Friday, September 24, 2010
The Tooth Fairy
Finality
Last tooth. I remember distinctly when the first came in. Yesterday, maybe?
No more tooth fairy.
No more sparkly dust around the room.
Just adolescence.
Then adulthood.
When did I become so old?
Monday, September 20, 2010
Ta-Mon-San by Braeley
The beach that we went to was not rocky. Our beach was super shallow you could walk out about a mile and only be up to your head. One time, me and Mom started going out on the rowboat that Mom had, but then Bella wanted to go out so she sat right in the middle, but then she thought it was too crowded so she JUMPED out. Then she pulled us everywhere. And one time when she was just walking she screamed and tried to jump in the boat again, but Mom wouldn't let her. She screamed because she fell in a sink hole and it felt like gooey mushy poo. Then Bella pulled us back to shore, and Mom got out. Bella then pulled me out and left me, so I had to jump out and stop her from going back in. I got my shirt soaked! I thought the whole thing was really fun.
The next day we went to the rocky beach. It was super fun! We caught 15 craw dads in about an hour. We caught them by scaring them out from rocks and chased them into a cup. Then we poured them into a bucket. Crawdads are like a mix between lobster and prawn. Mom kept bragging about how big her crawdads were when she was little! And then we set them free and went to MoFo's. MoFo's is a really super awesome pizza place! It was really cool because we could watch our pizzas being made. The person who was making the pizzas gave us a piece of dough to play with! The pizza tasted the best ever! We didn’t even have room for dessert! Then we left and went to the skipping stone beach. At the beach, Dad was teaching Bella how to skip a stone and I was skipping stones at the beach when I saw a dog coming. So, I trotted farther down the beach until I found the perfect rock. It was perfectly round and when I tried to skip it the wind blew it and messed it up. So now the perfect skipping stone was wasted!
It's Sunday morning but I can't play video games. We made oatmeal that morning I had maple. I only took a few a bites and wondered around the room and when I came back my oatmeal was in the trash! Someone ate my oatmeal and threw it in the trash! Who could do such a thing? Gaby?!
This morning we are going to look for crawdads hoping it wasn’t windy. But it was so windy that Mom and Gaby went to the restaurant and ordered food. When we got tired of skipping stones we came up to the restaurant and ordered smoothies. Then, we walked over to the wooden boat shop. One of dad's favorite places! Mom got boat envy of this beautiful grey boat with these great oars. It was so cool, but she didn’t get it. There was this awesome tube that was shaped like a shoe, it was called the toeshoe. When we went back to cave rock everything was going wrong! The rocks were too slippery, the waves were too strong, the water was too cold, there were too many people and we could not see crawdads! Finally, I started to row in the rowboat but I got too frustrated so mom came out to help me and then I got to do it. Unfortunately, I was wearing my clothes in the raft and waves came in and pounded me with water! I was totally soaked to the bone.
Then we went to Freshie's, a really good taco place. I got fish and chips. I went outside because I was bored and saw a giant pirate store- they had pirate monopoly! Then we went home and I met 2 new friends, Kyle and Michael. We played volleyball and then decided to play football. We all played really super good. I don't know why but Bella was upset and saying she didn’t do good? She actually played really well! After that we saw fireworks on the balcony of our hotel. The fireworks were totally awesome, extraordinary! Then I went to bed.
We packed up all our things in the car then went to rent a boat. We were going fast and then when we hit a wave we jumped and tried to time it so the boat went down when we were coming down so it made it extra high. It was super! Then, we went to
We got to Shonna and Dougs and Doug came outside and Kipper immediately bounded outside and leaped on me. Kipper is a cute little white dog who looks like he has a mustache! He likes to catch balls and then run off with them. We have to be careful with gum because if he smells mint he will chow down. He started to eat Gaby’s gummy vitamins but they didn’t taste minty so he didn’t eat them but left them scattered all over the room. When we got there Doug was ready for a party and he gave us milk and cookies for dinner! Kipper was like a warm water bottle on me and he slept with us all night.
The next day I woke up and the TV was on. I didn’t see daddy and I waited for him to get up. When mom came in I said “where’s dad?’ And she said “ I already took him to the airport”L.
First, we had to get up and ready and we winded our way into San Franciso. Then we parked in a horrible, horrible parking space and we had to walk from Pier one to Pier 33 which was about 3 miles! We went all the way to Pier 33 to get
Next, at home we did some of the fire works! It was fun! We saved about one of everything to do with dad!
