Chuckar Huntin'

On Saturday we started our hunting in balmy 4 degree weather in the middle of no-where an hour outside of Reno. Seriously, the only civilization was some meth-infested double-wides with plywood additions. I thought about taking some pictures of the "homes" but figured that I would rather return home in one piece. Despite the shady characters the scenery was beautiful. A mix of desolation and natural abundances. The workout was the pretty darn good- lots of hiking over the rocky landscape. The doggies had a blast, unfortunately there weren't any birds, but they were just as excited. As usual, I took WAY to many pictures...it was just too pretty outside (plus it keeps me occupied and sane walking around in 4 degree weather). The details in the pictures are amazing, espeically since I didn't edit any of them...pretty good of a little point and shoot, huh? Remember- you just need to click on a picture to enlarge it!

Shasta is such a poser...look at that stance!

Damon will vouch for my uncontrollable excitment to see wild horses. I have video that I will download later for you to witness my overwhelming joy. I LOVE horses. When my grandparents played the lottery when I was little, they always asked me what I would want when they won...and I always said "a horse." I am still waiting for my horse- obviously, they haven't hit the jackpot yet. Needless to say, I was very excited to see FIVE wild horses.

The rocks at the first hunting location were amazing...the moss was lime green, the camera doesn't do the color justice.

She is a huntin' fool- that little daughter of mine.





Couldn't have painted a prettier sky...

Our second location for the day was actually in California on more public land in a shady neighborhood (if that is what 5 mobile homes, again with plywood additions, constitute a neighborhood). All of the rocks in the following pictures are granite rocks. I told Damon we should steal (or "borrow") some, he wasn't too amused.

It is amazing how small you can look when surrounded by a vast open backdrop- can you see Damon on the rock in the background?



Damon and Cy:

Melissa and Shasta:

We took a different route home, through Loyalton and Sierraville. Although we were only 40 minutes outside of Truckee, it felt like we were back in the midwest. We ate at the lovely Golden West Saloon- it was a great hearty meal, and we left a big tip, which made me feel like we were helping some small town folk.


On the way out of town, we had to stop on the highway for some mule deer who were crossing the street. That was also a first for me. I love that I am a quarter of a century old and I still get to experience new things on a daily basis. Learn (or experience) something new every day.

Reno or Bust

The day after Thanksgiving, Damon, the kids and I hopped in the car and drove to Reno, Nevada for some chuckar hunting. On Friday we made our first stop at the brand spankin' new Cabela's in Boomtown. I love the Cabela's stores, I went to my first in Minnesota when I went to visit Morgan in Grand Forks, North Dakota and Damon and I went in Idaho on our way to pick up little Reno. (Did I ever tell you that Damon has nicknamed Shasta "Reno"? It was fun when we were actually in Reno, we kept telling Shasta that "Reno" was in Reno...I think she was a little confused. The name also reminds me of my cousin, Buck Reno Brocco, who left this earth too early at the age of 17 when I was in sixth grade. He was a phenomenal standout person- just like his name.) Here are Shasta and Cy sleeping on the ride to Reno...Shasta always need to rest on her brother, she can never be too far away from him:

The new Cabela's in Boomtown where they are expecting 15,000 customers a day.

Damon and I are big supporters of Cabela's...we have the Cabela's Visa card and earn lots of points every month, we love looking at the catalogs (I remember looking through them and reading all the item descriptions as a little girl, too) and we love finding good deals and cool gadgets. On this trip we purchased t-shirts, sweat-shirts, hunting pants (for me), little Christmas presents for Casen and Trenton, a training/shock collar for Shasta, bullets for Damon's new gun, a new dog bed for Shasta and special doggie treats. We were very successful, plus we enjoyed all the scenery inside the store.

The funniest part about the trip is where we stayed that night. Damon called hotels.com and asked for a cheaper hotel that allowed dogs. The operators response? Grand Sierra Resort. (http://www.grandsierraresort.com/) Sounded a little fancy to us for a trip with the dogs. But, it was cheap, so we decided to take a chance. As we follow the directions and pull up to the property, I realize that it is the old Hilton building! Literlly a high rise, huge hotel with a complete amusement park. And they allow dogs? What? Something must be wrong...apparanetly nothing was.

The hotel staff confirmed that dogs were allowed at the new property with 90 million dollars in renovations. It was quiet interesting taking the dogs in an elevator up 9 flights. We only saw two other dogs the whole time we were there and most of the other guests didn't know dogs were allowed. They either gave us horrible looks...I wanted to tell them, yes, I know I am walking in a casino lobby with a 70 pound lab, yes, I do realize that this isn't a small dog that you fit in your purse like many other trendy people do, who bring their dogs places they aren't allowed. One the other hand, other guests asked if they could pet them and gave us lots of compliments on how cute our kids are. What a fun experience!!!

