Sunday, 31 May

I feel so accomplished today. Got up early, went to Lowes - bought all the stuff to put up a fence. Rented the Lowes truck, got it home, unloaded it - dropped off the car. Then started digging for the posts. By then Kurt got up, he helped me level the posts. It was not a bad job at all - we got it all done within the day. I love it. Looks so much better. Olivia was a great assistant, she had to be right there for everything. (She is very inquisitive). So most of the day was working on that. Did go to Costco - Kurt got a really cool propaine fire pit. Looks great. Anyway - just a very accomplishing day. Very happy with the outcome. See pictures below.

Saturday, 30 May

Had a lot of plans for today but didn't really do too much. Got up early, I'm so over the animals getting me up. Fed the animals and shortly after that, got Olivia up and we went to the grocery store. Did the shopping, came home and unpacked everything, made Olivia some breakfast, had some coffee and then took Olivia outside to play for a bit. She was full of energy, we went to the park and she went on the slide probably 20 times. We ran from slide to slide. Came back to the house and by then Kurt was up. We went to JoAnn fabrics (had to get some ribbon for the rug) we then got some lunch. By then Olivia was falling asleep - so came home, put her to bed for a nap then worked on fixing the rug. Kurt wasn't feeling well so he pretty much laid in bed. After that, chilled for a bit. Didn't do much more than that... little bummed, had two parties to go to but Kurt wasn't quite up for it. Rest of the evening, very relaxing.....

Friday, 29 May

It's Friday. Love the short weeks. Really nice day, nice weather, no complaints. Day flew by, got home from work, we went out to Pronto for dinner, visited with Suede and Marlene. After dinner got home, played with Olivia. Was hoping to wear her out so she would fall asleep - ended up keeping her up till 9:30. She finally fell asleep. My goal for the weekend - put up the privacy fence in the back yard. So I worked on some plans, came up with a shopping list, fun stuff like that.

Thursday, 28 May

It was a pretty good day today. Busy, little tired but it was good. It's Thursday so how can it be bad, almost the weekend. Work was fine, busy as usual. After work, came home and did some work outside with Olivia. She was my assistant. Working on the backyard, lots to do - so goal is to get as much as possible done by the end of the weekend. I fertilized the yard and weeded a bit - so exciting. We went for a walk to the park, Olivia just loves going on the slide so we did that - not too much else going on. After getting her home, fed her dinner, bath then bed. I had a hard time falling asleep - was up for most of the night.

Wednesday, 27 May

Still having a hard time sleeping.... I'm sleeping just not falling asleep till after 11:00 or so - getting up at 4:30 doesn't leave much time for sleeping. I'm so happy to say that Olivia's skin is back to normal, the eczema, hives, bumps are all gone. No scratching either. Not exactly sure what caused it but she is all better. Cardio, shower, dressed for work, got Olivia up, fed animals, put away dishes, got her dropped off and off to work. Day went by fast. Lots to do. After work, came home - got greeted by a very happy little girl. Got her a snack then got my new phone set up. No phone for 4 days was tough. Had to get a few things at the store, so Olivia and I did that - birthday stuff for nephew and niece, and for Kurt. Came home and played with Olivia - she helped me mop the living room. We practiced on her Alphabet Note cards for a bit - she got bored and actually said "Me go to bed". So put her to bed and then I spent some time finishing up some chores.

Tuesday, 26 May

This was the first half hour of our two hour drive from Sacramento to Lake Tahoe. The kids were really cute together, Olivia and Ivy were best buddies, did everything together. All the kids were so sweet with Jocelyn. Every time I turned around, Olivia was giving Jocelyn a kiss. (She is such a good little girl). So back to work - it was tough. Got up and did my cardio workout, rough. Got ready for work, got Olivia up and was out the door. Work was good, very busy - catching up, probably a few days to get all caught up. At lunch, did some grocery shopping. Picked up Olivia after work and started making dinner. It was pretty good, made a cheesy, hashbrown and ham dinner. Kurt got home just as I was done cooking. After that cut the front yard/edged/trimmed and put down fertilizer. Mistake - it started to rain. Came inside and gave Olivia a bath and got her ready for bed - didn't realize it got so late. After that, pretty much finished the laundry and then went to bed.

