Happy Weekend

I am absolutely in love with this race picture from the Color Me Rad run last weekend.  

That Boy

That backward glance

Those hands clasped tightly together

My world right there

If you take the kids to the zoo

If you take the kids to the zoo (aka the Animal Ark) because you are trying to kill time on an idle Saturday while you wait what feels like two forevers for the boy to fly home from Germany....

 

 

 



You will come home and find two wild animals terrorizing your house and threatening to "EAT YOU UP!"

 

p.s.  I'm still alive. 

p.p.s. The Animal Ark was pretty cool.  We had a living social deal we had to use up.  But now we must go back sometime so the boy can go too. 

p.p.p.s.  It was at the Ark that I realized I have a tried and true reader on my hands.  She was in charge of the map and knew what everything was before we got there.  I was both impressed and sad at the growing-up-ness of it all.

Lucky Dog

So the boy had some business to do last weekend up in Alaska.  Which also happened to be our 10th anniversary.  Kind of a big deal.  So he figured out how I could tag along, and we headed up to Juneau sans kids for 4 days.

I'd say this trip was equally as fun and carefree as our honeymoon to Disneyland was 10 years ago.  Minus the just married on the back of the car and all the horn honking.

Here are just a few pictures from the weekend.



My king salmon




Fishing on the Lucky Dog Adventure



The boy's salmon



zip lining school at Alaska Zipline Adventures



Always hooked to something so you don't fall out of the trees



Tracy's King Crab Shack.  Sorry Joe's....this might be my new favorite!!


Now that the summer is coming to an end, we are filling our days with back to school shopping, lounging under the cooler to survive the heat, and killing time till it's apple hill season. 

How the Halloween Costumes turned out

Introducing......

The Yellow Knight and Gollum!

Burrito has informed me that I still need to get him a yellow feather for his helmet.  Maybe I could knit/felt one for him. 

Apparently I forgot to buy the magic sticky stuff to make the fake elf ears stick onto Gollum.  So they are bobby pinned onto her little ears.  She's such a trooper.  I offered to staple them....she didnt' think I was funny.

No Shoes, Sunday Service

Burrito: Mom, did you hear that?

Me: What?

B: Father Bob said Jesus is dead!

Me: I know.  He died so he can open up the door to heaven for you.  Now Shhhhh....people are noticing you have no shoes on.

The Husband is off on a business trip.  Can you tell? 

I didn't discover until we were already at church that Burrito didn't have shoes on.  Not sure what the policy is on that.  Glad I can provide some entertainment free of charge.

I left my heart at the Spragpole Museum-Bar-Cafe

While I was up North visiting my brother, we took a short day trip to Murray, Idaho. 

Seriously, the cutest old mine town ever!  Well...we do have a few gems closer to home but this one is definitely in the running.  It even made it's way onto the wishful-maybe-we'll-retire-there-someday list.  Right next to Austin or Ely, NV. 

We stopped first at the Spragpole Museum-Bar-Cafe for lunch.  I had the most amazing huckleberry milkshake ever! I had to fight the milkshake coveting children off with my long ice tea spoon and honey-BBQ chicken wings.  I also distracted them by making them count the deer antlers around the bar between bites of huckleberry deliciousness.

After lunch, we toured the attached museum.  It was like going home again.   The best part was being there with my big brother and being able to say "Dad has a forge just like this in the backyard" and "I think this is the exact some ugly troll made out of moss that is still in the front entryway at home".  It was an odd assortment of wood carved animals, old apothecary jars, blacksmith tools, ivory elephants, collector edition miniature cars, and giant wooden saint statues.  And it got me thinking.  (LIGHT BULB.....in my best despicable me voice) We could just put out a donation jar and let people take self guided tours of Hal's house when he's gone.  I kid, I kid.....mostly.


My brother was kind enough to send me home with bags of frozen, wild huckleberry.  And we recreated the huckleberry milkshake, many times over, at  home, possibly before we got the vacation unpacking done.

