Malia: "Someday I'm going to be rich."
Me: "How? You need to have a plan. You can't just say you want to be rich, you have to have a plan and work hard."
Malia: "I'm going to be an engineer, duh!"
Me: "What kind of engineer?"
Malia: "The kind that build stuff."
Me: "Like..."
Malia: "Booby traps."
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Emergency Surgery
While Patrick and I were hanging out in Tahoe sans kids, we had no idea what kind of week we would have when we got back. Honestly, it was all very dream like and threw us through a loop, to say the least. It all started when we were picking up the kids from the various places they were stored at while we were gone...
I got a text message from Patrick who had been assigned to pick up Raya and Malia. He said that Malia had a 102 degree temperature and wasn't feeling well. The first thought that came to my mind was "great! The last week of school. I hope she is better by Tuesday since I am driving on a field trip for her class." I had an email into the teacher letting her know that she needed a backup plan for at least the Tuesday field trip and possibly the Wednesday field trip too. Boy did she need a back up plan and here's why...
It was about 10:00pm on Monday night. Everyone was in bed except for Malia and I. She had taken a few naps during the day and she's a night owl anyway. I was working on my computer and she was laying next to me. She kept telling me her tummy hurt. I told her to just go to bed and she would probably feel better in the morning. I finally finished my work and turned out the lights hoping that I could fall asleep with Malia moaning about her stomach pain next to me. As I was dozing off, I heard Malia in a soft voice ask me to pray for her. Then she asked me when her dad would be home so he could give her a priesthood blessing. I told her I would pray for her and that daddy should be home in a little bit. I started to pray...and without even ending my prayer, I had this overwhelming feeling that Malia needed to go to the hospital. I ended the prayer and immediately got up and turned the computer back on and started researching symptoms online.
A friend of Malia's just recently got out of the hospital after nearly dying from a ruptured appendix. It had been ruptured for about a week! This was very fresh in my mind and so the first thing I looked up was appendicitis symptoms. Pretty much everything pointed to my suspicion so I got on the phone and called Patrick at work. I had told him that I thought Malia needed to go to the hospital and asked if he could come home from work and take her. He didn't feel like this was an emergency, after all, it was just a stomach ache. I told him that I thought that she might have appendicitis. He said he needed to finish a few things up and he would be home.
An hour and a half later, he gets home and we are still awake. I had been doing a lot more research while Malia was writhing around in pain next to me. Patrick then proceeds to go through the "internet diagnosing" that I had been doing for the past hour. Everything was pointing to appendicitis yet he still wasn't sold on the idea that his baby girl had this big of a problem. It got to the point where I basically told him to just take her because she was having severe abdominal pain and he finally agreed. We got her up, got her dressed and got her shoes on. I brought her out to the kitchen and sat her at the table. I turned around to go and get her a sweater and all of a sudden, I heard Patrick in a panic yell for me. I turned around and Malia was on the floor. I honestly thought that Malia was being a little dramatic because she is good at that. Patrick said she was talking incoherently, saying random things and then fell to the floor. I went to her and picked her up. When I looked at her face, I knew that it was bad. She was ghost white. Patrick and I looked at each other and pretty much said at the same time, "she needs to go to the hospital now". Patrick picked her up and put her in the car and headed to hospital only minutes after she had fainted. It was about 1am.
Knowing that Malia was in good hands and that I had to get up in 5 short hours, I went to sleep with my phone right next to me. At 3:30am, Patrick called with an update letting me know that the doctors thought that it could possibly be her appendix but that they needed to do an X-ray to make sure. 5am, the phone rings again. It's Patrick letting me know that it is indeed her appendix and that Malia will be having surgery in the next hour or so. I couldn't go back to bed so I got up and straightened up the house, got the kids up, and texted my family letting them know what was going on. I was kind enough to wait until 6am before texting. 6:30 am, Patrick calls letting me know she is heading into surgery. I get the kids fed, ready for school and then drop them off at school. I decided to let the office know that Malia wouldn't be returning to school the rest of the week and then I headed to her teacher's classroom. I was just about to tell her teacher what was going on when my phone rang. It was Patrick letting me know that Malia had come out of surgery and was in recovery. I finished telling Malia's teacher what happened and then took Carly over to a friends house where she would stay for the rest of the school day. I then, headed over to the hospital.
