Kleinknights at Grant's Grove!!

This is one of our favorite places to go when we have time to spare, about an hour and a half out of Fresno up in the mountains, there is Kings Canyon National Park, Sequoia National Park and a chunk of Sequoia National Forest inbetween... Its simply awesome. Home to the biggest trees on earth, google the General Grant Tree or Sherman Tree, but our favorite is the Boole Tree. About a 2+ mile hike in and out to a giant sequoiadendron giganteum that is beyond belief... These trees are HUGE, not just tall but in circumference too something on the order of about 35 feet at the base... We went up the hill and treated Uncle "Rickett" AKA Eric Kleinknight (Curt's youngest brother) to lunch for his 18th birthday. Mauser went to, somehow eluding pictures...

Here we are at the "Fallen Monarch" tree, once home to the Gamblin Family. I guess it was so large that at one point in history it was converted into a freakin' saloon and -get this- hotel. When I worked in the park, it was merely home to about a hundred or so bats... Unfortunately a tree had fallen at the other side so it was closed off to cruising through this day!!

Grayson decided today was a day he was going to give it to us in angry speak... It was HILARIOUS!! I was mostly catching his looks in the camera that kept being passed back and forth, ergo the laughter and only half my head in the picture... I have many more pics of this look and am wondering if I can bind them all together to do like a flip book with the PC. I think it would be hilarious... Reminded me of a really angry squirrel!!

Uncle Eric, Tristan and Baby Grayson in one of the old "preserved" homesteads... Isn't much to the building, one room, a fireplace and a metric ton of graffiti unfortunately...

Inside one of the fallen trees off the beaten path up at the General Grant tree. We also have some cool pictures where its just the inside of the tree and the scenery at the other end. Very nice!! We actually took quite a few pictures, well, wherever we go we seem to, almost a hundred or so, too bad I cannot post them all! Its so hard to decide which ones to put up too!!

This is on the outside of the tree that is above this pic! We climbed up a pretty steep hill to get there! Go Mama Kleinknight, burn that baby fat!! You can get a pretty good idea of how big this tree must have been. The giant sequoia used to do quite well before they were deforested... They are nearly immune to effects of some fires, bugs, etc. Most of the big ones that is, and then they die off via "windfall" falling over due to a combination of maybe soil, fungus, who knows... The giant trees are amazing and worth a look at if anyone comes out this way!!

Love to all and gotta go! Have two tests to take today!! Just got grades on my other two summer classes, keeping up with the A's!!! Going to post a few of Grayson's 6-month old pictures we took at home pretty soon, maybe even tomorrow... Meanwhile, we have all been laid up with the "plague" a nasty cold that killed my voice today, guess I will have to take a pause and rest right?? Baby has handled it the best of the three of us! And poor Curtis has had to have a root canal on top of everything else!! Our weekend was misery!! So, here's looking forward to even better days to come soon!!! Love - Tristan, Curtis and Baby Grayson!

Father's Day!! A little belated...

Well we are eventually getting caught up here... These are pictures from when we went camping with Grandma Gale, Radtke Crew, Kleinknight Family and Cousin Tori from KY!! Anyhow, here is a smattering of some of the trip! Meanwhile, going to try to find time to look through our pictures when we took a trip to Morro Bay and Monterey with Tori before I started my second session of summer school! It was a blast and there is a lot of stuff to go through for that, gotta find the best of the best! And we have some great pictures of Grayson at six months, looking like quite the little old man! Anyhow - hope this finds everyone well! As for us, we are really really good! Have a wedding anniversery coming up on August 5th, baby is almost 7 months, school is trudging along and the family is well! Keep us posted and we will try to do the same! Love, Tristan!!

Daddy and baby kickin it outside of the rig that Grandma Gale, Mama Tris and Baby Gray slept in relative comfort... A tiny bit cold, but on the whole, really awesome to crash out it!
The three G's!! Grandma Gale, Garrett and Grayson!!

Its exhausting and hard work being a cute kid camping!!

