Catch - up post number 11, Reno Aces and Eric Byrnes

Eric Byrnes from the Arizona Diamondbacks is rehabbing with the Reno Aces (Arizona's AAA team). We went to watch the Aces play and got to watch Byrnes strut his stuff. Here's a few pictures of him...

This little baseball head pops up over the speakers at the stadium and sings the ENTIRE 7th inning stretch "take me out to the ball game" with you! It was quite funny - the mouth moves and everything! The things you get to experience in AAA baseball!

This was surprisingly an entertaining game to watch! Too bad their not the farm-team for the Giants or the Rockies!!

Catch - up post number 10, almost done catching up!

Was I done traveling yet? Of course not! After my week in Idaho, the following weekend after I got home, Duke and I made the trip home to Gooding, Idaho to see Duke's parents. We arrived in Gooding to find Duke's dad awaiting our arrival (around midnight!). We were surprised to see him still awake, but we couldn't stay up long because we had an early tee-time! We golfed 18 holes on a windy Gooding golf course. Of course that wasn't enough, so Duke and his dad golfed at the Buhl golf course later that afternoon while Sue and I went to see a movie. We didn't manage to get any pictures, but it was sure good to go home!

So, I know you have just been waiting and waiting for this next picture...

Don't worry, the city has had this under construction so they could change the lights out to be more "green". Reno is definitely a strange city. It's like country people living in the 'big city'... a strange combination if you can only imagine!

Catch - up post number 9, Week in Idaho

After the wedding in Denver, I headed to Rigby, ID to spend a week with my sister and her sweet family. This wasn't necessarily a week of "vacation" as it involved a lot of work! But, we managed to have a lot of fun while I was there!

Every year Rexburg hosts an International Music and Dance festival. This involves a parade of the countries that participated in the festival. Here's a few pictures of the parade:

China

Japan:

Mexico:

Three of the four nephews with one of the guys from the Mexico group:

We made a trip to the famous Rigby, Lake. Here's a few pics of the fun we had!

Notice the whoppers - I think Brendon ate most of that container of whoppers! That's what aunts are good for, right? (letting you eat what you want?!)

We buried the boys in the sand. This is Carson:

This is Aidan. Notice the floaties... I thought that was pretty funny, just in case he downs in the sand :)

Of course, Uncle Winston had to be buried too!

Playing in the water:

Carson and Aidan played in their last soccer game while we were there. Carson did great - he played forward (the best position, right?!) to start the game and then finished in the goal and had some great saves!

Here's some pics of Carson in action:

Aidan was another story... The below pictures are a little misleading as I think they were the most action he had in the game! He was busy laying on the ground, twirling in circles and hugging the other team players! It was pretty funny to watch :) But, I have hope for him as I'm pretty sure I turned some cartwheels on the soccer field when I was his age!

Here's Aidan:

Here's precious baby Devon - the 4th John boy!

On Thursday night we made it to the sand dunes where we went to a "hidden lake". On the way to the lake, we of course had to stop to let Aaron and Winston do a little bridge jumping!

Here's a video of their 10.0 dives :)

While at the sand dunes, we managed to loose the key to their van (the only key to their van!) so it made for an adventurous night!

We were able to use this guy's phone at the sand dunes... (since all of our phones and purses were locked in the van)...

This is Thomas Taylor, apparently he is a world famous "pro-paintballer" ?? Yeah, well when we used his phone he offered my 2 year old nephew some of his stickers "hey dude, want some stickers??" pretty funny. The stickers were of the above picture.

We ended up getting a ride from a stranger in a mini van - all 8 of us plus their 3 kids and the driver!! (thank goodness Idahoans are friendly!) and made it to Aaron's parents house not too far away.

We managed to get a key made for the van by 9:00a.m. the next morning which was great because Winston and I were driving the four nephews to Salt Lake City to pick up my dad from the airport that afternoon!

Dad's flight ended up being delayed so we spent some quality couple of hours at the Layton park.

Here we are feeding the duckies:

We managed to pick up dad from the airport after which we stopped in Park City for some delicious dinner from McDonalds and then headed to Denver! We stayed the night with Brad and Carena after which Dad and the boys continued driving to Arkansas and then I caught a flight home to Reno!

Thanks John family for such a fun visit!

Catch - up post number 8, Zack's wedding in Denver

Duke's friend, Zack, from Pharmacy school was married on July 31st and Duke was asked to be a groomsman at his wedding. So, we made the trip to Denver, it felt like we were going home! But, we only stayed for the weekend. Duke had to get dressed all snazzied up in a Tux, I must say he's a hottie :)

I thought the Boutonnieres were pretty...

That's A LOT of groomsmen!

Oh, so cute!

We were able to visit with our good friends Brad and Carena for the day. It was good to see them as part of this trip too!

Do you think we're done traveling yet? Of course not! After the wedding, Duke flew back to Reno and studied hard for his national exam while I flew to Salt Lake City and then drove up to Idaho to spend the week with my sister's family! Pics of the Idaho fun to follow shortly!

