the coast, it got overcast and cooler, which was just right for the little hike we wanted to do down to the Point Reyes Lighthouse, which operated for 105 years from 1870-ish (I'm just going off what I overheard a ranger mentioning) to 1975 before being replaced by an electric version.  The ranger said that it was always hard to keep lighthouse keepers because of how remote and desolate the area is and how demanding the job was.  They had to crank the operating mechanism on the light every 2 hours to keep it going and in bad weather they had to shovel 140 pounds of coal an hour to keep the foghorn blasting.   The longest they ever kept a lightkeeper was something like 12 years and many people only lasted a week before quitting.  And interestingly, we learned that the lighthouse at Point Reyes has a 5-second flash, which is a signature so that sailors know which lighthouse they are at - the lighthouses above and below along the coast have different flashes like a 3-second flash, etc. 

Clara was picking wildflowers along our way from the car to the lighthouse.  A park ranger ended up confiscating her bouquet, which was very sad.  I mean, I get it that if everybody picked the flowers there wouldn't be any left for others to enjoy and we talk to Clara about that all the time (oh my gosh, seriously enough to drive a parent crazy!) but there is just something about little girls and flower bouquets.  Clara finally understands that at home, she is only allowed to pick dandelions and not our neighbors flowers but out in the wild, it just feels wrong to tell her she's not allowed to touch. 

We went through this tunnel of cyprus trees.  I find cypruses to be absolutely beautiful and fascinating trees, the way they get all bent and curvy to hug the land near the sea from being blown by the ocean winds for their whole lives.

There are something like 300 stairs down to the lighthouse and both girls did them on their own on the way down and back up, even though Rose especially had to be coaxed along on the return portion.  I think during winter you can often spot whales from here so we will have to plan another trip in for January because wouldn't it be just amazing to see a humpback whale spouting just off the coast from this perch?

 After visiting the lighthouse, we stopped at Drakes Beach, which was super overcast and gloomy but still a nice place to have a snack and let the girls play in the sand.  Clara found a bunch of large, smooth rocks and gathered them up, calling them "dinosaur eggs" and burying them in the sand to hatch.

We read about Sir Francis Drake (the first person to sail around the world) and how he made it to the bay here and stopped for over a month to gather supplies and repair their ship.  They had come from England sometime around 1579 and gone all the way around the south tip of South America and then back up the coast, losing 4 other ships along the way and collecting gold and treasures from Spanish ships (Sir Francis Drake was a privateer for Queen Elizabeth I - so basically a pirate sanctioned by the English government).  Their whole trip took them 3 years and the sailors were homesick and thought the cliffs here looked like the white cliffs from their homeland.  The Miwok Native Americans who inhabited the area had never before seen white men.

We put a movie on for the girls on the drive home and Paul and I talked about camping this summer and when and where to go.  It's nuts that it is June now!  April and May feel lost in the abyss of pain and recovery from my surgery but I'm so glad to be better and able to start planning and doing fun things like this again - just in time for summer!

Clara Turns Five

I tease Clara often that she isn't allowed to grow up any more and that she had better stay little.  To which she always giggles and does something naughty like stretching as much as she can and asking me if she is getting bigger or sassing me and saying in a sing-song voice, "not gonna happen mom!"  And it usually ends in tickles and hugs and I-love-you's.  She loves when I tell her I want her to always stay just the same.  About a week ago, we were in the car and out of the blue she announced to me that she was never going to have kids and so I would never be a grandma.  A little baffled by where this was coming from, I asked her why and she sweetly pronounced, "because I love you just the way you are and I always want you to stay just the same."  

So the night before her 5th birthday, as I was giving her a hug before bed, we were doing this routine when the realization hit me as I said the words, "Clara, this is the last time I will ever get to hug you as a 4-year old!"  She beamed (she has been aching to be 5 for months - I think because so many of her preschool classmates are 5 already) and I about started bawling.  Normally I'm not super sentimental about stuff like that, but gosh 4 has been a great age for Clara.  

