Tahoe 2007

Every year my Dad's side of the family head's to Lake Tahoe to enjoy ~ a week of relaxation. Yeah right! It was full of lots of adventures and exercise to the max. Also, accidents. Did I say accidents...yes I did. Lets list them:

1. Alice got hit by a car on her bike (no biggie.)
2. Alice hits a patch of sand and flips over bike onto right shoulder which hurts a lot. (Mountain Biking.)
3. Alice sustained multiple scrapes and bruises from mountain biking with Amy, George, Danny and Jared. STORY:
Danny, "I think this is where I fell into that bush last year." 2 seconds later, LITERALLY!
Alice, "Aaaaahhhhhh."
George, "Alice just fell into that bush, all I saw were her legs fly into the air."
Danny helps Alice out of the bush because it's prickly and she's still clipped into her pedals and really can't move on her own.
Alice, "I feel as if something is folded inside me."
George, "Your insides are folded."
After all of this Jared wants to ride behind me and watch me fall because everyone else is getting a kick out of it. Plus I alert them of dangerous rocks ahead with my uncontrollable yelps.
(Later Alice's left ribs really hurt for a day or two. She goes into shock that night in bed thinking that maybe there's internal bleeding and feels light-headed and shakes uncontrollably. Thank goodness for a kind husband to bring her back to reality.)
4. Jared and Alice both sustain back injuries after diving off of a rock into the lake. Apparently we "cajoinked" ourselves according to Jared. His injury is worse.
5. Alice sustained lots more scrapes and gashes to her legs when Jared had an idea to climb straight up a bushy hill only to find when we arrived at the top that there's a paved road from the other side. We took the road down...kind of. More short cuts were taken.
6. Alice suffered two injuries back to back within 10 mins. of each other from Hudson throwing objects from ACROSS THE ROOM WITH HIS PERFECT AIM, to her chin and WORSE, I HUGE BUMP ON HER HEAD, which is still there after 6 days and is tender to the touch!

WARNING: SOME PHOTOS SHOW GRAPHIC CONTENT. LIKE BLOOD AND STUFF!

Santa Cruz dude!

I took the kids on Monday down to Santa Cruz along with our new friends Dustin and Andrea who are soooo much fun. Andrea taught Krista about sand crabs. She ended up catching ~30 of them and stored each in a bucket. Don't worry, she saved them from hungry Chase and released them back into the wild.

Later we headed to the Boardwalk to catch 75¢ ride night like I do every year. (Last year the rides were only 65¢.) I took everyone on my favorite ride Wipeout, which I discovered last year with Heather.

Here is Krista and I enjoying out corndogs with mustard. A standard meal if you're visiting the boardwalk.


Our new friends Dustin and Andrea. I sure hope they visit us in Zurich!



All of us getting ready for the bumper cars. We had a plan.......


...which Jared was ready for. Apparently you are only allowed to drive in one direction. Well, silly us...all 6 of us just happened to not be very good at following rules and stirred up some trouble...or rather caused a big traffic jam....hee hee;)

Jelly beans and sugar overload

Last Saturday we took Krista and Chase to the Jelly Belly factory in Fairfield. It was a first for all of us. The kids hadn't even heard of Jelly Belly's which was a shock to Jared and I. We needed to educate them about gourmet candy...or rather take a free tour and let someone else do the talking.

We had to wear hats so our hair wouldn't end up in the Jelly Belly bags. We ended up buying 4 bags (8 lbs total) of Belly Flops (irregularly shaped jelly beans). It was buy 2 get 2 free.

Google Picnic!

Google put on a ginormous circus summer picnic. We all headed across the street to Shoreline Amphitheatre to engage in free fun games and grab free food and enjoy free entertainment. The keyword here is FREE!!!!!!! Chase still couldn't believe that everything was free. "I can have another brownie for free? Really?", exclaimed Chase several times.



There was a reptile petting zoo.








I like how this snake is pick-pocketing his owner. NICE!!!!!









Then we headed over to the tattoo area and got airbrush tattoos. My stars came off that night because I slept with my hands on my chest. AARGH! Jared still has his sexy lizard and Krista is sportin' the turtle as we speak.













Circus time.


Somtimes I wake up in the middle of the night to see Jared practicing his hand stands.







If Chase is ever bad we're going to ship him off to the circus.






Krista became an expert and in stilt walking.




Here she is coaching Jared on his technique.

Special Guests from SC !

Jared's younger brother and sister Krista and Chase came to visit this week. Thursday Jared took a half day at work and we headed up to S.F. First we set off for the Exploratorium. It's a fun place with lots of hands on science projects.


















Jared, Krista and Chase created a tornado buy running around in circles.














Jared and I found a chair big enough for two:)




We went in the Alice in Wonderland fun house.









Chase grew a lot on this trip. His family will be very surprised.








Jared got this cool hat where he can listen to everyone, everywhere.









This is a wall of bacteria.








After we walked across part of the bridge.

Jelly Mania!

In honor of Pioneer Day our good friend Emily decided to celebrate our Mormon culture with...JELLO!!!!!!!!!!! Lots of it.


Here is Emily's deep blue sea Jello trifle.


Rebecca outdid herself (again) and made a Jello temple...


...along with pioneer traveling to visit the green temple.


Casey and Amanda the darling newlyweds (their marriage just over a week new) also came along.



Jared and I won a package of pancake mix for the tastiest Jello creation. I made Dad's Birthday Jello. My mother used to make it for my Dad on his birthday every year:)

Dad's Birthday Jello
1 #2 can crushed pineapple
1 1/2 cup pineapple juice and water
1 package lemon jello
~ 1 Cup of grated carrots
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
1 cup whipping cream

Drain pineapple. Add enough water to juice to make 1 1/2 cups. Heat to boil. Add 1 package lemon jello. Stir until dissolved. Add sugar, salt, lemon juice. Chill till thickened. Add pineapple and grated carrot and whipped cream. (You whip the cream and then gently fold it into the chilled but not too set jello mixture). Fold pineapple and the whipped cream into the gelatin. Pour into 8-inch mold or dish.

It's official!!!!!!!!

We're moving to Switzerland!!!!!!!


September 30th!!!!!!!


Zurich to be exact!!!!!!


And we will go see the Matterhorn!!!!!

Triathlon fun

On Saturday Jared and I did a sprint (1/2 mile swim, 11 mile bike, 3.2 mile run) Triathlon in Pleasanton to prepare for our Olympic one that we're doing in September. Here's Jared the night before fixing his chain and adding triathlon bars to his bike for faster results. Well, it must have helped because he came in 3rd place out of 1,000 people, (even after having to stop and fix his chain in the middle of the ride.) The previous time we did it in 2004 he came in 8th place. I beat my target time by 8 mins. so I was pretty happy about that.



We were happy to be done and to have already burned ~1,000 calories by 9am Saturday morning.

Who's leg is who's?