It's always fun when Grandma comes!

Mom came to visit over Presidents' Day weekend, so these are a few weeks old. Mom, using her new fangled camera phone.



Remember this?

Cure Autism Now

My nephew Tyler is autistic. Amy (his mom and my sister) set up a walking team to participate in the Autism Walk. I'm really excited to walk with her and show my support. However, just walking won't cure Autism, or help Tyler. What we need is donations. If you would like to help out, and really, five dollars will help, go to the Walk Now website and click on Los Angeles, April 28th from the list on the left. You can search for my name, Amanda Ball, or you can poke around and donate to Team Tyler. Thanks.

It's February!!!

I opened up my eyes this morning to a beautiful day, more beautiful than I had seen in months, or maybe a week. I walked outside, threw my head back, and laughed; it's February and 70 degrees outside. I am going to be sad when we have to leave this place, but I'm even more determined to enjoy it while I'm here.

Celebrity Look-alike

Lillian looks like these celebrities, apparently.

Irish Hills Natural Preserve

Irish Hills Natural Preserve is just to the west of San Luis. I had never been there before, but was told it was beautiful. Which is true, it is. It gave us a chance to try out our new hiking backpack, graciously donated by my wonderful sister Amy. While I thought it was great, and still do, Lillian was a little less than thrilled with the whole set up. Even after my suggestion of pretending we were pioneers working to cross the Rockies, she was still screaming. I thought it was a fun game.


These mountains (even though people from elsewhere insist that they aren't mountains, yet the definition of mountain is just an area that is noticeably taller than the land around it) are called the Seven Sisters (even though there are officially nine of them). They are volcanoes, which I think is cool, and they string all the way from San Luis to Morro Bay, Morro Rock being the last in line.

We went with our friend Liz, who is an avid biker, both road and mountain. Here she is pretending to be on her bike like in the Citi Bank commercial.


By the end, Lillian reconciled herself to the back pack. Maybe because when I was wearing it, she could pull my hair.