New Landscaping

We decided to put in some trees and plants this year, and Kenan decided to do all of the work himself (yay for saving money!) Here are some pictures from the enormous amount of back-breaking effort he put into it. Everyone that drives by gives us compliments and people think it was professionally done.

Hauling one of the trees. We planted a mix: Cedar Elm, Chinese Pistachio, Crepe Myrtle. We focused on trees that thrive here and also change color with the seasons.

 Here Kenan is planting one of the trees - the ropes are to keep them upright and allow them to establish a healthy root system

On the tractor, digging - he laid several thousand feet of PVC in order to get a drip line straight to each individual tree. That way they thrive and we don't lose any.

Here are most of the trees in the front yard (blooming already and looking great!)

Kenan also hauled in tons (literally) of dirt and planted all of the landscaping himself. Here are a couple of pictures:

Garden Progress

Kenan planted a beautiful garden again this year! We changed up the mix of what we planted (um, less squash, more tomatoes) but the technique remains the same. He planted the entire thing himself and it's already growing beautifully! Here are some pictures:

Here it is after Kenan created the rows but before planting

 Here is what it already looked like Sunday - everything seems to be coming up already!

This was Madison and I's contribution (hey, I could have been reading about gardening - but I wasn't) 

We can't wait to can pickles again this year and especially make salsa entirely out of our own garden :)

San Diego

Kenan and I returned yesterday from a trip to beautiful San Diego. We had a wonderful time and took around 500 pictures, so get ready for a long post. We recently bought our first HD camcorder and it also takes stills, so Kenan was testing that feature out in the plane on the way to San Diego.

 Apparently I was supposed to be looking at the camera, but instead I was doing what I do best :)

So we tried again. This is what we always look like...really.

So we stayed in a beautiful suite at the Hotel del Coronado, a famous historic landmark in San Diego. Here is the view from our balcony:

We fell asleep and woke up every morning to the sound of the Pacific Ocean. Marvelous!

We did a few tourist activities while we visited including a whale watch. Now, it is just our luck that it happened to fall on the same day as the city's celebration of 100 years of naval aviation. Countless people visited San Diego harbor that day, and we had the best seat in the house for the air show because we were on the boat!

The USS Midway in the harbor

The Coast Guard did a mock rescue

Here we are on the whale watch boat. The weather is funny in San Diego, we were scorching hot in the sun, and then in the shade once the boat got going it was chilly!

We did have a few whale sightings; this one is particularly good because it's a two-fer (another whale is on the outer edge of the photograph). Good thing Kenan is so tall or we wouldn't have gotten any pictures!

At one point we had gone so far out into the ocean that this photograph is of Tijuana. Hello, Mexico!

 One of only two nuclear submarine dry docks in the world. Very cool.

Check it out - San Diego is home to lots of naturalists who study marine life of all kinds, include a very large colony of sea lions who live literally next door to the submarine docks. This photograph doesn't show them all, there were close to a hundred. They were so cute - fighting and barking with one another.

  

 We did other stuff too - including the famous Sunday brunch in the Crown Room at the Del. It was hands down the best brunch I have ever had in my life - we both had three plates full of food.

I took this picture to show the magnitude of the place - this isn't any seating; just food stations. Also, you can see how the Crown Room gets its name - check out the chandeliers. The place is beautiful - it's been around since 1888.

 Here we are in the front lobby. I am slightly obsessed with chandeliers and I just loved this one. It was entirely crystal and way over the top.

Another fun thing we did was visit both the Air and Space Museum and the Automotive Museum.

Here we are on the runway!

We are on the moon ;)

 Kenan and Charles Lindbergh

Us with the actual Apollo 9 command module

These are all the different uniforms worn by the flight attendants for PSA, the San Diego airline. I found fashion at an air and space museum!

Here I am piloting the helicopter. If that ever becomes necessary, well - God save the Queen, as they say across the pond

Next we were off to the Automotive Museum:

Here is Kenan with a 1914 Model T. We heart Ford Motor Company!

 Every kid who really loves Back to the Future has to have their picture with the DeLorean :)

Who knew International Harvester made cars? This one is actually a very early model that was originally a horse-drawn carriage converted into an automobile.

Here are some more pictures of the hotel, grounds and beach. 

In front of the Del - very close to where scenes from Some Like It Hot  were filmed

The Pacific Ocean

Dressed up for our Valentine's dinner. What a fun trip!

SNOW!

Snow!! (Think of it sung in four-part harmony a la White Christmas)

We woke up like little kids this morning and went out to enjoy it before it goes (the sun it out; it will be gone in a couple of hours). Check out pictures and video below:

It's just a dusting, but SO exciting anyway

Our whole driveway was covered in snow - we had almost an inch on the sidewalk next to the well house!

Here are our first videos

Camping

This was serious camping - we spent lots of time outdoors and had a great time with our family. Here are the pics:

 These were some kind of crane Kenan said has a six foot wingspan - they were very loud

 Ah yes, I'm such a good influence

 We were looking at the deer that ran by

 Inside a deer blind, waiting for the sun to go down

 These are serious hunters

 Kinley was the fish-catching champion - she must have caught half a dozen and none of the rest of us did :)

I fished for about five or ten minutes and then went back to my book - I prefer "catching" to "fishing"

A New Addition

On Wednesday, January 19th, our best friends in the world were blessed with the addition of their first child, Chase Bradley. We felt honored to be able to visit on the day he was born - check it out:

 Brad jumping right in

 I was aware there were other people in the room but I was too interested in little Chase :)

Look how well he is holding Chase's little head - good practice!

We love you, Machicek family!!