camping in reno

This year we did a weekend camping trip with ALL of the Gonda's! It was so fun! I hope it is an annual tradition.  We camped just at the foothills of the mountains in a beautiful camp called Davis Creek Campground.  The kids had so much fun playing together and it felt great to be out in nature.

The girls loved these little chairs and carried them all over camp.  They also loved little Aria.

Dave and Calvin set up a couple of tents

 Dave wresteled with Ben. Aria was very upset by this thinking the boys were fighting. Dave lost.

 Grandpa Dan is the best

 There was a little lake that the kids walked around.

 Kate found a tiny frog.

 Calvin didn't use his tablet at all on the trip. He had a good time. Did 1000 times better than I thought.

The kids loved a game where they'd kick the ball up the hill and then try to catch it before it came past them down the hill.

Saturday morning we left camp to swim. It ended up being too cold to swim but Dave challenged Joe and Ben to a race. Dave lost. (yes, that's the second time Dave lost). He swam sideways into the lane lines. He will want a re match next year with goggles.

Joe hosted a cherry pit spitting contest which he won.

 hanging around camp

 sometimes people cry

Moving/June/July/August catchup

end of june in Houston - the funnest thing about moving is making the rounds saying good bye. We had lots of fun events gathering with friends in our last few weeks there.

We found out mid june that UCSD would pay for our move. So, I stopped packing and started scheduling a full service move. It all came together very quickly for which we were very grateful. They usually plan out a couple of months in advance so we were lucky there were dates open just a couple of weeks away from our move date.  Packers came and packed our boxes, the next day movers came and loaded the truck, the next day cleaners came and cleaned the house. AMAZING!  We didn't just sip around sipping lemonade. We had a few things to fix up in the house so that we'd leave it in good shape and of course dave was on call and working until the minute we left town.

The drive over was smooth and uneventful. We drove to San Antonio the first night, then Las Cruces and then on to San Diego. We arrived at 9pm and stayed in a hotel our first evening in San Diego (this ended up being a very good thing since had we arrived home at 9pm to find our house trashed it would have been a very rough night).

Around 9am July 2nd we arrived home. At some point I might re-hash the events of the next couple of days but probably not since it will make me too mad. Suffice it to say we arrive home to find our house smelled like urine. Figured out that the upstairs living room was smelly. Pulled out carpet to find wet padding and wet subfloor underneath from dog pee.  Then the next day found it in another room. By the third day we realized it was everywhere in the house  and on the deck (minus the master bedroom and office). We also found all of our stuff in storage had been moved out of storage, the electrical box was broken, disposal broken, wood floors ruined. July was miserable with cleanup, massive expensive, uncomfortable conversations with our renters and their parents who we used to think of as friends. It is now Aug 25 and we are 95% done with cleanup. Still one spot that stinks.

July - went to reno to visit Dave's family. While we were gone the bulk of the cleanup took place.  We also went to "the ranch" with Rishelle Scott's family.

I am sorry to say I spent most of july in such a tizzy that it was pretty much wasted.