Weekend BlogLog - July 25th

Finally I got my husband back after a few weeks of being gone. Friday after work we hoped in the car and drove to the Napa Valley where we stayed the night there. We needed a little get away together. We ended up changing our plans around a little that night and didn't end up where we originally thought we were going to be. We ended up on this little tiny off the beaten path were we pitched a tent and set up camp on the side of the road behind some bushes.


We woke up Saturday morning set up our table, had breakfast, listened to some music and played cards. We then headed to Lake Berryessa for the day. Rick wanted to go somewhere where we could work on getting rid of our tan lines in the hot sun. What better place than hot Lake Berryessa.

Of course we had our best travel companion with us - the dinghy. Rick blew up the dinghy and I packed us some lunch. We tossed the cooler, blankets, games, our new portable solar shower and some towels into the dinghy and paddled away. We found a little hidden cove where we docked and set up for the day. If you know Lake Berryessa at all, there is absolutly no shade to be found so we used the dinghy, some towels and a stick we found to build us a little shade shelter.



We swam around for the day in the nice warm water, rode around in the dinghy, had a picnic lunch, played cards, skipped rocks and laid around. It was a perfect day in the sun. We then paddled back to shore and headed home.

Weekend BlogLog - July 18th

This weekend was a little on the boring side for me but fun for Rick. He has been out of town on business all week and next. This week he was in Chicago and next in Pittsburgh so he decided to stay out in the east coast for the weekend with his best friend Ben who is doing his residency out there. They went camping and white water kayaking in one of the Great Lakes. I'm glad they are having fun and able to spend some time together, although I miss him terribly and can't wait for him to come back home.

My mom was nice enough to come over mid day Friday and hang out with me. We played some games which we always love to do. We then rented a movie and ordered pizza and had girls night. It is always fun hanging out with her! Saturday morning my friends from young women's decided to keep me company while I was husband less. They brought over breakfast and we all cooked together. We had pancake, bacon, potatoes, fruit and orange juice. It was delicious and so fun. I loved it!

The rest of the day I kept myself busy doing all the little things I never have time to do when Rick is around - clean house, run errands and paint. I am definatly ready for him to be home!

Weekend BlogLog - July 11th

Friday night we did a little shopping and ran around town for a while. We had dinner at Pasta Pomadora in Emeryville, cream sauce always hits the spot! We stayed in town this weekend because I went to my high school friend Cyndi's baby shower on Saturday.

After the baby shower Ricky and I suited up in our wetsuits. It takes me a very long time to squeeze my whole body into the neck hole sized opening in the top of my wetsuit. We got down to the beach, blew up the kite and was ready to hop in the water. There were no kites in the air and as we were prepping, a few tried to launch but didn't quite make it up. I casually mentioned to Rick that we might not be able to go kite boarding today because there wasn't enough wind. He said the other guys didn't know what they were doing and that we would be able to get the kite in the air. After sitting in the hot, thick 5.3 wetsuit for about a half an hour trying to get the kite in the air he finally decided that yes there was not enough wind to launch. We packed up and headed home.

On Sunday we headed over to my families house for a last minute family dinner. My little twin brother Justin was headed off to the Air Force. I can't believe he is in boot camp and won't be around for a long time. I wish him luck and hope he comes home safely some day.

Weekend BlogLog - July 4th

Ricky and I went to Westwood for 4th of July weekend. My Uncle Steve used to live there and was a fire captain who was killed in the 2003 Happy Camp Forest Fire with some of his crew. His hobby was buying old house and fixing them up. When he died he had 7 houses. Our family sold all of them but one, the one he lived in. It is now our family cabin.
This is his monument at the firestation. They built trees for
each of the firefighters, a picnic area and the rock with their
pictures.








Rick and I went to Chester for the 4th and watched the town parade. I had to ran down all the kids who were trying to pick up candy that people were throwing in the streets while driving by in their floats. They were greedy little kids, they had stashes of it. All I wanted were a few pieces to eat while watching the parade.

That night Rick and I went for blackberry shakes and had a BBQ in the backyard. Saturday morning we woke up and went to the small parade in Westwood and again I was fighting with the kids just to get one piece of candy. We rode over to the parade on some old bikes we found in the garage. We spent the morning riding up and down the streets in town (there are only a few). That afternoon Jessica and Jeff came and brought the kids. Ricky pulled Drew and TJ in the red wagon down to the park where they were having the Mountain and Bluegrass festival. We watched the snowmobile drag races on the grass and played around a bit.

Then we headed over to Lake Almanor which is a huge beautiful lake that is surrounded by mouthains and green trees. However, there was a large forest fire pretty close resulting in white smokey skies. We weren't even able to see the mountains and trees on the other side of the lake. We played at the park right in front of the lake. We played badmitton, horseshoes, teatherball and of course on the playground with the kids. We then had a BBQ.

Of course Rick and I brought the dinghy. We pumped it up and headed out into the water. We were relaxing and reading our book together when all of a sudden the lake sheriff pulls right up to us in his boat on the water and asked us if we had our life jackets in the boat. He actually made us get off the water since we were considered a "small craft" and didn't have life jackets. Luckily he just gave us a warning and not a ticket! Our first incident with the dinghy.





The next morning on our way out we stopped by the Lava Tunnels or Subway Caves in Lassen National Park. It was super cool. It was a great weekend, a little time by ourselves and a little time with the family. We were glad J&J were spontaneous enough to hop in the car to meet us for the weekend.