Lake Tahoe with the Fam

Around the middle of July, my step parents, Norm and Judy, came to visit. They stayed at Lake Tahoe for a week and I took 6 days off work to stay with them and sight-see. Dave had to work for a few of those days, but then he joined us for the weekend. It was great being up in the mountains while the temps in the valley reached 106 and 107!! Of course the day I had to drive back down the mountain it was 106 and then 107 the next day at work...I could have stayed up there!

My first time ever swimming in Lake Tahoe!! The water was awesome...and so clear!!

Hanging out on the beach...

For a park ranger, I have really, really white legs!

Spent some time at the Tallac Historic Site. We were surrounded by these fancy old estates and other buildings--what do we take pictures of? The cute chipmunks!

Dave joined us for a dinner cruise for their 15th anniversary on the Tahoe Queen. Good dinner, great views and live music!

Short Update

I can't write long today but I realized it's been a LONG time since I posted last! Work's going pretty well, keeping me busy...and recently it's been decided that we all need to learn Spanish so I've been having fun with that. I took Spanish in Jr. High and high school, but that's about it. I tried to learn German while working at Dead Horse Point, and that was fun, but haven't really done anything here language-wise. We have online classes and I ordered CDs from the library so that should help. So far I'm up to 3 hours online.

I've been at this job almost 2 years now (wow!) and have lost about 15 pounds!!!!! I've got 5 more to go before I can celebrate losing 20 pounds and getting back (almost) to my pre-Dave weight...but I finally can fit into a size 6 again--Dave finally made me go shopping and get some clothes that aren't baggy on me. Soon I will be able to post a picture--once I learn to use his computer to post pictures on here!

We're going to his sister's wedding this weekend at Lake Tahoe and I managed to get 4 days off work for it--so excited!

Vernal

Because of scheduling at work, I ended up working 9 days in a row and being off four. I thought it was perfect for a quick trip to Vernal. It takes 12 hours to drive to Vernal, UT from Yerington,NV so I decided to fly.

Tuesday morning, I got up early, drove to Reno, parked in the long-term parking and got on the plane! It's only an hour and a half flight from Reno to Salt Lake and then my sister and mom picked up and drove the 3 hours back to Vernal.

 

I asked my sister to stop at the overlook just before we went down the hill into Vernal....This is a view of Split Mountain in Dinosaur National Monument.

 

My nieces were happy to see me! This is Brianna and I having fun with our sunglasses!

 

More Brianna! She's 4 and belongs to my sister! Her sister Emily had fun hanging out too, but she was in her last week of school before summer vacation started.

 

The trip was over much too soon, but it was great to spend a few days at home seeing my mom, hanging out with my sister and watching Star Wars with my friend Stacy. There were a lot more people I wanted to see, but without a vehicle and more time, it didn't happen this time!





Busy!

I've really been neglecting my blog! I keep thinking about posting, but by the time I get off work and run (or sit down to read or watch TV) I don't want to do anything!

I keep thinking that after this Thursday, things can slow down enough to concentrate on some other things! I have a presentation for a grant at work (a BIG grant for trail work) and a school visit in Carson City for 100 4th graders all in one day!

The grant is for new interpretive signs along our hiking trails and also to take out two old toilets, replace one toilet and put a new one in at the Orchard (day use area). I got to learn all about matching funds and what it actually takes to remove and replace vault toilets! All I really wanted was to replace the signs along the trail and line it, so it's easy to follow. Our volunteer and I did a lot of work last spring to get the trail looking good, but it needs a lot more work, and new signs to replace the missing ones, broken/faded ones and the ones with swear words etched into them! The grant required 20% matching funds which includes pre-project planning and volunteer time, among other things so I had to figure in the amount of volunteers and their time, that it will take to get this project finished in the next two years. Thursday I have a 10-minute presentation to go along with the application. I was told to make it "pretty, snappy and very specific to the project." I think I've done that! Now all I have to do is learn the slide show well enough to do a good talk, and it's over! Still no idea if we'll get any money but it's been a VERY good learning experience!

Dave and I took a short trip to Monterey, CA last month to just get away for a few days. I'll have to post pictures of that trip soon.  A friend and I also did the Hidden Cave Tour in Fallon a couple weeks ago. I'll post pictures of that too...but not in the next couple days!

