Mrs. Juli Entered Her Paintings In The Fair Today!

Hey Everyone!

I went with Mrs. Juli to the fairgrounds to help her turn in five paintings for the fine arts department competition. We took the camera but there really wasn't much set up yet, there were just a bunch of people standing in line with their fair entries.

Mrs. Juli is taking me back on Saturday and not only will we get to see if she won any awards, but I will also get to ride on some of the rides and eat corn dogs and cotton candy! It will be my first fair so I am very excited.

Here are Mrs. Juli's paintings before we put them in the car:
(you can click the picture to make it bigger to see the paintings better)
When Mrs. Juli was in the second grade and third grade, she took oil painting lessons and had many paintings that all of her family framed and even though they were very proud of her as a little girl, Mrs. Juli stopped painting. Aunt June talked Mrs. Juli into painting again last year and she has probably finished twenty paintings in that time.

I think Mrs. Juli is very talented but just like everyone, she feels a little self-conscious and insecure so when she puts her paintings in the fair to be judged, she is afraid of failure.

I told Mrs. Juli that it doesn't matter if she wins ribbons, she has won in my eyes and it doesn't matter who the judges pick as the winners. I really hope that she sees some ribbons on her paintings when we go back on Saturday but if she doesn't, I'll let her know that I am proud of her no matter what. I think it is neat that she let the world see her paintings.

We are going to Carmel tomorrow with some of her friends so I hope to have some good pictures to show you! Mrs. Juli says that Carmel is beautiful. I can't wait to see the Pacific Ocean!

I hope you are having a good week.

Love,

Flat Stanley

I Had So Much Fun This Weekend!

Hey Hannah, Zac, Garrett, Mommy, Daddy and Everyone!

Guess what I did this weekend!

People come from all over the United States to ride bikes in the Hollister hills.


This nice boy and his father let me ride on his bike. It was awesome!

Just up the road from the Hollister Hills track is this old school.
All children, first grade through twelfth grade, used to go to this little school house. That is like having elementary school, junior high school and high school in the same little building with the same teacher. I think this would have been a fun school!
Less than a mile from the old school house are the many vineyards and wineries in San Benito County. All of these vineyards have been growing grapes since the mid 1800's. Some of the oldest grapevines in California come from this area.
Here is one of the wineries in Hollister:


This winery also makes olive oil from their vineyard. They have many olive trees in the hills.

This nice lady loved meeting me!

People come from all over the world to go wine tasting in this area. I signed the guest book!


The San Andreas fault runs through Hollister. There are earthquakes almost every day in this area of California. Most of the time, we can't feel the tremors and so far, I haven't felt a big earthquake but here is a picture of me and the San Andreas fault. That big crack in the ground is the fault!

This is a picture of me and a historical national landmark on the San Andreas fault at a winery in Hollister:
You can see how the building has separated because of all of the earthquakes and if you want to read the landmark sign better, you can click on the picture, it is really interesting.
Wine barrels are stacked on top of each other in really tall buildings to help with space. Sometimes, the wine has to sit in barrels for years before it gets bottled. Believe it or not, the wine barrels don't topple over in mild earthquakes. It would take a very big earthquake to make these barrels fall to the ground.
It is harvest season and that means that any day now, these grapes will be picked (harvested).
I can't even describe how beautiful the vineyards and the grapes were today. I have learned so much!
This is a picture of me with Aunt June and Mrs. Jane's favorite wine. Mr. Michael wanted to make sure that I got this picture for them.
This winery also got this Guinness Book Of World Records placard many years ago for being the world's largest wine cellar under one roof.

Because I am flat and I can fit in Mrs. Juli's purse, I was able to see so many things!
I hope you had a nice weekend!

Love,

Flat Stanley

The Look I Was Going For Until Mr. Michael Saw Me

Do you see a resemblance?

I don't have my grill anymore. Mr. Michael threw it away. Thank goodness that Mrs. Juli is taking so many pictures so that I can remember it forever. Mrs. Juli found out that it is spelled "grillz", just in case you ever get that in a spelling bee contest! Here are some cool grillz:


Mr. Michael is working at their friends winery today so Mrs. Juli is taking me up there. I hope I get some really good pictures of me and my shiny tooth in the vineyards.

Mrs. Jane said that Clemson lost yesterday. I hope y'all had a nice weekend.

I'll try to write later tonight.

Love,

Flat Stanley

Do You Like My Grill?

I had so much fun at the dentist! In California, many very famous singers wear grills on their teeth. It is like jewelry for the mouth. The dentist made me a set but Mrs. Juli doesn't like it much. She says Mr. Michael will not like it at all and that mommy is probably going to throw my grill away when I get back to South Carolina. I will only wear my grill on special occasions.

