Tahoe Browders: 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.