Weekend at Grandma's... always a pleasure. =)

This weekend I had invited my mom to go hiking with me, “V” and the SOC group in Gilroy and then head to my Grandma’s in Salinas for a visit.  When my mom didn’t call to confirm on Friday evening I figured she wanted to let the whole thing slide…then I got a call at 7:15am on Saturday morning. 

Instead of doing the hike with “V” we decided to head straight down to my grandma’s.  I liked this idea a lot more because I could bring Sierra and spend more time with my grandma.   I haven’t seen my grandma since Easter so it’s been too long.

Since my grandma wasn’t expecting us until later she almost had a heart attack when I yelled “Surprise!!”  She was still busy cleaning and preparing freshly made spaghetti sauce from home grown tomatoes so my mom helped her in the kitchen and I headed out to the backyard to take some pictures and talk with my Uncle Tim.

My grandma has the greenest thumb. Not literally green, although I haven't actually checked... hmm...

That whole sprawling plant is a tomato plant that started as a volunteer and just took over from there. Seriously, there must be something in the water.

My Uncle Tim also has a green thumb and uses it to grow wicked hot peppers.  In addition to growing hot peppers my uncle has also written some amazing QBasic programs, has PI memorized to 1000 places (he’s recited off two full pages of numbers to me, no joke), and can probably out hike me even with me doing bodypump and backpacking trips.   But back to the peppers.  =)

They look pretty harmless right? WRONG!! Merely touching ones finger to the cracked skin of these peppers and then touching your tongue results in several minutes of extreme burn.

My brother had grown these peppers from seed and gave the plants to my uncle. Looks like they're doing quite well. =)

My uncle takes great pride in the heat of his peppers so after having fun seeing my reaction to following his instructions to put my finger on the cracked skin of his hottest pepper and then touch my tongue he egged me to eat a good-sized piece of the pepper.  Was he insane?  Would I die if I actually ate a piece?  The answer to both questions is “No” so despite the fact that my mom was fearing for my well being and telling me not to do it I followed suite after watching my uncle pop a piece into his mouth.  For the next 5 minutes we kept pointing and laughing at each other as we coughed, eyes welling up with tears from the intensity of the burn.  Ah, good times, good times…  =)

After playing with fire in the form of hot peppers I decided on a less dangerous game.  I know I take after my mom in a lot of respects and also share many of my dad’s traits (not to mention his physical features…we both have piggy noses and grandma hands).  As I looked around my grandma’s sunroom however I realized that I also have a lot in common with my grandma and uncles as well.  First there was the dead things box and yeah, it’s just what it sounds like.  =)

Check it out, my grandma has a collection of bones and other dead things collected over 40 years ago when my uncles would bring them home from the creek as kids. Sweet!

The box on top contains dried out snake skins, birds nest with abandoned eggs and this guy, a perfectly preserved horned lizard. I love it! =)

The box on the bottom contains the skulls and jawbones of several different animals. I think it's very neat to be able to see the skeletal features of animals up close. It's all in the name of science. SCIENCE! =)

Then there was this awesome hand sculpted dinosaur (there are actually several) that my grandma has stomping around a prehistoric environment of succulents.  I’m not sure if my grandma made this or possibly one of her students when she taught elementary school for 30+ years.  Either way, it’s SO cool!  =)

Raar!!! I'm a dinosaur with short little T-Rex arms. Fear me!! =)

I just thought it was cool to be able to see some of what I consider to be my weird little quirks and preferences kind of showcased in the form of these displays created by my grandma and uncles so many years ago.  =)

After an afternoon of chatting and hot pepper eating it was time for a delicious home cooked meal of spaghetti, salad with fresh home grown cherry tomatoes and bread.  I had been good and only ate an apple at lunch and didn’t snack on junk food before dinner so the meal was absolutely amazing.  Seriously, best dinner ever.  =)

After dinner my mom, grandma and I watched “The Glass Bottom Boat” with Doris Day (very funny) and then it was time to head to bed.  Sunday came and went all too quickly.  My grandma had to leave for church around 9 so my mom and I packed up the car and left around 8:30.  It was a wonderful trip and just like my grandma’s home-cooked meals, they always leave me looking forward to the next one.  Until then, the pictures below will have to hold me over.  =)

Uncle Tim harvests more of his peppers for pickling. He also makes a sweet pepper jam that my parents love on pancakes and toast.

