Lake Tahoe Vacation (Part Two)

We're coming to a close on our anniversary vacation. The hubby is packing his suitcase as I write this (mine gets re-packed every time I take something out or put something in.) I figured I could give you a little recap of our last couple of days.

The smoke was gone until Saturday night and then it returned. It was sad, but it was still a great trip. Saturday we spent most of the afternoon talking and enjoying time with D's grandparents before we headed into Reno for their annual Rib Fest. We went to The Summit (an outdoor mall) for a little shopping first. Once at rib fest we people watched, listened to country music and of course ate ribs. We met up with both of D's cousins and just enjoyed each others company. We also got our first pair of cowboy hats. Albeit cheap and fake non-authentic, they still work and can be used for years to come! Bring on a country concert!

Sunday was our anniversary. We awoke and went to a local casino for breakfast with the family and then managed to get in some gambling as well. D's grandma was the only one with luck that day as she won well over two hundred bucks. I managed to last on $10 for about an hour but eventually lost it. Next stop was a local feed type store where we ALMOST bought cowboy boots. They didn't have the hubs size, so we will visit Boot Barn when we get home. D is turning into Johnny Cash, you know "the man in black." He continues to want all things in black. It's pretty funny. We went back to the house for happy hour then made our way to Reds 395 for a makeup 21st and anniversary dinner. I'll have to tell you another time about D's 21st birthday. We preceded to have the saltiest chicken wings ever, and were disappointed that they weren't like The Abbey, but honestly no wings compare to the wings we get in Florida. After we just had a nice relaxing evening playing cards and visiting.

Oh I forgot to share with you. We did manage to find the spot and take an "after" photo. I did a side by side comparison and belly laughed looking at it. It's obvious to me that our styles haven't changed that much when looking at the photo and we haven't nearly the identical outfits on that we did 11 years ago. I smile now remembering how far we have come and still love each other so much.

Hope you all have a safe and happy Labor Day. We will be bearing the traffic trying to get home with everyone else!

Lake Tahoe Vacation (Part One)

The hubby and I took several days off work for our anniversary. This year we decided to come up north to Lake Tahoe to visit D's grandparents. Thursday we took the six hour drive up to Carson City, but when we passed the lake we were greeted with the smoke from the great Rim fire that is burning in the Yosemite mountains. The haze was pretty thick around the lake and when we got into Carson city it was worse. We went to the store for happy hour supplies and then went and spend the rest of the afternoon playing with the pup and having a nice dinner with D's grandparents, mom and cousin. Then we went to rent Big Wedding, saw some wildlife that have made their way down the mountains to escape the smoke.

Friday we went to breakfast and played a little slots. My lucky mother-in-law was already up $200. We took a drive into Lake Tahoe and had lunch at a hopping spot called The Beacon. Some drinks and a lite lunch while listening to music and enjoying the view was perfect. The wind blew the smoke out toward the east and it ended up being a perfect afternoon. We drove into Emerald Bay and got some pretty scenery shots for Instagram and some on my little point and shoot. We did a little shopping and toyed with the idea of going to see the Brad Paisley concert that was being held at Harvey's casino. We decided that we didn't have time and just went to have dinner and to see We're the Millers, which I actually enjoyed. While the hubs was waiting for us to get the movie tickets he put a $5 in a penny slot. He hit the spin button, won a game and walked away with $100. Lucky! We did a little gambling after the movie and the went back to crash out.

Stay tuned for more updates from the trip! Happy Labor Day weekend!

In case you didn't know.....paintballs do actually hurt

This weekend was such a blast, but I hardly have any photo's to show for it. Isn't that always the case? We had did some new and adventurous things. Last week I opened my email and had an Amazon Locale deal for half price paintball. We have been wanting to go, so D text his brother to see if he wanted to join. He said absolutely and we bought the tickets and treated him to the day in honor of his birthday.

So.....we should have thought this through a little better....paint balling requires that you wear jeans and long sleeves. Its August in SoCal and it's about 100 degrees during the hot point in the day. Add on a face mask, chest protectors and running around in the dirt for three hours, and we were thoroughly sweaty by the end! At one point we were forced to be on separate teams because we were against a couple of kids and it was an unfair advantage. He managed to hit me right in the kneecap. Paintballs HURT. AND we were using the balls that "hurt 60% less!" My butt! I don't even want to know what the larger paint balls feel like. We played 8 rounds and the boys were out of paint. I gave my leftover paint to some kids and we made our way out. It was a great bonding experience for the three of us and we are planning to go again!