Initially Clara told us that she wanted to have a "Frozen" birthday party (insert groan) which was strange because she seriously doesn't even watch that movie any more and has other things that are definitely more interesting to her than Frozen.  So we were happy when she was easily talked into a "Wild Kratts" party, figuring we would just do an animal theme or something.  And then a week or so before her birthday she announced that she had changed her mind and wanted to have a "Zootopia" party instead.  Silly girl.  In the end, I way simplified things by just inviting her friends to a local park and bringing pizza, watermelon, and cupcakes and decorated with rainbow colors rather than try to go all out with a theme.  This jaw surgery business dashed any ideas I had about a party at our house with zootopia themed games and party favors.  Fortunately, a friend with amazing cookie decorating skills made a couple dozen Zootopia cookies for the party.  Clara's favorite character is "Gazelle" (played by Shakira - Clara has been memorizing the song "Try Everything" from the movie) and was super excited to eat a Gazelle cookie.    

But that party ended up being the day after her actual birthday.  Her real birthday was Thursday and we had a very full and busy day.  First off was waking up to birthday balloons (always a huge source of joy for the girls) and a birthday breakfast of bacon and eggs (her request) and blueberry pancakes (my addition to round things out because we have bacon and eggs all the time anyway!).  Then we spent a lazy morning around the house playing board games, reading books and taking our time getting ready for the day.  Clara was so excited to wear her cupcake dress which I bought for her TWO years ago and it still fits because the sizing was totally off and it was huge on her when she turned 3!  Which is why I am totally scared to ever buy things from Etsy even though there are so many cute boutique-y places to shop on there.

Then it was lunch from Mr. Pickles (her favorite sandwich place) and preschool, where she got to bring cupcakes (red velvet - her flavor of choice when we go to Nothing Bundt Cakes and what she wanted to take for her preschool friends).  Another little boy, Aveah, shared the same birthday so his family brought the fruit kabobs and we brought the sweets.  I was scheduled to work, which Clara loves, so it was fun to spend all that time with her.  But what was even more special was that Paul worked from home and came over for the outdoor recess and snack portion of the school day and wore the visitor apron.  Clara loved having both of us there for her and was so happy to pass out cupcakes to her friends.  The preschool has a "cake" that they put candles on to celebrate birthdays.  It's just styrofoam but it really is so cute how the kids love it and how they get to blow out candles at preschool.  This is Clara with Mrs. James, the head teacher at her school. 

Then it was off to the park to celebrate another friend's birthday.  That was the most confusing part of the day for her - she was ready to celebrate her OWN birthday.  She wasn't upset or anything, but she did ask me, "but when is the celebration going to happen for my birthday?" and I kept telling her it was the next day.  In hindsight, I should have talked with this other friend's mom and we should have just done a joint park party with two cakes or whatever so it could have been on Clara's actual birthday because when you are 5 it is so weird to have a party on a day that is not your actual birthday.  

When I asked her a couple of days before her birthday what she wanted for her special birthday dinner, her first response was bacon and eggs (which we covered with breakfast and she reiterated she would have for dinner as well).  Her second choice though was "a whole fish and a salad with croutons and lots and lots of vegetables".  I had grilled a whole Arctic Char for Sunday dinner the week before and both girls loved it (rub with olive oil, salt and pepper it, sprinkle with thyme and then stuff the belly of the fish with slices of lemon, garlic, and more thyme, then grill) so it wasn't super surprising that this is what Clara requested for dinner.  She also got a huge kick out of the meal preparation because I made the fish "swim" around in the air while I was rinsing it off and getting it ready for the grill, which she thought was hilarious.  Fillets are definitely easier for eating, but there is something to be said for cooking the whole thing and the flavor and presentation it gives.  The salad was simple - she likes it with carrots and cucumbers and radishes, plus I added some hard boiled egg and avocado.  

