Tahoe River Rafting

The Green Party

Sat Night - Looking at Lake Tahoe

We went up to Tahoe this weekend. We've felt it's sort of a tradition in honor of Lorraine. For many years we went up with her, although without Nate of course. Our focus then was dining and gambling. We always had fun. We've decided we want to keep the tradition, even though Lorraine isn't well enough to travel. Happy Birthday Lorraine, we missed having you on our journey.

We drove up late sat afternoon, after signing lease paperwork for the Orinda house. We've now got a tenant moving in, so it allows us to breathe a little bit. While returned home, Maria and Nate packed things up. Our neighbors, and for those that don't know this may get to be a bit confusing, Mike and Jessica Green were heading up to raft down the Truckee River on Sunday. So we decided to join them. We've never done it before, but heard great things about it. So despite having two Mike Green's in such close proximity we headed out.

We arrived Sat in time to check in, head out to dinner, go to the lake and river and throw some rocks, then back to the hotel and bedtime. We got up early Sun morning, thanks Nate, and grabbed a bite to eat before heading to the river. After waiting for ~45 minutes (we were 30 min early) for the other Green's to show up, we decided to put in without them. Of course they caught up with us in ~15 min or so and we all merged our rafts together to form a barge. That didn't last too long as we found it hard to manuever. Nate decided that he didn't want to be on our boat, I think he had found a new love in Bailey. She watched after him most of the way down the river and left Maria and I alone.We got stuck on a few rocks and such, but overall it was a lot of fun and much better than staying here where the heat was 107 when we got back.

That's Bailey right behind Nate

We arrived home ~5 and headed straight into our pool. Nate's really taken to diving down and getting the dive toys. He also loved jumping in the water. Hamburgers on the BBQ for dinner and hopefully he'll be in bed by 9. For us, we're turning our attention to the beach. We're supposed to head to the Cottles on Thursday afternoon. Until then, we'll be trying to stay cool by the pool.

Enjoy the photos, we're glad to get our camera back.

Jumping In the water - After a count to 4?

Photographic evidence

No photos in the blog in awhile. Our "water" camera got water and sand in it. Had to send it in for repairs. We just got it back yesterday. Luck for us, it's just in time for our Sunday trip to North Shore (Tahoe not Hawaii) where we hope to ride down the Truckee river. Nice to have our camera back, we use that one quite a bit. It's much easier to carry than the big Canon an certainly instrumental for rafting type trips.

A couple of more updates:

Spent Father's day at Golfland Sunsplash. Took Nate out for a fun filled day of miniature golf, race car drives and a video game overload. He loved the golf and cars (he now assumes that's what I do every time I say I'm going golfing) but he was mostly interested in all the video games. He couldn't hold still as he ran from place to place trying to see what he wanted to play. It was a lot of fun. A nice break from all that we had been dealing with.

Nate's been in swim lessons last week and this week. Tonight's his last night. We don't expect him to graduate, but he is getting a lot better. He can really tread water now, and in class, he can swim almost 10 yards. He won't practice as much at home and he swims until he runs out of breath, then dog paddles and can't really get back into swimming. But there's definately a huge improvement. Hopefully we'll get a few photos we can post fairly soon.

Looks like we got a tenant to move into the Orinda house. A mother and son are interested and filling out the lease paperwork now. We'll need to meet and have a walkthrough in the next day or two. They want to move in 7/1. It'll be nice to get that burden taken care of.

We purchased a few tickets for us and the neighbors to go to 6 flags magic Kingdom in Vallejo on 7/11. Should be a lot of fun. Nate will be hanging out with Jake and Logan. We'll all be going down together. It's an HP event, so tickets include all you can eat lunch and a shady reserved picnic area. We're looking forward to it.

We're leaving on Thursday to go see the Cottles. Nate's excited about seeing Shayne and Chloe. We'll be spending the 4th of July on the beach, I'm hoping to get out and golf with Mike at least one of the days.

