Ocotillo Wells Bonfire

We just returned from Ocotillo Wells, a California state part designated for off-road vehicles and dry camping. This is our third trip there. This time it was just Holden and me. Huong, Riley, DJ and Aiden all had other obligations for that weekend.

There is a tradition that on the weekend before MLK Day, everyone brings their dry Christmas trees and puts them in the middle of circle of RVs to be burned on Saturday night. Some of the guys built an A-frame over the Christmas trees and loaded combustibles above the pyramid. When the sun went down, Roman candles were handed to all the kids to shoot at the trees and watch them quickly go up in flames. It was safe and fun, as far as I can tell.

While we were waiting for the big bonfire, we lit Chinese candles which gently floated up in the air to about 2000 feet and then floated down. The next day, we used quads, motorcycles and feet to retrieve the spent candles.

Riley Honor Band

 

Riley made the Honor Band and it was announced in this newsletter that highlights all the accomplishments of present and former OCSA students.

 

Boswellll Photography

That looks like a typo but if you want to see DJ's photographs you have to visit his website at boswellll.tumbler.com.

Trip to McArthur and Burney

Google put together this little slideshow of our trip to McArthur to visit Terry and Carolyn Lease.

It was  Huong's second time in the snow. We had a white Thanksgiving. There were supposed to be more people but because of the weather, the Lease's relatives could not make it. So it was just Holden, Huong, Terry, Carolyn and me. The Leases also have two yellow labs.

On the way up to McArthur we stayed in Redding and visited the Mt Shasta Caverns. On the way back from McArthur we stayed in old Sacramento.

When we got back from our trip, I took the boys shooting in Lytle Creek and Riley had an audition for Honor Band. That's what you see in the slide show above.