Happy Father's Day at the beach

A happy father's day shout to my Dad back home. Thanks for everything.
My wonderful wifey and "huge" boy took me out to the US Open at Pebble Beach to enjoy a great day yesterday. It was a massive event and we had a great time. The little guy was a trooper, we were out on the course for over 6 hours and he enjoyed it without complaint. Even though I had to tackle him as he made a break for it on the 17th fairway, was able to catch him by the sweater before he made it out of the 2nd cut of rough. Pretty funny.
Hope everyone had a good weekend.

PS no personal cameras were allowed, the photo above was clipped from Lance Iversen / The Chronicle : Ernie Els hits his approach shot at the ninth hole above Carmel Beach during final rounds of the 110th U.S. Open victory Sunday at Pebble Beach.

Happy Father's Day, Daddy!!

Here's to a very Happy Father's Day!!   The photos above are Alex's special message to his Daddy, whom he loves SO much!  We are planning to catch some of the US Open tomorrow, live at Pebble Beach, which should be a fun time.  We're sending best wishes for a very Happy Father's Day to our fathers too.  Hope that your day is a great one.  We love you!

Pinecone Bowling!

Counting the pinecones all lined up and ready to go

Hit it!

This is the best entertainment ever!

One of the pinecones being returned to the player

My silly boys

Our weekend in Tahoe was so much fun!  Thanks to Nien-Ling and Chris for allowing us to stay at your lovely Tahoe home.  It seems that two year olds are great at enlightening their parents and showing them how the simplest things in life can be fun.  Take pinecone bowling, for example.  Ever tried it?  If not, you should.  I'm sure it will be all the rage in Tahoe really soon.  We must have spent over an hour on Sunday morning in the nicely sloped side yard enjoying some pinecone bowling.  We would put the pinecones on a big toppled tree and Alex would hit them and see how far they would go down the hill without getting stopped by other pinecones, stumps or trees.  Then, of course, you needed a return system for the pinecones, so Momma and Daddy were enlisted to retrieve the pinecones for more bowling fun.  Try it sometime....you'd be surprised how much fun it is!

Time at the Lake

Spending a nice evening on a little beach north of Sand Harbor

Some geese were swimming out in the lake and made a little detour to the little beach.

Let's just say that the geese were not shy.  Do you see their tongues?

Alex offering up some of his beloved crackers

These geese have a great neighborhood

Little guy on the rocks

Had some fun climbing on the rocks to get to the beach

Ladybugs trying to stay warm in the sunshine

As we were getting ready to leave someone else was coming in, so we got a family shot.

Every time that we visit Lake Tahoe, we spend time over by Sand Harbor.  This time we went on a different trail and ended up at this nice little beach.  After climbing over the rocks to get down to the beach, Alex realized that there was a colony of ladybugs spending their time on the beach.  It appeared as though they were just trying to stay warm in the sunshine. 

As we were sitting on the rocks and having a snack, we saw some geese swimming out in the distance.  All of a sudden they made a turn into the little cove where we were and proceeded to swim right up and check us out and eventually got out of the water.  It appeared as though they were looking for Alex to share his crackers and eventually he did.  They were definitely not shy and I would venture to say that they have had quite a few cracker snacks in their day.  It was an unexpected little visit and added some more fun to the hike.  It was a beautiful evening with temperatures warmer than they had been for the past couple of days, so we really enjoyed our time there.

Biking Along the Truckee River

The family near the mouth of the Truckee River

Riding along the Truckee River

Ducks eating lunch

We brought our bikes along on the Tahoe trip and found that there are lots of nice bike trails in the area.  We drove to Tahoe City, parked at 64 Acres Park and rode on the nice bike route which follows the Truckee River.  In the summertime, the river is very popular for rafting, but it was still a bit cold this trip.  We enjoyed the ride and saw some ducks enjoying the sunny day and taking time out to find some lunch.  Alex liked seeing them float along the river, but found them even more irresistible when they kept bobbing for food, with their little behinds in the air.  We look forward to going back and exploring more of the nice trails.  For information on bike trails in the Tahoe area, go to:  http://www.tahoebike.org/.  Click on the Bike Trail Map tab for a comprehensive map of bike trails around the lake.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game!

Watching some baseball with Daddy

Quite a good view of the game from our seats behind home plate.

Cheese!

One of Alex's favorite features at the baseball park:  garbage cans with hats on them.

Enjoying the game from a different angle

Alex with the Ace's cheerleaders

We spent Thursday through Sunday in Tahoe and had a great weekend!  On Friday evening, we drove to Reno from Incline Village where we were staying, to take in a Reno Ace's Minor League Baseball game (Triple A team for the Arizona Diamondbacks).  It was Alex's first baseball game and I think it was a definite hit.  We had great seats right behind home plate and the whole experience was great family entertainment.  The year old park is in downtown Reno and was really well thought out and planned nicely for families to enjoy.  We would definitely go back again and would recommend it to anyone visiting the area.  Next time we'll stay up even later to enjoy the fireworks and the running of the bases.

The Little Baker

Carefully cutting the crusts for the mini tarts

Look at me, I'm making tarts!

 Doing a great job filling the larger tarts

This afternoon, Alex and I made some tarts with some of the nectarines and peaches which we picked last Saturday.  Alex was a great little baker, helping roll some of the dough, cut out the crusts and fill the shells.  He sure has a lot of fun in the kitchen.

Fruit Picking

Brentwood Fruit Picking Year Two

Look at all of the yummy peaches!

The little guy just won't settle for taking the lowest hanging fruit.

Taking a moment to enjoy the fruits of his labor

Reach for it

My little cherry model

Alex and Daddy chillin' under one of the trees

A year ago we took our first trip to Brentwood (http://smaskensbaby.blogspot.com/2009/06/visit-to-brentwood.html) to go fruit picking and this weekend we did the same trip, to the same places, even down to the same place for lunch.  Alex was a good little worker bee out in the orchards and especially enjoyed climbing the ladders to get the fruit that was up higher in the tree.  He did quite a bit of taste testing too, just to ensure that the quality was up to par!  It was definitely warmer out there, but we had alot of fun and have been enjoying lots of nectarines, peaches and cherries this evening.

Sunny!

Chillin' at the park

Jump!

Alex and Daddy putting together Alex's new bike

Strawberry plant with dew "jewels"

We had a fun long weekend filled with friends, a new bike, gardening and some park time.  Alex now has a new bike, so he practiced riding that this weekend, after helping Daddy put it together on Friday night.  We spent alot of time outside, since the weather was so nice, and Alex harvested his first strawberry from the garden!  A few mornings ago, the dew looked so pretty on the strawberry leaves, I couldn't resist taking a photo.  It looked as though the leaves has jewelry on, with the perfectly placed dew drops.  We had a nice barbeque with friends last night at our house, which capped off a fun weekend.  After seeing Alex eat ribs for the first time last night, it is clear that he is a fan....the bones were completely clean!