Mikayla's Glasses

After noticing some problems with Mikayla's school work and homework I decided that she should have her eyes checked.  Last week I took her to the eye doctor and my suspicions were confirmed.  She is farsighted.  That caught me by surprise.  Ashlee and I are both nearsighted so I figured if she did have vision problems she would be nearsighted.  She got her glasses yesterday.  Here is how she looks with her new glasses.

John's New Projects

 The last month has been spent preparing forms for a new rabbit barn.  Last weekend John and Paul poured the cement for the new barn.

Friday morning at 7am 62 Poulet Rouge chicks arrived.  Yes, John is now in the business of raising chickens too.  The guy the distributes the rabbits for us has a demand for chickens as well.  So he asked John and Paul if they would raise chickens too.  The first 62 arrived Friday.  The rest will follow over the course of many more weeks.  Supposedly all the chickens are already sold, it's just a matter of raising them up the the desired size.

Mikayla couldn't wait for school to end so she could go and see the chicks.

Rabbit Event

This weekend we had the opportunity to go to St. Helena, CA near Napa Valley for the first time. We attended an event where the rabbits that John and his friend Paul raise were prepared by chefs from all over the United States.  The event was called Heritage Meats Cochon 555.  The event featured pork, chicken,  salmon, duck, veal, rabbit and goat along with fresh vegetables, cheeses and wines.  All the meats were cooked whole on wire stakes over the top of a log fire. 
It was a neat experience, but lets just say, the food was not to our liking. We are very glad the tickets were given to us and that we didn't have to pay the $100-$200 per ticket.  I tried some salads and lets just say, they were GROSS.  I don't know how you can mess up a salad, but I tried three salads and they were all yucky.  John, Paul and Nevia all tried the meat and salads and the only thing they all liked was the rabbit (they weren't just saying that because it was from their farm), and some little slider hamburgers. 
We were glad we got to experience the event and see Napa Valley for the first time, but we all agreed the food just wasn't good.

Here's a few pictures-

These are the rabbits cooking.

This is the chef getting ready to serve the rabbit.

John eating the rabbit.  His favorite was rabbit tacos.

The rabbit menu.  The chef cooking the rabbit was from Chicago.

Chefs preparing some food.

Whole salmon

I think I have seen this RV on TV so I took a picture.  It was at the event.

Nevia, Paul, Libby and John

 Since the food wasn't great and I was starving.  We stopped at the Cheesecake Factory on the way home.  We had never been there.  I don't like cheesecake because I don't like cream cheese.  But after having the Hershey's Chocolate Cheesecake, I think I may like some cheesecake afterall!  We definately need to go there again sometime.

Nevia had salmon.  John said I had to get a picture of it, because it looked so fancy.

First Day of School

Summer vaction has officially ended for us.  The girls went back to school today.  None of us were thrilled about the idea.  We (me especially) just weren't ready to get back into the whole routine of things again.  The rush here and there, get through homework, dinner, and bedtime in limited time routine again.  But unfortunately the time has come.  Ashlee started 5th grade today.  Ashlee's teacher is Mr. Sundy.  Mikayla started 3rd grade today, her teacher is Mrs. Crawford.

Mikayla-First Day of 3rd Grade

Ashlee-First Day of 5th Grade

Some more pictures from the first morning of school-

Allison and Mikayla.  Jordan on the side coming by to see them and then realizes he's in the picture.

Another picture of Allison and Mikayla without Jodan in the picture.

Ashlee is the 4th one in line teal and white stripes.  This is her class and her teacher Mr. Sundy waving bye to their parents.



Mikayla in the green and some her classmates.

 The first day of school went well for both of them.  Ashlee loves her teacher.  He is very fun and lively.  He lets them do lots of fun things while learning.  He was a kid himself, (not too long ago) and he doesn't force them to do anything he didn't like to do.  I guess that could be a good and a bad thing .  Mikayla has the same teacher Ashlee had for third grade, so I am familiar with how things happen in that class.   Hopefully we won't have too many suprises.

We celebrated the first day back to school by going to dinner with their friends at John's Incredible Pizza.  The girls had fun.  Sorry for the picture quality.  They were going from game to game so fast that I couldn't keep up with them.

The green blur is Mikayla and Ashlee

Mikayla, Ashlee, Alyssa and Allison

White blur is Sarah, Ashlee and Mikayla

South Lake Tahoe

With summer vacation coming to an end for us (the girls go back to school on Wednesday the 10th), we decided a few weeks ago after swimming finished, that we needed to try and get in a camping trip before school starts.  We haven't been camping in Lake Tahoe since August 2009, so we decided to go back. 

Thursday, August 4,2011

Departed: 10:54am
2:50pm: Arrive at Tahoe Valley Campground in South Lake Tahoe

Start to set up the trailer and camp site.  Rear slide out (our bed) will not open. The button doesn't budge.  John ends up having to take everything out of the storage compartment from the outside.  Mikayla crawls into the trailer and takes everything out of the storage compartment from the inside.  John dismantles the storage compartment and after about an hour and a half John finally gets the slide out to work again.

After all that, it was time for a swim in the campground pool.  (Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures)!

