Birthday Weekend at Lake Tahoe

Well, after a little prodding from my good friend, Shannon, I ended up in Tahoe this past weekend on a last minute trip for my birthday.  I mean, I'm not complaining.  I would spend every weekend out there if I could!  It's just that I'm going next weekend, too, for the 4th of July.  So I thought two weekends in two weeks might be a bit much.  But ya know, I think it's going to be just about perfect.

Weather in Tahoe for this weekend.  Perfect. 

The original plan was to take Friday off and fly to Oakland on Thursday night, but I got denied vacation on Friday because too many people were already off.  So I had to settle with leaving work around 1:30 on Friday and catching a 3pm flight, putting me in to Reno at 6:30pm.  Not bad, really.

Flying somewhere between Phoenix and Reno.

Shan picked me up and after a quick grocery stop at Wal-Mart (which she hated), we headed over Mount Rose to her place in Incline.  The drive over is one of my favorites.  I don't know why, but I get so excited when we get up in those beautiful trees.  I guess because I know what's coming on the other side.

THIS is just over the top of the mountain.  I can't ever drive by without stopping for a picture.

We went straight in to town to get some food, and ended up at Austin's for a salad.  But before we left the car, Shannon just had to show me what she got us for next weekend!!

Pretty excited for these sunglasses for the 4th of July!

I can't ever get enough of the views in Tahoe.  Even just the trees!

My avocado and beet salad with cous cous totally hit the spot.  

(As did the corn bread soaked in honey.)

We stopped at Raley's on the way up to the house for some fire wood (heater is broken and it gets cold in the mountains at night) and some carrot cake for my birthday treat.  We also grabbed a flier showing all of the activities going on next weekend...and guess what we came across!  BILLY RAY is playing on the beach in Incline.  Pretty sure we're going to have to check that one out.  Maybe Miley will make a guest appearance and teach us all to twerk! ;)

Also back at the house...  A stack of birthday presents for me!  One for each decade and one for good luck!  Seriously, Shannon is too sweet.  I told her I wouldn't even get this many presents back home!  

Since I absolutely could not stand it any longer and she was tired of my whining, she let me open ONE present.  Of course she got me a scarf.  I have a serious problem with scarves, and she knows it.  She hit the jackpot with this super soft and bright scarf from the Gap!  

We stayed up way too late chatting and catching up...and trying to fix the wireless router than wasn't working.  No luck on that, even after a 30 minute phone call to AT&T.  That meant no online shopping for us -- which was probably a really good thing.  We did, however, decide to try mountain biking tomorrow!  The Flume Trail awaits us!  

June - Week 4

This has to be a record.  4 random (and let's not mention somewhat worthless) posts in one month!?

Either way, here is June - Week 4:

Monday:

Monday morning on my way to work, I hit a train.  I mean, not literally hit a train, I just got stopped by one.  I was already running behind, so this really was just the icing on the cake to make me quite late to work that morning. 

That night, I went out to Tony and Christa's for dinner.  After a last minute run to the grocery store to get ground hamburger (instead of the ground sausage Christa had thawed), we had tacos for dinner.  Allie had dessert covered.  She made her first cake - and icing - for Brody's 8th birthday!  Seriously, the girl is talented.  She made two different colors of green frosting to make the cake camo, an then used the brown to make it look like sticks!  So cool!

 And then just a random picture of Hunter.  Because he's cute and I'm obsessed with him. :)

After dinner, I went to Jason and Kelli's for a quick workout.  Kelli got a tabata workout from her trainer at her gym, and we decided to give it a shot.  20 seconds on, 10 seconds off.  8 times through each exericse.  Didn't sound too bad!

Hadley was SO excited to get to stay up a little later and "work out" with us.  But her jumping quickly turned in to her just "coaching" us instead, which consisted of her telling us good-job with the occasion pat on the butt...while she ate in front of us.  

Well, the workout completely kicked my butt.  We were both a sweaty mess after that, and I was sore for three days!

Tuesday:

Just day dreaming about the most beautiful place ever...and where I will be two weekends in a row!

Tuesday night, Jason and Kelli went to the Royals game (T-shirt Tuesday!), so I went down to help my mom out with the kids.  While out for an evening stroll, we came across a nest that had fallen out of the tree and the three eggs had splatted.  So sad!

I helped with dinner - and then bath - and that was about it.  I left bed time for my mom to deal with.

Wednesday:

My lunch break on Wednesday was spent reviewing more files for my CASA case.

And then that evening after work, I finally got to go meet them!  They're the sweetest little things ever.  Of course they love iPhones (who doesn't?) and took my to snap some pictures.  Here's one of their many pictures... 

Sitting on the floor playing with my CASA kids

Thursday:

Just some more random pictures I had on my phone.  This bunk bed looks awesome, and I think it would be perfect in a guest bedroom - or even for a kids room.  Now, just to learn how to make that one!

Found the schedule of events for next weekend in Tahoe.  So much to do, so little time!

