Did you hear????

Grammy and Poppy got a new refrigerator at the Lake House! It is beautiful stainless steel and the handle for the freezer drawer is the PERFECT height for me to hold on to and hang out. I also especially enjoy putting my little handprints all over the front of it.


I wonder if anyone considered how they were going to clean this...

Posted by Lily!

Visiting with the Cardinale family at the Lake House

We were lucky enough to have our cousins from Fresno come and visit us at the Lake house this weekend. What a wonderful time was had by all.

We took them to the beach, on the boat, and even tubing! Frances went by herself to "demonstrate" to everyone how to do it. With her Daddy driving, she caught some great waves. Mommy thought for sure she was going to go flying out a few times. Then, she took her Tia Nena out for a spin. After that, she gave up her coveted spot in the tube so that Frankie could go with his Mommy. After that, we swapped passengers on the boat, and Tio Jeff and Antonia went for a ride. They tubed and swam off the side of the boat. No, we don't have pictures of any of that.

But, we do have a picture of Frances, Antonia, and Francisco at the park after they rode there on the back of the golf cart.

And, of the three musketeers having lunch on the deck.

And, of them having a BLAST on the waterslide.

We think that they may have had enough fun to come back!


Thanks for coming Cardinale family! We had a WONDERFUL weekend! (If a post about her family doesn't make Nena comment, nothing will!)

Coming up

The next four posts are all about our FABULOUS Fourth of July weekend at the Lake...

Just a couple of pictures of the girls

Some cute candids from the weekend...

Have I mentioned that Lily LOVES to eat?

The fashion plate on the beach.

Labs are the most patient dogs on the planet.

TUBING!!!

The most exciting part of the weekend was Frances tubing for the first time. Let me tell you, Mommy was a nervous wreck the first time. And, Frances, well, let's just say that girl has NO fear.

For the first go, Bobo went with Frances in the tube.


Chris was a little nervous at first about going too fast...

But then, they went faster...

We practiced the hand signals with her before she went out (thumb up = faster, thumb down = slower, hand across the throat = STOP). Needless to say, Frances didn't need the slow or stop signals. After two times with Bobo, she wanted to go by herself. Yikes! But, once she got out there, she was sticking her thumb up in the air with her arm stretched up as high as it would go. And her mouth saying "faster, faster, faster!" She was cracking us up.

Not only did Frances have her first time on the tube, but Rawlins also braved it this year.

What a great day on the Lake!

Fourth of July Fireworks and Dessert

BIG Excitement this year...we got to go out on the boat to watch the fireworks. Grammy and Poppy graciously volunteered to stay home with Lily, so Steve, Jesse and I took Bobo (Chris), Rawlins and Frances out to see the show. It was very cool!

As we zoomed out on the lake towards the tip of the peninsula, I wondered just how many boats there would be.



Come to find out, there was a small city out on the water. We failed to get a picture of all the boats, but just trust me...there were a ton. The fireworks were beautiful. It is quite an interesting experience to sit on the water to watch the show.

This is my favorite shot...

And, of course, we had a very special dessert to enjoy when we got home. This beautiful cake was decorated by Rawlins (the strawberry stripes) and Frances (the blueberry stars). Not only was the cake lovely to look at, but it was very yummy too! (Thanks Grammy!)

Dressing up the Golf Cart

In our ongoing effort to bring some excitement to the Country Club, we decided to start a new tradition...dressing up the golf cart in holiday gear. Grammy brought all kinds of red, white and blue decor to accomplish this task.

Isn't it beautiful? We found that it really did attract attention as we drove to the beach. Everyone we drove past waved and smiled!

And, no, none of the kids are really allowed to drive it...bummer, I know.

Sweet mobility

About a month ago, Lily figured out how to crawl - really crawl, up on all fours. But, she only did that for a few days and then got bored with it. So, she instituted the inch-worm scoot. I think she decided that she would much rather be standing up and cruising the furniture. The inch-worm scoot would get her to the nearest thing to pull up to standing.

Now, within the last week, she has discovered that crawling is much faster and more effective to get her to the toys that she wants to play with.




As much as we had all hoped and anticipated Lily's mobility, it is now the point where we look back on the past months and long for the days where we could put her down and trust that she would stay where we left her. Frances is very excited that Lily can follow her around. She really loves it when Lily crawls over to play with her.

So, here we go...a whole new world awaits...

Keeping up with the blog

Now I have made fatal mistake of telling others about the blog. So, I really have to keep up now!

Last night we were having dinner up at Tati's house to celebrate that the lovely Mr. and Mrs. Welmerink were in town from Seattle. Diana and I were doing the dishes and chatting it up when I mentioned that I too had a blog. But, that I hadn't sent the link out to anyone because I hadn't been posting to it. Well, she said that they would love to see it and link to it, etc. So, I guess now I am committed.

As much fun as it was to just say "I have a blog," now I actually have to do it!

As I have learned from reading the Welmerink and McGinness blogs, I am supposed to post a picture everytime. I will fail this time, but I will from now on...

RODEO!!!

Is there anything better than going to the Reno Rodeo? Frances is now crazy for all things Rodeo. First, she was glued to the Flag girls as they rode around the arena doing their drills with the flags. She told me that she was going to be a flag girl when she is "41" - everything is when she is 41 right now.


We were very blessed to be in a FABULOUS box in the center of the Grandstand. You couldn't ask for better seats! We were lucky enough to have one of the flag girls stop right in front of us for a few minutes. We didn't get the girls name, but the horse was named Charlie and he was so sweet.


When the flags were brought in for the national anthem, Frances decided to wave at all of the girls as they rode by. Check out the video - our arms were getting tired!

I have to share a very proud moment with my blog readers (all 2 of you) - The morning after the Rodeo, Bob called my mom and said, "Teresa, not only are your Granddaughters beautiful, but they were the most well behaved kids I have ever had in my box." That was a proud Grandma moment, and a very proud Mommy moment. Thanks Bob, and Thanks Frances and Lily!!! Mommy loves you!