Unfortunately, Whole Foods didn't have any Arctic Char (our favorite for this type of preparation) so I went with a few smaller fishes (Paul's dad and brother both happened to be in town and celebrated with us which is why there was so much fish, btw) - 2 small trout, 2 small branzini, and 1 yellowtail snapper.  I didn't like how the trout turned out at all - this is definitely not how I will prepare trout in the future as I much prefer it pan-fried.  But the branzini was excellent.  It is a meditteranean sea bass and so, so delicious, especially prepared this way on the grill.  The yellowtail snapper was so-so.  

After her special dinner, we had a surprise party planned for her.  Paul had told her beforehand that he would take her on a special daddy-daughter bike ride on her birthday.  Clara told us a few weeks ago that she was ready to start riding her bike more and was feeling like she could "ride with the bike pack" now.  She has been getting much braver about it and we have been riding a few times since then as a family and she is starting to pick up speed and find her balance.  Hopefully this will be the summer that her training wheels come off and she will be able to ride her own bike in Yosemite this fall.  So while Paul was keeping Clara busy, the rest of us (me and Rose, Bob and Dave) threw all the presents into the car along with party decorations and cake and ice cream and drove to a nearby park where we met the Hamby's (Paul's cousin's family with four boys who our girls love) and set up with her birthday balloons and everything so that when they rode up we could yell "Surprise!".  Clara thought it was great to be having a surprise birthday party (and to finally be celebrating for her instead of somebody else!).

She was so enthusiastic about opening each of her presents: a new purple 2-wheel big girl scooter from Grandma Cece and Grandpa Russ, which she immediately got to try out on the path around the park; a trampoline from Grandpa and Grandma Nash, which turned out to be too big and had to be returned and we just got the new, smaller version last night and have to set up - she is so excited!; some books, a gift card, a new game called Rangerland about the national parks from Kayli's family in Texas (which she loves and we have played almost every day since), a new outfit from Renita, Judy, and Great-Grandpa and Grandma Johnson (my aunts and grandparents), a butterfly growing kit from her Kayli (the caterpillars just came in the mail yesterday and Clara is so, so pumped about this project of growing butterflies), and a new leotard and "sparkle shorts" from me & Paul.  Paul mentioned a day or two before her birthday that he thought maybe we should get her some more things but we both knew that she would be getting a lot from other people anyway and didn't want to overdo it.  Plus, I told him that after hearing Clara plead for sparkle shorts every week at gymnastics for months, I knew that she was getting exactly what she wanted.  And boy, was that ever the right call.  When she saw those sequiny shorts that go over her leotard, she was practically overcome.  We could tell because after her initial squeal of delight and recognition, she could not stop beaming and came right over and hugged me long and tight and then didn't say anything, just smiled more and hugged me again before going and giving her daddy hugs, smiling her content, all-is-right-with-the-world smile all the while.  It was perfect.  I'm going to have to get some pictures of her in her new gymnastics attire to add to this post now that I think about it.

And then it was time for cake and ice cream.  Clara requested cherry cake, and when I asked her to elaborate I learned that she wanted it to be pink and have lots of cherries.  So I came up with this gorgeous cake, which was unbelievably delicious and definitely going in my cookbook for the future.  I used a jar of maraschino cherries in the cake itself, but then got a second jar with stems just for decorating.  I made the cake the day before and frosted and decorated it after the girls had gone to sleep.  When Clara came out on her birthday morning and saw it, she gushed, "wow, mom! you did a great job on my cake!"  After pretending to blow out candles (it was much too windy for them to stay lit even when we tried to shield the cake with our bodies) she immediately set upon those cherries on top, plucking them off one after another and popping them into her mouth.  I half-heartedly tried to stop her at first, but the Hamby's said that none of their boys like maraschino cherries anyway and the adults didn't care, so Clara got all the cherries, then declined any cake in favor of practicing on her scooter some more.  Silly girl.

