Father's Day

Sadly like many holidays Matt had to work on Father's day.  The night before as I was going to bed Chase snuck up on me and was wondering what we were making Matt for breakfast.  Matt leaves so early and doesn't really eat breakfast so I had nothing planned.  I laid in bed feeling bad that Chase really wanted to do this for Matt so I put a gift card on Chase's floor with a note that read: If you get up before Daddy goes to work buy him breakfast.  Matt said he was startled at 6 a.m. when was ready to leave that Chase was dressed standing in the doorway with his wallet and informed him he HAD to take him to breakfast.  A quick trip to the Maverik for coffee and some breakfast burritos.  I think it was a nice surprise for Matt, and Chase even remembered to get a picture.

After Matt got home from work the kids gave him a few gifts that they had made.  A new picture frame for his office,

and a little booklet of some samples (I used paint samples) of why the love their Dad.

There were some pretty comical reasons in there.  I encouraged the kids to write anything they wanted and it turned out really cute. 

Matt barbecued some burgers and we all took a walk after dinner.  We're so lucky to have such and amazing, hard working, fun, loving Daddy. 

Celebrating 12 Years

On Saturday Matt and I celebrated our 12 year anniversary.  We weren't really sure what we were going to do.  We were talking about what was going on in town when Kelsey mentioned it was Taste of the Comstock in Virginia City.  We decided it might be kind of fun to check it out.  We headed up the hill to get tickets and pick up our tasting map.  There were 18 different locations to go to.  Luckily we had some great map readers helping us. 

Our first stop was at Café del Rio.  It is at the far south end of V.C. and one we always forget is even there.  It was one of my favorites.

We took our time walking around and stopping in for our samples.  One of Matt's favorites for sure was the sawdust corner where they had bacon, onion, and blue cheese sliders.

I wasn't too sure about this one since I'm not a fan of blue cheese.  But I decided I would at least try everything.  And I was pleasantly surprised this was in my top favorite's as well.  I just don't love the pink meat so much.  Matt was more than happy to help me finish mine.

One that really surprised me that I liked was this cheese and onion pie at the Mark Twain Saloon.  I think Matt was a little disappointed he couldn't help me finish this one.

It was kind of fun that one of the stops on our map was at Grandma's fudge factory.  Guess who was giving out the samples and signing maps there?  Kelsey's manager told us what an amazing worker she is and thanked us for raising such a great daughter.

We both had some favorites and both some we agreed totally bombed.  Here is our top hit and misses:

HITS:

*Café del Rio-Gordias and Al fresco

*Sawdust Corner-Blue cheese, onion and bacon sliders

*Bucket of blood saloon-Bloody Mary's

*The Roasting House-Iced coffee and Mocha brownie

MISS:

*V.C. Jerky Company-for the smallest piece of jerky I have ever seen, too hard, and blek

*V.C. Kettle  Corn.-giving us a smaller sample than you do on any other day of the week (might fool tourist, but not us)  and  just "meh okay".  And dumping it in your hand just...tacky

*V.C. Brewery-Horrible service, although your sample was good I'll never go back

*Canvas Café-Great enthusiasm about your sushi, but there's a reason no one has done sushi in V.C. just sayin'

Our two little taste testing helpers were pretty good all day.  They wet their whistle with some old time drinks.  Something about drinking these from a bottle just tastes so good!

It was a really fun way to spend the day.  We had originally planned to go out that night to dinner but in the end decided to barbecue and have a nice quiet dinner at home.  The kids went to their rooms and let us have some time just to ourselves.  It was great.  Cheers to another 12 and more!

Mommy and Me Day

The last day that Chase was at day camp I had promised Sadi a girls day.   Dad and Kelsey were both at work.  I offered to take her shopping or out to do something.  What was on her agenda was quite a bit different.  She was pretty adamant about what we were going to do.  We started the day with sidewalk chalk.  We spent hours outside drawing murals,

then I taught her how to play hop scotch.  Of course ruff ruff needed to learn too :)

Next on her agenda was bike riding.  I don't have a bike so I sat in my chair and watched her bike and sprayed her with a water bottle as she rode by.

