Reno - 2009 Tomato Fight

Our recent trip to Reno was filled with unusual events and sights. First of all we drove down and did it as quickly as possible with a stop in Bend Oregon to visit our good friends the McDoles.

We arrived in Reno late on a Friday night and just sat around Saturday and played in the pool.

The best part of Saturday was going to downtown Reno for their first ever "Tomato Food Fight". We're talking 5 tons of tomatoes dropped in the middle of the square where people paid $10.00 to enter and throw food. The money went to charity.

As we approached the area we realized (wisely I might add) that this could get out of control so we went up two stories in a parking garage that overlooked the whole area. This way we could keep the kids safe and just enjoy the commotion.

Here are a few choice photos:

The begining

The rush

The middle

The End

We really felt safe up there in the parking garage watching all the "crazy" people. That is until a tomato came flying by and almost hit us. The crowd below was getting a bit tired of easy targets and chose to try and hit anyone out of reach. Picture the carnival game where you try to hit the clown with one ball....that was us.....the clowns.

We were hit several times but the kids loved it and enjoyed throwing the tomatoes back into the crowd below. Hailey had a great shot at one of the guys below and it was fun to watch him get hit and wonder who it could have come from!
If anyone gets a chance to see something like this I say "GO". It was a lot of fun.

Carlota

We rescued Carlata about 3 years ago when she was around 9 years old.

I have never seen a dog depressed before. She had had the same owner all her life and within a year of her owner being put into a home due to age she had just found herself at our place and her second home in a very short time span. I was told that if we didn't work out for her then Purebred Dog Rescue was going to put her on "Dogie Downers".

Let's just say that it took a year for her to adjust (which is normal for most dogs). Since Standard Poodles are known for how smart they are we were very surprised to find she wasn't. At least that's what we thought. It dawned on me one day that she was raised in Mexico and that she must not understand us. I called my mother to ask how to say sit in Spanish, you know, a test to see if she understood Spanish. We were very overjoyed to find out that, yes, our dog spoke another language. She really was smart, she just had to learn English!

I had a stranger ask me about her and she had some very insightful words. She said that "Carlata's music had changed and that it must be very hard to adjust to another song". That has helped Trent and I understand what she needed from us. Lot's of love and patience.

What we loved most about her was her connection to Caden. Right from the beginning she mothered him. Whenever he would walk into a room she would come up to him from where ever she was to get a hug.

That's why we were so sad when we found out her kidneys failed and we had to put her down the same day.

This is our goodbye to a very sweet dog. You will be missed.

Bandits

Elissa's softball team "The BANDITS" had a great learning year. This year the girls understood the game in a whole new way. Half of this team plays on the Redhawks with Hailey so the other girls not on that team were forced to improve to a level that they themselves didn't know they could.

Elissa's biggest strength is her speed so her coach had her bunting (sometimes left handed) and she ended up being the best bunter and fastest runner on the team!

These bunting and running skills just earned her a place on the All-star team this year. The games start in a couple of days (July 5th) and we're all excited to see how they do in tournament play.


Elissa bunting


Coming into home....It's a close one!


Safe!

The tallest player on the team (Avery) and the smallest: our Elissa

Redhawks

Redhawks is the brain child of Trents’. He wanted the girls in the valley to be able to compete at at higher level if softball. He was fortunate to be able to use the boys "Redhawks" logo and fly under their colors.

Here are a few pictures of Hailey playing ball.

45 Minutes to Broadway

Elissa's second play this year was a hoot. She loves performing and we love watching her so excited. She can't stop smiling the whole time.

Thank goodness this was a comedy!

We weren’t allowed to take pictures during the play but above is a picture of the cast and below is Elissa's final bow.

Ok, I couldn’t not show her in "Toy Camp" were she plays a puzzle piece.

Hailey's 13th birthday!

Hailey turned 13 in May........she is now officially a "TEEN" !!!

She had a birthday here at the house with games and a wonderful cake that she made. Her gift from Trent and I were tickets to see the Jonas Brothers. What better way to bring in her "Teen" years with her first concert! (pictures coming soon)

This is the cake she decorated with fondant.

Here are her closest friends, all different ages (10 through 14) and we have homeschoolers and public school girls. Some had just met for the first time and they all got along beautifully.

We have a projecter so Trent set it up to show a movie outside on the garage. We built a fire and set up a table with snacks, it was a lot of fun.

Elissa gets earrings

Elissa decided to tape theses beautiful flowers to her ears today.

I love the look! I think she wants her ears pierced.

First frog of spring!

Here's Hailey holding the first "found" from of spring. We love these little guys!

Caden Turns "5"

We always have a birthday celebration at home on the actual day of the kids birthdays and this year we took Caden for the first time to Chuck E Cheeses. This is after our trip to Chuckies at home with his birthday muffin.



The next day was his party and he chose a Star Wars theme. Hailey and Elissa had a great time planning his big day.

Hailey decorated Cadens cake.



Elissa planned the names of all the different snacks.







Here is where we put all the decorations.




The game the girls chose for Caden and his friends to play was to battle Darth Vader. Here is Darth himself fighting the birthday boy.



And this is Caden (Luke) using the "force"



Another opponent for Darth Vader to overcome!




I don't know how much Trent enjoyed getting beat up on but the kids sure enjoyed it!

Here is Elissa blowing up just ONE more balloon.



Singing Happy Birthday to the birthday boy.


Caden eating his cake.....I don't recommend black frosting! It was everywhere!



One of the many pressent from his friends. This is Lydia.

Whistler Vacation

Evey year in February we go on vacation to Whistler. We've always done lots of skiing and a little sledding but this year we didn't ski so we put all our time and energy into sledding. I believe it was the best time I've seen the kids have sledding in all the years we've gone up there. This is probably because they weren't tired from skiing!



Here is Hailey on her first run down.

Here is Elissa on her first run down. She screamed the whole time!




These next pictures are all about Caden. This was the first year he would ski and he went from not wanting to try sledding last year to never asking questions and taking off.......I love these shots.

His first down the hill.

His second trip down the hill on a different sled.

A different sled yet again!

This time he was going so fast Trent couldn't catch him as he headed for the trees.

He even tried backwards!

Catching some air!

Hailey went down a few time and then disappeared....we took this picture of her as she took in the skiers. I thing she missed skiing!

We had a great time in the snow. We are skipping next year due to the Olympics but we're all looking forward to 2011!