A day at the Lake

Saturday was a fun day. Our friends Sarah and Mark recently bought a van, not just a van but a VAN! The thing is a beast, but sweet all the same. We were able to fit 4 people, 4 mountain bikes, coolers, tables, beach bags, a grill and Willy in there--with plenty of room to spare! That VAN purred up over Spooner Pass. We mountain biked on a regional park trail on the northwest side of Tahoe, grilled our lunch and then hiked down to Hidden Beach for a much needed swim. Willy stayed with us the whole time, but he was also in bed all of Sunday!

And a good time was had by all!

Mountain bike after party

One of the things that keeps me going on our Tuesday night mountain-bike rides is knowing we are going to Brugo's, the neighborhood pizza place afterward. Pizza, beer, good times.

Is scrapbooking obsolete?

I have been scrapbooking since early on in high school. For many years it has been my goal to have a scrapbook for each year, leaving me a pictorial map all in chronological order of my life. Pretty sweet, I must say. And the nice thing is all those random snip-its I collect along the way, for example wedding invitations, movie pass stubs can be incorporated too.

I am a little behind on my scrapbooking, well, really behind, one might say. Currently I'm working on about July of the 2006 book.

My question is--If I have scrapbooked up until the point I started my blog (which I have) is there a need to continue doing my books where I glue hard copies of my pictures down?

Should I just collect all my digital photos and have a printed book made up every year, like I did for our wedding? Click here to view the book, use the book ID 905028 and password 2457116. Regardless, I'll be doing a glue & stick book for our wedding--just too many extra keep-sakes to not.

But what are your thoughts--is glue & stick scrapbooking obsolete?

Hats

Living in the desert, I've come to understand and appreciate a large hat. More-so this year than any other because I seem to be spending more time outside without the refuge of shade. You may have noticed the pink hat in the Lassen pics that my Mom sent me which (which worked quite well, Mom), but I've also tried out the straw hat.

Lassen-last mintue

Justin came home from work Thursday evening and said his friend Mark and girlfriend Kim were loading up their motorcycle and heading to Lassen Volcanic National Park for the weekend and that we should go with them. Ok. So Justin shopped and loaded up the Harley for a trip to the mountains. Truly amazing how much stuff he fit on that bike!!

We took a ton of pictures and a few videos too. If you ever get the change to visit Lassen, do it! It's a small national park, as far as national parks go.

We even learned a little something!

Silly pink birds

We all go through phases in our lives as far as likes and dislikes go. This one I just will never understand, and I apologize beforehand to all those out there that like these (Mom!)......plastic pink flamingos!

Ok, really, what the heck? Who was the first one to decide that they were going to fabricate a few plastic pink flamingos and stick them in the garden? Seriously? Was it someone that used to live near native flamingo habitat and was forced to move away--therefore putting them into withdrawals? I just don't get it.

My own dear Mother has recently fallen into the flamingo trap (see her garden flamingos in picture above). I tried my best to dissuade her, but to no avail. And therefore if you can't beat them, join them.

No, I'm not considering putting flamingos in my garden, but I'm gonna make darn sure Mom had more flamingos that she can handle! :o)

She ordered a small flamingo garden flag (shown here but only after the neighbors "took" her other flag, another story for another day). So for her birthday I got her a Christmas flamingo flag with flamingos using their beaks to hang Christmas bulbs on a palm tree (it hurts to even type this).

And also some super cute, soft flamingo jammies!

Ok, I really don't like the flamingos, but doesn't she just look adorable with the jammies!

Mountain bike lessons

Recently Justin bought me a real nice mountain bike. Which means, I have to get over my fear of biking off-road and really learn what the heck I'm doing on a single-track trail so not to kill myself. Yikes! Seems like a tall order for the girl who has always had a mountain bike but only rode it on the pavement! That ride in Truckee was hard, real hard. The last few weeks we've been doing a Tuesday night ride straight from our house up into Ash Canyon. Pretty sweet, I must say. We have quite the crew that goes up each week.

So........