Around 6:00pm we eat dinner.  After dinner I go in the trailer to wash dishes and the entire handle from the kitchen sink comes off in my hand and water begins to shoot like a waterfall out the faucet hole all through the trailer.  I am frantically putting my hand over the hole. Mikayla is trying to help. John runs in and sees the water and runs outside to shut off the main water supply.  We get the water turned off, start cleaning up the water mess,and decide that we must get this fixed NOW otherwise we will not have any water at all.  John takes the faucet off, we jump in the truck,  stop at the campground office to find out where the nearest store is where we can get a new faucet.  Luckily there was a DIY store about a mile up the road.  6:50pm we arrive at the DIY store, the store intercom says that the store will be closing in 10 minutes!  Yikes!  Luckily there was a friendly and helpful store employee who directed us to the faucet isle, helped us get a faucet and we were on our way.

The Faucet Repair:



The original faucet with the broken handle.





Friday, August 5, 2011:

Grover Hot Springs-Markleeville, CA

John just touched the water flowing from the hot springs.  The water is 148 degree's.  So hot that it is bubbling.  You feel the heat coming off the water.  See the greenish pool in the background?  The water from the hot spring flows into that pool and you can pay money to swim in it.  There is also a "real" built in pool next to it to cool off in.

 After visiting the hot springs we took a little hiking trail through the meadow and forest while we were there.  We probably would've done more, but we were totally unprepared.  No water, no food, no snacks, no mosquito repellent.  We thought we were just going to the hot spring, we didn't know there was more to do.

Odd thing happened on this trail.  We met a couple and their son on this trail.  John asked them, where the trail led and they said about half a mile back there was a river.  We started talking to them.  Asked them were they were from and they asked us where we were from.  We told them Turlock.  They said that their daughter in law works at Hilmar Cheese and their son works for a company in Turlock.  A little more into the conversation, the woman says, " we say our son lives in Turlock, but he actually lives in Ballico"  Holy cow.    That's where I am from.  You never meet anyone who know's where Ballico is, let alone someone who know's someone who lives there.  I even knew who their daughter in law was.  SMALL WORLD!

John trying to look cool.  Looking off into the meadow.

Mikayla making a wish!

This butterfly is actually blue.  But you can't really tell that by this picture.

Trying to get a family photo.  The camera wasn't zoomed in enough.

Ice Cream break in Markleeville.

Markleeville General Store.  Markleeville is a very small town.  250 people (I didn't even think there were that many)!

2:30pm Pope Beach, South Lake Tahoe.  The girls wanted to go play in the sand and swim in the lake.  We told them the lake would be really cold, but they wanted to try it.  They weren't the only ones.  The beach was packed!

"Our beach cuties!"

John relaxing at the beach.

2 hours after being at the lake John decided to "feel" the water.

"Superstar" Mikayla.  The heart glasses fit her perfectly.



John decides the lake doesn't "feel" that bad.  He decides to get in and play with Ashlee and Mikayla.



5:00pm Friday leave lake and return to campground.

John just had to take this picture.  He thought my attire was tied together with water shoes and his hat.

 5:10pm girls want to go swimming to "wash off" the beach sand.

Ashlee and Mikayla looking over the edge of the pool, begging John to get in and go swimming with them.

John looking "cool" in Ashlee's pink sunglasses.  What do you think?

The girls finally win.  They went under water and John jumped in the water and suprised them.

 The rest of the evening was spent eating dinner, going for a bike ride around the campground, playing at the campground playground, making smores, and playing UNO.

Saturday, August 6, 2011:

Ashlee really wanted to go fishing.  She found an ad for a trout farm in the area.  Found the directions on the GPS and off we went.

 Not even a minute after putting her pole in Mikayla caught a fish.

John de-hooking the fish.

John no sooner finished getting Mikayla's fish off the hook and Ashlee had caught a fish too.

Ashlee holding her fish.

We were going to stop after each one of them caught A fish.

But apparently fishing for a minute and catching one fish wasn't enough so we let them each catch 2 fishes.  As soon as their poles went in the water they had a fish. John couldn't keep up.

After catching a fish and de-hooking it, you had to wrap it in this cloth and then hit it over the head with a pipe.

Mikayla hitting the fish over the head with the pipe.

Mikayla holding 1 of her fishes.

After the girls each caught two fishes, we went back to the campground, put the fishes away and headed down by the Nevada-California State Line for the girls to see more of Tahoe.

You could pay money to ride this car/boat.  It was called the Tahoe Duck.  It went on both land and water.  Maybe next time.  Wasn't in the budget this time.

 It was Hot August Nights in Lake Tahoe this weekend (a mini version of Hot August Nights).  Only about 50 cars were there.  The big Hot August Nights is in Reno next weekend with thousands of cars.

A rare mustang.  Very few of them were made.

 While we were at the car show, we had a cookie and then headed back to the campground for lunch.  After lunch I took the girls swimming, while John took a little nap.  Later in the afternoon we went for a bike ride in South Lake Tahoe.

Mikayla on the bike trail.





We rode the bike trail to Camp Richardson.  Camp Richardson was a very crowded beach area.  Lot's of cars, people,and boats.  We didn't stay long.  Too much craziness for people on bikes.  When we were leaving there was a line of about 50 people outside an ice cream shop, and nothing but bumper to bumper traffic.  Very nerve racking when you are on a bike with children on bikes.

Ashlee and Mikayla at Camp Richardson.




Mikayla (not shown), John and Ashlee on the bike trail.

After our afternoon bike ride we went back to the campground.  The girls went for another swim.  I cooked dinner.  The rest of the evening was spent going for a bike ride around the campground, playing at the campground play ground, making smores and watching Shrek 2.

Sunday, August 7, 2011

10:50am Depart for home.

1:50pm Arrive home.  Unpack the trailer.  Start washing all the laundry, rest and prepare for the busy week ahead.  I am so not looking forward to school starting already.  I like not having to worry about homework in the evenings!