Cold and Snowy in Reno

We had a great storm come through Sunday and Monday. In fact school was canceled due to the snow and low temperatures. In our front yard we had a foot of light powder. I took a couple of pictures of my favorite girls in front of the house.

Pillars of the Earth

I thought I'd recommend a book that I recently finished reading. This book was fantastic. The characters are so well drawn out that you can't help root for the good guys. The bad guy is really bad. No, I'm not kidding. He's really, really despicable.

On that note I need to warn you about some of the material though. There are a couple of rape scenes in the book as well as some intense battles. If you can handle these few pages of this epic novel then you're in for a real treat.

I can't recommend this novel enough. It has certainly made its way into my top 10 list. Let me know if you read it.

Tim

She's walking!!!!

Well, not quite yet, but she is taking her first steps. A couple of days ago she took one step between the TV stand and the coffee table. Both Lora and I looked at each other and I said, "did she just take her first step?"

Today, Ruby was at home with Lora and took two or three steps. So, I guess that means by Christmas we might have a terror on our hands. Luckily, Ruby will be visiting all of her grandparents homes and therefore the terror will be shared. Lucky you.

Tim

SUPERTIM!!!

A friend sent this to me from Australia. Seems like I made it into an outdoor magazine over there. No photo credit but it is a pretty cool shot.


In case you can't tell I'm the kayaker wearing the 100% Ducktape costume.

An amazing day in the air!

Well Lora is almost home from the Grand Canyon. Ruby and I have survived! The house is still standing! The cat is alive! Etc. Actually it's been a lot of fun but quite tiring.

I flew from East to West.

Since I've been stuck on the ground I thought I would post an image or two of a recent flight. It was amazing. I flew along Lake Tahoe for over an hour and ended up flying 15 miles or so. I reached 14,900ft. The really cool thing was that I landed a block from the house we were spending the night at for the evening. I actually flew to a friend's house. WAY COOL!

Words can't describe it. The views of Lake Tahoe were breathtaking. Can't wait for summer to return with the thermals.

If you want to see the stats on the flight you can click below. It allows you to zoom in and even view it in Google Earth. Just so you know I was using a GPS to track the flight.

The flight

Tim

Weekend Getaway

Last weekend the three of us loaded up the van and drove 4 hours south down to Bishop, CA for a little relaxing weekend. We had the general idea of doing some flying but as is normal with this sport the weather didn't cooperate with us. We ended up doing some climbing in the Owens River Gorge on Saturday. It was great hanging out at the cliff with Ruby. We climbed with a great couple which let Lora and I take turns with Ruby at the base. Lora surprised herself by getting up two difficult climbs. She's still got it!

Our trusty Gumby van.

On Saturday evening we watched the sunset while soaking in a great little hot spring as a family. Don't we look like a happy family?

No words to describe how cute this one is!

The evenings were a bit chilly and here we are getting ready to read a story before bed. Ruby did pretty well. Although on Sunday we had our first experience with vomiting baby.

Still cute

Last night we had a new friend take pictures of Ruby. She wanted practice at taking infant photos. Here are a couple of them.

Just to show that although she smiles most of the time she does get fussy.

The little Rubster crawls

A short little video of her crawling. Enjoy.





Tim and Lora

Bathtime

Unfortunately tim is not feeling well. So ruby and I are enjoying the
evening together while tim rests.

Water Baby

Ruby and Tim have been taking swim classes for 7 weeks now and I finally went into work late so I can watch them. It was so amazing. I am so proud of her.

Tim and Ruby waiting for class to start

Ruby looking insanely cute in her goggles.

Ruby and I go on a hike.

Ruby and Dad on top of Mt. Rose with Lake Tahoe in the background.

Mt. Rose from the trail.

On Monday Ruby and I decided to go for a little hike. I had been thinking about hiking Mt. Rose for quite a while since moving here to Reno. Ruby and I headed up to the parking area (8000+ft) where we had a quick lunch. I then loaded her up in the backpack carrier unsure if she would like being carried that way. I figured I would hike for a bit and see how she liked it. Well after about two miles she fell asleep and didn't wake up until near the saddle at about 10,000ft. I fed her a bottle and we kept walking to the top. It was about 5.5 miles to the top (10,880ft). She did great! We had such a good walk in the mountains.

On the trail hiking. (Self Portrait) She loves that blanket!

All in all we hiked 11 miles, stopped to change two diapers, drained one bottle, and applied sunscreen 3 times. Enjoy the pictures.

Lora went with us to swim lessons today so hopefully sheLunch break and diaper change.

will put up those pictures and a few short videos of Ruby swimming. IT IS AMAZING!

Too cute!

Tim

If you fly or are interested in learning more then check this out

This video is a bit crazy but it is very well done. It's about 15 minutes long but I think the first few minutes are the best. The rest of it has these guys doing crazy stuff out of hot air balloons and even an airplane.

Check it out here!

Streamlined 08 from Team Silver on Vimeo.

a few more photos from recent outings

Uncle Don and Aunt Mona visiting.

Love this photo of my girls.

Our little model showing her smile on the shore of Lake Tahoe.