We stayed busy all day.  We got down her special box and looked at her baby keepsakes, had lunch at Maverik, painted our nails, and stayed cool eating otter pops.

It was a nice day and I think this kid enjoyed every minute of it.  To be honest I was more exhausted after this day than the previous 2 at day camp (or maybe I was just finally feeling the exhaustion from the 2 previous days).  It's true that time goes too fast with kids and I'm happy I was able to unplug for a few days and give them all the gift of my time.

Take Flight

This year Chase again attended cub scout day camp down in Genoa.  I was lucky to be able to go 2 of the 3 days.  WARNING:  This post is picture overload.  Believe it or not I did not take pictures of everything we did(and even missed a day).  The theme this year for camp was "Take Flight".  Once we arrived and checked in we were assigned to the kites group.

Once we found our flag we became acquainted with our group of boys.  I had a group of 8 boys.  They were all pretty good.  Chase was excited one of his friends that was in our group last year was once again in his group.

We began our station rotation at propulsion's where the boys learned all about air and movement.  It was a lot of balloon blowing!

They made these cool little hover crafts out of Cd's and balloons and then played air hockey with them.

They also made some cars out of water bottles and balloons. 

Next we made kites.  The people running this station were not all that enthusiastic about being there.  I tried to make light of it and say "hey we're experts on making kites" (because that was our group name).  Didn't really lighten the mood.  They let the boys make the kites but not fly them?

Luckily that was our only run in with downers.  The boys also made some mini bots out of toothbrush heads, paper clips, and a battery.  Then battled them at a battle station. 

They made flutes out of PVC pipes...these turned out to be pretty tricky to play.

They made solar ovens and roasted a marshmallow for s'mores,

They ran an obstacle course, propelled sponges from a parachute,

and played this game.  Crab soccer I think?  Not sure what it was, but it kept their feet moving. 

They built rockets and had a shoot out,

and had a bird play which was pretty funny.  It was written using a mad libs script.  Chase was the blue jay who had to get this worm out of the ground with his ear.

Each year they have one off campus activity.  This year they bused us to the Minden airport.  They made each one of the boys these aviator hats with goggles.

They learned all about flying rockets, gliders, and a real plane.  They got to get in the cock pit and learn about all the controls and test it out a bit on the ground.

They also built these bird feeders that stick on your window so you can see the birds up close.  

Mid-day each day everyone returned to the main area for an hour long lunch break.  They brought in performers to do a show every day and had snow cones for the boys.  Pretty cute to catch this moment of Chase and some of his friends talking and bonding over snow cones.

They really keep the boys busy the entire day.  I had the best time with this kid. 

I'm glad he's not too cool for his Mom(yet) and even asked me if I could go all 3 days next year.  Who can say no to that?

Nineteen Years

June 16th we celebrated Kelsey turning 19....wow.  Still does not seem real.  She didn't really ask for anything and every year I give her money it seems like she just stashes it and doesn't spend it.   This year we got her a Maverik gift card.  Now that she is driving and knows how much gas is this was a greatly appreciated gift.  Also her favorite cookie and this awesome Oreo dipper spoon we saw years ago online somewhere that she thought was just a myth.  I call this gift "sweet freedom".

We also found her some seat covers for her car since she has leather seats she has really appreciated not burning her butt every time she gets in her car.

We also bought her a selfie stick that she "needed".  I'm gonna say this is a winning gift for any teen who takes so many selfie's, and yet they're never right.  

She wanted to go to the lake for the day, so we packed a lunch and headed up pretty early.  It was a beautiful day.  I had fun watching her take selfie's...pretty entertaining.

I gotta say it is pretty handy when you want to take a group shot.  