Triple Dog Dare Don't

Whilst hiking amongst the ancient cedars I happened upon a bright orange mushroom. 

So naturally I tried my very hardest to talk the boy into eat it. 

 He said no. 

I called him a chicken. 

He said no.

 I triple dog dared him (I was led to believe from A Christmas Story that triple dog dares always work).

He said no.

I wouldn't have really let him eat it of course, but it was curiously, bright orange.  And it made me wonder what would happen if you did.  But then it'd probably taste like a mushroom and I wouldn't really like it anyway.  As I am not really a fungus eater.

If I had been more prepared for the cold or the rainy day I might have stayed out in the cedar forest all day. It was absolutely beautiful.

Egg Beaters 1 - Zeke 0

When I was a little girl my best friend in the whole world lived all the way across town.  And I say it like that because when we used to ask for sleepovers, either set of parents would wrinkle up there noses and say,

"Maybe later, they live all the way across town."

And there would be no arguing with that because A - walking wasn't an option and B - I'm pretty sure I wasn't up to the two wheeled bike option yet.

So, on those rare sleepover adventures we made sure to get into as much mischief as possible.  We tromped through the snow chasing cows or who know what we were really trying to do, in the summer we'd swim in the water trough with the mosquito eating fish, and in general just eat candy until I was sick to my stomach. 

One very hot summer day we decided to make a potion consisting of raw eggs (a lot of them), dirt and a mayonnaise jar.  Shaken, not stirred of course.  And then left for far too long in the shed behind the wood pile.  For reasons I cannot recall today, I accidentally dropped the jar and it shattered in the shed. Causing the stinkiest, most gag worthy mess that had to be cleaned up before I went home for the day. 

And to this day I cannot lay eyes on scrambled raw eggs without feeling like I might toss my cookies at any moment.  It has also resulted in me absolutely needing to have my eggs cooked to death before I eat them.

Today on my honey-do list:
Buy the husband egg whites

Standing in the egg section at wal-mart I remember that I'm allergic to that eggy smell and I start to get panicky.  There's a cute old man trying to make conversation about how they don't have the kind of eggs he likes and I'm speed reading the boxes of egg beaters because one is regular and one is southwest and what does that even mean??  Isn't it just eggs in a paper carton.  I give the old man and half smile and book it out of that section before something embarrassing happens.  All the way up to the cash register and out to the car I can feel the eggs sloshing around in that paper carton and am trying to convince myself that throwing up is not an option. I get in the car and as I'm putting the egg beaters in the refrigerator it dawns on me, the husband did not ask me for egg beaters....he asked me for egg whites....and I epic failed on that one.

Rafting 2.0

Last year, a group of friends and the boy and I went rafting.  It was a two day adventure down Cache Creek.  We had a great time.  I had a little too much fun the first day but doesn't that make for the best kinds of stories anyway.  I may or may not have accidentally set the husband's sandwich bread in the river instead of on the raft as I lovingly made his sandwich for him.  But don't worry, he ate it - soggy bread and all.  On day 2 of the trip, I may or may not have forgotten to take the wax paper off the cheese before I made the sandwich in an effort to make up for day 1 and soggy bread sandwiches. 
The rafting itself was a blast.  We only got dumped out of our raft 1 time and we scored a pretty nice double barrel super soaker.  It was the kind of trip where before we even got home and unpacked the truck everyone was talking about doing it again.

And so we did!  Hopefully it will become a yearly tradition.  This year, I solemnly swore that there would be rules!  Set up beforehand and followed accordingly.

Rule #1: Sunscreen, lots of it.  Applied more than once the whole trip.

Rule #2: Under no circumstances whatsoever should I drink anything handed to me by the boy's cousin.  He's the devil.

Rule #3: Do not set tent up on a ginormous rock that you will regret sleeping on the entire night.