Until we meet again hottest of the hot pepper plants. You were a worthy adversary but ultimately you were bested by my stomach acid.

My grandma's back yard is like a secret garden to me because it backs up to trees that line the creek and contains some of the most beautiful flowers and landscaping I've ever seen. It always makes me feel at home.

Thanks for having us over Grandma.  I had a wonderful time and can’t wait until Thanksgiving.  Mmm, turkey, cole slaw, mashed potatoes and gravy…yeah, I can’t wait!  =)

I can hardly believe it but my little cousin Robyn is turning 13.  Although Robyn’s birthday is actually Monday, my Aunt Tiffany and Uncle John hosted a family party on Saturday so we could all get together.

My dad, big brother to my Uncle Greg and Uncle John.

Uncle Greg, the middle brother and the uncle that always makes me laugh. =)

And my Uncle John. Father of Robyn and youngest of the Hollfelder brothers.

And of course Meemers and Marshall. Man he's such a Fanboy.

Then there were the kids (I still consider my brother a kid). 

Tessa shows off her pet salamander named Sally. Nice! =)

Jeena grabs cousin Neomie and smiles for the camera.

Ok, so he's a big kid. =)

Next it was on to the pull up bars and swing set so Jeena and Tessa could show me their gymnast skills (and wait, is that Marshall?).

Hey, I like doing this too! Way to get air Jeena. =)

Ok, now Jeena and Tessa are actually holding real pull-ups. Guess who's standing on their feet.

After dinner Marshall and Robyn happened to start talking about Pokemon to which Marshall said “Hey, do you want [insert good Pokemon character here]?”  Marshall plays Pokemon all the time for relaxation (hey no judging here, I watch crap shows on VH1 like Real Chance of Love and the like) so he didn’t mind parting with his best players.  With as much as he plays he’ll probably have those characters back in a couple days.  Plus it made Robyn really happy.  =)

For Robyn's birthday, Marshall gave Robyn a few of his prize Pokemon which Robyn seemed to really enjoy when they battled after dinner with her new team. =)

After dinner, presents and cake it was time for Marshall and I to head out to Tracy to check on Heather’s horses.  Heather and Jeriah went to Disneyland so we’re watching their 3 dogs and had to feed the horses once while they were gone.  When we got to the house we found a water geyser shooting out of her pool house.  The back pasture was flooded.  =(

When we attempted to flip on the barn lights nothing happened so Marshall had to use his game boy to light our way.  He immediately headed through the 6 inches of swampy horse crap and mud into the hissing pool house to see if he could figure out how to shut off the leak.  After about 5 minutes the barn lights flipped on and I freaked out thinking something had happened to Marshall and that he was arcing an electrical circuit causing the lights to flip on.  I yelled to him a couple of times and he finally came out saying he had been flipping switches inside the pool house thinking that might stop the flow of water through the broken pipe when one turned on the outside lights.  He realized at that point that he probably shouldn’t be in a flooded pool room with a live electrical panel there.  Good call. 

We finally got the situation under control after calling my brother who reminded us that Heather is on well water so we just need to turn off the electrical circuit for the well pump and we’d be good.  Using the gameboy for light Marshall located the electrical panel on the side of Heather’s house and flipped the switch to the well.  The geyser stopped.  Hazzah!…  Great job Marshall.  Time to head back home and get to bed.  Goodnight!  =)

Welcome to the Pumpkin Festival (only a few more miles and about 2 hours of driving).

Hurray so it’s October which means the Hollfelder’s yearly trek to Half Moon Bay for the Pumpkin Festival.  Yep, every third weekend in October since I was a little kid my parents would load up the kids and make the long trip to the coast.  If we left super early in the morning we could make it in about 45 minutes.  Unfortunately as we grew up and no longer participated in the children’s parade and costume contest we began leaving later which meant anywhere between an hour to two hour drive to get to the festival.  This year I think we achieved a personal best with 2.5 hours for 35 miles (average of 14mph).  Craziness.

I happily played chauffeur for the day and Meems took over taking pictures on our 2.5 hour trip to Half Moon Bay.

