Parrottrek Journal 2008

December 6th - National Finals Rodeo - Las Vegas, Nevada -

Where oh where did this whole year go? I guess it went by as we were having far too much to notice that it passed. We are back at the most fun event of the year. The National Finals Rodeo here in Vegas never lets us down as being a great 2 weeks, and still hasn't! This year is the 50th Anniversary year, so the crowds are big and the days fly by as we sell all the souvenirs people need for themselves and for those who weren't lucky enough to be able to make it out here. Since we have been so busy, we have had to enlist even more help in our fun little kiosk, which translates to lots of days with Chris and Karolyn.

Shoot boys, shoot! I guess there's too much love here to fire. Suckers!

"Take three paces and turn"

This morning, before we opened, Chris and Frank had a little fun with seeing who could shoot each other first in a good old western gun fight! However, the batteries in the scanners were dead, so thankfully there were no casualties and everyone was able to work all day. Good thing since it was quite busy.

Sean and Shira enjoying the rodeo

Kristy Lee Cook sings the National Anthem

Lee Green and the U.S. Forces

The injured steer is taken out

December 7th - A Fun Night at the Rodeo -
This evening we were lucky enough to get some tickets to the actual rodeo and had Sean, our cousin, and his fiancée Shira join us. It was awesome!! The National Anthem was sung by Kristy Lee Cook, from American Idol, and Brooks and Dunn was the opening band and had everyone cheering. It was fun to see such a well known band live. Okay, so I have to admit I do enjoy a bit of country music now and then. Besides, we were surrounded by cowboys, so it was the perfect ambiance. Since it is December 7th, they had a great memorial for those who fought in World War II along with Lee Green Wood singing

Brooks and Dunn

A steer wrestler from Los Alamos

'Proud to be an American' with a member of each and every United States Armed Service represented.It brought tears to many eyes and made for an amazing evening. Thank you Jesus that we have the freedom that allows us to have so much fun out here, and can be reminded every so often why! During the rodeo, as most of you know from my journals of the last few years here, I do cheer for the animals. I truly enjoy all the sports, except for the tie-down roping. This is where I conveniently take a potty brake. This evening however, due to our centrally located seats, I was unable to escape this event so I was forced to watch as one of the steers was injured. Luckily they treat wounded animals just as they would a human contestant and took him off in a stretcher to examine him further. One of the Steer Wrestlers, which after sitting directly behind the steer chute brings a new respect for these men, was a man who lives just one little town up from our home town, Los Alamos. We didn't win the event, but came in third. There's nothing quite like a night at the rodeo, and since this year, again, is the 50th, and the seats are sold out, it made for an even more festive night.

December 14th -The Day After (The Rodeo)- ... ... and a Double Shot of Nighttime Robitussin -

Please forgive my lack of updating, but I must blame powers beyond my control. Day 7 of the rodeo I began to get a sore throat so I went to bed early .. ... day 8 I began to get body aches and a gnarly headache that wouldn't go away no matter how many Advil I took so I went bed even earlier. Day 9, the busiest day of the rodeo mind you, I awoke to feeling like udder @#&%! Thank God for darling Karolyn, who came in on her day off to cover for me while I lay dead in bed. I get sick so rarely and each time I do I try and talk myself out of it best I can and tell whatever is ailing my body that it isn't going to win. Usually this works and I defeat it! However today, finally having to admit defeat, I crawled back into bed after attempting to dress myself Friday morning and slept until Saturday morning, where I was half way between the land of the living and the land of the overly medicated. Cold medicine does work wonders, but sure does suck when it wears off. So my plan on Saturday was to take enough of the stuff in order to keep it from wearing off. I happily report that my plan worked with only 1 glitch. Once I got home I realized that the daytime Robitussin was gone, due to a loosened cap in my bag... YUCK! I did contemplate pouring it from the bag directly into my mouth and also my body, but reconsidered that thought pretty darn quick once I saw the lint in the corners of my bag. No fears, I still had a full bottle of the nighttime Robitussin since Frank had bought me a duel pack on his way from work Friday, so I turned to that and have been there ever since. I am, however, very happy to report that Saturday flew by since we were so busy selling product and for the overall event we ended up selling out of pretty much everything we had in our kiosk, which makes the 'Whitmore's Building our Dream House Fund' very happy! So I sign off now, with my pillow in one hand and a sweet sleeping bird in the other, as we listen to our favorite guitar player play is collection of songs! I'm in love with a wonderful man that not only buys me very needed drugs, but rocks me to sleep. Good night all... ... I love you Frank!