After spending all day soaking up the sun we headed home and Skyped Matt who had to work double shift that day so he could sing Happy Birthday with us.  Kelsey chose brownie's and ice cream rather than cake. 

Time flies and I can't believe my baby is 19! 

Not much has changed right?

One more year

This week I celebrated my birthday.  The original plan was to spend the day at the lake, but with our torrential downpours we have been having it was to wet and gloomy.  I did get to sleep in and when I woke up I caught Chase making be breakfast.  It was suppose to be breakfast in bed, but I guess me getting up at 8 foiled his plans.   I enjoyed my breakfast and opened my birthday cards.  There was an especially surprising one from Matt in the mix.

Apparently Matt had asked Sadi to make a card for him.  It was pretty cute.  I especially like the part where she scribbled out mommy and wrote wife.

I tortured the kids by going shopping for myself.  Chase was my sidekick and at one point was keeping my purchases safe by using them as a pillow.  Later that night when Matt got home they showered me with gifts.  Kelsey and the kids had made me this super cute canvas. 

Matt even got me a few little surprises.  I guess you know you play on words a lot with gifts when even your hubby starts using them....

Witty or mocking  me?  I'm not sure.  Matt took me out to dinner to a place that people are always talking about but we have never been to, Red's BBQ.  We decided to go big and order the sampler platter for two...it was more like for 10.

After all that food I wasn't really hungry for cake or anything really but I knew that would not fly with some little people, So we went home and took the kids to Maverik to get a little cup of frozen yogurt. 

They sang to me in the car on the way home.  It was perfect.

Dog Days of Summer

A few weeks before school was out we got an invitation from our Great Grandparents inviting us to join them for a dog party...just what is sounds like.  They adopted a Greyhound a few months back (a rescue) and he had been invited to a Dog party with all the other rescue dogs from Nevada.  Grandpa didn't think we could go without a good breakfast, so we met them before the party for breakfast. 

Chase once again ordered the "pancake".  His plan of attack was to take out the center and pour the syrup in the middle.  Again the pancake won!  I'm actually scared for the day he can finish this thing.  Sadly we are getting closer every time.  This boy can eat.

After breakfast we headed to the dog party.  Once we arrived and checked in, Gallant had to get his muzzle on and then he was let loose to play with all the other Greyhounds.  It was pretty fun to watch all these greyhounds who normally have to always be leashed (part of their adoption agreement) run free.  And boy did they!

I attempted to get some pictures of all the dogs but they were so fast all the photos just look like a blur.  There was a pond there that they could play in and just run and have fun.  They had a potluck lunch for all the "humans".  Our kids were still full from breakfast, but somehow managed to find room for some desserts.

They had all kinds of fun things for the dogs to play.  They had some contests like longest tail/shortest tail.  They also had a bobbing for hot dog contest.  Gallant was not really into sticking his nose into water for a hot dog...he's kinda spoiled in that I think he gets bacon everyday.  He did try...once.

Then they had an obstacle course.  Grandma let Sadi help Gallant with this competition.  She loved this.

She actually did a really good job.  I think she really likes being in control...not sure where she gets that from :)

They also had a silent auction with all kinds of things to bid on (mostly dog items).  Matt took Sadi over and she asked to bid on a cute little necklace.  So as Matt was writing down a $5 bid she walked around and started writing down a $10 bid on this duck....without him knowing.  When he noticed he said "What are you doing?!".   Her reply "What? I bet it costs $10."  I think she thought this was a guessing game.  Guess who was a winner of this duck?

Because Sadi made a bid Matt told Chase he could bet a few dollars on something.  Everything this boy bid on someone went higher.  They were getting ready to close the bidding and Matt said he could go bet $2 on something that had no bid.  He came back so excited and happy "Guess what Dad, I found the perfect thing.  A boat ride on Lake Tahoe for 2 bucks and no one has bit on it!"  That's because it was $250 minimum bid!  We quickly ran to take his name of it before we got suckered into that.  Apparently our kids need a little lesson on silent auctions.