Another Weekend in Tahoe

We just had yet another wonderful weekend. Chris has been working a lot so it was nice that we were able to steal away couple of days up in Tahoe. We needed it. Mitch and Julie invited us to stay with them in their cabin, we just had to find a dog-sitter. Luckily, Chris' parents just got back from their vacation and were able to take care of Zoe so we could head out. Seriously, I hope when we are his parents' age that we have as great of a life as they do. Just this year they already spent three weeks in Hawaii, got back for two weeks and left again for two weeks to go to Egypt. They sure know how to live!! One day....
Anyway ... Tahoe was great. We snow-shoed one day and played on a ramp that the boys built for Hannah (Ari's lil girl who was never allowed on it, cause it was too dangerous) yeah.. boys will be boys. Actually I think it was Mitch who shouldn't have been allowed on it cause he end up dislocating his shoulder... poor guy! Thank God we had a trained professional on staff. Go Chris! He had to step away from his post in the kitchen and put Mitch back together. Poor Mitch :o) What a great man I have!!!
Oh almost forgot... Julie and her siblings just remodeled their cabin in Tahoe and after seeing the living space/kitchen we know what we want in our own house. Now if we could only get the money together :o( Next year. My friend Kamila and her boss Dave (the structural engineer) are coming by on Monday to tell us what is and is not possible to do, so I am keeping my fingers crossed.

Weekend Away... at Home

As all of you know we just had a long weekend and Chris & I thought it could be fun to get away. At first he suggested camping.... but to pack all our stuff for camping just for one day it just didn't seem worth it. Not to mention it was still cold out during the night. Since I vetoed that idea poor Chris had to improvise. Eventually, he found this cute boutique hotel down in Santa Cruz. It was perfect - very cute, allowed dogs, right on the beach, for $70/night. Chris had to work on Saturday so we were going to leave first thing on Sunday morning and come back on Monday night. I packed all my stuff and waited for him to arrive. All our plans came, yet again, tumbling down once he called the hotel and found out that as of month ago they no longer allow dogs... thanks Zoe :o) We tried to find another place and I even did book one that allowed dogs, but once I looked it up on TripAdvisor (thank you fellow travelers) I thought it may have not been the best since some compared it to a BAD Third World country accommodation and said they left the hotel as soon as they got there. After reading these reviews I realized that Santa Cruz just may not be in the cards for us this weekend.
So we had to... yep you guessed it ... improvise yet again, thank God my husband is so good at it.
In the end we decided to stay in our neck of the woods and go for a hike.
We end up heading down to Samuel P. Taylor's park and doing the Barnabey Peak hike. It was a steep climb, but the views were well worth it. We even had a nice picnic with a well deserved beer. After that we headed down and explored Pt. Reyes areas and beaches but it got rather cold so we decided to end the day with a nice bottle of wine and appetizers in Olema and what else is left then to go home and cuddle up by the fire.
We wanted to go biking on Monday but unfortunately, Chris' back was still hurting so we thought it would be a great idea to broaden our cultural horizons... and visit one of the many museums in the City. It was a brilliant idea! The only problem was that it was a Holiday! therefore, all was closed. So instead, we had to improvise yet again! We went down to Sausalito and met up with Patty and spend part of the afternoon watching the seals and seagulls munch on the plentiful herring. I have never seen anything like it. After that we enjoyed the view and a bottle of wine for the lounge in Spinnaker.
What can I say.... Life is Good! and we are pros in improvising!

Uncle John's 70th Birthday

On February 9th we did what was long overdue. We had Uncle John and his kids with their kids over for the celebration of John's 70th birthday. John is Chris' Dad's oldest brother. I have never really met all of them besides the passing at Heather's wedding and Chris' grandpa's funeral so it was great to have them all over and get to meet them and spend some time with them. We had a great time and hopefully so did they.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Today would be my Dad's birthday, he would be turning 53, so I thought I should at least remember him out here. The picture is from our last Christmas when Chris got to meet him and ask him for my hand in marriage. My Dad was a great cook and so is Chris so it was beautiful to watch them in the kitchen together.
It is the first birthday without him. It is hard for me but it is way worst for my sister back home. She has had really hard time after our Mom passed away and then Dad sure didn't help. As if that was not enough, she called me yesterday to tell me that her kitten passed away. I know, you think cat - what's the big deal? But to her it was the only thing that made her want to come back home and gave her something to look forward to. She doesn't really have much at home to keep her going. Sometimes I am very worried about her. Below is picture of my sister with her kitten and it's sister.