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were spent in my favorite place, Lake Tahoe, for my birthday.  (The first of two trips out there in 10 days.)  And since I took 200 pictures in the 48 hours I was out there, I think I'll have to do separate post for that little trip... 

June - Week 3

Well, this week was not nearly as exciting as the last couple of weeks, but here are the few, random pictures anyways!

Monday, June 16:

I am most definitely NOT crafty or creative in any sense of the word, but when I saw this 4th of July wreath on Facebook, I really thought it looked do-able for me.  We'll see if I ever actually get around to it or not, but spray painting some clothes pins and clipping them on a wire wreath hanger doesn't sound too hard!

Still on the hunt for new art work above my bed and came across this.  I like it - the colors and the saying.  It was too small to make the cut, but it is a good little reminder to not forget how blessed I really am -- even if there are a million things I want and a million and one places I want to go! 

 Tuesday, June 17th:

With a baby on the move now, Jason and Kelli needed baby gates.  So I went down, measured, found some  cheap ones online, drove to Target to get them, and installed them all in one evening.   

I thought I got two of the same gates - just one bigger - but apparently didn't look closely enough.  One is self closing and one is not, so they're a little different, but I don't think they look bad side by side. 

Wednesday, June 18th:

Planning for an upcoming trip to Tahoe!  Not that I need to "plan" because I know we'll just be on the boat the whole time, but I was so excited about this "Star Tour" -- until I looked it up online and saw that they just put you in the parking lot  at Northstar.  I would have been much more apt to check it out if it were somewhere more outdoorsy or cool.  But a parking lot?  Pass.

I stopped by Burlington Coat Factory - I don't even remember what I was looking for - but I happened to see a worker unloading a cart full of shoes.  Shoes from the Sak!  I had just bought some of these a couple of months ago and ended up sending them back because they didn't fit right, but I couldn't pass up these $59 shoes for $9.99!!  Fifty dollars off was too good of a deal to walk away from.  I just got size up so they were wide enough and put a little heel insert in and they fit! 

Thursday, June 19th:

Two very random and not important whatsoever pictures:

A spider web with a big spider on it in my backyard.  It's deceiving.  It doesn't look that big here, but it was huge!

And this watch.  (Never mind that it's mens.)  I love Nixon and I really love the multi-colored marbelized band.  But checking tides for surfing?  Not so much in Kansas.  I contemplated getting it anyways, but for $200, decided against it.  

Friday, June 20th:

I bought some little wooden legs for my book end table purchase last weekend.  Staining them this weekend and hopefully I can try and get it all put together next weekend!  (Now to find a spot for it...)

Oh, and bed update -- this is going to work for now.  Dark red bed skirt and matching euro pillows.  I love my purple sheets too much to change them out, so they're staying, too. 

 Saturday, June 21st:

To celebrate Summer Solstice, my friend Rachel and I went to a free two hour yoga class on the Plaza.  Two hours of yoga is A LOT.  Especially for someone who has only done yoga three times.  So we didn't quite last the whole time, but it was a good little workout and a beautiful morning to get out and enjoy!

Later that morning, I got a wild hair and decided to re stain my deck.  It started out as just touching up some really bad spots...and turned in to me literally spending the entire day on my hands and knees painting.

And when you're outside all day and only have on SPF 15, your back looks like this when you're done: 

It actually looks way worse than it is.  I was super hot and I always get really red initially.  The tops of my shoulders were still burnt, but the rest really wasn't so bad the next day.

 Sunday, June 22nd:

Sunday morning after church I drove back down to Athleta on the plaza for another free workout class put on by Burn Fitness!

(I'm in the front row - right behind the instructor doing a side plank.)

Later that afternoon, I went straight back to the deck -- this time in long sleeves and a hat.  I'm done with the sun for a couple of days.  Thankfully I didn't have too much left to finish, because it was H O T.

Only have 8 boards left in the middle!

Since I can't sit still, as soon as I was done with the deck, I had my roommate help me drag the picnic table around to the driveway to start sanding on it.  It has to match the deck now, of course!

I took a little break from all of that and went down to help Jason with the kids while Kelli went to work out.  

Who needs a swimming pool pass when you've got this in your back yard!?

Hudson crawled right out of the pool and in to the grass.  He loves the grass for some reason!

When we came inside and got dried off, Hadley decided her barbies needed to go to church.  

The whole ordeal was just hilarious.  Jason had to be the "preacher" and he sang songs and said prayers and everything!

Sunday night, my mom started sending out baby pictures of all of us kids via group text.  She must have been cleaning out drawers at home or something and came across all of these.

Man, I was NOT a cute kid!

I was supposed to have my first meeting with a new book club, but it got rained out.  Probably a good thing, because I haven't finished one of the books yet!  I read The Storied Life of AJ Fikry and am not even half way through The Invention of Wings.  Hopefully I can keep up with the next two books and actually get in on the meeting!