Barbershop Before and After

After having to comb the boys' hair out of their eyes for the past couple of weeks and having Ben complain that his hair was always in his eyes during swim lessons, I scheduled another appointment with our local barber, Louie. Haircuts are always an adventure...

Welcome Friends!

I first met my good friend, Kirsty, in August of 2000 when I started my first teaching job at Egling Middle School in Colusa, California. The first words she said to me were, "Hi, I'm Kirsty...like thirsty with a K." From that first moment I knew that I had met a woman who would share her heart and mind no matter what. Kirsty and I weren't extremely close my first year of teaching but by my second year I had joined her carpool and we became sounding boards for each other on the 50-mile drive home each day. There's a lot to be said for having someone to share in the drudgery, frustration, and overall chaos that comes from teaching seventh graders each day. Our daily rants were the perfect way to put work behind us so we could enjoy our evenings at home. When I entered the Chico to Colusa car pool, Kirsty's daughter Jemma was just coming up on her second birthday. She was always so patient being buckled into her car seat for the travels to and from Colusa. I spent three years watching Jemma grow and become a very funny little girl who could keep us all laughing.

It's been quite a while since I last saw Kirsty.....March 2008 to be exact. Sam was a mere three months old and Ben was not even two yet! So it was quite a treat to see not only Kirsty but her husband Jeff and Jemma yesterday.

Kirsty and Jeff are the same as ever and I love how despite months of not seeing each other, we can easily pick up right where we left off. My friendship with Kirsty is so easy and uncomplicated. The one who has changed the most is Jemma who is now almost ten! And she's nearly as tall as I am....I know that's not saying much considering my short stature but still - she's tall!

So, yesterday afternoon, the boys and I took the Ochs family to the beach with us where the kids dug holes in the sand, waded in the water, and had fun in general. Kirsty and I mainly stood by the kids and visited. After a long weekend of cycling events, Jeff found a rock out in the water and lounged while the little fish swam around him. After a couple of hours in the sun and sand we picked up Brian and we all had pizza together.

I know that Jemma made an impact on Ben because the first thing he said while eating his breakfast this morning was, "Are we going to see Jemma today?" When I told him no he replied in a very whiny voice, "But I just wanted to see Jemma again today."

Tomorrow evening, my other Colusa counterpart, Maite, will be arriving in town to join Kirsty and I for a concert in South Lake. But, that's another blog post altogether.

No Fence Necessary!

What's that saying about fences and neighbors? Good fences make good neighbors? Tall fences make good neighbors? Good neighbors build good fences?
I'm not sure but I do know that fence or not, we have some great neighbors. The biggest problem with our neighbors, Steve and Jackie, is that they don't live here full-time.
Steve and Jackie, along with their daughter Danielle, call southern California home but happen to have a condo here just a couple of doors down from us. In fact, it was their place where we stayed back in January when our home renovations were wrapping up.
We noticed Steve's big gray truck parked out front the middle of last week and the boys were thrilled to see that their favorite neighbors were back in town. Ben was even more excited to see that they brought their dog Ruby with them! He immediately wrapped his arms around her neck and let her lick him! Too bad he is allergic to dogs because he loves them so much. He was so close to Ruby that he actually ended up with hives where she had kissed him.
Since last week's arrival we have spent time each day either playing outside, going out to dinner, going for walks, or barbecuing with them. And, let's just say, if any of you think you are good at grilling ribs, I suggest you taste Steve's before you make any claims.
We are always happy to have Steve and Jackie in town and are always sad to see them head back home. And we never hesitate to ask them when they will be moving here for good.

Handy Man for Hire

No job too small!

Free estimates.

You pay for the job, not the time.

Will beat anyone's prices.

Safe and reliable.

Daring Duo

Just a couple of photos of Ben and Sam playing in the wheel room at TCF.

Sam is just along for the ride!

How big do you have to be to ride a scooter?
About this big!

Yreka Road Trip

Sunflowers in the garden.

Sam is not quite sure of Ben's smile.


Sam looking for bugs.

Another sunflower.

The boys checking out the zucchini plants.

Uncle Sam?

Ben is not flashing gang signs....he's just telling you he's 3!

Gram's step stool is still in demand after decades of use.

Last week the boys and I set off for Great Gram and Pop's house in Yreka, California. The last time we visited was in April for the family Easter gathering. Unlike our wintry trip in April, the sun shone upon us the entire 290 miles. In fact, it was HOT!

With two little ones in the car with just one parent it seemed that the drive would never end. But the boys were great singing songs, playing, reading books, snacking, and even sleeping a little. We made one lengthy stop along the way at a rest area about 25 miles past Susanville. We had some lunch and the boys had fun playing on the hopscotch grid painted on one of the walkways. To burn a bit more energy I pulled Ben's glide bike from the back of the car and let him ride around the walkways while Sam and I attempted to keep up. By the time we reached Yreka, the boys were ready for some run-around time so we played in the back yard until dinner.