Sister Megan with her flashy and hot sox!! And Taryn diving through! Didn't get a lot of pix of the Radtke girls this trip, my camera battery died shortly into the trip and its one of those fancy ones that requires a real power source, STINKERS!! Need to remember to charge before every photo opportunities darn it!! Next time for sure!!
Nothing comes between me and my morning Diet Dr. Pepper... Not lack of make-up, shower or frizzy slept on braids!! WOW, morning girl I am not!! I look T I R E D ! ! !
The evening festivities with campfire close-by, Papa Radtke and everyone had been sharing knock knock jokes and whatnot throughout the night while make SMORES!!!

A quiet peaceful moment with Cousin Tori, getting used to the high elevation near Lake Tahoe after coming from near sea level in KY!! Tori came into Cali and stayed with us for almost a month and helped care for Grayson while I took my summer course in Philosophy during the mornings EVERY freakin' day!! I sure couldn't have done it without her help!! What a blessing!!

Well, that's it for now! Love to all! Tristan, Curtis, Baby Grayson and a crew of pets!!

The first *REAL* food!

So here is the big day!! The doc advised us that we could start Grayson on his first "real" foods at roughly 5 and 1/2 to 6 months, so here we are about mid-June starting him on what is now his favorite dish - SWEET POTATOES!!! Yum Yum!! Heh... you can tell how ready we were with the dixie cup instead of a kiddie cup or plate - EEK! And I think we rummaged up that spoon out of Grandma Calabrese's "extras" drawer! Thanx Grandma C!!! More on what is up with the Kleinknight Family will follow these pix at the end!! Hooray!! Love to all!! T, C & G!!!

I think he was pretty stunned... Yes ladies and gentlemen - we have achieved that deer in the headlights look - oh my!! What is my mommy doing?!?!

Not really sure if these looks are all in apprehension or?? It sure is funny seeing his face from one moment to the next though!! Curtis and I were nearly in tears trying to keep from laughing! Baby Gray has such an expressive face, although sometimes it can be hard to figure out just what for sure he is expressing!!! I think at the end however he was purty OK!!

And there you have it!! A BIG BIG HUZZAH!!!

What a proud mama and a stunned little man!!

As for us, let's see! I mananged to whip out three units of multicultural classes in three weeks in the evenings in May and daddy got some quality time with Grayson! Hooray! Then I moved on to philosophy and nutrition right afterwards and am finishing them up as I type!! Managed to keep my A's still, and landed a nursing scholarship which may let me cut back my hours at work, that is if I can find a good position to move into or working something out with my boss - keep your fingers crossed for us everyone!! Gotta figure out what to do for August through December because the nursing classes are going to be pretty heavy! Meanwhile, we managed to work in a family vacation to Morro Bay and Montery and we all really grooved on getting the time to see the coast, and show it off to my cousin Tori from Kentucky who came out to help watch baby while I am gettin' slammed in class! HOORAY!! Hopefully we can get some of those pics posted soon. At least we are TOO behind, these being about a month and 1/2 old I think!! Time sure flies and we hope its all been as great out there for our family and friends as it has been for us! Oh, we also had an awesome camping trip for Father's Day with Grandma Gale, Tori and the Radtke bunch too! I think we have pix of that too in the camera, which sure holds a lot! So, maybe in a week or so (once my philo class is over!) I can get a few more out and share what is up!! Love to all of you, wherever you are and in whatever you are up to! Tris, Curt and Gray!!

Family zoo trip... April 2007...

Yeah, the zoo - I'm over it!!!

The family including cousins Taryn, Kylee and Garret, my Auntie Megan, Grandma and Grayson of course checking out the stingrays!!!

A pretty cool cucumber considering the close company!!!

The Radtke cousins!! What a wild bunch! We had a lot of fun!!!

Here we are again! Can you see Grayson peeking?!?

Right after a grouchy moment, Grayson stops to reflect his bib, he LOVES his Grandma!!

I guess it's safe to say Taryn is not yet four feet tall, but Grayson's cousins are all growing like a bunch o'weeds!!! Especially Garrett!!

Can't forget Miss Kylee either!!

Baby Grayson's First Renaissance Faire

Sooooo... its what we do for a hobby, and I think its pretty fun... But hadn't been quite sure whether or not baby would be ready for it at only four months, so we just went half the day both days BUT we did it!! And had a lot of fun too... Will be catching up on his events now that I have a better idea of how to use this program and add pictures and what not... So will have to hit everyone with an email to have them check these out... YEAH!!!!!!!!! So enjoy Gray's first renaissance event, the pics are well... a month old but as I said more to come and we will get caught up!!