After getting into a slightly heated discussion with my mom about letting people live their lives and “to each his own” I encouraged my mom to check out my camera.  Within minutes she was completely absorbed with taking pictures of everything and everyone within range (Ooo, shiney!.. she’s just like me). 

I asked her to take a picture of the place where 5-6 years ago my dad had to pull over so I could, um, “use the restroom” when I couldn’t hold it any longer (note, the portable toilet was not there when this happened several years ago).  =(

I wonder if I was in the inspiration for putting a portable toilet at this turnout. Man that would have come in handy several years ago.

I also asked her to take a picture of the pampas grass because I thought it looked cool against the blue sky (she stuck both arms out the side window to get this shot).

I love this shot. All askew and yet it looks natural to me. Nice picture Meems. =)

Of course there were tons of pictures of the family which got old after awhile apparently.

Grumpy at sitting in traffic and my mom taking so many pictures, my dad strikes a mean muggin' face.

Even Heather was caught sneering at the camera when my mom snapped this picture. What's up guys?

Marshall took the high road and hid from the camera (nice Apple hat). =)

Since everyone was avoiding the camera my mom had to get sneaky and started doing point-and-shoot shots under her arm.  This one actually came out pretty good.  It had me laughing hysterically.  =)

Ha! Gotcha! =)

And who do we have to thank for all these great pictures?  Why it’s none other than the famous photographer Meemers!!  =)

Great pictures Meemers. And nice workout shirts.

Since traffic was so backed up I took the camera and shot a couple pictures including this super sweet one of a metal thestril.  And now on to the festival.  =)

Cool metal thestril welcomes festival goers. Awesome. =)

The arts and crafts at the festival were really great this year.  I found an amazing felted hat that I fell in love with and bought, and Marshall found a very cute sculpture of a Doberman that we convinced him to purchase.  My dad started a tradition that I fight at first but ultimately acquiesce to which is that he gives each one of the kids $100 to purchase something special for ourselves.  Very generous and so thoughtful.  Thanks Dad.  =)

I normally greatly dislike hats but something about this one called out to me. After walking the entire festival I finally decided I wanted to get the hat with the money my dad had given me. Thanks Dad. I love the hat. =)

We also saw Farmer Mike who carves amazing (although kinda scary) pumpkins each year.

Farmer Mike has been carving pumpkins for as long as I can remember. It wasn't until 3 years ago that we finally started noticing a few grey hairs. Seriously, that guy doesn't age! It must be the unicorn blood.

Finally it was time to head back to the car so we could make a 5pm dinner reservation for the Moss Beach Distillery.  Heather had suggested we go to the Distillery after the Pumpkin Festival last year and we enjoyed ourselves so much we have added that to the tradition.  Hurray for another great time at the Pumpkin Festival.  =)

Marshall and me overlooking the ocean at the Moss Beach Distillery.

Dinner at the Distillery was amazing as always.  We started out with delicious steamed mussels and went through 3 baskets of bread sopping up the best part of the dish, the buttery, well seasoned juices.  Heather and I had the same thing we had last year, a succulent seafood medley over linguine and Marshall ordered filet mignon with cheesy potatoes that he enjoyed much more than the dish he had last year (thank goodness).  =)

After dinner we feeling good so we took the opportunity to take some family photos.  First up, Mom and Dad.

They may fight like cats and dogs at times but they still love each other. =)

Next, Heffies and me.

What, what!? =)

After Marshall took this picture my mom said “Marshall, take a picture length-wise” to which I jokingly added “Yeah, do it right Marshall.”  Marshall responded by then starting to randomly snap pictures and talk with a “Bruno-esque” accent saying “Oh, I don’t even know what I’m doing.  I’m an arteest.  It’s crazy.  It’s madness. “  I endulged in playing Marshall’s “model” and couldn’t stop laughing which led to this series of pictures.  Gotta love it…  =)

Work it!

Oh I'm being so playful!

Ok I can't take this anymore. My sides are splitting and so are Heather's. =)

No more, seriously, you're killing me! =)

Oh man, I needed a laugh workout after that meal.  Thanks Marshall.  =)

Aw, you're the best photographer Marshall. And you make me laugh like crazy. =)

After that it was time to head back home.  I think this may have been the best Pumpkin Festival ever.  Thanks Mom and Dad for treating us to a wonderful dinner and a great time with my family.  I love you guys!  =)