When I got to the hospital, they were about ready to take her to her room. While waiting for her to come out of recovery, Patrick showed me a picture that the doctor gave him. WARNING!!! YUCKY PICTURE BELOW:
The top two pictures show the appendix. You can see white stuff on it. That is puss from the infection. The bottom two pictures are her liver and I believe gallbladder. They look super healthy.
We finally got into Malia's room and got set up with the nurses and fluids and all that stuff. Patrick fell asleep and I hung out in the room helping Malia to the bathroom and answering all the questions the nurses had. The doctor said that we got to the hospital just in time. Within 24 hours, her appendix most likely would have burst.
Patrick finally went home and fell back asleep. I was able to take care getting the kids picked up/dropped off from school, dinner, and bedtime rituals done all from my phone. Patrick woke up at 8:30pm. The kids had all eaten dinner and Raya was reading them a bedtime story about ready to get them in bed. Patrick said that it was weird waking up and having everything taken care of.
I stayed with Malia all day and almost all night. We hadn't really talked about it, but I was hoping Patrick would stay the nights with Malia and I the days. It was about midnight and Malia started crying almost hysterically. I couldn't figure out what was going on. She kept telling me that her arm hurt really bad. I called the nurse in to give her more pain medication. She hadn't cried this entire time and now she was crying about her arm. Of course there was a shift change and it took awhile to get the nurse in. She assessed the situation and determined that the antibiotics that were being administered to Malia were causing an infection in the vain. Apparently this happens sometimes and there are antidotes for certain antibiotics so that the IV won't need to be changed. With our luck, the antibiotic that was given to Malia had no antidote so she was going to have to get another IV in a different vain. By this time it was about 1am. I was exhausted from the long day and the lack of sleep from the night before. Patrick finally came rolling into the hospital after about the 3rd attempt at another IV. Malia is freaking out, the nurse had to call the NICU nurse to come in who also had to poke her more than once. Malia didn't want me to leave and let me know through her hysterical tears. I was on the verge of tears myself and on top of worrying about Malia, I was now worrying about my three other kids who at 1:30am were home alone. FINALLY, the NICU nurse was able to get a line in Malia's hand and she calmed down and gave me permission to leave with a promise that I would be back after dropping kids off at school in the morning. I came home and finally crawled into bed at 2am dreading the alarm that would go off in just 4 short hours...
I returned to the hospital as promised the next day. I asked the nurse if she would be able to come home and they told me no because of the infection and because she wasn't eating. I know that Malia is a picky eater and that hospital food isn't really all that yummy, but when you put a piece of chocolate cake in front of a ten year old kid and only one bite gets taken, you know that it's not about being picky anymore. She did drink milk which was good, but they told me that she needed to eat before she could leave...great.
I brought stuff to give Malia a shower. She really needed it and since the surgeons superglued her incisions shut, she was able to get them wet. She was able to sit in the shower with the warm water running over her. She said it felt so good to be clean. She looked so much better after her shower too. I brought her a dress/nightgown so she didn't have to walk around with her toosh hanging out.
Patrick picked the kids up from school that day and brought them to the hospital to visit Malia. They were so sweet. Carly wanted to cuddle with Malia. We carefully got her up on the bed with Malia. They were so cute!
