Snowtime

At Crane Flat Fire Lookout

Nothing better than some sunshine, snow and a game of snowball catch!

Modeling Pics

Not sure if Tre should be in Playgirl, Sports Illustrate of Cosmo.....but either way, he is stunning!

Looking at the crickets outside his tank

DNA

This is shocking! 

I always believed that I held a lot of Russian genes from my great grandfather - mostly because of my Russian cankles and my short, stocky, sturdy body.  But apparently the cankles more likely come from my Western European or Irish/Scottish/Wales genes seeing that this represents 96% of my gene pool.  Add Great Britain in and it is a shocking 98% of my gene pool.

Who am I???

New Pair Shoes

I usually post pics of my own new shoes but it a new twist on things, these are Drew's new lookers!  You can't really tell in the pic but they are dark grey.  They go with his new grey pants, purple shirt and black and grey striped socks.  And he looks incredibly handsome in the whole get up!

Back story:  I recently met the Chief Compliance Officer from a large national construction firm and I was fascinated with his stories of his business - so different from high tech.  I thought this would be a perfect industry for Drew so I reached out to the guy and asked him to point me in the direction of their internships.  He hooked me up with a local HR gal who I introduced to Drew.  Drew and I spent the next few days working on his resume and sharpening his attire while he set up a meeting with the HR gal.  He met her yesterday and had a great interview.  She seemed to like him and was interested in his unique background working in commercial crabbing and fishing.  We are hoping for an internship this summer but even if nothing comes from it, it was a great learning experience.  Drew and I did all these practice interviews with me pretending I was the HR lady and sure enough, she asked two of the questions I asked:  "What's your dream job" and "How are you in math"!

I was super proud of him for his focus and commitment.  And he looked awesome too! 

Did someone say.....

We are going to the boat?

We are going for a hike?

Load up?

It's dinner time?

Oakley's coming home?

Groveland Flooding - March 2018

The longest dock at an angle is the dock we park on

On Thursday March 22, 2018 Groveland experienced the worse flooding there has been in the 17+ years we have been here.   A storm seemed to stall right over us and dump rain for about 24 hours.  Our rain gauge showed almost 9 inches in 24 hours.

So much debris

We decided to run up to take a look for ourselves.  Our cabin and Anna and Roy's cabin are fine but Jim said our mud room is the wettest he has ever seen it.  I am glad we have the rock wall at the bottom of the driveway and that Jim is diligent of making sure water is banked away from the house.

By the 4 Seasons B&B and the pharmacy

Downtown is a mess!  Buildings were flooded, roads and parking lots undermined and parking lots destroyed.   There is a lot of activity while people clean up.

Behind Twice as Nice - where the stream starts going through town

Two boats upside down in the debris

One of the main roads around our community (Feretti) is also closed because it gave out under the road.  We have no idea when it will be opened.   It also looked like the Lake Lodge building was flooded as they had a restoration person there in the parking lot. 

We saw a house right on the creek that had a beautiful deck and hot tub area right by the creek.   It is totally wiped out with the hot tub on its side and the hot tub cover floating in the debris in the marina.  Right now they are saying stay out of the lake as they don't know if there is any contamination -- there was reports of porta potties and propane tanks floating down creeks! 

There is a lot of work to be done everywhere.

Our dock - right in the middle - at the complete wrong angle

Anna and Roy had a little land slide behind their place

This was the height of the flooding in downtown

New Job

Hops was laid off from her job at the skilled nursing facility because our team leader moved to Arizona.  Luckily she quickly found a new job!  She now works at a mental health facility which houses teens and adults for a short period of time while they are stabilized.

Today was her first day and she was a rock star! 