Next morning, we had to get to the ferry building before noon or else we would miss
This morning we ate cereal and toast. Then we packed the car and we went to the Exploratorium. It was so awesome! It was really cool! Inside there was even a song I knew! It was way better than the
We went to the aquarium the next day. It was the best aquarium in the world. It had jellyfish, crabs you could play with, and even a giant deep sea bass as tall as Dad! Here are some things I learned there:
1. Decorator crabs take tiny pieces of coral, seaweed and algea and stick them onto themselves so they are camouflaged.
2. If seahorses don't blend in they get eaten by GIANT FISH! There are three kinds of seahorses that I know of: the leafy sea dragon, the weedy sea dragon, and the pot-belly seahorse.
3. Bat rays feel like wet sponges. Their bellies look like faces.
4. The giant jellies that we caught on the Breanna were "Egg-yolk Jellies". The other small ones were "Crystal Jellies" and "Moon Jellies". The aquariums were shaped like a circle so the jellies can drift like they do in the wild.
5. Flatfish look like halibut.
6. Albatross never come to land until it's time to lay eggs. It also locks it's wings and can glide 3-4 days without resting. The wingspan is usually 6 feet!
After the aquarium, we went on a 4 person bike. It was super fun. We rode down to Fisherman's Wharf at the speed of light! We got samples to see which is the best clam chowder. My favorite was at Kokomo's. Then we rode back and turned in our bike.
Next we drove to Cambria, when it got dark, we were on this windy rode on the side of a cliff. Then we fell off the cliff... The End....Just kidding. We finally got to the Fogcatcher Inn. (I fell asleep so I didn't remember the rest). When we woke up we went on a walk on the boardwalk. I brought a little bit of Bella's bread. I stopped and put a little bread on my lap. A squirrel came out and got it! I kept putting pieces around and one jumped on my lap and got it!
On the way back home, we went to a yarn and button shop. When we were in there we asked if we should see the elephant seals. They said it was as cool as National Geographic. So we started going. It was 10 miles the other direction. We saw lots of pups probably 1-2 years old. When they move, they look like little inch worms.
Then we went home.
The End
Monday, September 13, 2010
My Great Tahoe Vacation
It seemed TO fast for my taste… So, I guess I’ll tell you all my story.
Our hotel (I think) was called Lakeshore Lodge. It was quaint. (Witch in other words means “small but nice.”) The lakeshore that was outside our window was sandy, warm, shallow, and had SINKHOLES! Although I’m embarrassed about it, I HATE sinkholes! Whenever I step in one, I scream! (There! I said it! J)
So, we drove up to 
Then we went to Zephyr Cove and rented a motorboat and Braeley and I liked jumping when the boat jumped so it catapulted us into the air!
We also saw AWESOME fireworks on Labor Day! Even better than the Sea World, Disneyland, and the
Our San Francisco Vacation- By Bella
When we got to Doug and Shauna’s house, Kipper and Doug came out to meet us. Kipper is the CUTEST thing! His curly white fur says “PET ME!!!” “PET Me!!!” He is a ball of energy waiting to be unleashed!!
Our first day in
So we also went to the ExplOratorium all day. But for lunch we went to an ok Italian place. Then we drove to
I have to tell you all 5 facts about Monterey Bay Aquarium.
- The Horn Shark lays a spiral egg so the mom can burry it in the kelp.
- Bycatching is when like fisherman catch sha
rks, lop off there fins then through them back. - BottomTrawling is when fishermen drag a net a long the oceanfloor. Ripping up coral reefs and killing fish.
- Swell Sharks lay eggs that have little strings that help the momma tangle it in the kelp.
- Don’t eat Orange Roughy
After that, we rented a Surrey (s-rr-y) to go to Fishermans Wharf. Gaby was Very funny (there were 2 handles in the front. The one on the DRIVERS side was real and the one on the passengers side was fake) so when she got freaked out she turned the wheel as fast as she could when she started screaming she got so freaked out, THAT'S when we figured out that she did NOT know that that steering wheel was fake! we started laughing out loud. HAHAHa!
When we got there, I got Clam Chowder (I ended up not eating it) in a Bread Bowl.
We tried a lot of samples of it and Brae didn't want to stop! After we returned the Currey, at the place where we rented it the song that was playing there was Water (by Brad Paisley!)
Then we drove along this very curvy road to Cambria, to Fog Catcher Inn and went to sleep.
The next day, (after we got our breakfast) Braeley and I knelt on our skateboards and rode up and down the parking lot because it was slanted. Then we went on the Boardwalk and climbed down to tide pools and saw a lot of things like a dead fish with crabs on it.
Then we went to see Elephant seals. We saw one old male who was molting!
The males can reach 16 feet!