We found there was a playroom which was nice. They had many toys and a lot of movies that Malia was able to bring back to her room and watch. We made a sign and asked if we could hang it on the outside of her door. They said it would be fine:
The next morning, the surgeon came in and let us know that we were going to be able to go home! Yay! we were all very exhausted and so ready to get home! We were treated so well at the hospital. We were in the pediatric ward of the hospital and I was glad to see that we were pretty much the only patients there during our stay. Not that we wanted all the attention but who wants children to be in the hospital anyway.
We had a few visitors while at the hospital, but my dad was there every day, sometimes even twice. He was so helpful in cheering Malia up. I am not sure if it was because every time he showed up, he had a gift for her or if it was his 15 minute story of how Fairy Tale Town came to be. Regardless, it was nice that he was there.
Malia was showered with many gifts and thoughts. Some of which are:
Sierra the growling cub (grandpa Poindexter)
Smiley the pink bear that got left at the hospital on accident ;( (Christi)
White crochet bear (old lady knitted from the hospital)
Two metallic balloons (Patrick's co-workers & boss)
Balloon, cupcake, and bear (aunt anna and kids)
Balloons and Jamba Juice (friends Jaimie, Jenna, and Joy Santos)
Get well Cards (all the students in Malia's class made a card for her)
Get well cards from the Primary at church and grandma and grandpa Durling.
Ethan wrote her a nice letter and drew a shark tooth on it. He also gave Malia one of his prehistoric shark teeth.
I am not sure if I missed anything or not. That entire week has literally been a blur. I felt like I was in a dream the entire week. Two weeks later, we are caught up on our sleep, Malia is back to her old self and we are heading to her follow up appointment tomorrow. Malia was able to make it to the last day of school with me as her chaperone. It was a good thing I was there because if I wasn't, she would have headed out with all the fourth graders to play Capture the Flag...oh my! That could have been disastrous!
Thank you family and friends for the meals brought in, babysitting, and prayers. They didn't go unnoticed and were so very helpful in our time of need. You are all amazing!
I got a text message from Patrick who had been assigned to pick up Raya and Malia. He said that Malia had a 102 degree temperature and wasn't feeling well. The first thought that came to my mind was "great! The last week of school. I hope she is better by Tuesday since I am driving on a field trip for her class." I had an email into the teacher letting her know that she needed a backup plan for at least the Tuesday field trip and possibly the Wednesday field trip too. Boy did she need a back up plan and here's why...
It was about 10:00pm on Monday night. Everyone was in bed except for Malia and I. She had taken a few naps during the day and she's a night owl anyway. I was working on my computer and she was laying next to me. She kept telling me her tummy hurt. I told her to just go to bed and she would probably feel better in the morning. I finally finished my work and turned out the lights hoping that I could fall asleep with Malia moaning about her stomach pain next to me. As I was dozing off, I heard Malia in a soft voice ask me to pray for her. Then she asked me when her dad would be home so he could give her a priesthood blessing. I told her I would pray for her and that daddy should be home in a little bit. I started to pray...and without even ending my prayer, I had this overwhelming feeling that Malia needed to go to the hospital. I ended the prayer and immediately got up and turned the computer back on and started researching symptoms online.
A friend of Malia's just recently got out of the hospital after nearly dying from a ruptured appendix. It had been ruptured for about a week! This was very fresh in my mind and so the first thing I looked up was appendicitis symptoms. Pretty much everything pointed to my suspicion so I got on the phone and called Patrick at work. I had told him that I thought Malia needed to go to the hospital and asked if he could come home from work and take her. He didn't feel like this was an emergency, after all, it was just a stomach ache. I told him that I thought that she might have appendicitis. He said he needed to finish a few things up and he would be home.