Overall, our visit was fairly quiet. Gram and Pop went about their normal summer routines and the boys and I attempted to help when possible. The boys loved helping move the sprinklers in the yard when Gram was watering and they couldn't wait to check on the zucchini plants when we were in the yard. And the yard was perfect for baseball and soccer. The only thing that was hard to adjust to was the heat with temperatures in the high nineties and above every day....we just don't get heat like that in Tahoe.

We took short walks almost every day with Ben riding his bike. When we were out running errands I bumped into a handful of Happy Campers including a friend I hadn't seen in 12 years! And we got to see Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Ray and Aunt Annie for a bit on Thursday before we headed home on Friday.

The return trip on Friday was also long but again we broke up the drive with a longer stop for lunch in Susanville. The boys were captivated as we neared Reno and saw plumes of smoke rising from the hills as brush fires burned. At Hallelujah Junction we even saw three helicopters flying over the freeway to get buckets of water to dump on a fire.

By the time we got back to Incline we were all ready for some cooler temperatures and some time with Daddy.

Future Soccer Star

A couple of months ago we signed Ben up for the Fearless Soccer Mini Camp for kids 3 and a half to 5 and a half years old. Ben has been interested in soccer since Nan and Teddy gave him a soccer ball last summer. But it's only been recently that his coordination has begun to catch up with his desire.

Though he was the youngest out of all the kids in his class, the coaches (Gigi and Trenton) told me that he was not only rather skilled but also a good listener and very good at expressing his thoughts. Of the four days the camp took place, Sam and I usually stuck around for the first 20 minutes or so then went off to enjoy time together. One morning Coach Gigi asked the kids to dribble the ball around in an area marked off by cones to warm up. Ben looked right up and said, "You have to warm up in baseball too!"

The experience was a success and as Sam and I watched the entire two hour session on the final day, I knew that I would soon be counting myself in with hundreds of thousands of moms across the country who call themselves "Soccer Moms."

Check out that kick!

With a certificate of completion in hand the look says it all.....he's not ready for soccer camp to be over :(

Ben approaching the action.

After a short stint as goalie, Ben was not willing to part with the position.

Zachary is probably the sweetest, gentlest five year-old I have ever known but apparently he takes his duties as goalie VERY seriously!

"Take that!"

I think Ben liked being goalie simply because he knew he could pick up the ball and not just kick it.

Ben and Joseph: buddies since infancy, buddies for life.

A fun game called soccer bowling.

Occasionally Ben's strategy was to simply fall down with the ball to keep it from the other players.

Ben completely adored Coach Trenton!

The chase is on!

It looks like a mama duck with a string of ducklings.

Red, White, and Tahoe Blue - The Weekend

Sam wishes everyone a Happy Fourth of July! (Or as he pronounces it, Appy Orth Ooly!)

Stopping for a quick snack on our hike in the meadows.


Ben loved the granite slabs cut into benches for weary hikers.

Sam trying out the hiking stick.

The boys crossing a bridge on the meadow trail.

Ben getting a little rest at the vista point on the trail.

A pitiful attempt at a family hiking photo.

The view of the meadow from the vista point.

For the third year we walked with a decorated stroller with TCF in the parade.

Many moms and kids getting ready for the parade.

My friend's little boy, Dominic, was quite relaxed during the parade!
(All the parade images were taken by fellow mom, Kelly Sparks)

The Fourth of July is a big deal in Tahoe. Many people consider it to be the real start to the summer. For the locals, we see it as a fun time but overly crowded with out-of-towners. We even go so far as to NOT go to the store for necessities like milk and bread because of the crowds.

There are obviously so many high points to the holiday that it is easy to overlook the crowds and enjoy the area for all it has to offer.....

Thursday, July 2nd - The boys and I began our day bright and early at the fire station for a pancake breakfast. The boys love pancakes and having them cooked by REAL firemen is just about as good as it gets! Wait, eating the pancakes cooked by REAL firemen in a REAL fire station, next to REAL fire trucks is about as good as it gets!

From there we made our way up the hill to the Episcopal church parking lot where we met up with a couple dozen other young families from TCF to decorate our strollers, wagons, and kids for the parade. We walked the 1.5 miles course with huge smiles on our faces knowing how unbelievably lucky we are to live here!

After the parade we snacked in the shade at the Village Green for the opening ceremonies to Red, White, and Tahoe Blue 2009.

After a brief nap at home we headed back to the green for an ice cream social where the boys got a very uncommon treat of ice cream before dinner.

Friday, July 3rd - Again, our day began bright and early (when doesn't it with toddlers who wake as early as 5:30 A.M.?) and we were up to the Tahoe Meadows Interpretive Trail for a family hike before 9:30. Brian lugged Sam in the back pack while Ben and I hiked alongside. Ben hiked the 1.2 miles all on his own and even Sam walked close to a quarter mile out of the pack.

