the bachelorette

Two weeks after her family bridal shower, Keri's friends, sister, and cousins threw her a weekend bachelorette party. We started out at dinner in Fresno (convenient for me!) and then the girls took off for Hume Lake. I opted out of that part because I wasn't sure how I'd be feeling. Instead, Chad, Mags and I drove to Visalia where Mags and I went shopping with my mom and Chad, my dad and a friend of theirs went on their annual hiking/fishing trip. Sunday I met back up with the girls for an afternoon of baseball at Chukchansi Park. We caught the Grizzlies game and, despite wearing black on a sunny warm day, had a really fun time. Keri got to throw the first pitch to SF Giants catcher Eli Whiteside and we got our hats signed and took a photo with Grizzlies players Heath Hembree and Skyler Stromsmoe. Maybe one day they'll be famous.

Olympic Park

We spent a bit of time at the Olympic Park near our condo in Park City. It was cool seeing some of the locations where the 2002 Winter Olympic events were held, including the luge, bobsledding and ski jumping. While we were there we watched students practice from a ski jumping camp. Instead of snow, however, they skied down a wet ramp into a pool of water. Scary, but no one ever screamed. I would have. Anyway, time was on our side that afternoon because we were also able to see a group speed around a bobsled course. Super neat.

Kids Bowl Free

The Kids Bowl Free bus rolled into town on April 17 and early that morning we went to check it out. It was an awesomely big and fancy bus and it was fun to get to tour the inside. Kids Bowl Free, for those of you unfamiliar with it, is a program that allows kids to bowl two free games every day during the summer. The only thing they have to pay for is the shoe rental. It's an amazing deal. Andy, one of the owners of Kids Bowl Free is our good friend and the boyfriend of our great friend, Loren. Luckily for us she joined him for the Arizona/California leg of the tour and then stayed with us for a few days before flying back to the east coast.

Grizzlies

Fresno has a minor league baseball team called the Grizzlies. We got tickets from Groupon to watch the game on Saturday and we invited my parents to come along. The first part of the game (against the Sacramento River Cats) was slow, but as soon as the Grizzlies started scoring it got exciting. The breezy weather was wonderful. Going to the game was a great way to spend a Saturday evening for sure.

Derby Girl

For Maggie's 10-month birthday we took her to the roller derby. The bout was downtown and featured two teams with skilled skaters: The Atomic Assault (the local girls) and the Prison City Derby Dames. Chad and I have seen the Prison City girls from Chino Hills play here before. Maggie liked the derby and especially loved smiling at the people sitting in the bleachers with us. Because we weren't sure what the crowd was going to be like and because we wanted good seats, the three of us arrived early to the event. Above is a photo of us with the skaters warming up behind us and below is a photo of Chad and Maggie during halftime. When we left for home it was dark and just about Maggie's bedtime.

Rodeo

Saturday we went to the rodeo with my parents. It was a warm sunny day but we got great seats at the top of the stadium. Fortunately for us we were able to feel a cool breeze the whole afternoon which helped a lot since we were sitting in the sun. The rodeo consisted of various events such as barrel racing, team roping (not a fan), saddle bronc, tie-down roping, and of course, mutton-busting. We all enjoyed the day and ended it with spaghetti for dinner. Yum!

Below is a photo of the boy who won the mutton-busting trophy. He held on to that sheep like his life depended on it. Cute!

Finally

Since I'm not a snowboarder and never will be (see this post if you've forgotten why) I haven't been able to see Chad doing his thing on the mountain. Until yesterday. Our friend Russ was cool enough to take a quick video with his iPhone so I could see Chad in action. I must say, I'm impressed!

Sierra Summit Friends

On Saturday we made a spontaneous day-trip up to our local ski resort to meet up with friends from the Bay Area. Everyone (but me--although I did see a very pregnant woman snowboarding--yikes!) either snowboarded or went skiing for the afternoon and had a great time. The sun was out and the weather was beautiful so it was a perfect day in the mountains. Here they all are before heading up the lift.

Basketball

Yesterday we went with my parents to the LA Lakers/LA Clippers preseason game here in town. It was a blast! We had dinner beforehand at the Doghouse Grill and then headed across the street to the 7pm game. The Clippers were on fire and definitely deserved the win. The score was 107-80 (ouch, Lakers) and I'm sure the Clippers were thrilled with the outcome. Gold-medalist Kobe Bryant played and despite coach Phil Jackson's recent leg problems, he was there too.

I'm so glad we went. I wish we had an NBA team here!

Camping Again

Last Friday we went with Chad's family to Hume Lake for the weekend. There were eight of us and we all had a great time. We managed to fit a lot into the quick trip and really could have used an extra day to do some more. We walked around the entire lake, ate good food, hit the Celebrate Sequoias Festival, swam at Sandy Cove, made marshmallow guns, shared bear stories, cooked in a dutch oven, paddled around the lake in canoes and visited Boyden Cavern, a marble cave deep in the Sierra.

Ball Game

Last night we went to a ball game here in town. It was one of the last games of the season so we figured we should take the opportunity to go. There was a dramatic fireworks show after the game and we're glad we stuck around for it. We had a great time and are already looking forward to next year.

Busy Weekend

Chad and I spent the weekend with my parents at Shaver Lake. Saturday after breakfast we headed to the lake where we rented a pontoon boat for the afternoon. We trolled for awhile and I actually caught a fish. I can't brag about my technique or my mad skills because really, I have no idea when it happened. We decided to take a break from fishing and he was hooked on my line when I reeled in. Surprise! The golden-green colored bass was small, I'd say only about 8-10 inches or so.
After a quick photo op we let him go.

Sunday we woke up early and fished at Huntington Lake. We didn't have much luck but the view was nice! After fishing we were off to the annual Loggers Jamboree back at Shaver Lake. We had lunch and watched a chainsaw and a handsaw competition. It was quite a sight. I'm glad we went.

Smog City

Saturday night Chad and I went to our first roller derby bout. The event was held downtown and the local team, the Smog City Roller Grrls won against Chino's Prison City Derby Dames with a score of 121-70. We had a blast and will definitely go to the next game in September.

*Sorry for the poor quality of this photo. The lighting was way funky in the venue and I had a heck of a time even getting a shot this good...

Tennis

The high school a few blocks from our house has 20 tennis courts. The public is free to use them when the kids aren't in school so Chad and I scoped out the area and decided to get rackets. The one I bought is purple and pink and Chad's is bright blue, as you can see from the photo. Last night we walked over to the courts and played for an hour. We had a great time and I only lost one ball. That's good, right?