They put is in a gymnasium area on the floor on yoga mats.  For the first 30 minutes the adults come in for visits and the second 30 minutes the teenagers come in.  I wasn't sure how she would do because it was a different environment - at the nursing facility we went up to the residents and visited - at this facility the people come up to us, sometimes up to 5 at a time for a visit.  I was not sure how she would do with all those people hovering over her.  But she was great!  A couple times she looked at me like, "what is happening" but then she decided she needed nap and went to sleep!

Every time we do this work she makes people so happy.  Today a woman walked up to her, sat down, started petting her, got tears in her eyes and said, "this right here makes me want to live another day."  WOW!  That is super meaningful for someone having mental health issues.

I am so proud of her.

Party Time!

What does a bearded dragon need?  

A good party hat!  

Really.....there is nothing else to say about this.

Our Hosts

These are the goofballs that hosted us in Durango.  Who wouldn't have a great time with them.  Strong genes - they looks so much alike!

Durango

Hillbilly picnic on the side of the road

Next stop on our boondoggle was Durango, Colorado where we did a few epic boondoggles to look at houses, hike and eat yummy food.

Looking out at the view

Frozen waterfall

We stopped at this hot spring which looked like a pile of poop.  It had warm water flowing out of it like crazy.  The kids got wet and muddy and LOVED it!

Our new house?

We went to a town called Vallecito and looked at the house above which had an amazing view of a lake.  When we drove up to check it out, the neighbor was just leaving his house and offered to let us in to take a look.  Then he told us all about the house and the town.  We were pretty lucky to get the inside skinny.  He also told us about the food at the little restaurant/general store below -- so we met them again there and did some more chatting.  Turned out he was a conservative Republican and I am pretty sure I don't want to be his neighbor!

The boys ate these deep fried hamburgers covered with green chile sauce.  The food was delicious.

After lunch we continued with the hillbilly behavior and had beers in the parking lot while talking to the Republican neighbor!

After lunch we went an explored a frozen lake.  Jim and Mari both fell through!  Luckily they were not in deep water.  Oakley loved fetching on the ice!

Next up was the ski resort, Purgatory.   We hung out in the snow while the kids played.

Kyle taught us this new game - Marbles and Jokers

When not boondoggling we played games and played with the kids.   The boys spent a lot of time in the backyard playing Frisbeer.  YEP - Frisbee and beer drinking!  And we celebrated William's 4th birthday twice!  We even met up with one of my former coworkers who just moved to Durango and went on a hike.  Oh - and we took repeated trips to the bakery!

William got suspenders for his 4th birthday.

After 4 days we had to head out.  So we packed up and make the 7 hour drive back to Phoenix via New Mexico.  It was super interesting to see the little towns in New Mexico and the mountains of Arizona on the drive to the airport.

All in all it was a wonderful trip!  I got to cross some things off my bucket list (Sedona and Durango), look at potential towns to retire in, visit with Mari, Kyle and the kids and best of all, I got to spend a vacation with Drew!

Thanks to Mari and Kyle for the hospitality.  We plan to be back and move into your basement for an extended period of time!

West Fork - North Sedona

On our second day of our Spring Break Boondoggle, we took a hike on the West Fork trail north of Sedona.  We chose this one because it was in the direction of Durango Colorado, our final destination.

We did a quick two mile hike and then got in the truck and drove 6 hours to Mari and Kyle's house.

Another beautiful hike - this one was up a canyon that looked like something from Thunder Mountain Railroad in Disneyland.

Lots of creek crossings

Love

I planted my heart shaped pot with my new succulents.

Sedona

Jim and I planned a boondoggle for Drew's spring break.  He picked us up on Monday morning at Phoenix airport and we drove up to Sedona.  It was a place I had always wanted to see and I was not disappointed!

We got there and immediately went on a 5 mile hike on the Soldier Pass trail.  We saw beautiful red cliffs and peaks!

After our hike we walked down to dinner and ate Mexican food outside in the freezing cold - but we were too hungry to wait for a table inside!

We ended the day watching the Voice and waiting to see if Cassie was on -- she wasn't.

A giant sink hole