Happy Birthday 2 Me

Another year goes by. . .

Gonad's n Strife Poker Run 2008

This past weekend Brent and I and our friend Scott headed up to Sparks for a poker run on our beach cruisers.

It was Scott's first bicycle poker run so we were excited to bring him along and he is pretty good company.

To describe the day in one word - HOT. Good lord it was a scorcher! We started in Sparks at the Great Basin and headed over to Sierra Tap Room in Wingfield park. This year we had our new puppy Isabella along for the ride. She is not super keen on the basket especially when we are going down hill at high rates of speed. Overall she did ok.

As usual, our poker hands were crap but the company was good, atmosphere fun, and beer was cold. Not a bad way to spend the day if you ask me.

Twin Lakes Resort

Recently, the Bingham's invited us to spend Mother's day with them at Shirlee's parent's resort at Twin Lakes in Bridgeport, Ca. Todd needed some help with some plumbing that was damaged by an avalanche over the winter so in exchange for Brent's help we got to stay at the resort in a housekeeping cabin for free.

Madison and Hanna both had soccer on Saturday morning so Hanna slept over at our house and the rest of the crew headed to the lake. After soccer we made the 2 hour drive up there. I can not begin to explain how beautiful and peaceful it is up there.

We brought along our dogs and so did the other families so we had a total of 3 big dogs and one mini-dog. They had a blast playing together and everyone got along - not even one fight!

The first order of business was to take lunch up to Todd and Bret who had been working on the plumbing all morning. We packed it up, with a couple of beers and headed up the hill. The "hill" was a bit more than we expected but turned out to be a great work out with fantastic views. This was Bella's first hike and she did amazing. I fully expected we would have to carry her most of the way but she wanted to run with the big dogs. Turns out, she loves to hike!

Saturday night we made Carne Asada tacos, had some wine, and roasted marshmallows. It was a brisk but pretty night. Some deer came down on the lawn but we were not able to get any shots of them because it was too dark.

On Sunday, while Brent helped Todd fix the water pipe the rest of us went on a hike at upper Twin lake/Mono Village. Our goal was to see the lake at the top of Horsetail Falls but the girls pooped out on us and we still had to make it back to camp.

Madison also learned to drive the Kubota around the grounds of the resort, she was obsessed.

The weekend flew by and Madison had not yet learned to fish so she talked Todd into teaching her before we all headed back to the big city. She did not catch anything but really enjoyed trying.

The only bummer about the weekend was it was way to short, none of us wanted to leave and all of us can't wait to go back. . .

Thank you Bingham Family for the wonderful weekend.

Bella's 1st Walk

Last Sunday morning the weather was gorgeous the birds were singing, so I decided to take the dogs on a much needed a walk. Madison helped me get them ready and we headed out the door. Because Bella is a mini-dog she can't be walked by her neck she needs a harness.

Of course her harness is pink!

She did very well on her walk, she kept a good pace trying to keep up with Chili-dog. We went on Chili's usual route which is pretty far for a little girl. When she got tired she would stop and jump to be picked up and carried for a bit and was panting.

She is just over 14 weeks old now and weighs about 3 pounds. We can only tell that she has grown because some of her shirts don't fit anymore.