Monday, 25 May

This is a panoramic picture that Kurt took from our trip. It's pretty cool (Click on it for a bigger view). So got up, luckily - I had done most of the laundry before we left for home so just had one load of laundry to do. Put away Olivia and my clothes, fed the animals (The dogs didn't eat, I think they were worried that we were going to leave... usually takes a few days for them to realize we are not going away anytime soon). After that, we headed out to Bordines Nursery. Wanted to get some new water plants and a new bush for the back yard. I took out an old tree that died. So we headed out to Rochester. It was the perfect day for that. Came home, planted a few things - I made a really bad lunch. Did not taste very good at all.... After that, played with Olivia for a while. Then gave her a bath and got her to bed. Kurt went out to celebrate Chris Owen's birthday. I tried going to bed but was wide awake....

Sunday, 24 May

Our trip has come to an end. We got up, got packed and ready to go. It was sad saying good bye to Mark, Nikki and Jocelyn but we are definitely planning on coming out to visit again soon. We got the car loaded and headed to Sacramento. The kids did really good in the cars - We heard the alphabet song about 463 times. We got to the car rental place, dropped the car off and got on the shuttle to the airport. We got through security really quick and were at the gate with an hour to spare. Had some lunch (Chicken Tenders, delicious) and waited for the plane to start loading. We got really lucky, the seat next to us was open so we got the whole row for ourselves. We had a little adventure when we landed for the first flight, a woman had a seizure and passed out. They had to call several medics to the plane. Luckily everything seemed to be okay for the woman and we got off and to the new gate just in time for our flight. The second flight wasn't as comfortable. We were on a smaller plane and there was someone sitting right next to us so Olivia sat in my lap the entire flight. She was a wiggly worm for this flight. But she did really well. We had started our day around 6:30 am and landed in Detroit around 11:00 pm. We made it home around 12:00 am or so. This was interesting, the hives Olivia had for the entire trip had disappeared. No bumps at all, she had a little eczema flair up on her wrist, chin and belly but no bumps at all. Not sure if it was the altitude or maybe the rugs at the condo...or the drier air - but her skin looked a 100% better. No itching for her either. So got home, put Olivia to bed, unpacked a few things, got lots of loving for the animals (Mocha, Riley, Finnegan and Henry would not leave our side). Riley didn't want to go outside either - he just wanted to be by our side. The cats were funny too, both of them slept on the bed and did not move all night.

Saturday, 23 May

Our last full day in California.... :( We got up, ate breakfast, walked around the village then got cleaned up. We all headed into Kingsbeach to get a family picture. They turned out really good - Good Job Nikki. The rest of the family went to a Kid Friendly Pool / Water Park while Kurt, Olivia and I met up with our friend Jim. It was great seeing him - he just moved to Sacramento and drove up to see us. We showed him the village, got some lunch at a great burrito joint. We then hung out at the condo for a bit until the family got back. Olivia hung out with Grandma while Jim, Kurt and I went to the Chocolate Bar for a couple of drinks. Had a great time catching up. We then got Tracy and went back to the bar - had some more drinks and shots. Kurt picked up some pizzas and brought them back to the house. We ate dinner, put the kids to bed then all the adults played Apples to Apples. It was a really fun night. I really enjoyed this trip.

Friday, 22 May

We spent the day at Tahoe City. It was a lot of fun. I got really sunburned - forgot to put sunblock on my arms and forehead and it hurt. We walked around part of the lake, grabbed lunch in town, played at the big playground. Very nice day. In the evening after the kids went to bed, we went to some casino's in Nevada. Only minutes away. It was a lot of fun, I walked away ahead so that was cool. Just a real fun day. The weather has been perfect, in the upper 70's / lower 80's, nice breeze and very sunny. I could totally live there. You can drive to the mountains where there is snow and get a good suntan by the lake all in the same day.

Thursday, 21 May

We spent the day at Emerald Bay! - Just breath taking.....

