Tessa is 7 months

For those of you that do not know, we decided to get a puppy this past February. Since we do not have big milestones to celebrate with children yet, we thought it would be fun to celebrate Tessa's 7 month birthday with a Family Pic...as you can see Tessa did not think this was quite as fun as we did.

Please do not call PETA or Animal Control!

This did however give us a chance to take some great pictures of a finished backyard! The summer has been really nice so we have been able to enjoy several meals outside and even some card games. For those of you that did not see a "before" picture, our backyard was a gravel lot. With John's creative mind, A LOT of labor from John and Cheerleading from Tracy, we have attached the picture of the finished product.

PS: I promise we will not be blogging about our dog each week!

Lake Tahoe Adventure

This past Friday was John's 11-Year Class Reunion in Placerville, CA. They couldn't get the ten year together quick enough, but it was still great to catch up with old friends---no matter when it was. Friday night we caught up with John's classmates.

Saturday morning we met John's good friend Tony at Sweetie Pies for Breakfast. Of course John indulged in Olallieberry Muffin---his favorite! We got to meet the newest addition to Tony's family, his five-month old son, Nathan.

After breakfast, we headed up to Lake Tahoe. We took the Scenic Drive up Highway 50. On the way up we stopped by the American River in Kyburz to visit and remember Marcia.

From there, we continued up to Tahoe. We started in the Heavenly area by taking a Gondala ride up the mountain for majestic views. Tracy had never seen Lake Tahoe so this was so exciting. We stopped at Inspiration point at Emerald Bay for more great photos and then hiked up to Eagle Falls. As you can see in the pics, we were not quite dressed for a hike. It was a little challenging in flip flops! We were both totally out of breath and pledged to get in better shape---Pronto. We stopped to enjoy the views (and catch our breath.)

From here we stopped at Squaw Valley-Home of the 1960 Winter Olympics. We headed down the mountain to Sacramento. We stopped one more time to see the Donner Memorial. When we made it back into town we treated ourselves to a Chipotle Burrito---something we cannot get here in Albuquerque.

Sunday we enjoyed breakfast with Aunt Liz and Uncle Dave before heading to the Airport. It was a great week of seeing beautiful sights, friends and family!