Labor Day Weekend Fun

Remember in my last post when I said the next 4 weeks would be crazy?!?!? Well they have been! The weekend after houseboating we went to Sonoma to visit my grandma and celebrate her 94th birthday! It was great spending the afternoon with her and I'm so glad we had the change. She offered to have us stay the night, but we already had plans to visit Branden's family in Lodi. It turned out to be a good thing because there was an earthquake in Napa that night and the epicenter was 10 miles from her house (there was no major damage to her place)!

That Sunday we spent the day with Branden's mom and our niece and then went to do a live fantasy football draft. I was finally "accepted" into the family league so the pressure is on! Here are a few photos I got from visiting with Kianna:

The following weekend was Labor Day weekend and we had a fun and exciting weekend planned. It started on Thursday night when we flew to San Diego to visit Sarah and Daniel. Our flight was delayed but since it was the first day of college football we didn't complain about sitting in the bar and watching some games.

On Friday we went to breakfast with my cousin, RC, at Lelani's, which is one of my favorite spots to eat when I go down there. It was a beautiful day and the company was great. That evening we headed to the Gaslamp district for happy hour and went to the Tipsy Crow, which ended up being lots of fun. Their prices fluctuate base on popularity (kind of like the stock market) so you can always find a good deal. They also had Cards Against Humanities at the tables. This is such an inappropriate game but so hilarious as well.

After happy hour we headed to Petco Park to watch the Padres take on the Dodgers (thanks for the tickets RC). Of course I was rooting for the Padres and RC was kind enough to let us borrow some Padres hats. We all had an awesome time watching the Padres decide not to score until the 13th inning, but at least they won!

Saturday morning brought us to the start of FOOTBALL SEASON! We drove from San Diego to LA to watch our beloved Trojans stomp on Fresno State. We made some USC themed Jello-Shots and had tons of fun tailgating (Branden has most of the pictures since my phone battery was terrible)!

After the game we walked through the new engineering quad, which looks amazing, and then decided on a new tradition of going to Arturo's Taco Truck in Pasadena post game. They serve some goooooood food there!

The first half of the weekend was a blast and I'm so glad we had the time to go to San Diego and LA! Tomorrow (hopefully) I'll post about the second half of our trip, when we drove the coast (aka Highway 1) back home.

Houseboating

Last weekend we were fortunate enough to go houseboating! I have been going since I was a child an absolutely love it. There is nothing like spending 4 days on the water. Our houseboat is up at Lake Oroville and I know most of the lake like the back of my hand.

We were all a bit worried we wouldn't be able to go up with the drought, but we made it just in the nick of time. The lake is actually closing it's ramps to launching boats today! I have never seen the lake as low as it was and was amazed at how narrow it felt.

Here are a few pictures I took from our trip:

View from the top of Bidwell Launch Ramp

 Dinner for night 1. Yummy!

 Hanging out in the water. We have to tie a rope to the boat so we don't float away

 The duck crew, along with an American Coon

 Scouting out a cove to put the houseboat in

 Traveling to the cove we found

 Mom and dad enjoying the bats from the little boat

 The view out of our cove

 We went exploring to some coves we used to stay at. Unfortunately, we couldn't go very far because the lake ended right where one of our favorite coves used to be. Towards the left of the picture there is a small cove and the one we stayed at was just to the right. It's crazy how we normally tie the houseboat up to the trees but we were so low our ropes wouldn't even reach there.

 The end of the road (or lake)

 We got our of the boat and decided we wanted to hike up to the cove we used to stay at. About 15 years ago someone dropped my fishing pole and we thought we would look for it.

 It turned out to be an adventure crossing the river/lake. Makenna was the first to find out when her foot sank into the mud all the way to her knee. I can now say that the bottom of lakes is disgusting!

 Branden and Taylor were trying to figure out the best way while Makenna just kept going.

 Makenna gave up after the mud got to the middle of her thighs.

 Taylor and Branden decided army crawling was best.

Makenna was the first one to make it to the middle. You can see our cove in the middle/right of the picture. 

 My dad and I ended up going back to the boat to put our shoes and my camera away because we didn't want to take any chances. We made it halfway up the cove before we all got tired and decided to head back.

 We then went to explore a different fork of the lake where we had one of the best coves of all time, but the water has to be just right to get there.

 The lake was so low you couldn't even see the cove from the water.

 We went in as far as we could but that's the best photo of the cove I could get.

 At night we all went to the roof of the houseboat to look at the stars. There is nothing like staring up at the sky and seeing more stars then you can imagine.

We had a great weekend on the boat, and even though this may have been my last trip to the hosueboat before my parents sell it, I will hold houseboating memories deep in my heart!