Happy Halloween!

"Thriller" by Micheal Jackson

I miss being a kid when it comes to Halloween. Nothing quite beats dressing up and trick or treating. Not to mention all the candy. But here is a video that is sure to get you in the Halloween spirit, whether you're wearing a costume or not. 

The little gem of Exeter, CA

The charming town of Exeter is only a short drive away from us. We spent an almost perfect Saturday afternoon enjoying the place. It may be small in size, but certainly not in personality. This place takes pride in their 29 murals. After lunch at the Wildflower cafe we were off to see them! (Sadly, I'm only posting a few.) I love that I was able to learn so much about the history of the area just from seeing and learning about these beautiful murals. I wonder how much time was spent painting each one. 

"Orange Harvest." This mural was the first one painted. This looks like it could be a
part of the scenery- when you get out of town this is what you see 

"In Our Backyard"

"Men+Mules+Water=Power"

"Hometown News." To Phillip's delight he found a real wrench attached to this one

"Yokohl Brand"

"Golden Harvest"

"Passport to Paradise"

"The People Behind the Label"

"Our Town, Circa 1925"

Dedicated to the veterans- "Freedom Fighters" 

We had fun seeing them all from our bike despite the 90 degree weather. Ice cream was necessary!

Rocky Hill Ice Cream Parlor. This place made a fun trip SUPER

This older gentlemen retired and thought he'd try the ice cream business. He made us the best milkshakes we have ever tasted! They were made with local ice cream and milk (Tulare is actually the top dairy producing county in the country, 2nd in agricultural production after Fresno.) I never thought a lemon milkshake and a banana milkshake could be better then anything with chocolate, but they were. We must go back for more!

What the ultimate* camping trip has going for it

A great location

Wildlife

A campfire and marshmellows 

Mountains and a lake

Yummy food

Especially tin foil dinners!

Perhaps a waterfall

And a hike to an old wildfire lookout

Elevation 8502

 

But most importantly- your favorite person!

                                                                                                                                                                           
This ultimate camping trip happened at Hume Lake two weeks ago. There was even some snow up there so apparently they weren't lying- it does snow in CA. Yay for camping! What does your ultimate camping trip have going for it?



*Although fun camping experiences have been known to occur in unsuspecting places such as the back yard, sagebrush infested Nevada, and beneath the Christmas tree.

Breakfast dinner gone wrong

Oh the glorious breakfast dinner. Can't think of anything to make? Hungry for an omelet? Breakfast dinner to the rescue! This is awesome because 1. Breakfast foods rock. 2. It's easy to decide between say breakfast burritos or pancakes and skip the debate and 3. Breakfast breakfast is turning into too much cereal and as we all know, breakfast foods ROCK.

So the other day I got home from work and I was really hungry. If you know me well, you know that when I get hungry I can get pretty grouchy. So to combat that I made some waffles, cracked some eggs in the frying pan, and pretty pretty please asked Phil to sit in his seat NOW. Phil knew what to do. He sat right down and offered to say the prayer too. (I have the best husband.) Somewhere in the middle of the prayer there was a clatter. This was the clatter of my frying pan falling off the hot plate and my still raw eggs being catapulted into the carpet. And there they sat until I had eaten my waffles.

My husband doesn't read this blog

Sometimes when I ask him to he might skim through a post. But most of the time he has no idea what's on here. But here is a post he will not want to miss. These pictures were taken BY HIM or OF HIM, and today I'm talking ABOUT HIM.      
                                                                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                        Here's a harbor at Monterrey. Which is an absolutely beautiful place. It's a shame that we didn't have our new camera yet so we only took a couple of pics on Phil's phone. We watched a friend compete in a triathlon, and enjoyed the day at the wharf and the beach. I love vacations with Phillip Montour :)

(By the way our friend is the bishop from this post. He's in his 50's and did an awesome job on his first Tri ever- Olympic distance!)

                                                                                     

We rode our banana bike around by the beach and got asked where we'd rented such a sweet bike. We OWN this bad boy. We picked it up about a week after we got to Visalia. Phil saw the FOR SALE sign as we were driving by someone's house. He turned the car around and said "If that's less then $150 I'm buying it." And I'm all like WHAT?!  Best $30 we've ever spent.
 

Phil planted these carrots and beet in a flower pot back in April. He was on a gardening kick. (I think he just wanted me to make him Russian Borscht .) We got nervous at the CA border, but luckily they didn't confiscate them. WHEW haha.                            

And this is me painting the walls he built on our trailer. Phil loves it when I help him with projects. I swear it's one of his love languages. He's always like want to help me on the car? Want to help me drill some holes? Sometimes I grumble... but I'm trying.

And then I saw this good looking picture of Phil the cowboy and it was too cute to not include. These two are old- from last fall when Phil was working his mechanical bull job. He would travel to fairs or private parties and set this thing up and then buck people off. Whenever I would ride I would beg him not to dump me. Good times.

Think he'll want to read this post?