Tuesday, November 24, 2009

A Trip To Julian, CA!

We are blessed to have Julian, a mountain town about a one-hour drive from the city of San Diego. It offers a bit of country life, quaint shops, often cooler temperatures, falling leaves and delicious food, especially apple pie! Kinder was the lucky bear who was able to accompany the family on this wonderful trip! I'll let him take over as narrator!

Here I am anxiously waiting for someone to buckle me in.


I rode in the back with Sarah and her friend Danielle. Aren't they pretty girls?


Upon our arrival, we stopped at the Julian Cider Mill. They have a ton of local honey to choose from. I wanted to buy a smackeral of all of them but Mom said we should stick with a couple. We bought some blackbeary here and some wild hucklebeary at another store (hey is it my fault that there are berrs or bears in honey sometimes??)


I was stuck to this whole display of honey items! :-)


Of course honey is nature's perfect food!


We next went into a store with my mom's most favorite words - "Boyds Bears On Sale"!! 40% off! Mom was so excited and spent a few minutes picking out some friends to adopt. Here's who came home with us:

Jean T. Bearsley, who will join the rest of her family who already live here for the holidays:


Alden Harvestbeary with Giblet who happily joins his wife Mrs. Sarah Harvestbeary!


And Mr. Rutherford Bear, a very distinguished and handsome gentlebear!

We walked past the Julian Drug Store and Soda Fountain. Inside, they have a giant "Bob's Big Boy" statue. My mom is so excited because after a long absence from San Diego, Bob is coming back! They're opening one in Parkway Plaza in a few months. She has such fond memories of going to this restaurant when she was a little girl.


Downstairs, this store has a room full of candy for sale. My mom thought this was a funny sign - can you see the little duck hanging off to the left? :-)


I kinda fell into a barrel of taffy!


This lollipop is almost as big as me!


I met a new friend! At first he seemed a bit shy but then he said we could take his picture!


One of the stores had their windows full of Christmas scenes.



My mom LOVES Eeyore so we made sure that he was in the picture!


After walking around a bit, we decided to have lunch at the Julian Cafe. The food is so very, very good and they give you huge portions! It's the ultimate in homemade comfort foods!


The menu is so big that it's really hard to make a choice. You can't go wrong with anything here though. And if that wasn't enough to make you come here, the owners are Christians and they have Scriptures all over the menu and restaurant!



Bears seem to love Julian because I met another one just outside of the Julian Deli. He loves warming himself in the sun.


Our next stop is my mom's favorite place - the Julian Pie Company! They have absolutely DELICIOUS pies and pastries! My mom's favorite things are their apple cider donuts and cookies called "Apple Memories" which are made out of leftover pie crusts.


If you look here, you can see a video that the Food Network made about the Julian Pie Company!

Mmmm...choices, choices! We decided to buy a Dutch Apple pie to bring to Grandma and Grandpa's for Thanksgiving dinner.


This one is my mom's favorites but we decided to stick with the traditional apple this time.


Don't the cookies look yummy?


Hmmm...can I have one of each one, please?


We went outside to enjoy our treats. There was a big rocking chair just waiting for me!


Miss Sarah and Miss Danielle decided on cinnamon ice cream. They let me have a taste and it was so good, even though it was quite cold and windy!


Hmmm...I wonder what's going on next door? Well, I really shouldn't be so nosy so back to the treats.


And the biggest treat is me! :-) Pies, cookies and bear - oh my!


Here's the bag with the Apple Memories Cookies inside!


I got my very own - and had cinnamon sugar all over me the rest of the day!

After we had our dessert we headed back down the mountain. I hope you enjoyed our trip to the beautiful town of Julian!

Friday, November 20, 2009

Welcome Home Kinder!

Theodore M. Bear reporting in from BNN (Bear News Network):

Once again, my mom's heart was captured by a bear lovingly created by our friend Christy of The Craggy Moor Store. Mom saw Mr. Kinder on Christy's Web site and she just knew she had to adopt him. So Christy bought Kinder a first class ticket on USPS Airlines and off he went. He arrived by taxi at our house today and he immediately was welcomed into his new home!

Miss Christy made sure that Kinder had a lovely sleeping bag to keep him warm and toasty on his flight....


I untied the drawstrings and out he popped!


"Hello there! I'm Kinder!" he said in the brightest and happiest voice.


Teddy the Cat immediately came over and gave him sniffs and kisses.


Kinder gave Teddy a big hug in return!


He was so happy to be in his new home that he stood on his head!


That's one happy face, don't you think?
'

Teddy invited Kinder over to watch a bit of television.


Imagine Kinder's joy and surprise when his little sister Betsy ran into the room and gave him a big hug! Betsy was adopted by Molly about a month ago. Kinder told Betsy all about what had been going on back in Ohio with Miss Christy and the family. Betsy took Kinder out to meet all his new relatives (and there are quite a few!)


Norah the Cat also came over to introduce herself. Kinder said she has the softest fur he'd ever felt!


After his long flight, Kinder was pretty exhausted. So he joined Teddy Cat in the cat tree and soon fell fast asleep!




Sunday, November 1, 2009

Scenes From Halloween 2009

Hi I'm Kirby Bear and this is my friend Beatrice Bunny. This is our very firstest Halloween so we have so much to learn about all the fun and festivities!

Here is our family's pumpkin that we bought at Bates Nut Farm with our family. Beatrice thinks it's still alive so she's listening for a heartbeat. Silly ol' bunny!


Time to haul this baby inside!


Look at how hard we're working!


Up on the table and here we go!


It's a full moon tonight and that seems appropriate for the night before Halloween.


Here's Miss Sarah outlining the face that she's going to carve.


Grandpa's getting into the design too!


I'm watching over their shoulders to make sure that I don't miss a thing.


One more review of the design and here we go!


Well look who stopped by - Lancelot! He said that he's an expert pumpkin carver and he happily shared his thoughts with Mr. Ryan.


Yes! I believe that's exactly what you need to do Mr. Ryan!


Okay hold it steady...the first cut has to be just right....


And in Sarah goes! Now Lancelot's a bit squemish with the knife so he's going to wait until it's all done.


Oh my stars! Look at all the pumpkin guts that they're getting out of it! Miss Sarah made a baby pumpkin out of the carvings.


Viola!


Here's what it looks like with the lights on....


...and here's what it looks like without the lights!


Miss Molly says that it looks like Jack Skellington, from the Nightmare Before Christmas (one of her favorite movies!)


We're sitting in the front window waving to passersby!


Kirby and Beatrice want to get their picture taken with the pumpkin too!



Well! I went ahead and counted every single piece of candy that we'll be giving out for Halloween! I hope we have enough.


Lancelot and Beatrice counted with me (though I think they snuck a piece or two..or three for themselves!)



Miss Beatrice looks like a treat in the trick or treat container.


Lancelot fits perfectly in the "Great Pumpkin" bag.


We are all ready to hand out treats tonight!