Alissa & Matt's Wedding

My friend Alissa was getting married on the 19th of January and Patty & I joined in on the festivities. Alissa is our friend from way back. The three of us & Cecily used to work together in Phoenix American in 1999 (wow...long time ago). The wedding was in Bodega Bay in Tides Inn and it was a very cute setting. It started at 5pm and we didn't end up getting home until midnight. They did a great job on organizing the whole thing. Here is the ex-Phoenix crew (Patty, Mony, Alissa & Cecily) and Alissa and Matt.

Weekend in the snow

We couldn't resist the urge to enjoy all the freshly dumped snow up in Tahoe so we headed up for a three day weekend in South Lake. We rented a cabin up there and brought the dogs with us. Skodas and Tongas left on Thursday night and us, Patty and the three dogs joined them on Friday morning. We got on the slopes around 12 but we still managed to get our fill of snow. Chris did really great on his new snowboard. The second day wasn't as good since Patty manged to twist her ankle. Luckily, that didn't happen until the end of the day. I think she may be off it for next few weeks. Poor Patty! The boys were boys on Friday night and decided to prove their manhood by running through the snow with now shoes on. For some it end up better than for others :o) Go testosterone!

Sunday we opted out of skiing and went snowshoeing while Patty gambeled and the rest watched football. I love Tahoe, the nature is just amazing. We had fabulous time snowshoeing. The dogs did great, only towards the end their paws started to bleed a little - all the crazy running through the snow. Oh, was also run in to a border collie puppy. He looked just like Zoe just year ago. :o(

Though life....

Oy... here we are in yet another year... and already we are faced with all these hard life altering decisions that we have to make. Such as - where to go on our next vacation and what activities to plan in our off time. Oh yes, also we have to figure out how to best use the monetary gift we got from Chris' parents. I know life is though!! :o)
All kidding aside, I do feel very luck that these are the sort of problems we have to deal with in this year. (knock, knock) The last year was not all that good to neither one of our families with the three funerals it brought us. At least, luckily we had one good and major event, our wedding to bring some happiness in all the sadness. But that's last year... this one will be that much better.
Speaking of vacation planning... tomorrow we are heading up to Tahoe for a skiing weekend. It has been dumping so the snow should be excellent. And after that.... weekend in Mendocino with our friends; trip to Sedona and surrounding areas in early May; remodeling our kitchen/living space from May - August (hopefully); maybe if we are lucky trip to BC in August, and in November - Thailand & Cambodia.
Hey, I said our life is though.!!
Anyway... that was a lil reflection on what was... and what is to come... now off to packing.

Christmas Day

Christmas Day was wonderful. This year we decided to do something lil bit different and we joined in on Skodas' Christmas tradition - Going up to Tahoe for the day. We left early in the morning and arrived at Sugar Bowl in record time - 2 hours and 30 minutes. There was hardly anybody on the slopes. I guess most of the people stayed home opening presents or something. The snow was not the best but the short lines and the sun made up for it. Chris was loving his new snowboard that he didn't get to try last year and I was finally trying out some lil jumps in the terrain park. It was great!

Christmas Eve & Zoe's Birthday

In Czech we celebrate Christmas on the 24th of December, nothing much really happens on the 25th. Luckily Chris' family didn't have any trouble celebrating with us on this day. We end up having Chris' parents, aunt and uncle over at our house. The 24th is also our babies birthday. Yes, Zoe is no longer a puppy but now is officially an adult dog :o(.

We had a wonderful evening surrounded by our family.

St Nick's Day in Czech aka Mikulas

The evening of the 5th of December is the feast day of Sv.Mikulas (Santa Claus) to both Slovak and Czech children. Sv.Mikulas walks around the town in his long red robe, accompanied by an angel and the devil who is rattling large chains. Sv.Mikulas asks the children if they have been good during the whole year. The child should sing a song or recite something for Sv.Mikulas. A bad child is told they could be put into the devil’s sack and taken to hell! On that evening if you have been good you could expect candy, nuts, fruit and small gifts in your shoes. If, on the other hand, you were not so good, expect potatoes, rocks, or lumps of coal. A tradition was that most children got at least one rock, as no child is perfect.
We had to adapt the tradition a bit here in Cali and instead of us going around the village my friend Nicole arranged for all the interested children to come over to her house where St. Nick visited them. Some kids were so scared of the Devil that they couldn't even speak, but most of them did really good and promised to be even better the next year. I am very happy that my friends keep this tradition alive and that we are able to participate... even though in disguise.