December 14th - A Picturesque Drive to Cachuma Lake -

Since it has literally been years since we camped at Cachuma Lake, the lake above the hills of our home town that I always called Lake Cachuma until today when I really looked at the sign. Despite it's real or official name, we decided we were long overdue for a visit to this particular lake. The drive up here was quite amazing. Once we were settled in to our campsite above the lake, we headed out to Santa Maria for some shopping in order to put the finishing touches on our top secret Christmas gifts. As we drove to Santa Maria, in the rain, we saw two complete rainbows. Unfortunately from the car the camera couldn't quite get the whole arch of the double rainbow, but at least you get some idea of it's grandeur. Perhaps it's too early to make New Year's resolutions, if you even believe in such things, but my New Year's resolution for next year is to find the most perfect camera, whether it's fancy or not to take all the last minute, because I'm too entranced in the scenery to take a picture, camera that will click and capture exactly the scene that is in my mind and memory of our current location at any given moment. Hmmm, perhaps that skiing too much. Anyways... ... we plan to stay here at Cachuma Lake through the holiday season and into the New Year, or until we desire for a change of scenery. It's supposed to rain here for the next three days straight and perhaps even snow a bit! How fun, to have a white Christmas Eve's eve's eve's eve? How many eve's would that be??

Melody, Allison, Suzy and Shelley, lifelong friends

Frank and Tony play Christmas carols

The kids had a make-up party in Kylie's room,

and then had to check out their beauty in the bathroom mirror, too cute!

December 15th - The White House Annual Christmas Party -

As another year comes to a close, we find ourselves at another fun and festive party at the White's House. Tony was the chef of the evening and made some delicious Manicotti, from scratch. After dinner Tony and Frank played Silent Night on their guitars as the kids had a "makeover party" which consisted of Kylie putting make-up on herself and the other 7 children attending the festivities. Once everyone had been made over, we all enjoyed desert, which consisted of every imaginable sweet from peppermint ice cream to frosted Christmas trees that the kids made with sugar cones, green frosting and M and M's as the ornaments hung on the trees.

Hmmmm, is it safe?

It looks harmless

Yum, it sure is tasty. The mess making begins

It took almost no time for Bradley to make himself right at home

December 16th - Santa Comes Early -

The term bird brain has always had a negative connotation, and that bothers me. Why? Even though birds have the teeniest tiniest brains on the planet, the knowledge that can be contained in this small space is enormous. Let me explain... The last 5 years, our first hatched kiddo, Bradley, always figures out exactly which gift under the tree is his. Yes they are all wrapped. Even though his is packaged up with pretty paper and a bow, just like the other gifts under the tree, he still knows which one it is, chews through the paper, as much as possible when we aren't looking and opens his annual gift early. To completely throw him off this year, we decided to bring his gift out early and to throw him off, we decided NOT to wrap it. Bradley's gift this year was a completely edible tiki hut. It took him a day or so to get close to it, and then another day to actually crawl inside, but once he overcame his fear of being eaten by it, he began to tear it to pieces. He can't quite make it in the door, so he has figured out that if he removes the roof, he can get in that way. The cutest part of this, is the fact that he removes the roof from the inside out. He is far too cute and too smart for his own good sometimes and, of course, always very entertaining to watch!

A view of the mountains from Santa Ynez Valley as we drove to the top

Frank bravely tests out the first hill

Jenn and Suzy race down the hill

The four of us made our very own Frosty, with accessories I might add :)

December 18th - A Day in the Snow -

While it has been raining for the last three days, pretty much straight, we have noticed that the layer of snow on the top of Figueroa has gotten more visible as each day passes. This morning, waking up to sunshine, we decided to trek up the mountain to see just how much snow there was along with our good friends Jenn and Amy. The road was closed about a mile from the top due to so much snow, so we parked the Jeep and hiked the rest of the way up. There was about 2 feet of snow at the top and a nice layer of fresh powder, which made for perfect makings of snowballs to throw and snowmen to build. We also found a great slide in the snow.

Can you see all our snow angels?

Another Frank self portrait x 4 !!

Since we didn't bring any sleds or cardboard or anything the average Californian would carry in ones trunk to enjoy the festive white snowy substance, we improvised and used our feet and fannies. It was a little cold sliding straight on the snow, but we were having far too much fun to care. Next event? Making snow angels!! Since we were already pretty snowy, we decided to try our hand at, or should I say our bodies at, making snow angels. The last time Frank and I made snow angels was about 6 years ago at Tahoe, where I jumped backyards into what looked like a layer of fresh powder only to find that it was actually more like 2 feet of powder. After bailing out of the snowstorm I jumped into, I was far too frozen to have much desire of attempting it again. After about 3 hours of winter fun today, being soaked to the skin and having no more feeling in our hands and feet, we headed back to the car to thaw out and head down the mountain to warmer ground. The best part was that we had the mountain to ourselves since school was still in.

