Big Western Rib Fest

Caleb, Ellie and I went to one of the Western States largest get-togethers in downtown Sparks to see slaughtered beef and pork covered in all types of the Nation's "best" sauces and grilled over natures finest flames until just after the squealing has ended. Then they give it to you in the dark and you bite into it and it tastes so good that you don't think twice about whether that pink is little Wilbur the Pig's heart still beating or that sweet southern sauce.

Either way, you throw it down, grab another and another and another until you build up a gut to compete with even the finest professional eaters. We missed the eating competition darn't and I even hear that the World championship hot dog eater was here.

Well, it was a total blast - you'll have to trust me because the only pictures I snapped were of the two cutest kids in the world who know darn right well that their daddy is going to use all these pictures growing up in the longest wedding slideshow one has ever seen before. You see, there is a master plan behind all these photos - not just a over-exuberant father shooting 3 takes for even the simplest of photos.

Notice, Caleb's choppy haircut (no it wasn't me. I could have done better than that) and Sarah's headband around Caleb's wrist 4 times - he insisted it was a sweat band that doubled as a shooter force field thing.

Love Sealed in Sacramento

We had a super cool day traveling to Sacramento to spend the whole day with the Christensens - that is all 35 of them . . . or so it seemed. Wow, Devin [our brother-in-law through marriage or so it seems since we are so close with so many in that family - Sarah's sister, Michelle is married to Aaron who is the brother to Devin] and Ashley brought their 13 (unless I missed someone) siblings with their wives and kids and other family - it was quite a Mormon wedding.

We loved the day and had so much fun.

Our kids sure love their cousins. Here are a bunch of pictures of the kids while we were waiting for everyone to leave the temple.

Downtown Reno on the Truckee River

We discovered another beautiful part of Reno - downtown next to the Truckee River.



Though we haven't been in them, the Casinos do make for beautiful buildings



We weren't the only ones to think it was a cool place to hang - there were about 15 homeless people carrying all they had with them but another 100 or so people were hanging out in an outdoor ampitheater watching the 1960 version of Fahrenheit 451. We played frisbee

Reno Temple

We finished off the evening driving to the top of the Mountain just West of us where the Reno Temple is built.

Unlike the large temples this small one had the gates locked and so we walked around the asphalt and threw kids in the air.

Marchants Meet the Keller Couch

Yaah, I couldn't help but laugh at how cute Heather and Doug were. We spent our Sunday afternoon relaxing and those two gave me like 15 lessons on that and snuggling techniques and how to fall asleep with someone touching all over you and how to keep your wife's hair out of your face and . . .



Levi on the other hand taught me a few things about blowing bubbles



And Caleb was Mr. I love my Brother Boy



Levi is going to be our weight lifter after looking at the way he heaves that monstrous head of his and it ceases to amaze me how he can keep that neck of his so skinny. I'm going to have to take notes from him as I get a bit portlier in my old age.




Ellie is our "Always in Your Face, Love You Sister". Here she is giving Levi a little sticker love.



A sticker on the nose also means "I know I'm cute"



Later, I couldn't stop laughing at Ellie's choice of TV viewing locations. We asked her to scoot back from the TV and she moved about 3 inches. That was probably a 100% response to my question - what more could I ask for?

Marchants Meet Tahoe

We went to Tahoe with Doug and Heather. Not only did Doug score a sweet Macbook - yep I influenced another convert based heavily on a sweet craigslist deal a good $300 below fair ebay market value.

Well, our kids loved Tahoe too. Caleb got a kick out of some guy that caught a bunch of tiny fish for bate. Any guesses what Ellie was thinking . . .



I couldn't help but snap a photo of the whole crew



Even the little guy got his toes wet - he was shocked by the initial cold but loved it after that.



Sarah and Levi sure did a favor to the background didn't they



Things were nice and relaxing and even more entertaining once Heather volunteered to be buried up to her head





Caleb, if he could, would spend his days swimming with the lack thereof in the big ol' Tahoe



Ellie was sure enjoying her Auntie Heathie

OK, A Little Clarification, Please :)

OK, I have to set something straight. I feel like I have to let everyone know that I am all for the blog also! (Yea, yea, yea for blogging!!!) I only told my dear sweet husband that he needs his beauty sleep instead of staying up until 1 or 2 am to blog. So, that is what he is referring to when he wants everyone to let me know that he should keep at it. He does a great job keeping up with all of our great family memories. So, keep it up Chris! ha.

Ellie's Funny Repeat

Today, the kids and I were driving in the car to go and do some school shopping. Well, these trips don't have a good track record of being stress free and well behaved. So, I decided to lighten the mood with the CD, "Raffi Goes Country". I blasted the music and said, "OK everyone, this is my favorite song...everyone sing together now!" The kids joined in with me and it was so cute. Well, two hours later, we got back in the car and a song called "Baby Dear" comes on and Ellie screams out..." OK, this is my BEST song. Everyone sing!" She started singing, "Baby Dear..." (ok, that was all she knew of the lyrics), but we didn't join in right away. She stopped and said, "Hey, I said everyone sing!" I thought that was so cute. She is a doll and she loves to sing and be sung to.

Smores and 2 am Screams

How could I forget to blog about my little campers. For the last 2 months it seems, Caleb has been asking me if I would take him camping. Well, after much pleading, I was persuaded and this last weekend, Ellie, Caleb and I went camping with our good friend, Greg Burts and his daughter Kajanee (sp?).


We had a blast, though our freeway neighbors were still within an earshot. That wasn't bad for us since we are now very familiar with white noise which is what it sounded like.

This is Saturday morning and Caleb for one moment had a grumpy face, but this was one small moment that did not characterize the trip which was fabulous.


