A Hike With Friends

Yesterday we went to Silverwood Lake, in the Angeles National Forsest to meet up with our neighbors who were camping there this weekend. The weather was great, and the hike was a lot of fun. It's hard to believe that it's so beautiful and quiet just an hour and a half outside of LA. We're going to try to plan a big neighborhood trip up there at the end of January. Hopefully everyone can make it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a nice low-key Thanksgiving here at home. We had roasted chicken, roasted asparagus and mashed cinnamon sweet potatoes. Not exactly a traditional Thanksgiving, but non-traditional is more our style. We did start off with my family's traditional artichoke dip and we finished it off with my no-bake pumpkin pie. This pumpkin pie recipe is super easy, it's low fat, and it tastes excellent, so give it a try.

Cathi's Faux Pumpkin Pie

Here's what you need...
1 small can of pumpkin pie filling
1 packet of instant vanilla pudding
1 tub of low fat whipped cream
2 tablespoons of honey
cinnamon & nutmeg (to taste)

Here's what you do...
Just mix all of the ingredients above in a bowl, then pour it into a pre-made graham cracker crust. That's it! Put it in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes, then it's ready to go. It should look something like this. Enjoy!

We Went to Disneyland

One of Cathi's employees has a son who works for Disney, and he's able to get people into the park for free. So we decided to go to Disneyland and California Adventure today. Thankfully it was free, because 1-day park hopper tickets (to see both parks) are up to $94 per person! The park was packed, and as you can see from the pictures, it's time for Christmas at Disneyland.

Here we are by the big tree at California Adventure.

And here's Cinderella's Castle all lit up for the holidays.

The lines to take pictures with the real Mickey Mouse were a mile long, so we settled for this one, with presents on the "C" spelling California in front of the park.

Chico's New Look

It was time for Chic to get a haircut, he was looking quite lion-like. He seems to really like his new style, he's got a little more pep in his step. It could be because he lost about 2 pounds of hair.

Friday Wine Bar Night

We rode our bikes down to the wine bar with the neighbors last night. Dan got to try out his new bike headlight, and it worked great, it's really bright. When we first started going to PWM over a year ago, there were some Friday nights that ours was the only group in the place. Last night, it was packed, and they had live music. Our little local spot is apparently on the map now.

The guys usually go for the local brews from Dale Brothers, right here in Upland. Last night Pomona Queen was on tap and earned the thumbs up from the group. As for the girls, we enjoyed the Blue Pirate Pinot Noir, and we highly recommend it. You can find it online (if your local wine store doesn't have it) for about $15-20 per bottle.

It Stinks!

We could smell the fires a little bit at the house this weekend, and could definitely see the smoke over toward Chino Hills. We don't know anyone who's been evacuated. Our friends and co-workers who live near the fires are out of harm's way, and their homes are not threatened.

These fires smell really bad, especially on the way to and from work. I got home today and Dan said I smelled weird, and I said, "like smoke?" I feel like I've been sitting next to a campfire all day. There were literally bits of ashes flying around outside, and there were even ashes on my desk when I got in this morning. It can't be good breathing this stuff. I may have to take my N-95 mask tomorrow.

Here's a picture I took out the car window this morning on the 57, just south of Brea Canyon.

Ohio Time

We're in Ohio this week! I have some meetings in Loveland for work, and Dan decided to work out of his office in Covington for month-end close. The timing was perfect as Dan's extended family held their annual Thanksgiving dinner tonight. We were glad we got to celebrate with them, since we won't be back for the holidays.

We spent a great evening with our friends Chris and Teryl last night. We all hung out and watched the Alabama game. Today, we met up with Tony & Lesetta so I could take some family pictures for them. We really enjoyed seeing both of these beautiful families and spending time with them. Our friends are definitely something we miss about Cincinnati.

This picture of Dan and I is at Sharon Woods (where we did the pictures for Tony & Lesetta). The leaves are still beautiful, and starting to fall here. That's something else we miss! On the flip side, it was 43 degrees. It was 80 when we left LA, warm is good!

An Historic Day

Well, today is an historic day for America. We are still waiting on some results for issues on the California ballot, namely the right to gay marriage (which looks like it will be defeated unfortunately).

I guess no matter how you look at it, and as much as I hate to admit it sometimes, it's a great and interesting time to be an American. We have elected the first minority president! Dan and I are curious to see how things will look over the next four years, and are looking forward to having GW out of here in another couple of months.

And yes, California still uses paper ballots!

Neighborhood Halloween Party

If you didn't already know, we love our neighborhood and our neighbors. We all got together at Jared's house for a little Halloween party. Everyone was dressed up, and had a great time. We are really lucky to live by these people, they are a good group!

Jared is kind of famous around these parts for his orange shirt and overalls, so we all decided to dress as Jared. It was a pretty easy costume, thanks to Jesse for the overalls and the Goodwill for the orange shirts.

Natasha as Sarah Palin was hilarious. She kind of resembles Tina Fey, so you can see how it worked out. The jumping Jareds took a seat and got bounced around by the former Miss Alaska/VP wannabe.