Christmas traditions

We have a few Christmas traditions in our family.  We go to the foothills of the eastern Sierras and chop a tree.  This year we just barely got out Reno in Dog Valley just past Verdi.  This is our third trip to Dog Valley.  The first two years were so snowy we didn't get up to the fir trees, but this year the roads were dry and we found a perfect tree... tall and skinny.

We got share in the Bordelon's tree decorating tradition.

Then we invited everyone over to our house to decorate gingerbread cookies

Nick managed to get frosting on the cookies

but Sylvan was mostly interested in getting frosting in his mouth

We had some really great cookies

The cookies are on the tree, but they are getting consumed a little faster this year

And what Christmas is complete without a visit with Santa

A Merry Christmas to all!

Halloween 2017

I'm not a huge Halloween fan, but it is a lot more fun with grandkids.  The last few years I have been skipping the ward Halloween party, but this year it was so much fun with grandkids around.

Peter and Rachel chose a family Star Wars theme. Notice baby girl Smith filling out the death star nicely.

After Trunk or Treating

Garrett was a ghost so you can't see him in any of the pictures

Halloween night the Bordelons stopped at our house.  That bumped the number of trick or treaters we had this year to 8.

Random pictures from fall 2017

One of the great joys of having the Bordelons in town is getting to enjoy some of the little everyday events with their family that we have missed over the last few years like...

Clare's Jog-a-thon

I was really impressed with Clare's running.  She ran all of the laps and didn't take any walking breaks

Garrett's birthday

Calvin and I snatched Garrett from pre-school and took him to Dairy Queen for a birthday lunch

and then we all enjoyed cake and ice cream to celebrate the day

Nick's birthday- more cake and presents

and Clare being Clare

We also got to have a weekend sleep-over at our house while Sarah and Toby celebrated their 10th anniversary.

We had dinner at Calvin's favorite restaurant, A & W

We even had a few adventures on our own.  Calvin and I went on a driving trip to see the fall color in the eastern Sierra. We took a little walk and spotted this small tree growing out of a rock.

On a beautiful fall afternoon we took a stroll along the Truckee River

And finally Calvin got the lump removed from his wrist that popped up last fall on a kayaking trip.

An October evening at Lake Tahoe

Sometimes in the fall in Reno you will get a beautiful summer day. October 7 was just such a day and Sarah invited us all to enjoy one last beach day at Lake Tahoe.

The air temperature was delightful, but the lake was pretty cold. That didn't stop Clare

or any of the boys...

Peter even caught a few waves

 and one or two waves caught him.

Clare decided she needed to warm up a little

 And Nick and Sylvan decided it was easier to surf on sand

Clare decided to climb the lifeguard stand and she soon had a gaggle of boys following her

And of course we took a few sunset shots

Life is good!