Last week was my first big ride in Ash Canyon...didn't go so well. I was tired just riding the uphill pavement to get to the trail, then had to bike it up several miles of gradual uphill as we went up the alluvial fan. There was pretty much no flat to catch your breath on, just constant uphill. I had my heartrate monitor on--I peaked at 190 beats per minute. Dang.

Can you tell Sarah and I look a little strained?

Then the infamous "creek trail" was our downhill delite that evening.

I had 3 significant falls/blunders. All painfull, some bloody, all hurting my ego. Not that I really have any kind of ego about moutain biking right now!

I did not commit to these rocks...having a "leg up" to help me guide my way down is a big NO-NO! Much pain at the bottom of the rock pile!

Of course Justin flew right over them!

Such a pro!

And it's all about the stories to tell after the fall!

Birthday activities

I believe Justin had a pretty good birthday.

Friday night we drove up to Reno to attend the ever famous Reno Art Town "rollin on the river" concert in Wingfield Park. We ended up having a good-sized crew there--many moms and babies. Here we have Sarah & John, Melissa & Quinn, and Jenn & Dominic. How cute?!?

Then on Saturday, Justin went with a group of guys up to North Star ski resort to ride up the lifts and mountain bike down. They had a good time. Sounds downright scary to me!

While he was biking I was baking. I told Justin I would make him any kind of cake he wanted for his birthday. His choice--cheesecake. Doh! I had never made one before! Figures. So......

I started out with simple enough ingredients. But I found out there are complete websites dedicated to offering tips on making good cheesecakes.

Tip #1: Make sure your cream cheese and eggs are at room temperature.

Check.

Then crush the graham crackers and mix with walnuts, sugar and melted butter to form the crust.


Oh, and I had to buy the special "spring form pan". Add it to the rest of my specialty pans!


Finally, mix all the rest up, pour, bake and VALA!

Tip #2: Bake until the outer about 2-1/2 in of cheesecake seem set when you gently shake the cake.

Tip #3: Turn oven off, open door and let cheesecake sit in oven for about 10 mins, then take it out and sit on wire rack for another 10 mins before using a knife to loosen the crust from the pan. Then cool completely.



Sunday we loaded up the Harley with beach gear and rode up to Sand Harbor at the northeast side of Lake Tahoe. We met friends Adam & Angela with their 2 kids and Shannon & Jason with their 2 kids. It was the first time all season we have been on the beach so it felt great, windy, but great. The waves were so big we thought we were at the ocean!

Hubby's b-day

Today is Justin's b-day.

So glad he was born, so glad I met him, so glad he is mine.

Happy Birthday, punky!

Log ride

A few weeks ago Justin went mountain biking with a big group of guys. They are into playing around on rocks and logs--and they got Justin on video. More updates on my mountain biking progress to come...

Huntington Home

If you recall back to Christmas time, Justin's parent's were sandblasting us a big rock for in front of our house.

They brought it up with them all finished when they visited last week. Check it out!

Isn't it beautiful?






This is just to show some hard work on landscaping that we did this past weekend. Moving plants, lots of irrigation work, mulch/woodchips.


I'll have to get some more pics of this, as there is more along the front of the house not shown here.

Huntington Harley Chronicles-VC

Here's the final post from last weekend when Justin's parents were visiting. We called in our other friends with Harleys and did a cruise up to Virginia City. Four bikes--1) Justin & Jena 2) Ron & Sharon 3) Mark and Sarah and 4) Kelly.

Good times.

Speed racer video on the left. The video on the right is Sharon filming our friends Mark and Sarah (left) and Justin and I (right). If you listen carefully you can hear Sharon say "Hail Mary full of Grace, watch over our kids!".

Mom's b-day

Today is my Mom's b-day.

I'm not naming any numbers as it's more of a day to shine on her for the wonderful...

mother

grandmother

sister

wife

and friend that she is.

Dixie dress code

My field trip to Dixie last week brought to light an apparent dress code requirement...


Red tang top,
green cargo pants,
boots,
loose-fitting white button-down shirt,
a straw hat....





...and homemade playa shoes!







This was the last time they were this clean. Saved us from sinking in and even aided in flattening out a bit of mucked up playa.