An hour and a half later, he gets home and we are still awake. I had been doing a lot more research while Malia was writhing around in pain next to me. Patrick then proceeds to go through the "internet diagnosing" that I had been doing for the past hour. Everything was pointing to appendicitis yet he still wasn't sold on the idea that his baby girl had this big of a problem. It got to the point where I basically told him to just take her because she was having severe abdominal pain and he finally agreed. We got her up, got her dressed and got her shoes on. I brought her out to the kitchen and sat her at the table. I turned around to go and get her a sweater and all of a sudden, I heard Patrick in a panic yell for me. I turned around and Malia was on the floor. I honestly thought that Malia was being a little dramatic because she is good at that. Patrick said she was talking incoherently, saying random things and then fell to the floor. I went to her and picked her up. When I looked at her face, I knew that it was bad. She was ghost white. Patrick and I looked at each other and pretty much said at the same time, "she needs to go to the hospital now". Patrick picked her up and put her in the car and headed to hospital only minutes after she had fainted. It was about 1am.
Knowing that Malia was in good hands and that I had to get up in 5 short hours, I went to sleep with my phone right next to me. At 3:30am, Patrick called with an update letting me know that the doctors thought that it could possibly be her appendix but that they needed to do an X-ray to make sure. 5am, the phone rings again. It's Patrick letting me know that it is indeed her appendix and that Malia will be having surgery in the next hour or so. I couldn't go back to bed so I got up and straightened up the house, got the kids up, and texted my family letting them know what was going on. I was kind enough to wait until 6am before texting. 6:30 am, Patrick calls letting me know she is heading into surgery. I get the kids fed, ready for school and then drop them off at school. I decided to let the office know that Malia wouldn't be returning to school the rest of the week and then I headed to her teacher's classroom. I was just about to tell her teacher what was going on when my phone rang. It was Patrick letting me know that Malia had come out of surgery and was in recovery. I finished telling Malia's teacher what happened and then took Carly over to a friends house where she would stay for the rest of the school day. I then, headed over to the hospital.
When I got to the hospital, they were about ready to take her to her room. While waiting for her to come out of recovery, Patrick showed me a picture that the doctor gave him. WARNING!!! YUCKY PICTURE BELOW:
The top two pictures show the appendix. You can see white stuff on it. That is puss from the infection. The bottom two pictures are her liver and I believe gallbladder. They look super healthy.
We finally got into Malia's room and got set up with the nurses and fluids and all that stuff. Patrick fell asleep and I hung out in the room helping Malia to the bathroom and answering all the questions the nurses had. The doctor said that we got to the hospital just in time. Within 24 hours, her appendix most likely would have burst.
Patrick finally went home and fell back asleep. I was able to take care getting the kids picked up/dropped off from school, dinner, and bedtime rituals done all from my phone. Patrick woke up at 8:30pm. The kids had all eaten dinner and Raya was reading them a bedtime story about ready to get them in bed. Patrick said that it was weird waking up and having everything taken care of.
I stayed with Malia all day and almost all night. We hadn't really talked about it, but I was hoping Patrick would stay the nights with Malia and I the days. It was about midnight and Malia started crying almost hysterically. I couldn't figure out what was going on. She kept telling me that her arm hurt really bad. I called the nurse in to give her more pain medication. She hadn't cried this entire time and now she was crying about her arm. Of course there was a shift change and it took awhile to get the nurse in. She assessed the situation and determined that the antibiotics that were being administered to Malia were causing an infection in the vain. Apparently this happens sometimes and there are antidotes for certain antibiotics so that the IV won't need to be changed. With our luck, the antibiotic that was given to Malia had no antidote so she was going to have to get another IV in a different vain. By this time it was about 1am. I was exhausted from the long day and the lack of sleep from the night before. Patrick finally came rolling into the hospital after about the 3rd attempt at another IV. Malia is freaking out, the nurse had to call the NICU nurse to come in who also had to poke her more than once. Malia didn't want me to leave and let me know through her hysterical tears. I was on the verge of tears myself and on top of worrying about Malia, I was now worrying about my three other kids who at 1:30am were home alone. FINALLY, the NICU nurse was able to get a line in Malia's hand and she calmed down and gave me permission to leave with a promise that I would be back after dropping kids off at school in the morning. I came home and finally crawled into bed at 2am dreading the alarm that would go off in just 4 short hours...