The only challenge we had were two sets of Ellie "pierce the night" in half screams at about 2 am and 4 am. I could never figure out why she was screaming since she wouldn't talk rationally to me. Oh well, girls are screamers right!

The kids played and had fun and we ate smores and hot dogs for dinner and breakfast.


Here, Caleb was moving a little too fast for the slow lense speed required to get enough light for this dusk shot.
Here is our site with the table, tents and campfire.

Video from the Last 2 Weeks

Well, to Sarah's chagrin, I'm up again posting content to our blog. Now, would you all help me and leave a comment telling her you think it is worth the effort! If not, I'll probably stop posting so often.

We love our kids and I love my video camera and I grabbed some great clips of the kids.

Here is a set of videos from our kids riding their tricycles on Sunday evening - yes we have become a bit lenient but we were together as a family. ;-) They were so funny because they ingeniously discovered Ellie's skinny body will fit behind the seat and in front of the parent pusher bar.



Earlier that day, I captured Levi having his first real back and forth communication with Sarah. I swear they were communicating - listen how they took turns talking . . . whatever the words were.



Ellie couldn't resist and came up to give Levi some of her forceful lovin'.



Caleb also showed us some new moves on the trampoline.




And lastly, I grabbed this short clip from Saturday when Levi was hanging out with me and didn't have a care in the world.

Traffic Trouble

I have had zero crashes since 2001 (and it was the other guys fault) and zero tickets since 2000 and wammo - double wammie. On Thursday two weeks ago, I ran into a guys bumper in a merge lane when he stopped suddenly and Friday, Wammo, I got pulled over and was given a ticket for turning on a red arrow - who was I to know that you couldn't do that.

I don't think that rule exists in Idaho or at least I have never paid attention to it.

So, needless to say, I was a bit negative toward the law. Darn't, our little perfect car now has a blemish.



Here is a pic of the damages -

Trip to Vegas

Because most of you probably don't go back in our blog to see older posts, I'm putting this one here for now - I went to Vegas 2 weeks ago for work and saw Steve, Jung, Andrew and Sarah (Rachel was gone to Girl's Camp). Andrew is so tall now. It was a lot of fun.

I spent the second night with my best friend, Russ - it was like all the years melted away and we hung out from 10:30 to 3:30 (even when Russ had a business meeting to wake up for at 6 am) and we just talked. We did a lot of dreaming again about future ventures.

We had to slip away from the house at 1 am to take a spin on his Honda 450 cc dirtbikes. It was a-mazing. I thought my four wheelers were cool but they are nothing compared to these things. I was popping small wheelies with every gear and went from 0-60 in milliseconds. Nervously watching out for cops made it feel like Dave Toy's bachelor party football field run all over again. Whew!


Lastly, here I was with Doug van Aman, the CMO from my company - we were at CompTIA, Computer Technology Industry Association. It was a fun show. The Hawaiian shirt was a company uniform thing.

Caleb Pulling A Big Rig

We thought is was hilarious to walk out of the house on Tuesday to see Caleb who had figured out how to connect the trailer to his bike with a bungee cord to pull Ellie around. What a funny kid.

Sarah told me he patiently pulled Ellie around and around and each time when he stopped, the trailer tire would roll over his training wheel and he would methodically roll it back and hook up the bungee cord again and continue on his culdesac journey.

Evening Pigs In a Blanket

Tonight we went to a beautiful park 20 minutes from our house north in one of the many valleys that people are flocking to. We ate Pigs in a Blanket (hot dogs wrapped with crescent roles) and our kids had a blast playing on the toys. It was a small moment that is becoming one of a number that make us more fond of Reno. It is wearing on us slowly and we are daily learning to like it more. The breeze cooled things down to the 60s and the sky was full with the amber rays of the sun and it felt like a bit of the home we loved in Meridian.

Caleb is our little climber


Ellie is ever so dainty


And Sarah is becoming a Tried and True Die Hard Mother & Wife - what a babe.

Levi is a Big Boy

Levi is getting to be such a big boy - wow and he reminds us so much of little Caleb when he was this age except that he had a lot more hair. Perhaps Levi is showing his high probability of being a peladito one day "baldy in Spanish"

He has started babbling so much more and has taken his first few swipes at the toys we hang over his head. He smiles all the time and hardly cries - he is truly an amazing baby and Sarah says if we could have more guaranteed babies like him we would have another 6. Uh, that won't happen. We are 1 for 3 and I am not much of a gambling man.

Here is Levi taking a bath. What a cutie.

Lake Tahoe - Take 2 - Wow!

We went to Lake Tahoe again this Saturday - it was our second trip and we just can't get enough of it.

I put 22 pictures plus captions together in a slideshow. Here is the auto feed.

All pictures are beautiful but you have to look for the picture of Caleb in the foreground and the laughing girls in the background. Caleb had just entertained them with Lion growls, pirate sword fighting moves, jumping and prancing in the sand and that "confident set of gestures that are germane to our little man.

The guy on the beach sitting next to me asked if he could rent Caleb for a few minutes to go meet some girls. The guy couldn't get over how funny it was to see a little Mr. Man. If it wasn't for his occasional tyrant, I would believe we had a 16 year old in a 5 year old body. Crazy funny!

Hot August Nights

Reno has this cool 12 day festival of classic cars. Sarah and I went on our date night and was amazed at the time, effort and expense these hobbyists put into their cars.

The owner of this Mustang spent 3 years and about $60k restoring this vehicle. He said he was offered $150k from a buyer in Vegas. Nice return but I'm not sure it is worth 3 years of nights and weekends. ;-)

We loved the realistic flames on this car.

This was a Rolls Royce - I've neverseen one of these and for fun, the owners hooked on a window tray with Grey Poupon and a fancy knife.