Sunol

This past Friday and Saturday we had two grand events: the Bisbee-Trout Barn Dance and a Trip to Sunol for Amy's birthday. As I have only 12 pictures from the dance on my camera (I was too busy dancing to take any pictures), I must wait until I have procured some more before I post on it. Thus, I will post on Sunol, which was the Saturday event, out of order.

Here a few of us are preparing on of the tables for lunch.

The other two are ready - let's eat!

A little father-daughter time before lunch time.

A little fiancee-fiancee time before lunch time.

I'm seeing red! Watch out for all that red ink!

Kevin and the Birthday Girl.

Happy Birthday to you!

After lunch, Ange and Corey decided to duel with water bottles. I will let you judge who won.

A swing for the head!

Time to fence!

DIE!

Hope gets ready for our big hike on the Indian Joe trail. We hiked to a big pile of rocks...which you will see in detail below.

Part of the group.

The flowers and grass were so pretty in Sunol. It was incredibly green and beautiful.

More wildlife.

I look into the wild green yonder.

Hope and Dad.

This picture was edited...I couldn't resist accentuating the greenery!

We finally made it to the rocks after a nice 2-ish mile hike up. If you've never gone rock cave exploring, put it on your list of things you must do before you die...it's a ton of fun (unless you're claustrophobic)!

Caleb in the "ponder" pose.

Sistahs!

In the midst of the rocks. It was a little harder to get up there than it looks!

More rock climbers.

Hannah and Caleb exploring the rocks.

One of the many rock rooms.

Mom and Hope.

The scenery from the rocks.

Josh and I prepare to go down the Crack of Doom...the smallest cave in the place! It is really small at first, but at the very bottom (after a lot of struggling) you can actually stand up.

Corey can't wait to squish himself down the hole!

There is the entrance...

Here is Josh coming out. It gets smaller than this!

Corey down in the hole.

Ange found a slug and wanted to show Hope and Caleb it...

Hope's not too thrilled...

And Caleb isn't, either.

One of my favorite pictures from the day.

More scenery.

Joel and Rachel up the tree.

Is this a bird? A plane? Or...is it Hannah?

Corey up the tree.

The married ones.

Kevin and Caleb...I think Caleb gets the best deal in this arrangement.

After the hike, we packed up and headed home after a great day in Sunol. Sunol has some great scenery, especially this time of year! We may be back in the future. But, until then, you probably won't see any Sunol on here.

For now, just have yourself a wonderful day!

Casey

Passover, Easter Eggs, Easter, and a Lesson in Planting Trees

Eastertime is a momentous occasion for a Christian. As they say, you can't have Christmas without Easter (or at least, there would be no reason to celebrate Christmas without Easter). So, we do a lot of celebrating (and a lot of preparation for Resurrection Day) during the Easter season.

On Good Friday, we celebrate Passover. It is always helpful and worthwhile to view Christian doctrine through Hebrew eyes, so Passover, a Hebrew holiday, is a great holiday to celebrate. The above picture is a picture of the Seder plate, which has multiple food items that symbolize several different important events and aspects of the Passover. Of course, as Christians, these items have more meaning to us than it did (and does) to the Jews.

Here is Hope looking for any leaven in the house (or leavened bread) so we can throw it out.

Hope and Caleb looking for leaven.

Here we are burning the leaven.

An artistic shot of the Seder plate. Notice that all the symbols revolve around a central theme: God is the focus of Passover.

Here Dad explains some of the cultural and biblical significance of Passover and guides us through the Passover Seder.

Corey follows along on his copy of the Seder.

Here I am doing one of the many symbolical things that one does during the Passover meal.

And here is the wonderful meal Mom cooked for Passover! The meat, of course, is fittingly lamb meat.

Here is the family (minus Dad) at the table.

Of course, even though Easter eggs aren't as rich and full of meaning as Passover is, we still enjoy spending time as a family and dyeing them together.

Twelve cups of dye...don't spill!

Caleb dyes one of his eggs a nice shade of red. He probably ended up dying his fingers and part of his shirt a nice shade of red, too.

Hope, on the other hand, was a little more careful in her egg-dying methods.

"Dye eggs? Eggs are to eat!"

Here I prepare to dye my fingers blue. Oh yes, and part of the egg, too.

One of our Easter egg traditions is the requirement that every person must make at least one egg with a face on it, and then you must take a picture mimicking the egg. I have no idea how it started, but we've been doing it for years. Here is Dad preparing his egg-head.

Here is Corey dying...dyeing, I mean.

The egghead is finished! I believe that we decided that Dad's egg was the angry pirate monk.

Hope and her egg. This look is the speckled, spotted, smiley look.

Caleb and his egg. This look is the abstract crazy eye look.

My attempt at a farmer was poor, to say the least.

And my attempt at a yodeling man in lederhosen ended up looking like a leprechaun. *Sigh* I'm not an artist.

Why are you so grumpy?

Mom prepares for the chilly weather, and it looks like the egg is doing the same.

My favorite egghead picture from this year. Corey has always had a knack for making great faces (mascara helps to add a little mustache effect).

On Easter Sunday, we went first to church and then had the Chamberlains over for an afternoon of fellowship. Here we all are in our Sunday best!

Kevin and Amy look for their hidden gifts in the family room.

My kick must have produced quite a blast of air to knock Corey against the wall like that, as it's clear that my foot will not connect with him.

Here is Meems on Resurrection Day.

The Chamberlains are here; let the games begin!

Hide and Seek was also played.

Singing psalms together around the piano.

It was a little rainy on Easter, but not terrible. It was still beautiful out, though! (Although, if you look on the ground, you can see the annoying little tree "worms" covering the asphalt)

Today (April 1st) we planted a couple trees. First, we had to saw out a dead tree to make room for the two cherry trees that we were planting in its place. Then, we had to dig two holes for the said trees.

Here are the trees!

Everyone does their part!

Even Hope!

The sky was beautiful today. Meems and Pops look on.

Corey and Pops make sure everything is to their liking...

The trees are in! Now we just need to take care of them and next year we'll hopefully have some cherries!

I'll end with this picture of the Walker men.

I hope you enjoyed that little glimpse into our Easter season!

Also, as a bit of a postscript, I recommend you take a look at my Mom's blog (differentkindofwoman.wordpress.com)...though it is geared more towards females and not towards men.

But for now,

Casey