Wednesday, 20 May

Got up and we all went for a walk on the trails. It was a little chilly - the walk was fun though. Checked out some of the stores in the village, got my daily coffee at Starbucks, we spent the day doing family stuff. At lunch time, we went to this great burger joint in town. So good. I swear - all I did was eat this trip. My parents arrived around 2:00 pm. We were already back at the condo - we actually took a nap and when we woke up, Grandma and Grandpa were there. Olivia was so excited. We hung out with my folks for a bit. They got the tour of the place and then picked up some pizza (Get this - two pizzas were $55) So expensive there. Anyway - we took the kids to the pool (Olivia loves the water, she was jumping in the water and going under all by herself, she did so good). After that, let the kids play for a bit and then put them to bed. We spent the rest of the evening just relaxing and watching a movie.

Tuesday, 19 May

Got up, worked out with Shon and Hudson. Olivia slept good but she was scratching from her eczema - had to go to the pharmacy and get her some medicine. We spent the day playing with the kids, took them to a big playground, they loved it - we even had races for the adults on the playground equipment... I won the race. :) We also went to an indoor game center. They had a merry go round, video games, bowling, air hockey, putt putt, lots of stuff for the kids and us adults. It was a lot of fun. I won a giant Dora for Olivia (it took about $15 in tokens to get it but I did win it). It was connected to a casino so we slipt out for a minute and gambled for a little bit. Had a really good time, after that - we went into Truckee and did some shopping. Got a few gifts and a new dress for Olivia. Cute town. After the kids went to bed, we played Apples to Apples. Very fun game.

Monday, 18 May

The Resort is amazing... here are a few pics from the village. Our building is called 1 Village Place. Just spectacular. So the kids all got up early - by 5:30 everyone was up. We had breakfast, went for a walk on some of the trails, got coffee at Starbucks (we were like the only people in the entire village) Around 9:00 am, Mark, Nikki and Jocelyn arrived. We went to the Donner museum, (The Donner party - they ate each other, cool story - click here for more info) We got to see a video and walk around the museum. After that, we went out for lunch to Red Robin (We were all starving). So ate dinner, then stoped at a few touristy places. It was a lot of fun, great just hanging out with everyone. After getting back, took the kids to the pool and then the adults played cards and some board games. The kids crashed around 8:00 pm, they were exhausted. It was fun watching Olivia and Ivy play. They were two peas in a pod and were pretty much shadows of each other the entire trip.

Sunday, 17 May

It was a very early morning, was up late last night - didn't go to sleep until 2:00 am (last minute packing) and we were ready and out the door by 4:00 am. Not a lot of sleep. Got on the road and we were at the parking garage by 4:30. Got to the airport and to the gate before 5:00. Had some coffee and a muffin - Olivia was wide awake and was pretty excited. Kurt was exhausted... he didn't go to sleep at all - he had to work the night before so as soon as he got home, he got showered and that's when we left. Met up with Tracy, Shon, Hudson and Ivy and we were on the plane and ready to fly out before 5:45. The first flight (to Houston, TX) was about 3
hours longs. It was a nice flight, Olivia slept for most of it. The second flight was a little rough, Olivia had to sit on our lap for the 3 1/2 hour flight to Sacramento. It was rough, Olivia was up and wanted to play. She did really good though, such a good girl. We got into Sacramento, got our rental car - a nice big minivan. Got it loaded and then drove the 2 hours to Lake Tahoe. It was a pretty easy drive, but we were pretty much driving up (over 6500 feet altitude). Olivia had a rough time, not sure what caused it but she broke out in hives and it lasted for the entire trip. Her eczema got bad too, not sure if what because of the altitude or the drier air. So got to the resort, it was so beautiful. Met up with my brother and Nikki and he drove us to our building. Stunning building. We got to meet our niece Jocelyn (so adorable), such a beautiful little girl. We got a tour of the resort then Tracy and I took the kids to the pool while Kurt and Shon went to the store. After that, we came back to the Condo and ate dinner (Kurt cooked - such a good guy). We ate, hung out, played some cards and made it an early night (We were all so tired).

Saturday, 16 May

Friday, 15 May