Hair, Flowers, and a Weekend Away

Well, as is often the case, we begin our post with a picture of Eva! This youngest child is our "go to" for all of our modeling needs...she models Rachel's hair clips (and hair-do)....

She models grapefruits!

She models Starbucks! Is there anything the girl can't make look good? But I'm getting way ahead of myself... lets get back to the grapefruit...

This was the first grapefruit off of our tree! It tasted wonderful, especially with sugar on top (a Schroeder tradition, which we were happy to introduce to a former grapefruit-hater...let's just say he'll think twice next time before slandering this delicious fruit).

The girls drove out to Snelling on Thursday to pick up chickens (frozen ones from a farmer down the road). The blossoms are right on schedule...these are almond orchards (note the "L" in aLmond....).

Last Saturday (normally cleaning day) was marked down on the calender as a"Schroeder Day". One of the things we love to do on Schroeder days is just get into the car and go for a drive. Usually the drive goes in no particular direction, with no particular destination in mind but this day was special. First mom and dad decided to surprise us kids on Friday night with a stay at a hotel in Gilroy! Then on Saturday we got up and drove around the Santa Cruz/Santa Clara area. This photo was taken on the way to Santa Cruz.

Yep...you guessed it, Santa Cruz!
Watching the waves.

Watching the waves.

We really enjoyed watching the waves!

After crusin' through Santa Cruz (and picking up lunch at the local Farmer's marked) we drove up to Big Basin State Park. We learned from the park ranger there that these trees had gone through millions of years of adaptation to become this tall (gag!!).

This was the bridge that we decided not to cross. If you look closely you will notice that mom is wearing her good boots. Why you ask? Well, she was wearing her good boots because I was wearing her hiking boots, and I was wearing her hiking boots because Rachel was wearing my tennis shoes (not sneakers!) and Rachel was wearing my tennies because she got her hiking boots wet playing Ultimate Frisbee in the rain last week...you got it?

We told him to look serious for this photo. How long can he go without smiling...I'm not that quick of a photographer.

This was taken on the drive up to the observatory on top of Mt. Hamilton. The road was built for a horse and wagon, which we quickly learned through a couple of close encounters.

What better way to end the day than with Italian food? We were told to give the full look here, but instead one is dazed and the other eying the pizza for more.