Going to the Library

Today I took my little cousin Katana and my "little"-grown up sister to the library. Reading is a passion of mine that I've had since I was really little. My family says that when I was about my cousin's age, I had memorized all the books in my room and would sit on their laps and pretend I was reading to them. I knew what words went with what pages and when to turn the page before continuing on with the story. Unless they knew better, everyone thought I could read! As I got older, the library in the town I lived in usually had a summer reading program. You were allowed to put your name in a drawing for prizes every time you finished a book. You got one entry per book and the librarian had to check off that the book was really your reading level. I was always winning prizes since I was always going to the library!

I am hoping to instill this same love of books and reading in Katana. While she is here for the summer I hope to take her to the library every week. We went two weeks ago to the story time the library hosts and then I showed her around the main library. She enjoyed it so I brought her again today.

Melanie and I spent about an hour with her reading stories from books she picked off the shelf. She sure picked some great stories! She stays involved in the stories really well and helps turn the pages.

After we were done reading for the day she picked out two books to check out to take home. Her mom came by and filled out the paperwork so she could get her very own library card. Her little signature on the back is so adorable (she'll probably hate it when she gets older and has a real signature but for the time being I think it is wonderful!). So, she was able to check out the two books she picked with her very own card. I would have taken her picture with her card but they mail it to her after it is all in the system. Mellie checked out her books and I checked out mine and we were out of there until next week.

Dinner and an Old and New Friend

Today I was in Reno for an appointment and was able to have dinner with one of my old friends from when I lived there. I met Rayna and her baby girl for a meal at Carrinos. I met Rayna when I was going to school in Reno and while I worked at The Children's Place in the Mall. She was my manager and we became good friends. A little while later she was one of my bride's maids and a little while after that, I did the day of coordinating for her wedding. Now that I live in Fallon, I don't get to see her as much. She recently had her first baby, a little girl named Aubrie. Aubrie is one tough little girl. She wasn't due to be born until May and came early, in March. She weighed next to nothing but was a strong little baby. After some time in the NICU she was allowed to go home. Today, at about 4 months old, she weighs just over 8 pounds! She's spunky and such a sweet little girl.


The three ladies after dinner (Me, Baby Aubrie, and Rayna)

A Day Hike

On Monday, July 6, Dwayne, Melanie, Halo and I all went for a day hike up at Lake Tahoe. We loaded up into the car with some snacks, water, sunscreen, first aide kit and of course, the digital camera!


For weeks I've been looking up hiking trails at Lake Tahoe. I've been looking for trails that had a difficulty level we could all handle and that we could get to easily. I finally decided on the Tahoe Rim Trail. It is just off Mt. Rose Highway and didn't sound too hard. If you'd like to look for a trail to hike yourself I found the info at www.tahoerimtrail.org


Dwayne looking out over one of the views from the trail.



The first walking stick Mellie picked up...it was too bulky and too short so she found a better one a little further along.



It was so beautiful and nice up there!


The road we drove on that leads to where the trail began.


This tree could almost be in one of those AT&T commercials. We thought the grouping of trees was really neat so we made Mellie take a picture next to them.

Time for a family picture on a really neat rock we hiked by on the trail.

Dwayne is really into geology and meteorology and this rock in particular caught his fancy. He told me about the cracks in the rock. They are called frost wedging. When the water gets in the small cracks and freezes, it expands the crack in the rock. Eventually over time pieces begin to fall off in perfectly cut or sliced pieces. I think that's how it went. He could tell you better I'm sure.

Shortly after the cool frost wedging rocks I ate it on the mountain. Yep...I fell. Apparently I'm just as clumsy while hiking as I am when I'm walking through the house. I managed to twist my ankle on a rock, get thrown off balance by my backpack causing me to fall, twisting my knee and then twisting my ankle in the other direction. After a few minutes I was able to get up and hobble along. Unfortunately we weren't exactly sure where we were on the trail... so thinking we had to be close to half way through and if that were true, then it wouldn't matter if we turned around or just finished the trail. So we decided why not just push through...only it turned out, we weren't close to half way through. I ended up by the time it was all said and done, hiking an additional 5 miles or so on a bum knee and ankle.

Is this not the coolest way for a tree to grow? It looks just like a door frame!

Along the trail there were still packs of ice and snow. Dwayne ran up the mountain to stand next to this one, it was the biggest of them all.

He brought me back a snowball. He said I could put it on my ankle.
Isn't he so considerate?