I returned to the hospital as promised the next day. I asked the nurse if she would be able to come home and they told me no because of the infection and because she wasn't eating. I know that Malia is a picky eater and that hospital food isn't really all that yummy, but when you put a piece of chocolate cake in front of a ten year old kid and only one bite gets taken, you know that it's not about being picky anymore. She did drink milk which was good, but they told me that she needed to eat before she could leave...great.
I brought stuff to give Malia a shower. She really needed it and since the surgeons superglued her incisions shut, she was able to get them wet. She was able to sit in the shower with the warm water running over her. She said it felt so good to be clean. She looked so much better after her shower too. I brought her a dress/nightgown so she didn't have to walk around with her toosh hanging out.
Patrick picked the kids up from school that day and brought them to the hospital to visit Malia. They were so sweet. Carly wanted to cuddle with Malia. We carefully got her up on the bed with Malia. They were so cute!
We found there was a playroom which was nice. They had many toys and a lot of movies that Malia was able to bring back to her room and watch. We made a sign and asked if we could hang it on the outside of her door. They said it would be fine:
The next morning, the surgeon came in and let us know that we were going to be able to go home! Yay! we were all very exhausted and so ready to get home! We were treated so well at the hospital. We were in the pediatric ward of the hospital and I was glad to see that we were pretty much the only patients there during our stay. Not that we wanted all the attention but who wants children to be in the hospital anyway.
We had a few visitors while at the hospital, but my dad was there every day, sometimes even twice. He was so helpful in cheering Malia up. I am not sure if it was because every time he showed up, he had a gift for her or if it was his 15 minute story of how Fairy Tale Town came to be. Regardless, it was nice that he was there.
Malia was showered with many gifts and thoughts. Some of which are:
Sierra the growling cub (grandpa Poindexter)
Smiley the pink bear that got left at the hospital on accident ;( (Christi)
White crochet bear (old lady knitted from the hospital)
Two metallic balloons (Patrick's co-workers & boss)
Balloon, cupcake, and bear (aunt anna and kids)
Balloons and Jamba Juice (friends Jaimie, Jenna, and Joy Santos)
Get well Cards (all the students in Malia's class made a card for her)
Get well cards from the Primary at church and grandma and grandpa Durling.
Ethan wrote her a nice letter and drew a shark tooth on it. He also gave Malia one of his prehistoric shark teeth.
I am not sure if I missed anything or not. That entire week has literally been a blur. I felt like I was in a dream the entire week. Two weeks later, we are caught up on our sleep, Malia is back to her old self and we are heading to her follow up appointment tomorrow. Malia was able to make it to the last day of school with me as her chaperone. It was a good thing I was there because if I wasn't, she would have headed out with all the fourth graders to play Capture the Flag...oh my! That could have been disastrous!
Thank you family and friends for the meals brought in, babysitting, and prayers. They didn't go unnoticed and were so very helpful in our time of need. You are all amazing!
Saturday, June 16, 2012
Track Star
I think we have a future track star on our hands. Ethan has set a school record as the fastest first grader to ever run the mile (since they started keeping track). It was posted on the school newsletter along with the current record holders. Our favorite babysitter, Katie holds a few of them. She is currently in high school on the track team.
A few weeks later, the newsletter had all the kids who earned the Presidential/National physical fitness awards. Ethan and Malia were both on it!
I have some pretty awesome kids!
A few weeks later, the newsletter had all the kids who earned the Presidential/National physical fitness awards. Ethan and Malia were both on it!
I have some pretty awesome kids!
Tooth Fairy
Ethan came running to me the other day after he had pulled one of his two front teeth out. He exclaimed "Mom, I know how we are going to get rich!" I asked him how and he proceeded to show me the letter he had written to the tooth fairy:
We have a lame tooth fairy at our house. She is always forgetting to do her rounds here. I think she finally showed up a few days later, but only left a couple of dollars. Totally lame!