Cody, lovin the sunshine

A very fat hawk looks for lunch

Two very oblivious squirrels

Peaceful Cachuma Lake

December 19th - A Bike Ride Around Lake Cachuma - Santa Barbara, California -

Hooray, the sun finally came out so we took full advantage of it and took the birds for a bike ride around the lake, which was calm and peaceful. On our ride we saw some very large Red-tailed Hawk's. We wondered why these birds were more than twice as fat as most hawk's we have seen around the country and then realized that all the fat, sunning squirrels around the lake might have something to do with it. After Cody was well worn out from flying from one side of the lake to the other, we slowly made our way home. As we came around a large group of bushes, near our campsite a Peregrine Falcon came flying out of a bush, which scared Cody half to death thinking he might be lunch, and flew up into a tall tree. We looked into the bush we came out of to find that he was already enjoying lunch, which consisted of a small half eaten bird. Apparently we scared him as much as he scared Cody.

December 20th - A Poker Christmas Party - Santa Maria, California -

We had our annual Christmas party this evening with Joe, Brandie, John,  Andrea, myself and Frank. Each year we get together for an early Christmas dinner with turkey, all the trimmings and a game of Texas Hold'em where, I am proud to say, I was this years victor. It has been a loooong time since  I was the final player, especially the final player with a straight in the final hand with an all in bet. After dinner we went to see Yes Man, which was hilarious and a fun way to end the night. Along with our poker players was Roxie, who at only two years old lost the bet since she didn't realize having all red cards was not a winning hand. Also in the group are two very playful labs who waiting patiently for their candy cane shaped bones from the birds.

Poor Roxie lost her money early

We're sitting, we're sitting, where is our treat?

Shelby and Rochelle by the tree

Shelby tell Santa she wants a triceratops

"Thanks Santa, I love ya"

Shelby and Aunt Suzy pose with the jolly guy

December 21 - Breakfast With Santa - Buellton, California -

What's better than breakfast with Santa for a sweet four year old? Hmmm, can't think of much. Rochelle, Shelby and I had a very fun morning. Telling Santa what we wanted for Christmas, assuring him we had all been good all year long and enjoying some very delicious made to order omelets along with every other breakfast delight imaginable.  AFter breakfast we searched the rooftops for Rudolf and the gang, but they stayed hidden from sight.

December 24th - Christmas Eve -

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that Frank would play Christmas carols all night! We had a great Christmas Eve with family and pets. Frank's parents have a sweet little kitten, Sammy, who throughly enjoyed his 'mystery triangle' from Santa as we adults sang Christmas carols as Frank accompanied us on his new guitar that Santa delivered a few days before Christmas. Since he had to lighten his sleigh in order to get the rest of the gifts around the world in one trip, Frank was quick to volunteer to get his gift, with all the other eager kids around the country, early. When we got home from Christmas dinner, we found another eager soul. Bradley had found his gift under the tree and was doing his darnedest to see what was inside. We ended the evening with a fun bottle of festive Electric Reindeer wine and finished wrapping gifts for tomorrow.

Our Secret Christmas Project is a Success!! -  

What was just a dream and what seemed to be an impossible feat, is now in the hands of friends and family all over the country. Frank's guitar playing has gotten, well in my humble opinion, amazing! We ordered a book of Christmas carols back in October in hopes of having Frank be able to accompany our traditional after Christmas dinner caroling. Once he had mastered half the songs, I mentioned "Wouldn't it be great to create a CD of your songs for your family for Christmas?" Not realizing that with all the modern technology, my savvy computer literate husband, and our new fabulous MacBook, we could do just that! The Mac has Garage Band software on it and Firewire in order to turn any music you can play into an album. After hitting Guitar Center for the rest of the necessary attachments, i.e. a microphone and Firebox, we now have our very own traveling recording studio, as seen in the pictures above. It was a very rewarding experience, and a little more time consuming than we thought, but well worth it. After practicing for 100's of hours and recording for about 50, Frank's portion was done, and beautifully I might add... ... and after 30 hours of setting up the pictures in a CD cover layout, printing, swearing at the printer that kept mis-aligning the paper, printing more, cutting, sticking, wrapping, reprinting more CD's due to the success of the first release, wrapping and shipping, Suzy's portion was done and we are happy to present "Songs from the Road - An Acoustic Collection" by Frank Whitmore