The next day we were joined by church friends at Val Vista park for pizza, watermelon, cookies and cupcakes.  I just picked up 2 Costco pizzas (one cheese and one supreme) and we only had a few slices leftover, so that worked out great.  Other than a tablecloth, plates, and balloons, I didn't do anything else to decorate and didn't mess around with party favors or games or anything.  Which was fine because they kids just had fun playing on a little mountain structure and playset anyway.  We're so lucky to have friends who came to join us and celebrate our big 5-year old girl.

I had to take a close shot of the unreal cookies that my friend made.  Not only did they look amazing, but they were seriously so, so good.  Everybody loved them and sure enough, Clara was so happy about her Gazelle cookie.  And Rose chose a bunny (no surprise there either).

A couple of presents and cards came in the mail a few days before and after her birthday. Clara started laughing on Satuday (2 days after her birthday) when another card came for her and proclaimed, "it's like this birthday never ends!"  I just love how joyful she has been about this 5th birthday.  Love this girl and cannot believe she is getting so big.   I want to do another post with her birthday interview (I got halfway through a video before the battery in my camera died and I haven't finished) and do a little photo session with her, but that is going to have to wait for another day.

Urban Farming

Clara told me this week that she wants to be a farmer when she grows up.  I think every child must say this at some point and love that she is in this stage.  It makes me so glad that we went ahead and got four baby chicks for the girls for Easter because now that the weather is turning nicer and they have outgrown their brooder in the garage (just a big cardboard box that we kept them in with a heat lamp), they are ready to move outside into their coop and we are all having so much fun hanging out in our backyard watching the chickens (they are hardly chicks anymore even though Clara still calls them that) peck around for bugs.  

So within about 30 seconds of seeing the chicks on Easter morning, Clara gave them names like Fluffster, Puffster, Chirpster and something else (I can't really remember).  After explaining that they were girls and we should really give them girl names, she immediately set on Anna and Elsa for two that look very similar.  Then it took a little while to come up with the other two names because I kept vetoing Fluffster but the other two are Gertie and Dorcas (although Dorcas is still called Chirpster half the time, which admittedly is pretty fitting since she chirps more than any of the others when we go to grab her).  Dorcas, a Barred Rock with mostly black feathers, is named for the dark-haired girl in 7 Brides For 7 Brothers.  She is also Rose's favorite chicken, which is obvious because she is the one that Rose follows around the yard, scooping her up when she gets close enough and holding her proudly for us to see.

Paul spent a good part of this past Saturday building a pen for the chickens in our side yard.  Their coop is for night-time and laying eggs (in a couple of months once they are even bigger and start producing), but they need more space to roam while still being protected from predators like raccoons so Paul used wood and chicken wire to build a pen around the coop to keep them safe.  He didn't use any plans or anything - he just came up with how to construct it off the top of his head because he is a genius and super handy and very manly.  He is also a really good sport because the whole backyard chicken thing was totally my idea that he has been good natured about.

And speaking of our backyard, it's a complete wreck right now.  Our big remodel project for 2016 is going to be the exterior of our home, so Paul has been working hard tearing out bushes, cement, and moving dirt, etc. to get ready to install french drains and new retaining walls since the old walls were failing.  It is going to be a long, long process but we are planning on repainting the house, installing new retaining walls in the back, side, and front yards (we live on a hill and have to have them), and probably pouring new concrete for a back patio, side walkway, and maybe even a new driveway as part of the whole project.  And then there is landscaping on to of all that.  It's pretty overwhelming thinking about it and I'm not even the one doing any of the work (until it comes to landscaping and then I'm pretty handy with picking out plants and doing a lot of the planting).  Until then, the girls and the chickens are enjoying having a dirt/root/rock pile to climb on in the backyard.

Clara has a favorite chicken of her own.  It's Elsa and she let's Clara carry her around and pick her up and set her down over and over.  If Clara wasn't as hypervigilant about pointing out every time Elsa poops, she would probably try bringing her into the house and making her a house chicken.

We sure are looking forward to having eggs to gather and eat here in a few more months!