I did learn that I would not fair well in warfare. When we got home I counted 8 welts on my body. 4 on my legs, two on my hip, one on my arm and one on my shoulder. They are SUPER attractive looking, and am the only one with visible proof that we had this adventure.

On his was home from a Notary, D's car decided to die. I was hoping that it was just the heat affecting his engine, but after 10 minutes of sitting he called to let me know that AAA was on the way and I was needed to come pick him up from the car repair. Afterwards we went to have dinner with his folks and watched reruns of Moonshiners.....I love laughing at those people. It's hilarious!

Sunday we awoke bright and early to get ready to go out on Pyramid Lake. We had a great day cruising, sunbathing and D did a little kneeboarding also. We went and had some yummy carne asada tacos and just enjoyed time with friends and family.

It always makes me sad for the weekend to end when its so fun and then it ends. I am glad to add another fun thing to our bucket list!!!! I hope your weekend was fun!

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Camping at Piru Lake

When was the last time you went on a camping trip? For us it had been four years, when we went up to the mountains above the Kern river and the Redwoods. We always have a great time....except for the whole sleeping on the ground part. So when our neighbors asked us on Friday to take a spur of the moment trip to Lake Piru we of course said yes! We had our lists, threw all our camping gear into my Sunfire and was on our way.

We had a couple of brush fires in the area which made the setting sun look like a giant ball of fire. After an error on my part with regards to putting enough gas in my vehicle, making us have to take a trip back down the hill, we got to the campsite and set up our tent. That night we had a fox, two raccoons and a gopher in our site and pup was going mental trying to go "play" with them.

Our neighbors brought their cat, and I was hilarious to watch him on his leash with the dog harness. He really loved climbing up the trees and eating the sticks. Our pup decided that every little noise was cause for alarm and kept us up a majority of the night. So we awoke at 6am Saturday and started the day with a little breakfast. 

Around 11 we packed a picnic and went to the mud puddle lake and sat at the shore people watching. There was a pair of ducks that had Shelby very interested. Our neighbor fished a little, but only got one bite and it got away. They had a swim area set up, but the lake (being really low to a lack of rain) didnt look inviting for swimming so we packed up and went back to camp. 

We had some great conversations for the afternoon, played some cards and grilled up some burgers. We had a good size fire going that was so nice and warm to sit by as it got a little chilly once the sun went down. We roasted up some s'mores because that's just a given when you camp. Then we hit the hay at around 10. 

Sunday we awoke to overcast skies and drizzle at 6 when our pup again decided that it was growling and whining time. Since the ground was so unbelievably hard we just decided to pack up camp, get some donuts and head home to a shower and our nice mattress. We slept most of the late morning and early afternoon, but I am still feeling groggy and sleepy today! Obviously I can't do the no sleep thing anymore! Hope you guys had a great Cinco de Mayo!!!

Crystal Blue with a hint of MS Dixie

Ok, I am so behind on some of these posts! I'm sorry, life got in the way. Back in July, D went to Lake Tahoe with his family. Due to scheduling and not having enough vacation time, I couldn't go. People, let me say just because we live in Southern California doesn't mean we always go to the beach. Honestly I have been to 2 different lakes this year and D has been to 3! We have only been to the beach once in the last 2 years! While not all of our lakes are beautiful we share a pretty magnificent one with Nevada and that's Lake Tahoe. Crystal blue waters, green trees and water sports in the summer; snow and winter fun in the fall and winter! While D and his family had a great time out on the lake, kneeboarding, kayaking and swimming (I don't have those photo's, but my M.I.L. got some!) also they went to comedy shows and even got to see The Beach Boys!!!! (I wasn't jealous or anything, SO JEALOUS!) D managed to get some wonderful scenery shots out on the lake and while driving around it.

View and the MS Dixie

View and the MS Dixie

The next shots are of Emerald Bay. The island in the middle of the bay has an old stone house on its premises. We once swam to the island and hiked up to the house to see the magnificent view from the island. They did the same thing this trip. Also the infamous MS Dixie is a paddle boat that you can take from one end of the lake to another

You can make out the house in the middle of the frame

MS Dixie

Boats Anchored

On a tour around the island D got many more shots of scenery.

Clear blue waters

B.I.L.

