Mother's Day Weekend

The Alston's had a fantastic weekend!

First - we headed up to Plumas Eureka campground on Friday to stay the night. Jon made chili in the dutch oven for dinner. Soooooo good!

I didn't get a lot of pictures that night because we were pretty tired. Mike, Amanda and AnnMarie came up at the same time as us and we stayed in the Bear Scat Flat cabins. Jon's parents were planning to come up that night too - BUT Jon's sister Beth flew in from Idaho as a surprise for Mother's Day! So they didn't quite make it with her flight being delayed 6 HOURS! They came up the next morning and had breakfast with us instead :)

Saturday we spent the day helping with site renovations, spreading bark and cleaning up the campground.

What is a weekend at home without a little work??

AnnMarie cleaning off picnic tables:

Doesn't Jon look handsome when he shovels??

Jon's family has camped at Plumas EVERY year since before he was born. Jon's parents have known the ranger up there for years, so it was really fun to be able to see the campground before it opened and really feel like we were able to help preserve a part of California history.

Plumas was originally a gold discovery site and still has the original standing stamp mill:

Although it is not open for going inside, we were still able to get pretty close just to look around and take pictures. It was nice to be the only ones up there! Margo loved hiking and getting to look around :)

View from below - the warped wood of the old stamp mill:

Baby Alston also really enjoyed his/her first camping trip! While we were there I officially made it to 29 weeks. I think camping looks pretty good on this baby!

Although it was a short one-day trip we had a lot of fun. We're hoping to go back for Memorial Day weekend!

On the car ride home, Margo settled herself in the back of the Explorer with the sleeping bags. Jon snapped this picture while I drove:

What a freakin doll!! I love this pup.

 

Back at home on Sunday we went to church and spent time with Beth. Jon did a book binding project for a co-worker of mine (pictures to come soon) and I made this picture frame for my mom!

 

Many thanks to Laurel of LKT Photography for the awesome pic :)

Jon helped me with the staining since the frame was originally a light pine color and I painted on the words. Jon finished it off with a sealer and voila! (original frame was from Beverly's. MAN I love my work!)

 

For Jon's mom we got her a gift card to Mimi's cafe so that she and Steve can enjoy a fantastic breakfast date!

 

Jon was super thoughtful and got me a mini cupcake maker! I was hoping to take pictures of us making the delicious mini cupcakes on Sunday, but we didn't have any olive oil - so no pictures yet... but I guarantee it is adorable and I will be making cupcakes very very soon! I'm so grateful that I can keep working towards my goal of being the best baker in the world!

 

Jon's parents got me an AWESOME swaddling blanket for the baby :) It is SO cute in green, brown and orange with an elephant on it! I'll post baby stuff pictures when I do a post on the nursery.

 

My mom got me this beautiful necklace for Mother's Day!

It really meant a lot to me because she always wore pretty heart necklaces when we were growing up and I remember picking out heart necklaces for mother's day for her. Wearing it made me think of my mom - but also how my children will look at me. It made me feel official :) My dad also spoiled me with a pound of See's candy. Holy cow I am surrounded by sweetness!

And one last picture of the chickens :) They crack me up! I think this one is Goldie. I was outside taking pictures of Jon working on the book project and happened to see Goldie sticking her head inside the coop haha. I guess they were playing peek-a-boo. Silly chickens...

Happy Mother's Day!!