Tahoe in September

The highlight of my week? Blue and I took an excursion up to the lake to explore. September is supposed to be the best month up at the lake and I believe it. WAY less people and great weather.



I've heard of these beaches on the east shore that you can hike down to...have always seen cars on the sides of the windy road along the cliffs, but never got to explore myself. I also did some research and found out these are practically the only beaches on the entire lake that allow dogs. So, off we went. My god -- hike we did. I made the mistake of taking only flimsy flip flops, underestimating the sheer incline/decline of the hike. YIKES.



But, we made it to a couple beaches, the names, I'm not sure. I "think" I made it to Hidden Beach, which, for those who don't know, is a well-known nude beach. Since we were the only ones there, only I will ever truly know whether or not I partook of that adventure! Nonetheless, there is not much "beach" at these beaches. Mostly big boulders, which makes the color of the water crystal clear and the most stunning blue-green.



So, there we were: swimming a little, catching a few rays, playing fetch with Blue, watching him improve his swimming technique. Couple of shots here.... this blog only allows me to upload a few.... Anyway -- I left in a great mood! Nothing like a shot of nature in your system once in a while :)

The Sutton's Come to Visit

What a fun weekend!

Dan's best friend Jed, his wife Jen, son Parker and chocolate lab Cabo came to visit us for the weekend!

See Pictures here.

Everyone arrived Friday afternoon...... first thing's first, Cabo and Blue went right to playing like they were old pals in the backyard, even though it's the first time they met. They didn't stop for 3 days straight.

We are so lucky to have friends like Jed and Jen for many reasons. They are 100% real and have great senses of humor. Plus, they really care about us as we do them. And what is better than seeing your husband with his best friend? When they are together they are like teenagers.

Saturday night, the boys decided to stay up ALL NIGHT LONG and play dice and drink as many bottles of beer as possible. At 5 a.m. in the morning, dan woke me up to let me know it's time for him to go to the airport... YIKES. Later on I asked him how the flight was and he said it was rough. I asked, "because you were hungover?" He said, "No, because I think I was still drunk." But, I could hear in his voice that he had the best time ever b/c he got to spend the last hours before his trip with his best buddy jed.

Sunday we took Parker to the sierra safari zoo where he got to see lions and tigers and a LIGER, the biggest animal on earth, geez. It was kind of a sad place, animals in chain link fences with not the best houses and stuff, but on the flip side, I think we got within 5 feet of the liger.... up close and personal.

Jed/Jen if you're reading -- next trips on the table are: 1) us to come visit you in LA so we can see parker again! 2) San Inez (sp?) for wine tasting in a limo (Jen, your 30th?) 3) Savanna/Charleston. Let's start figuring out dates in 2007. Can't wait!

Bob Ross

One activity I really enjoyed during the "Summer of Nicole" was taking an oil painting class. I think the best thing about the class was coming home with a nice prize for my effort. Can't really compare it to a trophy, but more like a nice 3rd place heat ribbon at a swim meet. Solid!

I was a huge fan of Bob Ross' "The Joy of Painting" when I was a kid. Who could resist the sweet, mild mannered, middle-aged white man with a huge fro? Anyway, the class is fool-proof for a beginner like me. And now I'm on this buzz of painting and the impulsive side of me just wants to go out and buy some paints, brushes and some blank canvases and have at it like a two year old and see what happens. But the practical side of me wants to wait for another class or two so I can at least pics up some techniques :) Only thing is: what am I going to do with a bunch of random landscapes? I'm going to try and talk the professor into some florals or portraits :)

Just tried to take a pic of the painting and G-R-E-A-T, my digital camera officially does not work at all now. Lovely! But the good news is that catapults me into the market of new digital cameras which I've been eying for sometime. Always a silver lining ;^)

My first entry

Hello!

I am 31 years old -- going quickly into year 32 -- and I am still a little uncomfortable with the idea of a "blog" even though I've been reading them since 2000. It just seems a bit narcissistic doesn't it? I mean, the idea that what you have to say is THAT interesting? I am thinking of this blog as more of a diary than anything. In the computer age I am finding that I have no muscles anymore in my fingers and hands, which makes keeping an offline diary quite difficult. I figure this will be it for me.