Rule #4: No tandem puking.  For many reasons.  Some of them being: dinner, glow stick dancing, and so that I can enjoy the giant community bowl of oreos

We had an equally good time this year.  Fell out of the raft a few more times that I would have liked.  And once it happened at the top of one of the harder rapids.  A little bit of scary-ness later and it's back to all smiles and laughing.  Still a little bit sunburned and we really should have brought an air mattress to sleep on but I'm not complaining. 
I think I'll start my don't forget list for next year right now....

Winner, Winner Chicken Dinner

One more check mark for my bucket list this year.
In an unusual-for-me lucky streak, I won two tickets to Katy Perry from a local radio station.  Free!  And the second best part is that I didn't have to compete in anything on-air or embarrassing.

It took a little planning and a lot of driving (thanks Hubster!)  but we pulled it off in an already packed weekend.  Left work early, got to drive down with some of our favorite friends, oogled the Dutch Brothers coffee shops along the way. 

We sat behind a couple of teenage girls...it was entertaining.  Homemade outfits, ring pops, light up bracelets, dancing.  I told the boy to take good notes because soon those sorts of activities would be happening in our own house. 

The Finale...

As the husband observed while we were waiting for the show to start, it was overwhelming attended by women.  Hardly a man in sight.  Mostly Moms with daughter and friends in tow.  Someday that will be me with my girlchild....probably at Taylor Swift.  Or, maybe I'll let the Dad take her.

After the concert was over we high-tailed it back to Sacramento for the 2nd annual best-time-in-your-life-ever weekend rafting trip.

Spring and things

A perfect sunrise on our sleepy street

The photo above doesn't do the sunrise justice.  It really was awe inspiring.  Inspiring enough that I absolutely needed to scoop the boy-child up (toothbrush still in his mouth) and hustle him out into the yard so we wouldn't miss it. 

Other news around the yard: 

There are fresh cut daffodils on my mother's table

The hyacinths are nearly blooming

The entire backyard is a slippery, slimy mud puddle....don't even think about going out there

Group runs have begun to gear up for the Reno-Tahoe Odyssey (did I mention this run was on my bucket list)

I started knitting a pair of fingerless gloves, judging by my current pace they'll be ready just in time for next winter

I've been reading some pretty good books

Swim lessons are in full swing

I love to hate the snow

When it starts snowing outside and I'm sitting at my desk at work, chances are I will start to cry.  Not really.  But I want to.  I will spend the rest of the time alternating between looking out the window praying the snow will stop or checking my email to see if they've called a snow day yet.  It makes me wish I had my own personal driver who would shuttle me to and from work so I don't have to worry about slippery roads, four wheel drive, or other crazy drivers.


Truth be told, I enjoy the snow.  I enjoy it most from the warmth of my favorite Nintendo chair parked by the fireplace.  But, I do enjoy playing in it as long I have the appropriate warm, waterproof gear on.


Excited enough to dive over the hand rail just to get in the snow



We took the kids to a little hill in Truckee for some good old-fashioned, free exercise and fun.

The boy at the bottom, Bobbo climbing back up

















After a while, the children claimed they couldn't possibly make it back to the top of the hill because they were so so tired.  Good thing we brought the Daddy!



The Baskin Robbins Year

THIS GUY

turned the big thirty-wonderful years old today

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU HUSBANDMAN.

(Sorry I never have the appropriate numbered candles)

Who's Kid is that Anyway?!?!

Ummm....that would be Burrito, drinking out of a stranger's drink!!!!

Except he's not really a stranger.  Sort of.  That's big Al.  And just a few minutes prior to that he was doing this:

Slicing up apples and sticking them on people's thumbs then proceeding to cover them in sticky, deliciousness.  And once you've shared something like that....what's a little apple cider between friends. 

The Apple Hill Gang.  Or at least the one's who got their faces painted.  Minus Burrito.  He was off drinking other people's drinks.

p.s.  We did visit other places at Apple Hill besides this one, but Denver Dan's is still our favorite!!  Its not anyplace that you can share some home grown cider with Big Al.