Aggie's Birthday

Here's a few photos from Aggie's Birthday party



Nate waiting for some cake!!!

Playing with the papasan chairs.

Nate and Claudia hanging out, having fun!

Nate's Green Thumb

Had a busy weekend. Took Friday off to get some stuff done at the courthouse, then went over to the house in Orinda to change the locks and talk to some property managers. While on the way, Sherry called and asked for a few more days to get stuff out of the house. So, the 3 weeks I've given her to get what she really wanted has turned into 6 weeks and she's taken everything that wasn't nailed down. Well, at least there's less to deal with now. We'll head down again next weekend, replace the light fixtures she took, change the locks and hopefully meet with another property manager or two. We'll also need to do some final cleanup, as there are some piles of stuff she left, that's really not worth anything. Figure it will take 2-3 weekends to get it all cleaned out and ready for market. With Easter coming up, in may make things even more delayed, we'll have to see.

Last weekend the first property manager came by to look at the place, and they were struggling. Didn't know what to make of her giant room, very difficult to market. Not many people need a football field sized room. Also commented that with the bedroom windows so high and the hallway's arrainged as they were, it feels as if a lot of the house is a basement. Dark, dank and not very inviting. Clearly work needs to be done to make it look appealing.

On Saturday, we did some errands in the morning. Went and bought all the light fixtures for the house and also got some gardening stuff from the hardware store? Spent the morning running around shopping, with the plan to catch the 2pm showing of Monster's Vs Alien's. It was the 3D showing, so we got there early, with Nate and enjoyed all the previews and ads. The movie was good, the 3D effects were great. Nate got bored about 1/2 way through. Kept wanting to go home. He was having a hard time because he didn't want to wear the 3D glasses. He said it made the picture too dark. Without them, the blurry part would get to me, and I think it got to him too. Afterwards we went to the Nugget and got some cheese, sausages, bacon wrapped scallops and various other items before heading home to hang out in our backyard snacking on the delicious food we grabbed.

Sunday, Maria went out to pick up Empenada's. MMMMM. Nate and I stayed home to plant our new garden stuff. We got 4 tomatoe plants, a lemon tree and some basil. Nate loved digging and playing in the dirt. He helped me mix it all up. We put in the drip system and got everything working again. He had a great time. One of his highlights was finding a worm. We called him wormy and I told him how important it was that we put him in the pot with the tomatoe plants and then cover him with dirt. At first Nate was scared to touch him, but didn't take long and he was OK to pick him up and carry him to the pot.

Family time

The last two weeks have been really busy. We've driven down to Orinda twice, trying to get the house ready for rent. Each time we've been delayed because Sherry was still not done. She's taken everything that was not nailed down, and that includes the things that were screwed down. She removed light fixtures and anything else she could get her hands on. It's pretty amazing and has left me with a chore in regards to getting it rented. While that has taken up 1/2 our weekends, we've also managed to do some other things.

We visit Aggie's for her birthday. We had a nice tame, a good BBQ and food. A lot of my coworkers were there, so lot's of different things to chat about. Nate played with Claudia, something the two of them still love to do. It's fun to see them interact.

I need to download some pictures of the pary, should have a few posted here in the next few days.

In the meantime, here's a few more videos of Nate Skiing at Soda Springs.

Last Night...

So I don't expect Nate to have a great grasp on time. I've gotten used to explaining to him that 2 day's from now, is a matter of two sun ups, and two sun downs. He seems to grasp this concept that as the sun goes down, he goes to bed, and it's something to help him manage the passing of time. Now when you ask Nate about something he did in the past, he always expresses it as something he did "last Night" As in, last night, he was in Chile with Salvador. Or Last night G-pa came to visit. Or last night he went to Aggie's. Well technically he went to Aggie's yesterday afternoon and was home by night, but probably the most accurate of all his descriptions. I'm not sure if it was Maria and I noticing, but he has stopped his saying "actually" in front of his answers. I guess that cuteness will be replaced by another.


Today, we went to Soda Springs again. It's a great way to spend the day with Nate. He loves playing in the snow, we had a good time. He skied again, but was a bit more hesitant today. Last time we went, we ended the day after he crashed twice. First into someone else and got a big owie and then he just fell in the snow. It didn't stop him, but this time he wanted me to go down the mountain with him, rather than like last time when he wanted to go alone. Made for a much longer day for me, running up and down the mountain. We had a great time, picked up sandwiches again, hot chocolate and enjoyed a little picnic in the snow. Only real issue was that we knew he wouldn't last too long, so we delayed in the morning and didn't get there till ~ noon. By then the place was pretty busy, where last time, we were there as they opened and had more space to ourselves. It might also have been the weather, it was a great day, although a bit breezier than before. I've got our camera fixed, so i'll try and get some of the videos posted here as well as the photos.

Coming home, Nate fell asleep, so we brought him to bed, where he continued to nap for about an hour or so. Then it was off to the spa, shower and we went and grabbed some mexican food for dinner. Nate ate all the beans, but din't touch the rice. Maria got the burrito with HOT salsa, which we love, but this time it was a little too hot. Hard to really enjoy it.

On the way there, we saw a ferris wheel lit up. Nate said he liked it. He told me it was the thing that went round and round, lit up and went night night. We'll have to check it out and see what's going on if we have time tomorrow. I'm getting up early to play some golf with John, but then we've decided to head down and see Lorraine's house. Sherry's has been busy cleaning it out, and I want to see what's left for us to do. Next Fri/Sat we intend to do some more cleanup as we get it ready to rent. If all goes well, we'd have it ready for rental by April 1, but more likely by Tax day.

Heavenly

Sunday was Maria's birthday. Had a great weekend of skiing. We picked the Cottle's up from the airport Friday morning, went straight to Northstar for a day of skiing. We were on the slopes by 11am. Finished the day with some Sushi at Mikuni before driving over to South shore, checking into the hotel and calling it a night. Sat, we got up and spent the day skiing at Heavenly. While we enjoyed the skiing at Northstar more, you can never beat the views at Heavenly. We stopped at the top of the mountain and had a bunch of photos taken. Check them out here:

http://photos.sharpshooterimaging.com/pr3/ThumbPage.aspx?e=4572126&s=0

After skiing all day Sat, we came back, showered and went to dinner at the Sage room in Harvey's. Great food and we had a great time. Afterwards we gambled for about 30 minutes before being too tired and so we went back and caught some shuteye. Lost an hour with daylight savings, got up Sun morn, ate breakfast and headed home. Fun, busy weekend.

Happy Birthday my Angel!!!!

Mike n Lilia

Northstar