Here is a short but sweet video of my Cy prancing through the casino at 5:30 in the morning. Both of the kids did well in their new surroundings. And, like Damon said, Cy can say that he walked through a casino lobby in his lifetime.

Happy (Belated) Thanksgiving

I love this time of year...holiday gatherings, festive music and people in good spirits. The last few fall seasons, I have really taken a liking to Thanksgiving. Last year was the first year that Damon and I cooked a homemade for our family, and this year we continued the new tradition. Two years ago, we had a big family dinner at the Morelli's and that is where Damon asked Leana and Tyler to be in our wedding and when we found out that Leana was pregnant with our little niece. As always, there is so much to be thankful for and so many reasons to love this time of year.

This year, I am thankful for my families health and for my families support- most notably the support of Damon. This year has been full of changes, some elective and others non-elective. This year has also been full of celebrations- Alicia and Geoff's engagement, my grandfather's clean bill of health after cancer last year, Morgan's wedding, Dana's pregnancy...the list goes on and there are still 5 weeks left of 2007!

As with last year, we tried to have a complete homemade and festive Thanksgiving feast. Here are the multitude of pictures chronicling the day. It was a bright and sunny California day, the sun is shining on these flowers beautifully!

My sister purchased us this awesome wreath (with pheasants feathers)- isn't it perfect for the house? Thanks Alish!

We had dinner for 12 (and dessert for 20), here is the table set for twelve.

And the table settings, complete with our wedding china, flatware, glasses, napkins, crystal candlesticks...we LOVE using our fancy table settings!

This was the most exciting part of the day for me...I succeeded in baking homemade rolls (actually, everything was homemade including sugared pecans for the salad)! I tried TWICE last year to make rolls and failed miserably. So, to have these actually rise was amazing. And then, they tasted great too...even more amazing. I am still on my bread-making high :)

Our 22 pound turkey (Damon was in charge of the turkey- cooking meat scares me!)

Alicia and Geoff "proposed" to Uncle Dave, asking him to marry them next year. They gave him a 2008 calendar/planner and it included scheduled weekly meetings, visualization practices and video-tape rehearsals. Too funny!

Added to the festive time was Alicia and Geoff's Nintendo Wii (which traveled via plane from San Diego to provide entertainment). It is pretty amazing how the system works, and "wii" all got into the "wii" mode...even grandma and grandpa got into the action!

Damon's beautiful grandma joined us for dinner too, what a cute Morelli trio.

I debuted my 35 minute Alaska Cruise video, which was a combination of digital pictures and videos. It took about 12 hours to complete, by it was worth every minute to see the look on my grandparents faces. It also included the engagement video- which makes me cry every time I see it.

Love you Uncle Dave aka: "the Rev"

For dessert, Aunt Susan and family, Aunt Paula and Uncle Dickie joined us. It was great to have the house full of happy family members. I think it should be a new tradition! Here is Alicia and my cousin Diana, isn't she the cutest?

Of course, no blog post is complete without pictures of my adorable doggies...

Cy is never too far from the food...

Shasta is giving kisses to my Uncle Dickie

I sincerely hope that everyone enjoyed a day reflecting on the good there is to be found in life.

Pump It Up Video

Apparently I only took video of adults playing at the party...it does give a great viewpoint of what a fun birthday party it was. Hint: Press play once to buffer the video, then press play again to view.

Pump It Up

Last weekend was Trenton's third birthday party at Pump It Up (http://www.pumpitupparty.com/). It is a great party place for little, and big, kids of all ages. They have a huge room full of inflatable party jumps and they play fun music for a hour while the kids run around, followed by cake and presents in a separate room. Pictures were a little hard to take...lots of lighting issues and lots of movement, but I still managed to catch a few good ones.

The BIG birthday boy:

My hubby, the BIG 31 year old kid:

Taking a much needed breather:

I think the rule was one person down the slide at a time...oh well, rules are meant to be broken:

I took more pictures on Michelle's camera for her, so I don't have any of the cake and present time. My parents arrived late (they were at another party), but they managed to make a funny memory. Here are my dad and Trenton coloring with the coloring books that we gave him. What a great kid, I mean, he was surrounded by monster trucks and electronic toys, and he wanted to sit and color with my dad. Gotta love it.

So, here is the funny part. They have this big blow-up chair for the birthday kid to sit it and of course, my dad needed to sit in it. Here is the first shot:

And the second (note my arms reaching out to try to help him):


And the third shot (note the slightly red checks):

Thanks for the great laugh dad and the great party Straub family!