Picnic at McKinley Drive

With the beautiful weather and green grass everywhere it was a perfect day for a picnic.  I finally decided it was a good time to take the kids over to McKinley Drive to visit.  They hadn't been over since the fire, we did drive past on the highway a couple of times but they couldn't really see much.  Ally was probably the most excited, she has been wanting to go back since right after the fire.  

We spread out our new jean quilt and had a fun picnic lunch.  I loved the warm sunshine and it felt good to all be back at our old place.

The kids had so much fun running around and exploring.  They weren't sad at all, just happy to be there and enjoying the sunshine.

Eva in her ever present sparkle skirt.  She was curious about this burned patch on our lawn, it is actually where their plastic slide burned.  It must have blown across the lawn and gotten stuck on this little olive tree.  When I first visited all I found was a 3 inch piece of red melted plastic, the rest had melted away.

Colton had fun walking all around.  He was sitting down playing with sticks when he started crying, he had sat on an ant hill.  Poor boy, thankfully they didn't bite him and we got all of them off quickly.

These pictures show more of the burned areas than I noticed while we were there.  I was enjoying all the new green grass and flowers that I didn't notice the burned trees and hills.  You can see our bamboo growing back (not sure if I am happy about that or not, it was always trying to grow in the middle of the lawn!).

Eva requested that I take her picture and I was more than happy to comply.  I love my beautiful Eva girl.

The girls had fun in the orchard and Ally quickly climbed up in our biggest apple tree.  

Our lone scraggly almond tree was in bloom.  We aren't really the right area for almond trees (and you need at least two almond trees to get almonds!) but it I love how it is the first to bloom.

While we were there Steve found the second sapphire from my grandma's ring.  By some miracle his old sifting pile (from back in September) remained untouched through all the heavy equipment that cleared our lot.  Sitting right on top of the pile was this sapphire, we really couldn't believe it.  Back in September Steve put in many hours sifting and found the first sapphire and one of the diamonds.  Such a wonderful surprise to find it.

Each time I visit McKinley Drive I just can't wait to go back.  I miss being there, it doesn't look the same but it is still home.  I can't wait until we can move back, I miss our little spot so much.