His other front tooth was hanging by a thread. The mother in me just wanted to hold the kid down and yank it out. He refused to do it himself and one morning while I was waking him up for school, he laughed and I noticed his tooth was gone. I asked him if he had pulled it out and he said no. I told him we could look around for it but that he probably ate it. That night he wrote a letter to the tooth fairy:
It's been at least a week if not more, and that dumb tooth fairy hasn't stopped by! I think Ethan has forgotten...obviously she has too!
We have a lame tooth fairy at our house. She is always forgetting to do her rounds here. I think she finally showed up a few days later, but only left a couple of dollars. Totally lame!
His other front tooth was hanging by a thread. The mother in me just wanted to hold the kid down and yank it out. He refused to do it himself and one morning while I was waking him up for school, he laughed and I noticed his tooth was gone. I asked him if he had pulled it out and he said no. I told him we could look around for it but that he probably ate it. That night he wrote a letter to the tooth fairy:
It's been at least a week if not more, and that dumb tooth fairy hasn't stopped by! I think Ethan has forgotten...obviously she has too!
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Fashion
My friend texted me a picture of her son. She had cut his full mane of hair off and left a "rat tail". In the early 90's, Rat tails were a common site. In fact, rat tails were as common as mullets were in the 80's. Anyway, when she sent me that picture, it reminded me of what was considered "cool" fashion back in the day. I was cracking up thinking about bright neon colors, pegged pants, double tube socks (each a different color), pants with stirrups, hyper color t-shirts, team parkas...I could go on and on. I am truly grateful that MOST of these items haven't made a comeback. I write this post because, Raya came out of her room ready for school, looking like this:
I can't wait until she sees this picture in 20 years and says "What was I thinking wearing those". I promise, that day will come...it always does!
I can't wait until she sees this picture in 20 years and says "What was I thinking wearing those". I promise, that day will come...it always does!
Sunday, June 10, 2012
Happy Birthday Raya!
I officially have a teenager! Where has the time gone? Happy 13th birthday Raya!
Friday, June 8, 2012
Anniversary Trip
Patrick and I went on a little getaway to celebrate our 15 years together. We planned on staying two nights in Reno and headed up there Friday afternoon:
We stayed here:
and even though we paid for two nights at this place, we left after the first night for four reasons: 1. Reno sucks especially if you don't gamble. I just walked through the casino and looked at the slot machines and was totally confused. 2. It is shocking that people can just light up a cigarette inside. I forgot about that and it was so stinky and gross. 3. After taking a shower, I pulled a "clean" towel out and saw this:
I can only imagine what kind of stain that is. So nasty!
and 4. The fact they put food items in your hotel on sensors and charge an enormous amount of money for them. I felt like I couldn't go near the items worried that the simple act of my walking close by might dislodge these food items and we would have to pay an arm and a leg for a rice krispie treat! Seriously, $4 for it!
One good thing came out of Reno because we were really excited to go and see this guy:
For those of you who don't know who he is, his name is Joel McHale and he is super funny. He hosts a show on E! called "The Soup" which he basically makes fun of celebrities. He also is on a show called "Community" that stars Chevy Chase. A guy that I went to high school with and also worked with back in my glory days at Baskin Robbins, was on an episode of Community. My friend actually played Joel McHale's character on an internet show that basically predicted the future of the main characters. You can watch it HERE
The show was pretty funny and definitely was the best part of Reno. We weren't allowed to use cameras but we snuck this quick picture of us before the show started. It totally sucks, but we were there!
