Four Days=Countless Amounts of Fun!

Due to the fact my teachers needed not one, but two 'teacher work days', that took up yesterday and today, my fellow students and I received a four day weekend! After school on Friday I went to lunch with my madre at the 'Joe Caribe Bistro and Cafe'. They specialize in 'fresh, ethnic and Caribbean flavors' according to their website and I would certainly that their food is not only fresh but amazing! My personal favorite is the Vegetarian burrito which not only has your average burrito ingredients but whipped sweet potato, which might not sound good but it definitely is! Anyway, after a late lunch and some car shopping for my sister I headed home exhausted after a long week at school.
The next morning, I joined my school's Key Club to take part in cleaning up the Bear River, my school's namesake actually. Donning elastic gloves and grabbing trash and recycle bags, we set to work combing the river banks for any trash that inconsiderate and laze people left over the summer. Although we mostly found cigarettes, glass shards, and bottle caps; we did find a surplus of butane gas, a suspicious head of a genie sculpture, a goat skull with a feather wired to it(I suspect homeless voo-doo), and a food-saver. I hope our Key Club and the other groups who were taking part in river clean-ups across Nevada County and elsewhere made a difference for the environment and our community.

Beautiful Morning cleaning at the Bear River.

After I headed home, I went to the 28th annual Draft Horse Classic hosted every year at the Nevada County Fairgrounds. We arrived mid-day, the perfect time since this is when the barns are primarily open, and set to going through each barn.

This big guy wasn't very happy to be getting a bath!

You can't tell in the picture, but these horses are nowhere near regular size!

Some random mules mid-Draft Horse

After eating a baked potato(they're the best around) and getting a 'Nevada City Cappucino' which is actually a lot like a frappucino...just better, I went home and got ready for a Comic-Con Dance, hosted by a Mormon Church in Nevada City. Of course when I heard the words 'Comic-Con' I at first held back the tears that I didn't attend San Diego Comic-Con and meet the beautiful Benedict Cumberbatch and of course the numerous other beloved actors and then I realized I could be Benedict...or Sherlock actually. So, acquiring my mother's purple shirt, my great-grandmother's coat, and my father's magnifying glass; I transformed myself into Miss Sherlock Holmes, or as my Dad put it 'She-lock Holmes'.

Yah I did spend 10 min. taking selfies of myself with this magnifying glass. No shame...

Complete Sherlock Outfit

Megan, Kaely, and I(I'm that white flash in the corner) 'sherlocking' while Anya looks really excited for some reason...

I ended up having tons of fun at the dance with Megan, Kaely, Anya, Andrea, and numerous other people all dressed up as everything from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to Avengers. Megan and I both went as Sherlock, while Kaely was John Watson(both Megan and I's "best 'friend'-'man') and Anya went as the Tenth Doctor, which she nailed especially since she had gotten a pixie cut earlier that day.(which looks adorable by the way).
The rest of my weekend was spent taking my first Driver's lesson(since I'm permitted and all that!),  facing the smoke from the King Fire to take a short trip to Nevada City on Monday, and doing homework(since the Teacher's had to give us tons!). If you take a closer look at my Draft Horse Classic pictures you'll see a haze in the background similar to the haze in this picture...

This isn't a Delta fog setting in this is smoke from the King Fire, that has burned thousands of acres and made a cloud of smoke big enough to see from space. I hope everyone affected by the fire is safe and I want to thank all the firefighters for trying their best to keep this basically uncontrollable fire under control! I hope everyone else had a wonderful weekend(four days or not)! Jewel.

LET IT SNOW! Oh, wait it did...

"Snow flurries began to fall and they swirled around people's legs like house cats. It was magical, this snow globe world.” - Sarah Addison Allen, The Sugar Queen 
"“When all is said and done, the weather and love are the two elements about which one can never be sure.” -Alice Hoffman
        On Friday night, most people had plans but the weather seemed to have other ideas. Jack Frost swooped over my town and most of Northern California with only a grace and dignity he can uphold,and blew puffy gray snow clouds our direction. These soot-stained clouds made the weather drop considerably three days before the real fun and left everyone with rosy cheeks and way too many layers. Although the calm before the storm left the air chilly and full of static and every radio and weather channel told everyone the snow was coming there was still absolute panic. 
        "OH NO! We are going to be snowed in for less than 24 hours! We need to stockpile- TO THE STORE!" I'm pretty sure that this was the overall consensus of my small town, as when I went grocery shopping Friday evening the shelves were clean and cart traffic jams were happening left and right. Funny how a change in the weather leaves everyone panicked as if they would lose all connection with the outside world once that fluffy frozen water started coming down...and come down it did. I happened to brave the cold at about 10:00 to snap some pictures:

       Surprise, surprise the weather channel was right and I woke up Saturday morning to 5 inches of glorious, glorious snow. I pulled open my blind and what did I see? A world awash in white, sparkling at me like a freshly painted fence.(funny how we have to compare natural things to man-made creations and vice versa isn't it?) 

We're walkin' in a Winter Wonderland!

I think my favorite part of the snow is how it looks on the trees...

I think someone has some cold coffee... ya you're right that wasn't funny.

       I quickly got up and threw on the warmest outfit I could put on and set off with my Dad to drive around and see the snow! Unfortunately, our old car broke down at the gas station...so why we waited for someone to jumpstart us and the snow started to fall again and much harder then it had the night before...

I amused myself with an icicle and picture taking of course!

Lucky for us within five minutes someone pulled in and helped out and we were back on our way... we drove all the way up a small mountain and wound our way back down to do some errands before heading home.

SNOW! SNOW EVERYWHERE!

 Once home I armed myself with my camera and set out to do the one thing you are never too old to do...build a snowman. I don't want to hear that I am 15 years old and shouldn't be building snowmen because I don't even care.

His name is Howard(courtesy of Maddie and her mom) and he is adorable.

I happened to catch my cat, Olive,(yes, her mother's name is Pizza) tromping through the snow, snow-leopard style.

WARNING: Snow angels make you ridiculously cold.

Rattlesnake Creek was a sight to see and made me fall in love with Winter a little more...

I hope everyone stayed warm(wherever you are) and that you are able to enjoy the snow as much as I have! It is officially starting to feel like the holiday season!(my favorite time of the year) I can't wait for Christmas and hopefully more snow(not likely)as of now all that snow has turned to ice and I'm pretty sure the high for today was 38(I suggest layering, a lot of layering). I would love to hear your snow-covered experiences!(these parentheses are just for fun because I have a whole bunch in this paragraph). Jewel.