Four Hours Driving ...

200 miles (roundtrip) thru the oceanside and mountains and valleys, past ostrich ranches, past citrus, avocado and apple orchards, past pumpkin patches, and vineyards, 15 additional minutes to try and find parking, a bit of a walk (because we parked far away), a 30 minute wait in line ... all for a couple pieces of yummy, fresh apple pie.




Julian is an old gold-mining town northeast of San Diego.



Is that so unreasonable? It was really good pie.

The Middle Dude reads THE Book by Big Bro...

He was completely enthralled. :-)

Drumroll, please....

The Eldest Dude has sent his book sample off to Scholastic. We all have high hopes. His finished book clocks in at just under 100,000 words. He didn't send in ALL those words to Scholastic - just one chapter's worth, as per our instructions as found in The 2008 Children's Writer's & Illustrator's Market guide.

Note to fellow homeschool geeks using Classical Writing: we have wrung dry every last bit of wisdom from the Homer level in editing and preparing this book for submission. We've utilized summary paragraphs and precis statements for our submission cover letter. We have heavily edited beginning chapters using concision to remove unnecessary details. We have turned our characters inside out to make sure their words & actions were consistent and believable (well, as believable as possible in a children's fantasy novel!). Classical Writing is truly an amazing writing curriculum.


ps. Please ignore the bird poop on our mailbox. I try to.

The Weather was WEIRD, I tell ya...

I took these two photos from the exact same place at almost the exact same time, just facing different directions.

I also took these about the same time. Such a lovely location...




All in all, this weird weather made for the coolest, most ethereal, other-worldly-like photoshoot I've ever done.













So, a Beautiful Family + Really WEIRD weather = photos with which I'm super pleased.