A quick stop at home for snacks and a wardrobe change into swim trunks for the boys and we headed to Incline Beach to play for a while then watch the rubber duck race. I had never been to the beaches during the fourth of July weekend and was blown away at how many people could crowd onto the sand! Amazingly, we bumped into a handful of families that we knew so we weren't lost in the sea of human flesh. We only watched three heats of the duck race before the boys were ready for a rest so we said our farewells and happily came home.

That evening we met up with my college friend, Tabitha, for dinner in Kings Beach where she was with a group to watch the fireworks that night. Both boys love Tabby and were great in the crowded restaurant where we ate a delicious Mexican meal. They were also happy to hear that though Tabitha couldn't come home with us that night, she will be coming to visit for several days in early August!

Saturday, July 4th - We stayed home!!!! Actually Brian went into the office to get some work done and the boys and I spent the day outside playing wiffle ball and riding bikes. Then we broke the rule about going to the grocery store during the holiday weekend because we ran out of Ben's allergy medicine. If it weren't for the layer of pine pollen covering everything I would have let the kid go without a couple of doses. But the itchy, puffy, red eyes kind of got to me....

The kids went to bed at their normal time and when the fireworks started booming at 9:30 P.M., Brian and I simply looked at each other and said, "Maybe next year."

A Modge Podge of June Events

On Sunday, June 21st we celebrated Daddy's third Father's Day. We also welcomed Grandma and Grandpa into town for a week long stay.

Ben and Sam made a Father's Day craft at the library during story hour for Daddy. But because of Ben's past reactions to peanut butter we did not bring home the rest of the gift which was a small paper sack filled with peanuts and a couple more peanuts glued to the front of the card. The card on it's own is still cute reading, "Dad, I'm nuts over you! Happy Father's Day!" The boys were very excited to glue on googly eyes too.


Another gift for Daddy was a photo taken recently in Modesto with four generations of the Browder men.

Last summer I met a young couple at the pool who live full time in Atlanta but bought a fixer-upper here in Incline. Jill and Joe Laster have two daughters, Annie (5 1/2) and Virginia (4), and I got to know them when Ben and Virginia were Tiny Tunas last year in swim lessons. I had completely forgotten that when they headed back to Atlanta at the end of the summer Jill was a few weeks into her third pregnancy. I had gotten their address from them last summer with the intent of adding them to my Christmas card list. But somewhere in our remodeling fiasco I misplaced their information and thought they would eventually come back to Incline.
So, I was very excited to bump into Jill at Raley's the weekend before swim lessons were to begin. We spent the first week of swim lessons talking a little but never seeming to have enough time since their girls were in the time frame before Ben and Sam. But we were able to visit while all the kids played in the sand at the beach a couple of days. We decided that because their visit to Incline this summer was only for a couple of weeks we should get together and have a barbecue with all the family. We settled on Father's Day at one of the picnic areas at Burnt Cedar beach. Brian and I and the boys, as well as Grandma and Grandpa joined Joe and Jill, Annie and Virginia and new baby Jerry with Joe's cousin John for a great meal.
The kids had a great time playing soccer and going to the playground. Ben even figured out how to build a fort with the beach umbrella!

Here's Ben peeking out of his umbrella fort.

Joe and Jill with 5 month-old Jerry (the girls were too busy playing to hold still for a photo).

The biggest event for me in June was the Golf Fore Education tournament. As the Tahoe Children's Foundation board president a lot of the organizing fell on my shoulders. Four non-profits were collaborators for the weekend. It was a tremendous amount of work to get the two-day golf tournament, community barbecue, and auctions put together. All in all it turned out well with a few bumps in the road. Our little family had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa here to golf and go to the barbecue with us. The food was good, the entertainment was upbeat and the auction prizes were one-of-a-kind. With the green light from Brian's parents to go for it, we even ended up being the highest bidders on a week stay at a home in a Mayan village in Belize owned by another non-profit director in the community. So, it sounds like 2010 will be the year the Browders go to South America!

The boys enjoying the barbecue at the Diamond Peak Ski Lodge overlooking the lake.

Ben enjoyed singing with Grandpa and playing the guitar that Grandpa found in one of our local thrift stores.

Here's a question for you....what do you do when you find your snow boots in the middle of the summer?

Ben's reply.....WEAR THEM!

Ben spent an entire afternoon clunking around the house in his snow boots which he found in the laundry room while helping me put clothes in the dryer.

Obviously if you wear snow boots with shorts you have to kick up your heels and dance!

Washing dishes in snow boots is a good idea too....keep those feet dry!

And after all that excitement, you may need to curl up in the clean laundry for a rest!