D's Bro

Unfortunately on their last day there it was overcast and windy so instead of going out on the lake they took a ride on the gondolas and were able to get more scenery photo's

The lake is so large it doesn't fit in the frame

D and his Dad

The Kimball Boys

One last shot before we say goodbye.

All in all he got some great shots and had a blast with his family. I am sad I had to miss the trip! Next time!

Feeling a little Deja Vu

Here's the final part to our vacation at the lake.

After the adventurous previous day, I awoke lying in bed with my left knee completely throbbing and unable to bend or straighten it completely. I felt completely useless as I limped out to the backyard to ask JP if he had any Advil. He said that it was in the truck. So I went and got the keys, hobbled my way out to the truck and popped a couple of those bad boys. I went back inside and placed the keys right where I found them. (KEY POINT IN STORY) We proceeded with the morning and JP's uncle made the statement "You know how good a vacation it was by how in pain you are after!" Ain't that the truth! We packed up all our stuff to make way for another fun filled day on the water. Ricky (JP's other uncle) blew up the tube and D and I took the first ride. He wasn't going fast, but bouncing up and down while laying on my stomach and feeling like I was folded in half backwards, made me feel even older than I already did. After cruising around and a break for lunch JP decided that he wanted to wakeboard.  After a couple of runs and a hard fall it was D's turn to kneeboard. He had a good couple of runs and I got good shots of both of them. I did not want to kneeboard because my knee was STILL throbbing at that point.

At one point while we were cruising around, we caught up to one of the other boats. The kids were on the buzz bomb. We saw the boat take a hard right turn and all of a sudden there was an explosion of feet, arms, and kids being tossed into the water. I wish I had that on film. It was a great shot, but it looked painful! We made our way back to the beach where they tied the three tubes to one boat and all the kids and most of the adults decided to go for a ride, including D. They were gone for a while having a blast jumping from tube to tube. I stayed behind to sunbathe and relax my poor old body. When everybody had a sufficient amount of water and sun we headed back up to the house for dinner. I went inside to help the ladies prepare and while inside JP comes walking past stating that he cannot find the truck keys. I told him that I put them back where I found them and he reassured me that he was the last one to have them. Apparently he had tucked the keys in his bathing suit as he was trekking back and forth through the dirt the 1/2 mile back and forth from the boat. D walked in moments later with a panicked look on his face telling me the news, that I already knew. I went in our room and tore it apart, then in came D and he tore it apart. JP came in and told us that he did the same thing. D and JP then proceeded to take the cart down and scour the trail looking for the keys. When they returned empty handed I asked them if they looked on the boat. The both replied no. So we ate dinner and made a plan to walk down again. Reed provided JP with a metal detector and we made the walk down scouring for the keys. The detector beeped only one time. We dug for a minute or two only to come up with more dirt. When we arrived at the boat I hopped on and went straight to the compartment where we were storing our stuff. I opened the seat and sitting right on top were the keys. I want to know why people don't listen to me! Crises averted!

The rest of the night was spent playing Catchphrase with D and I becoming the winners! We went almost the whole time with no points until someone pointed out that we didn't have any points! Then people decided to sabotage us! We still won though! Pat on back! We talked, and made many new memories.

JP Jumping!

D on the kneeboard

Whoops! Trying the 360

Carrie with the "Antlers"

Monday was a sad day because it was time to go home. We awoke early to clean our room, change our sheets and pack our stuff so that we could enjoy what was left of the lake for the day. Of course it was the last day for the buzz bomb and D wanted to ride it one last time. So he took off while JP and I waited for the rest of the clan. Once we all caught up with the other boat, D was just floating in the water. Enjoying life, but he wanted to kneeboard. The lake was like glass! It was perfect! Probably because everyone was heading home! He got a couple of runs in and then it was my turn to attempt to wakeboard. The boat had a tower which made it SO much easier to get pulled up and out instead of dragging you through the water. I got almost completely out of the water, but when I looked down to see the board completely submerged I panicked. I didn't want to face plant! So I just let go. I was SO CLOSE! Next time for sure I am getting up! D wanted to go again, so Ricky filled the engines on his Wakester and created this great wake for D to do tricks with. He didn't attempt a 360 because the day before he ate it (see photo above) but he did do some really good jumps from out of the wake. Of course I missed getting a photo of his good jump. Bad photographer! We had such a blast and just relaxed. Despite all the stressful things that happened we laughed a ton and met wonderful new people!

More Buzz bomb!

Up up and away!