The nasty towel pretty much sealed the deal to leave. On our way out, we stopped at a restaurant that had been features on Food Network's "Diner's, Drive In's, and Dives" It wasn't all that it was cracked up to be for sure, but since Patrick and I have always wanted to do a "DDD" tour, it was kind of exciting:
After spending like 2 hours at the restaurant trying to figure out the next leg of our trip, we decided to take off and head over to Virginia City. We had heard awesome things about this place but after visiting, decided we have numerous places close by that are pretty much the same...Old Folsom to be exact. We took a tour of the Fourth Ward School house which was super awesome. The school housed around 800 students all contained in a four story house. I can only imagine how loud it was. We learned many things about schooling back in the old days. The last class to graduate was sometime in the 1940's. They were told that they could sign their names anywhere in the building because the school was going to be torn down. It was cool to see all the signatures on the walls. There was also a desk that had many carvings in it. Kind of reminds me of when I was in school. Things never change I guess.
We didn't stay long in Virginia City. It was kind of lame and we weren't on a motorcycle so we were total outcasts. We headed over to South Lake Tahoe where it was just beautiful and completely different from Reno:
We stayed in a tiny Motel 6 room that had clean towels and super hard beds, but it was a place to stay. We woke up the next morning and went to Vikingsholm. It was super awesome! It was about a one mile hike from the rode down to the castle which reeked havoc on my knees. After that, I thought that the hike back up would be much much easier! So there was this really rich lady who bought a bunch of property out in Emerald Bay. She actually bought all the property for $250,000 which is super cheap now, but I could only imagine how expensive it was then. She had this home built after the Viking style and it was absolutely beautiful! The area and the home were amazing. It was actually just her summer home. There were many servants and maids that would accompany her to the home in the summer and she would invite many guests to come as well. With the property came a little island. On that island, she had a tea house built. It is still there but it is just remains now. If you look closely, you might be able to see it at the top of the peak on the island through the trees:
After the lady died, some guy bought it and had plans to develop the property, but for whatever reason, he ended up not doing so and I think he couldn't afford it so he offered it up for sale to the state of California who swooped in and purchased it for about the same price as the original property sold. The guy left pretty much all the original items in the home so California has made it a museum and it is awesome! There were so many old looking items and even a piano that Liberace himself played. An old car that was the accountants car was donated back to the house from a lady who grew up as a guest each summer. She drove it into the 90's and still puts on tours at the house although she is very old now. The property was beautiful and very peaceful. I wish we could have stayed longer there, but alas, we had to get back to our kids who apparently didn't miss us one bit!
This is me:
(You can see the Tea House on the tip of the island in this picture too)
You probably can't tell but I was about ready to die. The hike back to our car was ridicules! My knees didn't hurt, but it was a sore reminder that I was not in any shape whatsoever. But I wasn't the only one who had to stop like 10 times and complain so that made me feel better, oh and passing the old couple. Ya, we're awesome! too
We arrived home in record time. We left South Lake Tahoe, and in an hour and 15 minutes we were home. I only had to close my eyes a handful of times while Patrick drove us to our destination. Patrick picked up the older girls who shared time with my sister and my mom, and I picked up the younger kids who played with their cousin Rylie at my brother's house. Malia came home with a 102 degree temperature. Little did we know what we had in store for us with that (post coming soon), but we were all happy to be home together, noise and all...
We stayed here:
and even though we paid for two nights at this place, we left after the first night for four reasons: 1. Reno sucks especially if you don't gamble. I just walked through the casino and looked at the slot machines and was totally confused. 2. It is shocking that people can just light up a cigarette inside. I forgot about that and it was so stinky and gross. 3. After taking a shower, I pulled a "clean" towel out and saw this:
I can only imagine what kind of stain that is. So nasty!
and 4. The fact they put food items in your hotel on sensors and charge an enormous amount of money for them. I felt like I couldn't go near the items worried that the simple act of my walking close by might dislodge these food items and we would have to pay an arm and a leg for a rice krispie treat! Seriously, $4 for it!