Catch - up post number 7, Zollingers visit Reno

A week and a half after our visit to California, the Zollingers came to Reno to visit! We managed to get some pictures of Bocce ball...

This one is funny. If you look real close you can see the motion of JTs and Zack's hands!

After staying the night with us, they made their way to Virginia City and then to Lake Tahoe. Thanks Zollingers for taking time to visit us :)

Catch - up post number 6, babysitting the Fallows

It's been a busy summer for us if you haven't been able to tell already! I returned to Reno after being in Arkansas on July 13th, and two nights later Duke and I drove to Brentwood, CA to spend a couple of nights with Duke's sister's kids. Jodie and Chris went to a Shakespeare festival in Oregon and we were lucky enough to spend a couple fun-filled days with Marin, Ell and Jack.

We went to this fun filled play place that was full of blow up - slides and jumping toys. These are the only pictures we managed to get of the fun we had the entire weekend, but they are cute pictures!

After the Jump-it place we managed to make our way to a pool for a few good hours of swimming. I think we wore them out the first day!

The next day Kadie (Duke's sister that lives in Gilroy, CA) drove down with her kids, Brevin, JT and Zack. We went to the pool again with Kadie's boys and enjoyed some great pizza for dinner!

The two days went super fast and then we had to drive home the 2nd night so Duke could get to work on Saturday morning.

We had a great time with the kids, thanks Jodie and Chris for leaving town so we could come play with your kids :)

Catch - up post number 5, Renee's wedding

The next weekend after the 4th of July, I went home to Arkansas to attend my good friend's wedding (friend from high school). She was a beautiful bride and it was fun to be with my family for the weekend! As always, it wasn't enough time at home :)

These first three pictures are at the rehearsal dinner:

Renee, her mom and me

My mom was gracious enough to be my date for the rehearsal dinner! Thanks, mom!

Renee was a very beautiful bride!

Quite the cake huh? It was as delicious as it looks pretty! So good!

Grooms cake - very good too!

Catch - up post number 4, cont'd, 4th of July fun in Lake Tahoe

Our first weekend in Reno, AKA, "The biggest little city in the world" happened to be the 4th of July. We decided to go explore Lake Tahoe and ventured to a cool hike and then stayed to see the "supposed to be biggest ever fireworks" but I think they miss-printed their flyers... I wasn't so impressed!

This first picture is driving up to Lake Tahoe, it's so beautiful up there.

Then, onward to our hiking destination which was about 15 miles south of Lake Tahoe. The name of the hike is called "horse tail" because there is a waterfall that looking from a distance looks like a long horsetail. The waterfall followed the hike the entire way up. Here's a few pictures of how cool of a hike it was... if you come visit, we will take you :)

So pretty...

So, we climbed down to stand "in" or close to the water. There was a big boulder in the bottom that looked pretty stable to stand on for a picture. In the middle of my oh so cute pose, I started leaning backwards! The big boulder that should have been stable, was very deceiving... none the less...

It made me react like the below picture. You can't tell by the picture, but my heart was racing very fast after that happened over fear I would fall in!

After my near fall into the water, we continued the never ending hike, but we eventually made it to the top of the hike where we came to the lake where the waterfall started from. About 3/4 of the way up to the lake, I was surely ready to give up - it was a very hard hike, and would it be that worth it? And, I kept looking down thinking, "we are never going to find our way down from here!" After we made it about half way to the top, the hike turned into big boulders of granite. On the way up to the lake, we kept seeing these home made "trail markers" made of rocks piled 4-5 high. I thought that was pretty cool (I guess I'm an inexperienced hiker) so I added a few myself to the collection - and then we kept going. But, once at the top, there were amazing views and it was so peaceful up there! It was worth it!

Here's a few pics from the lake:

When we finally decided to make our way down, looking down at those big boulders of granite was so overwhelming for me! We in fact, headed down the wrong way one time to come to a dead end where we couldn't go any further because of a 20 foot drop off. So, we made our way back up and looked for our trail markers. (I will never go on a hike that doesn't have a trail without trail markers again!) It was such a relief to find them and then, someone that was very prepared had made trail markers with spray paint on the rocks.... so smart! We followed those for a little while until we couldn't see them anymore. At that point I got the following injury:

My legs were really tired and my feet slid out from under me. I was able to catch myself before sliding down a 10 foot drop, but managed to jab my finger into the rock and scrap up my knee in the process... ouch :)

We then came to a spot that it seemed as if we couldn't go any further due to a crevasse in the rocks... we decided we didn't have another way so Duke made it down giving me confidence to go next and FEW! we made it! Eventually down to the car where I could have drank a gallon of water...!

We made it to a local pizza shop, ate some dinner and then relaxed to see the not so big firework display! Over all, it was a great day!

Here's to the end of catch-up post number 4 and wishing you a happy 4th of July:)