The we drove to Mission San Louis Obispo. We saw sidewalk art (what name do YOU like better? Baccus or Dionysus?) Then we went inside the mission and got a new Lucky Pig! (Its OK Amber. :) )
Then it was a few hours until we got to eat dinner at Panera. Outside, I practiced Vaulting on the benches.
When we got home, we watched Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire (at 9:30 pm)
Sunday, September 12, 2010
TA-MON-SAN
This is Braeley speak for Lake Tahoe, Monterey and San Francisco! It took 10 years for me to be able to return to TA as the Tahoe memories of my parents and all of us there were just too difficult to face. It was great to go back however. So much is exactly the same. Bella and Braeley loved it just as Michael, Rhonda and Marc did as children. We MUST all go back next summer! Ron should have been with us but he had too much work.
It was great to enjoy the hospitality of Shonna and Doug in Saratoga as we traveled back and forth into San Francisco for 3 days. Bella and Braeley enjoyed learning about Alcatraz. The weather was unusually sunny and the bridge was beautiful! There was a guy dressed up in a Civil War outfit as we were leaving Alcatraz Island who gave us a Civil War history lesson. Braeley said "Why do they call it a Civil War?" " War is NOT even civil!" Out of the mouths of babes! We experienced the sympathy of a very nice trolley car driver who led us ahead of the waiting crowd onto the RIGHT trolley. We also experienced Ghirardelli (twice)! I had to open yet another candy bar tonight in order to spell GHIRARDELLI.
After experiencing Monterey Bay aquarium which is a MUST we rode our bicycle built for four which Bella has already told you about to the Wharf---so much fun. However, we did not know that it would be an unwise decision to drive along highway 1 to Cambria in the fog and dark. SCARY! We do not need to do that again!
What a great summer! Bring on the next adventure! In the meantime I am going to put in my time at work........
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Tahoe by Braeley
The next day we went to the rocky beach. It was super fun! We caught 15 craw dads in about an hour. We caught them by scaring them out from rocks and chased them into a cup. Then we poured them into a bucket. If the beach have waves it would be as clear as Tahoe! Crawdads are like a mix between lobster and prawn. Mom kept bragging about how big her craw dads were when she was little! And then we set them free and went to MoFo's. MoFo's is a really super awesome pizza place! It was really awesome because we could really watch our pizzas being made and the person who was making the pizzas gave us a piece of dough to play with! The pizza tasted the best ever! We didn't even have room for dessert! Then we left and went to the skipping stone beach. At the beach, Dad was teaching Bella how to skip a stone and I was skipping stones at the beach when I saw a dog coming. So, I ran away down farther down the beach then I found the perfect rock. It was perfectly round and when I tried to skip it the wind blew it and messed it up so now the perfect skipping stone was wasted!
It's Sunday morning but I can't play video games. We made oatmeal that morning I had maple. I only took a few a bites and wondered around the room and when I came back my oatmeal was in the trash! Someone ate my oatmeal and threw it in the trash! Who could do such a thing? Gaby?! This morning we are going to look for Craw dads hoping it wasn't windy but it was so Windy that Mommy and Gaby went to the restaurant and ordered food. When we got tired of skipping stones we came up to the restaurant and ordered smoothies. Then, we walked over to the wooden boat shop. One of dad's favorite places! Mom got boat envy of this beautiful grey boat with these great oars. It was so cool but she didn't get it. There was this awesome tube that was shaped like a shoe it was called the "Toe Shoe". When we went back to cave rock everything was going wrong? The rocks were too slippery, the waves were too strong, the water was too cold, there were too many people and we could not see crawdads so I kicked the water cause I was so angry. Finally, I started to row in the row boat but I got too frustrated so mom came out to help me and then I got to do it. Unfortunately, I was wearing my clothes in the raft and waves came in and pounded me with water and I was totally soaked to the bone. So I had to go naked in the car home!
Then we went to Freshie's, it was a really good taco place and I got fish and chips. I went outside because I was bored and saw a giant pirate store and they had pirate monopoly! Then we went home and I met 2 new friends, Kyle and Michael we played volley ball and then decided to play football. We all played really super good. I don't know why but Bella was crying and saying she didn't do good? After that we saw fireworks on the balcony of our hotel. The fireworks were totally awesome, extraordinary! Then I went to bed.