A different view from one of the trails. Actually this view is from the trail we took by mistake. We thought we were going the right way to finish the trail and get back to the cars but it turns out we were on the trail taking us to the very very very top of Mt. Rose. Although this seemed like a way cool trail, it was just too much to be doing with a bad injury. So we turned around once we realized our mistake and went back.

This is one of the little streams you have to walk across while hiking. Halo enjoyed the ice cold water it had! We kept having people remark on how surprised they were at how well he was doing on the trail. He was by far the smallest dog out there and everyone said how well he was doing for being so tiny.

Along the way there is also this waterfall. It wasn't very big but it was so pretty and I loved just standing there in the mountain air and listening to sound of the water flowing by.

It was really rocky surrounding the waterfall but Mellie braved it and got a closer look.

Minus the injury, and the subsequent 8 hour ER visit with crutches and an air cast later, overall it was a really great day. The scenery was excellent, the company wonderful, the exercise invigorating and the air refreshing! We all have every intention of doing it again when I'm better. We even plan on finishing that trail to the very top of Mt. Rose. I can't wait but until then, Happy Summer Travels!

Fun Skate Day with the Cousins

On July 1st, I took my brother, my cousin Jordan and my cousin Katana roller skating.
Katana is here visiting for the summer and Jordan has been spending his week visiting as well.


We got in and got our skates. It started off okay. Everyone was excited and Katana kept telling me about how good of a skater she was when she was at her home in Vegas.



I've been skating with Jordan at a few of his Boy Scout Halloween parties before he moved from Fallon and I knew how much of a good time he had each time we went. I was excited to be able to take him skating.

So we got our skates, laced them up and were ready to hit the floor...well hopefully not literally. And that is where the easiness of the day ended. Until he could get his footing down a little better Jordan wanted someone to go around with him on the floor. No biggie I thought so I held Katana's hand and headed toward the floor. Then we had a meltdown! ( Four year olds + missing the afternoon nap = meltdown in the skating rink) Turns out Katana wasn't a good skater and didn't want to skate anywhere but on the carpet. OH boy! I didn't want to make Jordan go by himself but I couldn't just leave Katana sitting on the sidelines. Mommy to the rescue! Mom headed on down to the skating rink so that she could supervise Katana while the rest of us went out and skated.

Steven taking a break from skating.

Jordan showing off his improvement over the last hour.

And even Katana eventually felt more comfortable in her skates and began wanting to skate on the real floor and not just the carpet.....holding on to both of someones hands only of course!

As you can see, the day got going smoothly again. In the picture above you can see Jordan skating solidly on his own and having a good time toward the back wall (he has on the red shirt and black shorts) and of course that's me taking my turn around the rink by myself.

When it was all said and done, we had a fun time. I don't know that it would have smoothed out if Mom hadn't been there to help though so THANKS MOMMA!

Date Day with the Hubby

Dwayne has been a golfer for a long time now. He used to golf with his dad and his grandfather. He spent many days in San Diego golfing when he was stationed down there. Now he golfs with some friends of ours.



For a while he's been wanting to take me golfing and teach me how. On this last Monday, he was off work and so was I. It was the perfect opportunity.




First thing was first though, I needed some clubs. I had been given several gift cards over the last few months so we took them and applied them toward a set of golf clubs for me. I love them! They're mine AND they're PINK!



To learn, Dwayne decided it was best if we went to just the driving range on this day so I could learn the basics. He showed me how to swing and what my different clubs were used for.



So I watched as the "pro" showed me how it was done. Then, it was my turn to show him what I was made of!

I didn't do too bad. I don't have much power behind my swing but, I am able to keep it straight every time! He said that's half the battle.

( I know, I should be wearing khakis, but all I had were jeans....at least they weren't cut offs!)

YES! I got a piece of it!

I missed a few times but for the most part I think I did pretty good.

We had a good time out there. We're hoping to go to the driving range a few more times so that I can get it down a little better so that we can attempt to play 9 holes soon. It was really warm out there and we went through a lot of water but it was so fun! After, we went to the new candy store in town "Candylicious" and had ice cream, a great way to cool down.

For dinner we decided to drive into Sparks and have dinner at the new Olive Garden in the Legends shopping area. The wait wasn't too bad either. We only had about a 15 minute wait. The picture above is of me and my beautiful sister in the lobby.

Me and Dwayne at the table after our drinks were brought to us. Just waiting for the salad....

Mellie with her peach tea!

Quick somebody feed him!

Mmmmm.......salad......breadsticks......chicken alfredo........

We had a delicious dinner and then headed back home. It was so good and so worth the little drive! A fantastic day overall!