Our HP Golf League won the first half playoffs so we're all set for the finals. Should be a fun extra day of golf for us in late August.

Hope to post some photos early next week of our rafting trip. Until then, have a week.

Tony...

Can't believe it's been nearly a month since my last post. Time to get back on the saddle and start riding again, but before I do, I want to catch up on some of the activities through the month of June.

The biggest change occurred a little over a week ago. We were loading up the car on Thursday 6/18, preparing for our first family camping trip. Maria had gone to the store to buy all the camping food we need, I had the SUV packed, with the exception of our ice chest. Nate was in bed, ready to wake up early Friday morning so we could go camping in the redwoods. I was frantically trying to get 43 job requisitions posted for some of the new Puerto Rico work, that had to be completed before we left when I got a call from Jo stating that Tony wasn't doing well. It turns out Tony stopped breathing in Jo's car while drinking a milkshake. Aggie came over to watch Nate, while Maria and I went to the hospital. When we arrived, we found out she had passed away. It seems so surprising in so many ways, but it was also, almost expected.

The next few days are a blur, we had so much to do and prepare for. Notifying Lorraine was extremely difficult. She's taking the loss very hard. No parent should ever outlive their children. In several of my visits, Lorraine was asking the questions that are impossible to answer, Why not me instead? What do I do now? Why? I know there is nothing I can do to ease her pain, but it clearly has impacted in her. In moving her around for the memorial, I've come to realize just how weak she really is. She can't even stand up on her own anymore. I believe that with all that has transpired, we'll be doing this again before the end of the year.

The memorial service was a whole event unto itself. Of course the centerpiece was, as always, Sherry. She couldn't bear to let anyone steal the spotlight when she could receive so much attention on herself. I'm still amazed and some of the things she did and said. It's a good thing Lorraine was so emotional that she couldn't hear what was happening. Watching Sherry speak, trying to pick a fight with Kenny, telling everyone that "when her mom dies..." and her interrupting everyone else that was trying to speak was a truly horrific experience. I almost felt a need to apologize to Kenny for what she did, but I know there's nothing I can do about it. In fact, I'm sort of glad she didn't start it with me, at that time, she waited until later for that. As usual she showed up barking orders before even saying hello. Luckily my dad stepped in and helped diffuse some of it before it got too bad.

The final blow was after Sherry insisted on dragging Lorraine up to see where Paul's niche, and where Tonette will be, she tried to pick a fight with me regarding how good of care Lorraine was getting at Eskaton. Of course her real concern is that Lorraine has given up, but she blames Eskaton and I for not forcing her mom to do more. She doesn't realize that she's the one that keeps destroying her mom's dreams and hopes that used to motivate her to move. By constantly reminding her that home is being rented, and parading all her old possesions in front of her and discussing how/where/who should get them. It's amazing how someone can be so narcisstic and truly believe they are doing to help someone else.

I'll try and fill in some more of the missing month of June soon.

Kailua Beach Park

Well, we're definitely winding things down for this trip. It's nearly over and I feel more stressed now than when we got here. We've got so many things to take care of before we leave and I've barely gotten away from work. It certainly doesn't feel like a vacation. Oh well, no one will feel sorry for me because I am working from here.

We're nearly done with all the furniture. We got a call late today with a great deal on the head boards to match the desk and nightstand we got for the guest room. It helps complete that whole set. That meant lot's of running around this afternoon, when we had hoped to get to the beach. Now I'm stuck with trying to figure out how to mount these oversized headboards to what appear to be undersized frames. Need to raise the frames 4 inches to make everything look right.

Only two days left and lot's of cleanup around here. The place is a wreck and we need to get it picked up before we take some new photos for the rental agency.

Yesterday, Maria was all set for us to go to Kailua Beach park. She had heard great things about Kayak's and other items there. We drove over Pali lookout, stopped and took a few photos. We were reminded of being here last year with Chloe and she was complaining that adults always want to go to scenic places. Anyway, we did manage a few photos. Enjoy, we did.