We packed up all our things in the car then went to rent a boat. We were going fast and then when we hit a wave we jumped and tried to time it so the boat went down when we were coming down so it made it extra high. It was super! Then, we went to San Francisco and in the car we finished reading " The Balloon Boy". THE END
When we got to Shonna and Doug's, Doug came outside and Kipper immediately came outside and jumped on me. Kipper is a cute little white dog who looks like he has a mustache! He likes to catch balls and then run off with them.We have to be careful with gum because if he smells mint he will chow down. He started to eat Gabby’s gummy vitamins but they didn't taste minty so he didn't eat them but left them scattered all over the room. When we got there Doug was ready for a party and he gave us milk and cookies for dinner! Kipper was like a warm water bottle on me and he slept with us all night. The next day I woke up and the TV was on and I didn’t see daddy and I waited for him to get up and when mom came I said “where’s dad?’ And she said “ I already took him to the airport”. First, we had to get up and ready and we winded our way into San Francisco and then we parked in a horrible, horrible parking space and we had to walk from Pier one to Pier 33 which was about 3 miles! We went all the way to Pier 33 to get Alcatraz tickets for the next day.And then we took a cable car all the way over to ChinaTown. The Cable car was really fun because they look like exactly in the movies but a little faster. At China Town there are shops everywhere and almost every shop we went to had fireworks! First we went to a really cool tea shop!And, you know what I found out?That I don’t like expensive teas! I like cheap mint teas! I found that out when I tried a super expensive one—probably, $200.00 a pound. It was horrible! Then, we went to another store that has fire works. This time we bought one of everything! Then, Guess what we went to? A fortune cookie factory! It is way different than what you would expect! It was a tiny, little shop with only about 5 people. It is a pretty easy thing. There is a machine that pours fortune cookie batter into a little pan then a lid comes down on it and it goes into this little tunnel that has little flames jumping out all around it. When it comes out there a little wheels on the side that go up a bar that makes it come open and then someone takes out the almost cooked batter which turns crispy in a few seconds so you have to be real quick to take it off. It goes on a little sick and before she folds it she puts in a little piece of paper that would be your fortune! Next, at home we did some of the fire works! It was fun! We saved about one of everything to do with dad! Next morning, we had to get to the ferry building before noon or else we would miss Alcatraz We made it just in time! I know one of the things about going to Alcatraz: You break the rules you go to prison you break the prison rules you go to Alcatraz. In 1962 three inmates tried to escape. It was famous. The battle went on for 3 days between the swat team and the convicts! You can still see the grenade holes made when they dropped granades through the roof. On the record, no ones ever escaped from Alcatraz! We took a huge audio tour of Alcatraz. Before Alcatraz was a prison it was an army base for the U.S. Army. During the Civil War, it was a Union base on the west coast. On the way out of the prison we actually talked to a soldier. Then we went to a really good chocolate company that filled the chocolate with yummy flavors! The name was Ghirardelli. After a stop at the Ferry Building Market where I bought oatmeal we went home and went to bed! This morning we ate cereal and toast then we packed the car and we went to the Exploratorium. It was so awesome! It was really cool! Inside there was even a song I knew! It was way better than the Museum. One of my favorite things was tricking mom! I told her to put her fingers on two electric plates then I spun the wheel really fast so it generated electricity and it sent electricity through the plates and shocked mom! Then we went to Golden Gate Park, ran to the end of the pier and Gabby started chasing us with the camera so we pretended she was an evil cyborg who wanted to eat our brains! Then we went to Ghirardelli and got really good pumpkin spice chocolate square!
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Back to Tahoe by Rhonda
We started coming to Tahoe every summer when I was 2. We would begin our drive in the pre-dawn hours, sleeping until the sun rose, then snacking on Boopa's homemade chocolate chip cookies once we woke. Before cell phones were common, Papa had a CB radio that we could use to talk to the truckers, "Breaker, breaker for a radio check, what's your 10-9?". My Boopa and Papa would host us in a lake front rock house with a moldy mouse head in the family room. The bedrooms were in out buildings across a dusty pine needle laden yard. Michael and I always slept in the room with the pink and green floral bedspreads from the 60s, the mattresses had wonderfully noisy springs great for jumping on. I remember Marc would bring small Legos and toys that would fall between the rotting boards on the front porch and we would spend hours in the afternoon using chewed gum and a stick to try to retrieve them for him. Mom would park herself on a plastic tubey lawn chair, cranked back to supine, pour on the tanning oil, eat corn nuts, drink Pepsi and read ALL DAY. Michael and I ran first to the dock and the water, only coming indoors when we were forced. We swam in the icy clear blue water, caught crawdads by the dozen, and rowed in our inflated rowboats. Papa would convince us that he was an Olympic caliber athlete