Most of the time a legend is decreed after one passes on. However, we know that Patsy is a living legend! Just south of Live Oak she is honored with a permanent monument to her greatness. I could say that I used my influence as a city councilperson, but I won't! There is a story here, but for now, enjoy!!

We just spent a couple of busy and fun days going to Apple Hill. We decided to do the trip in two days so we made reservations at a wonderfully nice hotel as well. I felt pampered. We invited our friend Mary McCormick to go with us and she was delighted to join us. We drove up early Wednesday morning and were there when everything opened up. We have a favorite place to buy apples and did our purchase there first, then went to High Hill Ranch and looked at all the shops - especially the Chocolate Factory - yummy. We have a tradition that we each get our own favorites! Then we went on a tour of the rest of the many apple farms and stopped at the one below because of the beautiful display of flowers. After our Apple Hill tour, we stopped in Placerville and had lunch and looked in some shops, stopped at the Hotel and checked in, then had dinner at the Spaghetti Factory. We had a leisure ride home! Nice Get-away!

There were just an amazing array of flowers of all colors!

We so enjoyed seeing all the flowers and wondered about how hard it was to get them all watered.

More of the beautiful selections of flowers

This shop had wooden boys with hoses attached to water your yard - very cute

We stopped at the temple so we could see it all lit up at night - What a glorious sight!

Conference Breakfast Cake Tradition

Our breakfast cake baked just a few minutes ago - yummy!

My original 45 year old recipe ( pretty worn and old now) for crunchy coffee cake

For 45 years I have been baking this wonderfully delicious cake during conference sessions on Sunday in October and April. We all love it and some of our children have adopted the same tradition. I found the recipe in the bottom of a pan I purchased when we were first married and did not have many recipe books -
It has been a a fun and memorable time every time I bake it!

McCormick's Cabin

Malcolm and Jack

Mary and Patsy

Wonderful waterfall

Malcolm got up early and got this shot of the mountain at sunrise

Another of Malcolm's great pictures of the trees, mountain and sunrise

Sunrise

One of the many lakes in the area

A picture of the trees looking down the mountain

We just spent 3 days with our friends the McCormick's in the mountains about 2 1/2 hours from home. We just rested, had dinner at some wonderful resorts and had a memorable time visiting with our good friends.One day, Jack and Malcolm went exploring at the lakes and interesting points of interest. My only problem was being carsick going and coming on the winding roads but it was still such a terrific few days that it was worth it all. Their cabin has two bedrooms, 2 baths and a large great room with kitchen and lots of windows to see the gorgeous scenery of trees, birds and peace!