Wrightwood Annual Christmas Parade

My nephew's family goes to the Wrightwood Christmas Parade every year. I've never been, but when I found out they were taking my nephew, I figured I'd go with my family and see it. It sounded like it could be fun.

The drive up to Wrightwood was beautiful. It's off Highway 138, where the 2 meets. The parade started in the middle of town.

We got there late,but were still able to find decent parking.

It was pretty chilly in the evening, but the shops were selling hot chocolate, cinnamon rolls, and coffee.  The retail shops were decorated for Christmas, and it was quite quaint, actually. A nice small town feel.

The parade itself was made up of mostly local clubs and schools. Cars and trucks or flatbeds were decorated with tin foil and tinsel.

It was a nice, relaxing evening, and I may decide to make this an annual tradition.

Lazy T Ranch Birthday Party

Katie got invited to a birthday party for a classmate. It was at Lazy T Ranch in Palmdale. We have been there before, a couple of years ago, when Katie was 2. She naturally didn't remember.

 Emma got to wear her first pair of overalls.  Yee haw, ya'all

 They had an awesome four tire mechanical swing that goes around and around at the push of a button. Katie liked this the most.

 The party was held under this area. They provide a jukebox, which takes quarters. I believe you get 6 songs for a quarter. They also have electrical hookups

 And a barrel swing

 Emma didn't have a quarter, so she just posed for the camera

 Katie planned this pose all on her own. She's my little cowgirl

 The kids got to ride a horse. Katie said she'd never been on a horse before--except that she has, lots of times--but is too small to remember. 

 of course, Rusty was there too. Katie loved this dog, who  happened to steal a hot dog off someone's plate. Don't let the timid look fool you.

 It was hot for March. 85 degrees!

Nice day at Lazy T Ranch. We are considering doing Emma's first birthday there also, but aren't sure yet.

Jorge added a fence to my backyard for me. That's what I did with my tax return. I like how it came out. Gives a lot of privacy and blocks the street so the kids can play outside without being seen by anyone driving by.

I haven't cemented the bricks yet. I plan to go up about 4 highter on them.

I got this bench from Costco. It's the Lifetime Convertible Bench, that turns into a picnic table as well. It was only $99 at Costco.

I love Spring. Getting Excited about getting the yard back in shape.

Mary got me these pretty windchimes as well

 

Swing and Spin and Cousins and Frozen and Stuff

My brother was doing a photo shoot with his wife, so my niece, Ashley, was babysitting Tony's girls.  They came over to visit, and play with Katie. Katie was happy to have someone to boss around play with.  Alison played on the treadmill, and then joined the girls in the backyard to play on the Swing and Spin. They have so much fun on this thing.

 They played for a bit with Katie's Playmobile stuff, but mostly wanted to be outside.

 Debbie thought it would be funny to let the swing slide over her. I thought it would have been funny if it hit her in the butt

Afterwards we went to see Frozen, the Sing-A-Long version. I love that movie!

 

Nice day



Antelope Valley Aquaduct

I went to the Aquaduct today for a little hike. It was actually a good workout. This is near the spot of the first Amber Alert ever,  It starts at 60th West, and a block North of Avenue N.  They recently added a paved parking lot, which is nice.

The hike is steep and all uphill, once you pass the concrete. It took us 30 minutes to get to the top, where a old bus stop bench is.

 You can see the whole city of Lancaster from up here

 This pavement goes for about 1/2 a mile, then you get up into the hills, where there is a well worn trail

 Edwards Air Force Base is visible from up here as well.

Nice, easy hike. Good California weather. All is good.

Murphy Ranch Hike, Brentwood, CA

We hiked Murphy Ranch, up in Topanga Canyon, in Brentwood. It's an old Nazi camp. It was a pretty fun hike, actually. My camera lens was on Manual focus, and I didn't realize and all my pictures came out blurry. I was able to use a few photos that came out okay.

 To get to this spot, you put Capri Drive and Casale Road, Brentwood, in your GPS. Park on the street. It's free. Walk down a dead end street about 1/2 mile to Camp Jospeho. Go through the yellow gates, and walk another 1/2 mile up until you see a chain link fence on your right.  There is an opening in the chain link fence, not too far down, with stairs, stairs, and more stairs. Take them down. Remember, going down is the easy part. They are small steps though, so take your time.  There are no bathrooms on the trail, so go BEFORE you get there. It's a residential area, so you wanna hit a gas station as soon as you get off the freeway. I learned this the hard way.

 My camera lens was messed up. I took some nice pictures of my niece and her husband, unfortuately, they were just a blur.

 This is one of the old buildings. Kids have come and grafitti'd all over the place. There are beer bottles and broken glass, so be careful

 My niece found an old empty spray can to pose with.

 Old machine shop

 Abandoned VW bus. Remember, Germans owned this property

 An empty water tower. It's HUGE. The ladder to get in and out has been removed, so it's just a huge hole now.

 The gates

 There's a ladder in the buidling and you can climb up to the roof.

It's about 4 miles round trip. The stairs were a bear, unless you are conditioned. When we were there, there was a 60 something man there, running up and down. He said he does them in 3 minutes. He did four sets. It's a great workout if that's what you're there for, but make sure to have water and good shoes.

All in all, it was a nice hike. The best part was just being with everyone and getting outdoors.

Tehachapi Mountain Trail and Brite Lake

This year I've been doing a lot more hiking. It seems like everyone in the family is getting in on it. My daughter has a new baby, so she hasn't been able to join me much. For that, I'm sorry. :(

 

My sisters and I went up to Tehachapi Mountain to hike. Getting there was a bit confusing. Not getting there, actually, but finding a place to park. The trail head is a campground but it was closed for the season. We ended up parking next to the trash cans, on the side of the road.

 

 

To get to the trailhead, you walk up about a mile on pavement. It's a steep incline. Once we got to the trail head, we realized the trail was closed for the renovations. We went up another smaller boy scout trail that joins together.

 

There was still ice on the ground and as we got up higher and higher, we saw bear prints in the snow. We decided since we were the only ones in the park, to high tail it out of there.

 

 This is the shorter route

 I'm not sure what this is about, but I'll pretend it's when we first saw the bear tracks

 We were there by 6:30 a.m.  It was gorgeous out. I wish I had pictures to prove it.

 

Once we hightailed it out of there, we headed to Brite Lake, which is just about 2 miles away, off of Highline Road.

 

The entrance to the lake is pretty cool. There are carved tree posts all the way down, with various things, such as an Eagle for Eagle road, a Coyote, and Indian, Bears.  Fun to look at.

 Tehachapi is a high elevation and it gets cooolllllddddddd, for California. We were there about 7:30 a.m. and it was pretty bone chilling. I didn't bring a jacket, so duh me, I was freezing, but warmed up with the walk.

 It was beautiful there. It was January, so the trees were bare and different shades

 The surrounding area is beautiful as well

 There is a $5 charge to get in, but since we were there early, no one was there to take our money so we didn't have to pay. There were a few men there fishing bright and early

 We walked around the lake on the aquaduct that surrounds it. From there we could see neighboring apple orchards and farms. We walked down the aquaduct onto a long winding road, to lengthen our walk

Would definately want to come here again for another walk sometime. It was a perfect morning.