My friend Wendy is coming to visit, and I'm hoping to make a quick-trip to Utah later this month because my nephew just got home from his 2nd or 3rd tour in Afghanistan for the Army.

I also found out that my friend Cherie lives about 4 hours away in Yosemite National Park, so I will need to visit her.  Another friend is moving to Sacremento, which is only a couple hours away, just over the Sierras! So I will have to visit her too....plus I started a garden. 

I only have tomatoes, strawberries, kale and parsely so far, until we have a space in the ground for everything. Then I will plant heirloom tomatoes, jalapeno peppers and hopefully rosebushes and phlox.

No More Wine...(for a while)

I'm not Catholic...I'm Lutheran...but we give up stuff for Lent too. All winter I've been drinking too much wine. I LOVE red wine but it seems to kill any motivation I have for working out and doing things after work. I decided to start working out finally, and didn't drink wine for over a week (a week before Lent started). I decided to keep it going through Lent and take up jogging, even if it's a few times a week after work, on the treadmill. The very 1st day I jogged 2 miles and walked for a 1/2 mile to cool down. I still felt good, but my feet were numb and I knew I was going to be sore the next couple days.

Now I'm up to jogging 3 miles and still walking 1/2 mile to cool down and rest my muscles. I started lifting weights (light ones) and doing push-ups and sit-ups. So far so good! One month into it and I think I've lost...one pound!

Today I bought Dave a bottle of wine and we watched Wreck-it Ralph. I didn't drink any of it but it smelled good! We're both trying to be healthier and I think it's working! Let's see if we can keep it up...

February Update

I haven't posted anything for a while, so I thought I'd write a quick update.

February was busy for me, at least at work! I will have to post pictures later about my trip to Las Vegas. I was the only one able to go to the interpreter's meeting in Las Vegas at the beginning of February. I would have to drive down on Thursday because the meeting was Friday morning. Google maps says Las Vegas is 6 hours from Yerington, but everyone else said it was longer, so I had to plan for a full 8-hour work day of driving down and one back. Suzanne, a coworker, suggested I get permission to spend my days off down there and come back on Monday, so that's what I did. I work with some pretty smart people....because I wouldn't have thought of that! I drove my own vehicle instead of the state truck--partly because I was spending my days off down there, and partly because I was nervous to drive in Las Vegas and I didn't want to have to worry about the state truck on top of that. Plus, my car gets better gas mileage and I can get paid back! So, from Thursday, Feb. 7 to Monday, Feb. 11 I was in Las Vegas! I stayed with my step-brother and his family so I even had a free place to stay and people to visit!

On February 14, Valentine's Day, I gave a talk about Fort Churchill for the Douglas County Historical Society in Gardnerville. I worked part of the day in the morning, took off early, and then drove from Yerington to Gardnerville. I left home at 5 p.m. and got there at 6:30 so I had time to find the place and set up. It turns out it was in this big, nice museum that I'd never been to! I have to go back now, when I have time to look at the exhibits instead of worrying about my talk! I had 43 people and had to use a microphone because the celings are high, the room was full of older people, and I have a quiet voice. I didn't get home until after 9:30 p.m. so I took time off the next day too.

I spent one day at the Division office in Carson City with Suzanne, looking through old files for Fort Churchill that would be useful to have at the park, and that might help me learn about Buckland Station, where I work. None of the artifacts in Buckland are original to the family and they were bought at antique stores or donated, so I wanted to know where they came from and if I could find any other information on the artifacts. No luck yet...but I have some leads!

On February 21, a group of paranormal investigators came into Buckland Station to see what they could find. It was just a small group from Reno, Ghost Posse. They were nice people and it was interesting to follow them around to see what they did. They had a lot of fancy, expensive equipment and took everything very seriously. I have my doubts on whether they will actually get anything on their recorders and cameras, but they said they will get back to me in the next couple weeks.

...and finally, my friend from Vernal, Louise Murch, came to visit! She stayed three nights starting on the 28th and left this morning (March 3). We did a ton of bird watching and visiting, and on Saturday we drove up to Pyramid Lake. It's so close, but neither of us had been there. In the next month there will be thousands of pelicans coming in to breed there, but we only saw some gulls, geese and a flicker. Oh yeah, and a bunch of ravens.