Baby's munchkin hat!!! He's a gnome!! Naw, just a biggins cap, very period, very stylish for the time period don't you know! Has to be high fashion?!?!!!

Mama and baby Gray enjoy a nice quiet moment in the shade... May was a little bit warm, so baby and I were a little dressed down... Actually this faire was more of a "fantasy" theme being PIRATES!!! So the garb in general is a little inaccurate, especially on my part... sure made nursing baby at faire a lot easier than wearing a bodyce or gown though for sure!!!

Its a KISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!! Who could resist that face?!? And you can see our stylish camp tent in the back too, place to crash and avoid the hot Fresno sun!! ;)

Daddy cannot wait to get into that action too!! Grayson wasn't quite diggin' daddy's duds tho... Leather isn't all that comfortable...

This is literally the calm before the storm and the next picture didn't come out too well when Grayson decided to let us have it, very blurry, very very angry... It was getting pretty warm, so we were wearing clothes that were wet down along with the head wraps that were equally soaked and having a nip of water BUT... that was not going over too well when we first tried it... He's getting ready to "release the Kracken"... Yet one more nickname... EEK!!

Now that we are into the swing of things, he decided that being wet wasn't so horrible afterall... pretty much everyone in the camp decided to join us after that too... Well, maybe I made them join us... I'm kinda a supermama these days...

Now I know what to expect in the future for Grayson from the moment he's ready to pick up a stick... YIKES!! Well, at least dad is pretty good at this sort of thing, he'll learn from one of the best! HOORAY!!

What fun we've had by the end of the day!! I hope you all enjoyed our pictures from baby's first faire! Love to all!! Curtis, Tristan and Grayson!!! HOOOOOORAY!!!!!!!

Update is upcoming... I hope!!

Well, it's official, my boy is getting REALLY big!! At his four month check-up, he weighed in at 16 pounds (lost a pound that week being sick) and nearly 28 inches in length - putting him, well off the chart. His midget mama at 61 inches in length is pretty amazed... I know we have some tall genes somewhere on my sid and of course Daddy is pretty tall at nearly 6'2"!!! AND, recent news I managed a 4.0 in my third nursing semester and I did it as a new mama (while working graveyards - YUCK!)!! YIKES!! Meanwhile, Dadyy is proud of his family and has been getting kudos at work for "removals" when not getting nearly sprayed down with pesticides in the local farmer's fields, eeeek!!

Anyhow! I have LOTS of pictures, I SHOULD have the time once I have, yeah you guessed it, my summer course done too... TWELVE days right hot off the 3rd semester and its almost done!! I actually have one more that's online June through August and a third class that is fifteen days in July! Whew!! Let's just hope the grades stay high too, need those A's to get outta the RN program early and work the same amount of hours I am now, with twice the time available to my family AND a pay raise!! Yippee!!

Love to all, I know we don't nearly get in touch that much with everyone but hopefully the future will be more kind and it's in the works! Love Tristan K!!

A lovely early morning...

Well I'm here at work and should most likely either be studying for the latest exam for Med-Surg or trying to catch a ZZZ where I can inbetween callers, righhhhhhhhhht... not too many yet at this hour, most thankfully so!! Was eyeballing my cousin's blog earlier and hoping to find the means to do something similar!! Would love to have a way to communicate with my family - spread out from the "Great North" in Alaska to Kentucky and as far south as Texas!! And of course my immediate family here in Cali - woot! Not sure what all I will be able to do to keep on top of things, but maybe I try to make it a regular thing to post what is going on for us and add pictures when and where I can!!

Upcoming, we are taking a weekend off soon, hoping that we can go relax at my hubby's family cabin if we can!!! Am so looking forward to hiking with baby Grayson and going down to the river!! Its his Aunt Laurie and Uncle John's place, they have been super kind to let us haunt there once in a blue moon, sometimes solo, sometimes with friends and we have even had a family Christmas there too! If we go, will be sure to post pictures!! I love it there, and can make up excuses to stay there for days... Actually, I think we got "snowed" in there once about four years ago, heh! OOPS! Anyhow! Its up in Camp Nelson, which is a small wonderful town, with a crazy town sign I will have to find and post - more on that later!! Please feel free to post, email, yada yada! I love you all! - Tristan!