Carol's Fiftieth birthday

Well, the time has finally come. Carol has reached the ripe old age of 50. It is a point in time in many of our lives that we don't take with glee, just 'cause we may hate getting old', but Carol takes it in such stride. As she says "it beats the alternative!". Long prior to the family reunion even, Carol said she didn't want a big tadoo about her birthday. Though I have tried to honor that request, her ever loving husband must admit, many times I have been a willing participant.

Her first celebration was at the family reunion where we all got together to celebrate her life with cake and good wishes. I woke up bright and early the morning of the potluck on that weekend to run to Safeway to pick up the cake. Though it wasn't my idea, for the family reunion celebration, I was well into the thick of it with Carol's sister Sandy.

I wasn't going to do much in the way of a Birthday dinner for Carol this weekend either, 'cause she had asked me not too. I was going to have us go out to dinner with Katie and Russ and just have a nice evening. But it was Carol who decided she wanted it expanded a little bit. So, I obliged with dinner for 16 of her friends and family. We'll all be having dinner tonight at Cafeteria 15L in Sacramento, one of our favorite eateries in this fair city.

But even as Carol was sleeping on this morning of this day, the 50th celebration of the year of her birth, the wheels of celebration are turning. You see, this time it was my sisters turn to pull out all of the stops for Carol. She ordered up a flock of Flamingos for Carol to be deposited on our front yard. Little does Carol know what awaits her when she starts moving and grooving today.

Once again, I am a willing participant as it is my job to keep the dogs quiet while the yard is decorated. These pictures are of the end result.

Happy 50th Birthday Carol, we all love you so very much!

MUAH! - Me -

Bark and Splash 2011

Scott and Cheryl Wright for the last few years have always attended the Folsom Bark and Splash which is held at the Folsom Pool when it closes down for the season. You see, the reasoning is, they have to empty all of the water out of the pool anyway, so why not allow the dogs to run free in the water for a little while before hand.

At any rate, Scott and Cheryl have been telling us about this every year, and we finally made a point of attending it. It's a great event with a lot of vendors that attend and it is a great event for dogs of all shapes and sizes to get their feet, or entire body wet. We brought Rosie and Lilly to see if they would be interested in partaking in a little splash and bark fun.

Though many dogs got in the pool and splashed about, chasing balls and Frisbees, some of them took the opportunity, like many of their two legged counterparts, to visit the booths to see what was for the taking!

Our two dogs however didn't get that much enjoyment out of the event. Lilly isn't much of a water dog as she had a bad experience years and years ago where we almost lost her. And, Rosie doesn't do well in large crowds of people or with barking dogs. We think it is a cool event and may attend in the future, but we'll have to wait and see if we bring any of our dogs in the future.

If you get a chance in your local community, check out your local pool and see if they have such an event. Its a lot of fun, and has the potential to be a great fund raiser as well.

Happy camping! Eric and Carol

Family Reunion

On the first weekend of October, we all got together for the 5th annual Waite Family reunion. This is the fifth family reunion, the fourth held at the Tower Park KOA just west of Lodi California. Carol's sister Sandy started these reunions five years ago, and we have been very fortunate that the event has tended to attract more family members every year.

Carols' dad Calvin had a brother Rex who lives in Michigan. Rex has a number of kids and grand kids who live in Michigan which is the state that Calvin Sr was raised in. This year, we were hoping that there would be some family members from Michigan attend our family reunion, but unfortunately no one was able to make it. None the less, we had a wonderful event as always.

On Friday night, there were about 25 of us that got together for a Taco feed. Though Friday night is just when everyone arrives at the camp ground, we still have a wonderful gathering together. The KOA that we stay at consists primarily of RV sights, but it also has a large number of Camping Cabins. So, it is well set up for a reunion where family can attend in an RV, Tent, or stay in one of the cabins.

On Saturday, we had a number of games which included a sack race, water balloon toss, sponge relay and Tug of war followed by a horse shoe tournament. Though it always seems to be a challenge to get the family all together to get the games starting, once we are rolling, everyone has a wonderful time.

After the Horse shoe tournament is done, we get together for a giant pot luck. This year, because Carol is turning 50, it was decided that celebrating Carols birthday was something important to do. So, before Carol woke up on Saturday morning, I ran off to the local Safeway store to pick up her birthday Cake. Sandy got all of the decorations, so it turned out to be a wonderful evening with the entire family.

On Sunday, we said our good byes to everyone and look forward to next years gathering!

Happy camping! Eric and Carol!