Ok, so I've been really bad at updating this page. Here is a list of some of the things we've done since Cami's Birthday:
Ahh...Our annual visit to the Barbieris in Bishop. I wasn't able to go this year because of the recent change in my lifestyle.....work.
No more carefree lifestyle! Because the code for my project was late, I needed to stay "on call" in case the programmer finished the code so I could test it.
As it turned out, he didn't get it completed until after the weekend, so I could have gone after all. Oh well.
Lyn and the girls drove to Bishop from San Diego (400+ miles) by themselves. Although worrisome, I am generally confident that Lyn can handle most emergency situations. Fortunately,
their trip was uneventful.
My mom owns four different time-shares; all in Las Vegas. The Farifield is one she has never used and the extra points she
had there were about to expire. Instead of letting them go to waste, we decided to take a small vacation.
The Fairfield is located about 2 blocks East of the strip behind the Alladin. It is new and designed and finished like a 4 or 5 start
hotel. We had a 3 bedroom suite. The girls had their own room with their own beds on the opposite side of the suite. Mom had her own room and Lyn and I
took the master bedroom which had a large jacuzzi tub. We hit up the mandatory casinos for kids, Circus Circus, Excalibur, Luxor, and New York New York. We were disappointed with Excalibur because the kids area sucked and
we will probably be taking it off our list of casinos to visit, but were pleasantly surprised by New York New York; the best gaming area. At the Fairfield, we spent most of our time at the pool which was heated.
I let Lyn do most of the gambling while I stayed back with the girls.
Gambling isn't my thing. I did partake in a small poker tournament. It seems that
all the casinos have them now and run several a night. I lost my $50 buyin in about 2hrs, but I had a blast. My heart was racing the whole time
even when I was winning. I was more scared of making a stupid mistake then losing. I only made one obvious one. I folded a hand and I could have just 'checked'.
In the hand I lost, I was "all-in" with pocket "nines" the guy that beat me got a pair of "jacks" on the river. It was definitely more exciting then pushing a button on a machine.
For one day, we went off the strip to the Sun Coast Resort which was my dad's favorite place to bowl. I took the girls to a movie "Shaggy Dog" while Lyn...you guessed it gambled.
Later, we all went bowling. The lanes were really nice. You could designate which players needed bumbers and the bumpers would automatically deploy when the users turn
would come up.
I think Lyn ended up breaking even or winning enough to cover most of our expenses.....oops!...Lyn informs me this was true only until the last night/day...then she lost it all =o....that's gamblin'
Pictures to follow
For Camilles 5th birthday, Lyn planned lunch at Rubios and a
movie for 13 kids. Since the movie theatre was in walking distance,
this made it a lot easier.
The menu was cheese quesadias and chicken taquitos. For drinks, Lyn was
able to make a deal with the manager. If she paid for six regular
drinks, she could get as many
smaller drinks she needed. Alas, we had a break with tradition. Since
Madi's 2nd birthday, I have been making the birthday cakes. This time,
Cami requested an ice cream
cake. I can't do ice cream cakes, so we bought one. Probably for the
last time. Those things are expensive!
Half of the guest were relatives (my godsisters kids and one
cousin). The rest were Madison's classmates. Since both Lyn and myself
have been
working in Madison's class, we have taken Camille with us, so Camille
has spent at least 2 full days a week attending 1st grade. She is
practically a member of the
class and participates in most of the activities. Now, many of Madi's
classmate are now Cami's friends too.
Since Rubios doesn't reserve seats, we took over the outside patio
area. After having the cake, the sugar started to kick in and the kids
started running around and climbing. We decided it would probably be
better to
hangout by the movie theatre, so Lyn grouped the kids into threes and
walked over. By the time the movie started, the kids had burned
off most of the excess energy from the cake and were really well
behaved in the movie (Curious George).
Cami was very happy and really enjoyed her birthday.
Click here to see the picture gallery Camille's 5th Birthday
There are a couple of things we always expect from our Death
Valley trips: unexpected things will happen and we will have fun! Last
year, there was a lot of rain and snow. This year it was cold, windy
and we lost the group.
The planned trails this year were Fish Canyon (escape trail) on
Saturday, Phinney Canyon on Sunday, and Scotty's Castle, Ubehebe
Crater, Racetrack Valley, Lippencott Mine Rd, Saline Valley South Pass
on Monday. We headed up early Friday to camp at the Trona Pinnacles
before meeting up with the rest of the group (20 vehicles) on Saturday.
During the previous week, I had monitored the weather and watched it
deteriorate from the 80's to the 60's, but
it did not look like any rain so I was happy. However, I did not think
about the wind. When we got to the Pinnacles, our normal camping spot
was too exposed to the wind. It
took me the better part of an hour to find a spot that would provide
some shelter from the wind. Even then, I had to use my truck as a wind
break to
protect the tent and provide a place to cook. As the wind picked up,
the girls did not spend much time playing/exploring as they had in the
past. At night, the tent was buffeted pretty hard by gust of winds. At
one point during the night, I thought it was raining. In the morning, I
found out it was only sand/stones hitting the tent.
Sometime after midnight, the winds calmed down and I was able to sleep.
The girls pretty much were asleep right after storytime and singing.
Dinner was carne asada tacos, soup, and
marshmellows.
On Saturday morning, the group which stayed in Ridgecrest met
us at the entrance to the Trona Pinnacles. From there, we turned off
the road about 3 miles outside the town of
Trona. Then, we headed over the Slate Range to Fish Canyon/Escape trail
and the Pannamint Valley. The canyon got its name from a couple of
families which tried to escape
from Death Valley in the 1800s after they ran out of provisions. Father
Fish died on the trail and his is buried somewhere in the canyon; we
have never found the gravesite.
There weren't too many difficult sections and there where no breaks
this year. 2 years agos the trail was a little harder and a couple of
vehicle broke down. After exploring the Escape Trail, we were off to
Warm Springs Canyon. We stopped of at the Barker Ranch which is where
Charlie Manson and his family were caught. We also stopped off to check
out an abandoned mine. Once we got to the hard ball road, in Death
Valley proper (170), we split up. Most in the group were staying in
motels in Beatty, NV. We had planned to camp out near Phinney Canyon
which was Sundays trail, but we heard the temperature was going
to be in the 20's. We opted to camp in the valley in Stovepipe Wells
which was a lot warmer. We planned to meet the group in Rhyolite in the
morning (about 25mi away). However, the girls were a little slow in the
morning and we
missed the meeting. We ended up going solo the rest of the trip. We
headed up to Titus Canyon, but found it closed. As luck would have it,
as soon as we got there, it started to snow. The girls had a great time
making a snowman and
later knocking it down and throwing swowballs at dad. We then went to
Scotty's Castle and Ubehebe Crater. As we were setting up camp back at
Stovepipe Wells, our family friends from Bishop, the Barbieri's,
stopped by.
They were on their way back from Las Vegas and decided to stop in on
us. It was a really nice surprise. We had gone all day without finding
or hearing our group (on the CB),so the odds that the Barbieri's would
find
us setting up camp as they were passing by were pretty slim. I had just
started laying out the tent! On Monday, we relaxed at camp and went to
the Dunes so the girls could play in the sand.
Not much 4x4ing this year, but it was a little more relaxed.
p.s. I found out later the group spent most of the day at
Phinney Canyon. Because of the snow, they had a hard time finding the
trail.
NOTE: One of the girls jobs while on the trip was to take pictures (Cami) and
video (Madi). Half the pictures in the gallery were taken by the girls. Overall, they
did a good job.
Click here to see the picture gallery Death Valley '06