Heading out to Andy and Nicole's sailboat in Lake Tahoe. Reminds me of BVI except freshwater.

Ruby bored stiff sailing dreaming of other things.

Sailing on Thurs

Tim and our good friend Dan went sailing this afternoon on Tahoe. We
are excited the Martins moved to Truckee.

100 degrees in Reno

What better way to spend a lazy summer day than by the pool.

We love it here in Reno

Andy's boat on Lake Tahoe

So I had a job interview yesterday for a 6th grade teaching position. I felt like it went well but you just never know. Well, by 4:00 I had received a job offer! I'm really excited about the school. One of the coolest things is that my classroom has a "smart" whiteboard. It's like a giant touch computer screen. I can't wait to figure that thing out. Kimberly had one last year in her classroom and loved it.

Also, love the weather here. Yesterday it only got up to 89 degrees and sunny. Everyone thinks it is really hot here but that's not the case. Down in Sacramento it was over a 100 degrees. Love it!

The other thing I did yesterday was meet Andy up at Lake Tahoe for some sailing on his boat. It's a great boat with a built in diesel motor. The winds were light, unusual for late afternoon Tahoe, but we had a great time. The boat is very easy to sail. Should be fun to have access to such a gem. William and Dad the invite has been delivered. Sailing on Tahoe is amazing. I feel like a character from Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous... and it's not even my boat.

Sitting in the shopping cart for the first time

Happy 4th of July

Pictures from this year's Upper Cheery Creek run with Josh and Swarz from Tasmania.

Ruby first tent experience

Big morning smiles after a cozy night in her own sleeping bag.

Licking the spoon

She liked her sweet potatoes so much that she insisted on licking the spoon as we were cleaning up. She's one cute baby.

On another note, she's sitting up all by herself now. She does start to lean a bit from time to time so one of us needs to be there to stop her from falling on her face. She's such a strong baby.

Napping and hot dogs

There's a great hotdog shop near our house and so Tim and I decided to stop and grab a dog while Ruby slept in her new carrying system. Mom's friend handed down the backpack and we don't think it was ever used. We're stoked!

We then went to the food Co-op and bought a sweet potato for the Rubster for her first real food experience. Tim can't wait for the poop that will ensue. Bye-bye to breast milk poo diapers and hello SMELLY ones.

Ruby's first solid food

Preparing for our summer adventures

We plan on doing some backpacking soon and so decided to try out our backpacking carrying system. It seemed to work just fine. Her body is still a bit small but she didn't mind it. I think we could even strap a tent or sleeping bag under her feet. Pretty cool!

Getting ready for bed

Moms on the river

On saturday Danielle, the Barnes and the Robinsons met on the South
Fork of the American for a girls paddle to celebrate Ann's birthday.
It has been too long since we were on the river together. While we
were having girl time, Tim and Eric enjoyed a baby and beers picnic by
the river.

Ruby discovers beer at the Rubicon brewery tonight!

Ruby at the drive-in

Here is a sleeping sweaty Ruby at the movies. She is such a cuddle
muffin that she would only sleep snuggling up to a blanket even though
it was so stinkin' hot.

After a good day of unpacking and wakeboarding,the three of us decided
to take gumby to see Wolverine Origins at the drive-in. It had been
a long time since Tim or I had been to the drive-in and thought this
may be a good option to see movies with ruby. The van worked out
great except that it was during the first heat wave of the season. So
all three of us were sweating. The nice thing about being at the
drive-in is that I could strip down into my underware and relax with
some wine and popcorn and no one complained.

Afternoon of wakeboarding on Boca resevoir with our friend Andy. Warm
and sunny, enjoying life.

Stuff all moved in to the Reno place.

Running errands with G-ma

The Beach

Ruby taking a walk on the beach.

Well, the Robinsons are on vacation. We started out our three week trip with a drive to Salt Lake City to see friends. On the way out there we stopped in the Ruby valley with the Ruby mountains behind the photographer. The Ruby mtns are great for ski touring so as soon as Ruby is up and mobile on skis we have a trip planned.

We then headed back to Sacramento where we boarded a plane for Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama. Ruby was able to meet her cousins for the first time. Above is a picture of Abby holding the Rubster. Ruby was a big hit.

We then loaded up the car and drove four hours to the AL/FL coast to a place affectionately known as the "Redneck Riviera", Gulf Shores. We spent four nights there hanging out with my parents, 2 brothers, and Erin, John's girlfriend. We had a blast getting sunburned, swimming, drinking, and of course playing some boardgames.

Ruby getting ready to go swimming. Meditating about the Tao of Pooh.

While we were in Gulf Shores we were able to meet up with three of our good friends from SLC that now live down in Florida due to Post-Doctoral positions taking them there. Elliot and Mary live near Pensacola with their beautiful daughter, Ellie, and Ann-Marie lives in Tallahassee. It was awesome seeing these guys in a different setting than usual. Thanks for driving out to see us.

Dads and daughters in the indoor pool.

The family on the Riviera

We will be driving down to New Orleans today and then fly back home tomorrow. Ruby is in my arms now so typing is difficult. Got to sign off now.

Reading a good book.