last day of vacation (saturday, august 21)

in an attempt to recover from depression over our early morning goodbyes, we picked up jordan, and drove back into sacramento one last time, to do something I’ve been wanting to do for YEARS! in connection with the california state railroad museum, which we visited on tuesday, you can take a short, scenic train ride, pulled by a working steam locomotive!

supposedly…

so I tried not to make too big of a stink, and enjoyed the fact that it was still a train ride, even if it was pulled by a diesel. anyone want to see the governator? there’s the capitol!yes, that is a real conductor, punching my ticket!

the replacement locomotive:when you get to the ‘end of the line’ in baths, the engine unhooks, switches tracks, pulls past the waiting train, switches tracks again, and then couples to the other end of the train to pull it back to the station.

and I had to take a picture of the really ugly gold bridge that is a landmark in sacramento. seriously. it’s metallic!

this was our train:after the train ride, we stopped through the old schoolhouse to explore.shane, jordan and layla, doing some writing on slates.dave, attempting to get suspended…shane, ringing the school bell: and then there’s the “rules for teachers”. this is a hoot!

after that, it was laundry, packing, one last swim, one last in-n-out burger,and then hitting the road. we drove all night again, and got home around 10:30 the next morning. it was a long trip, but totally worth it! we miss everyone so much.

thanks, gramma and papa, for putting up with all of us and helping us have such a great time! so many great memories! we love you and can’t wait to see you again!

Comments

someone googled this stuff and found me!

these are as is... spelling errors and all. how to use a bathroom scale seriously? how hard is it? if you want step by step instructions, read this . washing machine doesn't empty bummer dude rachel's restroom i seem to remember someone predicting, when i was in high school, that i would go into the portable restroom business some day... "locks of love" site:blogspot.com because i'm totally the authority on that sort of thing. my hair is still in a ziplock bag waiting to be mailed. http://rambling-rachel.blogspot.com/ i think you typed this in the wrong place does 2 year old talk with imagination is there any other option? SLUDGE IN WORM BIN yummy. diapers to bed well, considering the other option... yes, please! imagination and 2 years old once again. 2 year olds do like to use their imaginations. loose change in my washing machine what priceless wisdom are you looking for here? how to get some? where did it come from? what to do with it? duh! rachel joe

“you should have your head examined!”

… i just did! yup, yesterday i had the thrilling experience of sitting in a hospital waiting room for 2 hours, followed by another in a trauma room. no, i don’t think i had suffered any sort of major trauma – i think that’s just what room they had left to stick me in. i mused about where we would go if they had to kick us out because a ‘real’ trauma situation arose. thankfully, we didn’t have to learn the answer to that. i guess i was a traumatic as it got during that window of time. backing up, i wound up in the hospital yesterday because micah threw some clothes on the ground. the night before i had been folding laundry in the living room. i had a couple of stacks of ‘hang up’ clothes that were draped over the baby gate in front of the fireplace. yes, it’s a christmas picture, but i knew i had it in my stash. at any rate, there’s the ugly baby gate that the clothes were hanging on. also notice the wood mantle above it that the nativity set is on.

light n’ crisp waffles recipe - everyone's favorite!

i got this recipe from my dad. i have no idea where he got it, but these are the waffles i’ve been eating as long as i can remember. they are so delicious, easy, and HEALTHY! OHMYGOODNESS, i cannot help but go on and on about them because they are so incredibly fabulous! if you want to see my picky eaters eat, come on waffle night! i think last time I made these, layla (all 33 pounds of her) put away 4 quarters of a waffle. that’s one WHOLE 10 square inch waffle. (and yes, i did just pull out my waffle iron and measured it!) anyway, here it is, without further ado… 1 cup flour (I usually do 1/2 white, 1/2 whole wheat) 1/2 cup yellow cornmeal 1 cup rolled oats 2 tbsp baking powder* 1/2 tsp salt 2 eggs 1/2 cup oil 3 cups buttermilk put all dry ingredients into a bowl, break in the eggs, add oil, then stir in the buttermilk. *t he amount of baking powder is not an error, but is the secret of the crisp, tender result! let the batter stand for a short time (15-30 minutes) to allow t

white chicken chili recipe

was just chatting about recipes w/ a friend and realized that i have talked about this recipe, even photographed a bowl of it, but haven’t ever posted it on here. what a shame, because it’s one of my family’s absolute favorites! i got the recipe from my betty crocker cookbook, and it’s one of the first things i ever made for dave and i after we were married. i even have the date written down next to the recipe and a smiley face, indicating we liked it. =) i actually don’t mess with this recipe too much, so here goes… i usually make a double batch so i can freeze some and still have leftovers. it freezes really well, so it’s a nice thing to have on hand. 1/4 cup butter 1 large onion, chopped 1 clove of garlic, finely chopped (or pressed) 4 cups of cooked chicken (chopped, cubed, shredded, whatever – sometimes i just throw in a couple of the cans of chicken they sell in a 6 pack at costco, if i have them on hand and don’t have any cooked chicken handy) you could also use turkey 3 cup

tootin' my own horn! (for the sake of the earth)

so i'm not usually one to blab about how 'green' i am, but in honor of earth day tomorrow, i've decided to take a personal inventory of the choices i make daily that affect the future of our planet and the quality of our lives. i'm not usually an earth day celebrator since i try to treat every day as though it were earth day, and not just once a year. but i figured this was a good excuse. i've always walked a bit on the green side, but i really took a turn about a year and a half ago when i was influenced by raffi - yes, the children's musician - after reading his autobiography, life of a children's troubadour . this is, by the way, a fantastic book and i highly recommend it to anyone who has ever enjoyed his music, or even remotely cares about children's or environmental advocacy. i don't want anyone to see this as any sort of snobbish, 'i am greener than you' kind of thing, but rather as a challenge to myself to see what else i can do,

rachel's continued ramblings

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