Year: 2015

On Saturday we visited a Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary in Goleta which is just a little bit north of Santa Barbara.

A beautiful day to be out and about.

Walking through the Eucalyptus grove.

Always time for some geocaching.

He\’s so funny.  He asks if he can do a little exploring because he had no interest in geocaching.

In the 1800\’s a guy named Ellwood planted all the Eucalyptus trees in hopes of making some money on the lumber.  Unfortunately eucalyptus trees are not very strong and timber easily….as demonstrated in the picture above.  However they make for an excellent sanctuary for the Monarchs.

Here they are.  Right now there are about 5,500 butterflies here. Can you see the huge pods of Monarchs?

Here\’s a closer view.

And an even closer view.

There was a docent there who was passionate about the Monarchs and was full of really interesting information.

We were there around 2:30 pm and it was starting to cool down.  The Monarch\’s don\’t fly when the temp is below 60 degrees but you could still see some flying around.   The docent said the homeowners in the area are really good about planting milkweed so in the mornings when it warms up all the butterflies fly off to find some milkweed to lay their eggs.

A little more fun and geocaching before we head home.

All our hikes seem to end this way.

Here\’s a picture I took of the same park, different vantage point, in November 2014.

We had a cabinet installed in our little nook area in the dining room.  Don Quixote looks perfect there.  Nice to have him out again.

Quinn and I drew a picture of our family and he hung it in our family room.  He\’s tall and has a long reach.

Quinn\’s swimming instructor, Felicia, recommended that Quinn take some group lessons with some older kids to push him a little bit.  It\’s time to shake things up a little bit.

Sometimes I manage to pack a nice lunch for Quinn.  He loves sour stuff and always eats the baby dills.

Or maybe not.  He\’s sick but still has quite a bit of energy.   This project reminded me of the good old days when Quinn would paint at his easel on Ripley Ave.  He\’s making a snowmobile.

Here\’s a throwback.

We baked some chocolate chip cookies.  He pretended he was interested but really was just waiting for the paddle.

He woke up coughing again on Thursday morning.  Not a big fan of the \”cherry\” flavored cough medicine.

The snow mobile is on the table on the left.

Quinn seems to be getting worse.  This is what he is doing while I am typing.  He wanted to get in the big bed with his ipad and he has a fever.

I\’m not happy that he is sick but I have enjoyed our lazy days together.

Quinn and I had some fun racing his Remote Control truck down the fire road on this warm Sunday.  Can you see how green it is here.  A rare treat and just in time for my hiking group to start again.