Mountain biking

We discovered a mountain biking trail in this little canyon in the middle of the city. It was so fun! We kept saying to ourselves, "Why have we not done this sooner?!" We had a great time. The trail is pretty during this time of year; there are green vines and oak trees all around (there is also a lot of poison oak, but luckily I have managed thus far to avoid it). It feels like nature except there is a highway very close (if you close your eyes and imagine real hard it sounds like a roaring river) and neighborhoods on either side. There are trails that branch off of the main road-like trail that we explored. One of the trails has just enough of a grade to get you going really fast and then you have to duck through all these trees and shrubbery. It was awesome! We forgot our camera unfortunately. But we had gone hiking there before and took some pictures so we’ll put some of those up to show you what it looked like.

We also discovered a fruit/vegetable/gourd whatever you want to call it.

I googled “green pokey plant in California” and quickly found a page describing wild cucumber. (How did we even function without google or the internet for that matter?) We took one of the fruits home and dissected it, apparently they are toxic. Good thing Cody did not take up my dare to eat it. I almost ate it, I mean wouldn't you think something called a 'wild cucumber' would be edible just like a normal cucumber?

Pretty tulips...

The windows of heaven were opened up and blessings poured down on us in the form of financial aid. Soooo…we bought 2 round-trip tickets to Sao Paulo!!! Wahoo! For those of you from my side of the family, Emilee's brother Pat is getting married in Sao Paulo in August.