Cody opening his gifts

Bradley and Andy

Torrie and Hayley Christmas morning

Rosie and Goldie. I remember when Torrie and Hayley were these ages

Celebrating Christmas - All Weekend Long -

You know that feeling you get when you know someone is staring at you? Even though you might not see them, or in this case you are half asleep at 6 in the morning, enjoying your warm and cozy bed? As I opened my eyes I found not one pair of eyes looking down at me, but three. Two sets of bird eyes and one set of their even antsier dad. Of course they already had the pile of presents with them and once I sat up, they all began to tear into theirs. Bradley loved his Andy the android that walked and beeped and chased him all over the counter. Bradley would chase Andy for a couple minutes and then Andy would turn his wheels and chase Bradley. It was quite entertaining to watch. Once all the presents were opened and breakfast was finished we drove over to Kevin and Renee's to open presents with the rest of the family, followed by our annual tradition of going to see a movie. Today's movie of choice was 'Bedtime Stories' and it was a very fun one. After the movie we headed back to the Smith's for lunch and lounging. It was a great way to celebrate the holiday, with family. To carry on the Christmas celebration we spent Friday with the King family in Santa Barbara. We hadn't seen Goldie, who just turned two, since she was about 6 months old, and today was the first time we met Rosemary in person. Kari, Janet, Kristi and I spent the afternoon eating Christmas cookies and watching Goldie and Rosie play with all their new Christmas toys as Frank, Jim and Toby helped program Jim's new Harmony remote. It was a perfect day.

Hmmm? Is that lunch I see?

"Yum, pizza crust"

"Quick, back to the tree before that red thing get us"

All the little birds flew off when Cody tried to play

December 29th - A Warm and Sunny Day - Cachuma Lake -

However beautiful Cachuma Lake might be, we draw the line at sitting outside in 50 degree weather. The last couple weeks we have had more rainy days than sunny days and the birds are becoming more and more anxious to be outside. Today, we were delightfully surprised to find the outdoor temperature a wonderful 62 degrees, which if one wears sweats and a jacket, the direct sunlight feels pretty warm. The birds, covered in a wonderful layer of down feathers, don't notice the cool breeze at all and are happy as clams to be in the trees out back. While we were having lunch today, outside of course, we noticed a small flock of beautiful blue jays begin to gather in the trees above, so we started throwing them a few crusts of bread and watched them as they got braver and braver in coming down from the tree to collect their treasures. With each piece, we tossed the bread closer and closer to us. About 20 minutes into their feeding time, they were coming right up on the concrete, however they weren't quite sure what to make of Cody, especially when we climbed the tree that they were in.

The crowd begins to gather

Cody was the perfect performer

The moon came up as the sun went down

The view of the lake from our campsite

December 30th - New Year Eve's Eve - A Bird Show at Cachuma Lake -

Every morning, we have been taking Cody and Abbey for a bike ride around the lake. Abbey stays tucked away in her box on my handle bars, as Cody flaps his wings, hanging on to Franks hand, until he can flap no longer and is out of breath. Almost every morning there are the same four or five families sitting around their campfire cooking breakfast or playing football in the grass. The kids always come running to see Cody flying saying "There's the cool bird". Today one of the dads came up to Frank and asked if later this afternoon if he gathered all the kids and adults together, could Frank show them the birds and how they talk? Frank of course was ecstatic at the opportunity to show a group of people his babies up close and personal, and Cody was ecstatic at the chance of getting to show off in front of people for more treats! About two hours later, sure enough a big crowd of families started to congregate on our site. Cody was in great spirits and did all his tricks and animal impersonations. I couldn't get a good shot of the crowd and the performing duo from outside, so I went inside for the aerial shot. It was a fun afternoon. It never ceases to amaze me just how few parrots the average person comes across. It was great practice for what might turn into a full fledged bird show some day. After the kids left, Frank, Cody, Abbey and I watched the sun set over the lake and had dinner.

Outside our ocean front hotel

Dinner at the Custom House

The wonderfully heated patio of Mr. Rick's

A very fun live band

December 31st - New Year's Eve in Avila Beach -

To ring in the New Year, we took an overnight trip up to Avila Beach with our friends Tim and Sharon. So before we get to far I must tell you, we did something tonight we haven't done in, well literally... years. We.... maybe you should sit for this.... we... stayed in a hotel! Yes, we left our traveling house behind, and our babies, they'll be fine they have lots of fresh food and water, we left them behind and stayed out all night! We had dinner at The Custom House, a great steakhouse and spent the rest of 2008 at Mr. Rick's.

Mr. Rick's Beach bar had a live band and a bit of additional entertainment. I've never witnessed a bar fight before, but this evening we witnessed two. One between two men, that was broken up quite quickly, and one between two women. Apparently the first woman didn't realize that the man she was flirting with was married... to the woman standing next to him... on crutches non the less. After the drama ended, we enjoyed the band until a little before midnight when the wait staff handed out champagne. Once the festivities ended, we walked down the beach to our hotel, the Inn at Avila Beach.

Previous Journal Page | Home | Next Journal Page