Mrs. Juli also let the dentist temporarily cement one gold/platinum tooth. Mommy can take it off when I get back to South Carolina if she doesn't like it. I really like the way it shines in the light!
To completely fit in here, I need to get some really baggy pants and a huge jersey and a lopsided baseball cap but Mrs. Juli put her foot down after the grill. She said that is enough. I'm still hoping to convince her otherwise!

Love,

Flat Stanley

I'm Eating So Healthy And Sophie Got Her Hair Done

Hey Hannah and Zac and Garrett and Mommy and Everyone!

I really like California and although there are many things that I miss about South Carolina, I am learning to like new things. This is my new favorite food:


These are called heirloom tomatoes and they are delicious.

Because the weather is so nice, many people here grow their own food. Even in Mrs. Juli's yard, she has her own lemons and granny smith apples:


Sophie loves these apples. She starts by playing ball with them and then slowly begins to eat them. I never knew that puppies like apples.

I am learning how to swim but more than anything, I am really learning how to "chill out" in Mr. Michael's and Mrs. Juli's jacuzzi room.
I learned how to relax in the water and float. The massage bubbles are really neat.


A lady named Mrs. Dayna came over today and fixed Sophie's hair. I think she looks cute and Mrs. Dayna made her look more like Mini-Me.


Back to food again, people out here have never heard of boiled peanuts. One lady thought that I said "bald peanuts" because of my southern accent! Mrs. Juli and I ate her last can of boiled peanuts tonight and we need Mrs. Jane to bring some more when she travels here in a few weeks. I have never had boiled peanuts out of a can before but I suppose, sometimes, one must make do with what they have and Mrs. Juli did an awesome job of boiling them so we pretended that we got them from the boiled peanut man in South Carolina.

Mr. Michael is from Boston so he never knew about boiled peanuts either so Mrs. Juli and I got to eat them all to ourselves.

I'm having so much fun and learning a lot. Tomorrow, I am going to the dentist so I can't wait to fill you in on how that goes!

Love,

Flat Stanley

They Don't Shoot Deer Here

Hey Hannah, Zac and Garrett!

I went to play golf again with Mrs. Juli and we had fun. She plays at a golf course about 10 minutes from her house, she is a member at "San Juan Oaks" so that means she can play as much as she likes there and believe me, she plays A LOT!

There is a famous golfer named Fred Couples and he designed San Juan Oaks golf course. Here is a bad picture of me with his picture in the clubhouse:Here I am sitting at a tee box. We played with some nice men today and they taught me how to be patient and wait for my turn:

This is one of the holes - did you know that you play 18 (EIGHTEEN!) holes in a golf round. Every hole at San Juan Oaks is different. You can tell where they water the golf course and then you can see the dry, golden hills.Mrs. Juli calls this San Juan Poison Oaks because she got poison oak so bad she almost had to go to the hospital in March. You can see the cart path on this hole and do you see that one reddish looking bush?That is California poison oak and it is very bad. Mrs. Juli had bad blisters all over her because her ball got close to this bush. It took about three days for her to break out in blisters everywhere and she had to be on medicine for six weeks. Poison oak reactions are the number one disability claim in the state of California. Firefighters and forest rangers get it very often and sometimes have to be hospitalized, especially if it is burning and they breathe in the fumes.In South Carolina, we have poison ivy and I hope you all know to stay away from a plant with "leaves of three". In California, they have poison ivy but they also have these poison oak bushes. Mrs. Juli kept me far away from these bushes.

While she was showing me the poison oak bushes we heard some rustling and we saw four deer. We tried to get their picture:

Mrs. Juli said that she sees all kind of animals and because they don't shoot deer here, they are very tame. The next hole we played, we had to wait for this buck to get out of the way. He took his time walking across the fairway:I hope you can see him off to the right: (you can click on this picture to see the buck close up)

Mrs. Juli said that they even have mountain lions and bobcats and snakes at the golf course. They told Mrs. Juli that if she ever spotted a mountain lion to jump on top of her golf cart and wave golf clubs real mean in the air to make herself look big and scary so the mountain lion would leave her alone. Mrs. Juli said that she could never climb on top of a golf cart and wished they'd let her pack weapons like hunters - she thinks a gun rack would be appropriate on golf carts in dangerous areas. Most California people have never seen a gun rack so the golf course people didn't get her humor.

One of the men we played golf with insisted that Mrs. Juli take my picture with these two famous football player's jerseys. Mrs. Juli doesn't watch football but just in case any of you know these people, here I am with RICE and LOTT jerseys. I have had a busy week and it is only Tuesday! I am learning so much Hannah! Thank you for sending me to Mrs. Juli's house.

Love,

Flat Stanley