Jacobsen tradition

We go to the desert. Every January. Just after New Year. To ride, ride, ride. We drive 11 hours to the Algadones Dunes just north of the Cal-Mex border (quite the car ride). Then we stay and ride for a week or two.
This year, I drove down with Mom and Anna on Saturday, drove back up with Daniel and Anna on Sunday.
I might go back down with them on Friday. We'll see.
It is a looong ride down. But it just might be worth it.

the Jacobsens - 2008/01/06


we got a CHP escort for part of the drive

Yes, it can be dangerous. So, where's your gear?

A Bit Of Time Together (away from home)

Lake Tahoe Vacation

Daniel, Anna, Leitha (a friend), and I went up to Lake Tahoe on Friday. We met the rest of the family at a friend's cabin, and spent two very wonderful days with them. It was a short break from the normal routine of work, school, ministry, work, school, ..................
I only wish it had been longer!

Sisters @ Tahoe

A Lazy, Rainy Day

Daniel and Anna and I are going up to Pilot Lake for the weekend.
So I made some pies to take with us: a pumpkin, a banana cream, and two apple (with lattice tops).

It snowed 8-10" there last night. Enough to completely change the prospective schedule!

Today I have been doing laundry and getting caught up on things around the house.
Right now I am listening to the rain through the open window. It is 64 degrees outside, with intermittent showers. When we are between showers, the sky is a brilliant blue, and all the colors of the trees are extremely vivid. I found out that the pears are almost ripe, and a few early ones had fallen. When we get back we will have pears for breakfast!

Pictures from the weekend

Sisters, partners in crime (it is a long story ...)

San Francisco Bay, from the 92 bridge

"the happiest place on earth"

Daniel, Anna, and I - along with some of the people in our college group at church - went to Disneyland on Friday. It is billed as the happiest place on earth. I came to the conclusion that even if Disneyland is not the happiest place, it is one of the happiest places!

We left our house at 4:30 AM! It made for a long, but very fun, day.

my lovely sister

* some of the images pictured above were taken on the camera of Miss Sandy Shabram.

re-cap of a wonderful weekend

Thursday -

-John is here!-

Friday -

-heading out for the morning-

-enjoying a moment of peace and quiet-

-Friday night was spent on a "date" at a farmer's market and an Italian restaurant-

-John presented me with an early birthday present that evening: a necklace. It is sooooo gorgeous! The best part is that it was hand-delivered. :-) -

Saturday -

-The family (sans Anna) went up to Yosemite, stopping for a moment at the Sugar Pine Railway-

-Breakfast (and a paper) at the Wawona Hotel-

-Yosemite Falls and the Merced River-

-Pooh sticks!-


-Picnic at the soda springs in Tuolomne Meadow-


-Fern Spring-

Sunday - visiting the grandparents

Mom made up a web album:

2007-05-17-21 John came for the weekend!

Sanger and Clovis -

May 17, 2007
by Jane and Tim

View Album

"Free" Time

There is nothing like having "free" time if you want to see it fill up!
The college is closed this week, as is the school we teach the CEF club at, due to "spring break" (i.e. Easter Vacation). Since Dad can't get this week off, we weren't planning on doing anything in particular. So far that "nothing in particular" has included a lot of yard work, starting in on attic organization, cleaning my room, baking ....................... the list goes on and on!
Spring break is a great time to get caught up on stuff!

"Vacation" might not happen, but, oh well. At least we are enjoying a clean(er) house and yard! And besides, who says you need to go somewhere to have a vacation? Or that you must relax? A vacation is simply a departure from the normal, necessary, hum-drum-ity of life. Right?

Pier 39

Welcome to the Pier (Anna took this one)

Mrs. Spruance (Jill), Anna and I spent a few hours wandering around Pier 39 this afternoon (can you believe I have lived in California all my life and never been here? Must have been ... deprived or something). We ate sourdough bread, drank coffee, talked, watched the guys dancing on the street corner, took lots of pictures and had a wonderful time.

Keeping Perspective -Psalm 39

Anna and Mrs. Spruance (Jill) on the bus

I was reading Psalm 39 on the church bus as we were driving to San Francisco this afternoon, and this came to mind (my thoughts wandered around a bit):

Our days are as a hand-breadth and our lives are like a phantom, yet God knows the number of hairs on our heads. We are as nothing, a whisper, in the grand scheme of things, yet we are of incalculable value to our God.
He knows our thoughts, He knows our emotions, He sees the deepest places of our hearts.
God also keeps the universe in motion.
Think about that: He is a personal God and Master of the universe. Could there therefore be anything too hard for Him? Sometimes I think it might take greater wisdom and profounder understanding to be the God of human hearts than to engineer, create and maintain the heavens.

Market Street

If He can do all of this, surely He will come through for us. God sees and cares about the sparrows, He will not fail to care for us. It may not be in the way we want or expect, it may not be the timing that we desire, but God will come through.
He shows Himself to be faithful.
He shows Himself to be God.
Great is our God.

The Imperial Sand Dunes, 2007

Honey, I'm ho-ome! Rather, we are home. Home from a wonderful and wearying vacation.
We spent about four days in the Algadones/Glamis Dunes, which are in the Imperial Valley, about 20 miles north of the California/Mexico border (there is even a town near there by the name of "Calexico").



Daniel's friend Matt went down with us, as well as Dad's brother Bernie. Grandpa and Grandma, as well as Bernie's wife, Lynn joined us over the next few days. So we had a nice little crew gathered by Saturday morning, when some of us (Dad, Mom, me, Julia, & Ben) left for home.

Ben, me, Matt, Daniel, Anna, & Julia

We all had a great time, and we all got really dirty! Ben learned how to ride a motorcycle - he even learned how to shift! Ben and Julia also enjoyed riding in a handle-less shovel as it was towed behind a quad.

Julia got pretty good on the 100, she even tooled around in the small sand hills a bit!

Even Mom joined in the fun! Daniel gave her a "refresher course" :)

There was an accident on the 10, with traffic at a standstill for over an hour - perfect time to experiment with the camera!