and then point, with his middle finger, in the direction in which he expected us to chauffeur him across the lake. We would row until our arms burned and then would jump in and swim, pulling him in the boat along behind. I remember the first year we brought fins! Oh the joy of making it to the beach in half the time! But we were never as fast as he was...so we were led to believe.... I remember Boopa following Marc around everywhere at that old house, giving Mom cherished time to read. She saved the leftover loaf ends for the geese on the pier. I remember fishing with the men. I would convince them that I too needed a rod and reel, bait and a cute lure. I would loose interest in about 10 minutes and stick my rod between the tattered boards of the dock. One afternoon I returned to find a trout on the line waiting for me, right next to Michael and Papa who were sitting patiently awaiting their turn to reel in the big ones. I never ate the fish, yucky! But Michael and Papa would eat nearly anything we pulled out of the lake. One year we even let Papa boil our pet crawdads and eat em at the end of the week. (Although I set free my favorites before handing over the bucket.) Oh, and Papa would say, "Let's go check out the boats and see if they're dealing". Don't know why it took us so many consecutive years to realize that he was never actually interested in purchasing a boat. He just wanted to get the salesmen excited and then walk away without a gorgeous Criss Craft behind the Lincoln. Oooo, or the gold van... which is maybe a good thing, cuz that van was always on the verge of breakdown if it was running. Todd will tell you of a time when we were going to a movie on North Shore and his right foot was heating up. We started smelling something wrong before we saw the fire under the dash. Dad came to have a look and said, "it's just electrical. No problem." Well, it seemed like a problem to us when we thought maybe the car would explode while we were on our date! But Dad and the van had a special relationship. He could talk it out of breaking down, like the time he stayed home and we were heading up Kingsbury grade into Tahoe. We turned off the air conditioning, and were coaxing the van on by coordinating our leans forward and back singing, "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can..." to the beat of a terrible banging under the hood. We finally found a turnout and pulled over to call Dad. He said to put the phone up to the engine so he could hear. I don't know what they said to each other, but strike me with lightening if that van started rumbling away as if it had not a care in the world!
After Boopa died, and then Papa, we never could get excited about coming back to this magical lake. The houses we used to rent were now being used by the next generations of grandkids who had no interest in renting out their parent's well thought out real estate investments. And it wouldn't be the same anyway without Boopa feeding the geese and making her signature dishes. Or Papa bullying us into washing his car and turning off the TV, "you can do that at home!" (I don't know why it was ok for us to wash the car on vacation, seems like we could've done that at home too. Todd was the first one to realize that if we just took the car to the carwash for a couple bucks we could salvage our afternoons for fun. Man, I'm glad I married that one, he's a thinker!) Now, after 10 years, we returned for a short weekend visit. Last time we were here was when Bella was 15 months old and I was pregnant with Braeley. After listening to our stories of fish and crawdads, Braeley was kinetic with anticipation and impatient to get catching (not just fishing).
We loaded up into Gaby's new Murano - packed like the Beverly Hill Billies...
With Todd driving, we left at 3:45 am Friday morning.
Our hotel was on sandy South Shore, not how we expect Tahoe to look. We always visited the North shore with it's boulders and clear water. Although we did have a perfect lake view from our room. Bella and Braeley had fun bringing in our luggage on the rolling carts.
Braeley's flippies broke the moment we arrived so we bought him new brown ones. We didn't realize until he'd been wearing them all day that there was a picture on the souls....
We alternately called them "girlie" or "manly" as Braeley pointed out, "What girl would wear a picture of a girl on her flip flops, these are more like truck driver flip-flops!"
We found our rocky beach at "Cave Rock". The kids donned their wetsuits and immediately started crawdad fishing. Braeley placed his new pets in a green bucket.Bella and I took Gaby out for a boat ride in my little row boat.
It was almost as much fun catching the crawdads out of the bucket with their new fishing rods than out in the lake!
Todd's favorite wooden boat was the Tomahawk at Gar Woods. Anyone have an extra $250,000?
We visited our favorite pizza joint on North Shore, "MOFO's" and the kids watched the dough being tossed.
On our last evening in Tahoe, we ate at Freshies with Coleys (descent food, horrid service and location) and came back home to watch the fireworks from our balcony. The kids and Todd played volleyball and football with a couple other kids on the sand until the show began.
Before leaving the lake on our last day, we rented a speed boat and toured the shorelines from Zephyr cove to Emerald bay. Gorgeous! We ate lunch at Zephyr cove with the old rock house in the background and the kids did some homework.
Bella serenaded us with Glee and Les Miserables music as we left Tahoe for San Francisco and Shonna and Doug's house. We also finished "The Balloon Boy of San Francisco" as there was tons of traffic and it took 6 hours!
Friday, September 3, 2010
Tahoe by Braeley
The end!