One good thing came out of Reno because we were really excited to go and see this guy:
For those of you who don't know who he is, his name is Joel McHale and he is super funny. He hosts a show on E! called "The Soup" which he basically makes fun of celebrities. He also is on a show called "Community" that stars Chevy Chase. A guy that I went to high school with and also worked with back in my glory days at Baskin Robbins, was on an episode of Community. My friend actually played Joel McHale's character on an internet show that basically predicted the future of the main characters. You can watch it HERE
The show was pretty funny and definitely was the best part of Reno. We weren't allowed to use cameras but we snuck this quick picture of us before the show started. It totally sucks, but we were there!
The nasty towel pretty much sealed the deal to leave. On our way out, we stopped at a restaurant that had been features on Food Network's "Diner's, Drive In's, and Dives" It wasn't all that it was cracked up to be for sure, but since Patrick and I have always wanted to do a "DDD" tour, it was kind of exciting:
After spending like 2 hours at the restaurant trying to figure out the next leg of our trip, we decided to take off and head over to Virginia City. We had heard awesome things about this place but after visiting, decided we have numerous places close by that are pretty much the same...Old Folsom to be exact. We took a tour of the Fourth Ward School house which was super awesome. The school housed around 800 students all contained in a four story house. I can only imagine how loud it was. We learned many things about schooling back in the old days. The last class to graduate was sometime in the 1940's. They were told that they could sign their names anywhere in the building because the school was going to be torn down. It was cool to see all the signatures on the walls. There was also a desk that had many carvings in it. Kind of reminds me of when I was in school. Things never change I guess.
We didn't stay long in Virginia City. It was kind of lame and we weren't on a motorcycle so we were total outcasts. We headed over to South Lake Tahoe where it was just beautiful and completely different from Reno:
We stayed in a tiny Motel 6 room that had clean towels and super hard beds, but it was a place to stay. We woke up the next morning and went to Vikingsholm. It was super awesome! It was about a one mile hike from the rode down to the castle which reeked havoc on my knees. After that, I thought that the hike back up would be much much easier! So there was this really rich lady who bought a bunch of property out in Emerald Bay. She actually bought all the property for $250,000 which is super cheap now, but I could only imagine how expensive it was then. She had this home built after the Viking style and it was absolutely beautiful! The area and the home were amazing. It was actually just her summer home. There were many servants and maids that would accompany her to the home in the summer and she would invite many guests to come as well. With the property came a little island. On that island, she had a tea house built. It is still there but it is just remains now. If you look closely, you might be able to see it at the top of the peak on the island through the trees:
After the lady died, some guy bought it and had plans to develop the property, but for whatever reason, he ended up not doing so and I think he couldn't afford it so he offered it up for sale to the state of California who swooped in and purchased it for about the same price as the original property sold. The guy left pretty much all the original items in the home so California has made it a museum and it is awesome! There were so many old looking items and even a piano that Liberace himself played. An old car that was the accountants car was donated back to the house from a lady who grew up as a guest each summer. She drove it into the 90's and still puts on tours at the house although she is very old now. The property was beautiful and very peaceful. I wish we could have stayed longer there, but alas, we had to get back to our kids who apparently didn't miss us one bit!
This is me:
(You can see the Tea House on the tip of the island in this picture too)
You probably can't tell but I was about ready to die. The hike back to our car was ridicules! My knees didn't hurt, but it was a sore reminder that I was not in any shape whatsoever. But I wasn't the only one who had to stop like 10 times and complain so that made me feel better, oh and passing the old couple. Ya, we're awesome! too
We arrived home in record time. We left South Lake Tahoe, and in an hour and 15 minutes we were home. I only had to close my eyes a handful of times while Patrick drove us to our destination. Patrick picked up the older girls who shared time with my sister and my mom, and I picked up the younger kids who played with their cousin Rylie at my brother's house. Malia came home with a 102 degree temperature. Little did we know what we had in store for us with that (post coming soon), but we were all happy to be home together, noise and all...
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