Thanksgiving 2013

Hi there everyone,

Well, tail end of November snuck past us in a blur! After the wedding of Marq and Stephanie, we started to ramp up for Thanksgiving events. We started our Thanksgiving early with a get together with a camera shy Katie and Russ as they came over for an early Thanksgiving dinner on the Saturday before Thanksgiving. Once again we prepared a 12 pound bird in the convection oven that came out perfect!

 
Later in the week, we went to Ashland Oregon to enjoy Thanksgiving with Eric's sister and brother-in-law. On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, Eric took the day off to run some shopping errands. He even took a few moments to clean the living room carpet in the Motorhome so that it would have the long weekend to dry! At 1:30 however, Eric packed up the dogs in the car and headed over to Carol's office at CAL-FIRE to pick her up and get headed up to Mike and Karen's in Ashland. This trip, taken without the Moho, still included the three dogs, Lilly, Rosie and Charlie!

We made a quick stop at Granzella's in Williams to pick up some sour dough bread and then again a stop for dinner in Redding to enjoy dinner at Applebee's which has become almost a right of passage, when ever we head up to Ashland for a visit. Thursday Thanksgiving day, we were able to enjoy a wonderful day with Karen and Mike preparing for Thanksgiving dinner. Thanksgiving dinner, as always, was a wonderful affair having Mike's brother Chuck and his wife Teri joining us for a delicious Thanksgiving Ham. As is typical, we all ate way too much! :-)

On (Black) Friday, we pursued a couple of ad items that we had read about, but came up empty. None of us are the type to hang out starting at 2:00 AM looking for a great plunder. So we headed out Mid-morning to see what we could find. None of the items we were looking for were any longer available, but we did score a good deal on a flat panel TV set for the bedroom. We've been looking to replace that TV for a while, but we weren't in any hurry. Now, however, that deed is done. Stay tuned for some future blog posts about how that upgrade goes!

Friday evening, we went with Karen and Mike to downtown Ashland to see the Santa Parade and the lighting of the Tree in the town square. Though it might be described by some as being Hokey, it was a lot of fun.

We had one little frustration this holiday weekend. We had left Rosie alone in Karen and Mikes motorhome on Friday evening and Rosie just could not handle the separation. She became frantic and worked to escape the Motorhome in an effort to find us. In the process, she destroyed a mini blind in their rig, which now we are going to be replacing.

Some good news that we got this weekend is that as we move into 2014, Kris and her partner Laura, will be getting married in Connecticut, probably sometime in August. Though we won't be able to take the Moho on that trip, we most definitely will be there! All in all, our Thanksgiving was a wonderful one, and it enabled us to get together with family members once again and enjoy some good times.

Happy Camping! - Eric and Carol -

Marq and Stephanies wedding - November 2nd 2013

Hi there everyone,

The wedding of Marquis Wraight and Stephanie Chambers at Incline Village Lake Tahoe was a wonderful event. The wedding was held on this Saturday afternoon in this east Lake Tahoe location which puts it in the State of Nevada. The lake side service was held on the Hyatt resort property which served as the central location for all of the weekends festivities.

On Friday, and even Sunday, the weather was relatively warm and calm. The weather on Saturday though, was a little cool and breezy. None the less the location was beautiful as well as the bride and groom! There were about 100 witnesses for the wedding, which was officiated by a close friend of Marq and Steph's. Both Marq and Steph seemed comfortable and at ease with the proceedings.

One of the fun things was us was taking a picture at the wedding printing it out on our Printer in Karen and Mikes room and putting it in a frame to then drop off at the gift table at the reception! The picture frame had a couple pictures which were downloaded from Stephanies facebook page, a picture from the wedding rehearsal dinner and a picture from the wedding!

Here is a video of the wedding activities.




On Sunday, Marq's parents, Karen and Mike as well as Marq's sister Kristin and her partner Laura went for a tour of the perimeter of Lake Tahoe and we tagged along! As was indicated, the weather on Sunday was beautiful. We had lunch at Camp Richardson which is on the southwest shore of Lake Tahoe and took a tour of Valhalla which is always an interesting resort to explore. Even though it is closed for the season, visitors are still able to venture in and explore this resort that dates back to the early 1900's.

One of the recent announcements that occurred a couple weeks before the wedding, is that Laura and Kris will be tying the knot sometime soon. So, we took a few pictures of the girls that show just how much they love each other! Ah, we can't wait for that upcoming wedding that will be held in Connecticut.



Our stay for this wedding weekend, in the City of Truckee was a wonderful one. We are so glad that we got to take the Motorhome to the Campground here and provide the ability to have the dogs stay in the motorhome while we were off on various weekend activities. Though we did take the two pitties on Sunday's trip around the lake.

Happy Camping!

- Eric and Carol -

The Trek to Truckee

on Thursday the 31st of October Eric left work at 2:00 to get the motorhome, put some fuel on board and the go to Carols work to pick her up. Once we had everything hooked up, we headed to Truckee and the Coachland RV park. This will be our home base for the next four nights while we join the family for Marq (Eric's Nephew) and Stephanie Chambers wedding!

We arrived in Truckee around 8:30 and got camp set up. The campground is very nice and mountaineseque. On Friday, we did a little exploring around Truckee. We've scouted out some locations for possible visiting later this weekend. The only place we visited significantly, was Jax at the Tracks Truckee Diner.  The food there was delicious for a diner. We shared a Mushroom Swiss burger which was amazing.

 

Later Friday, we went to the Hyatt at Incline Village to hook up with Karen and Mike, do a little catching up. Around 4:00 we followed along for the wedding rehearsal. After the wedding rehearsal, we enjoyed a family dinner together.

We are looking forward to a very enjoyable rest of the weekend with the entire family!

Stay tuned for more updates tomorrow!

Happy Camping! Eric and Carol

A busy weekend!

Hi there everyone,

Well, this weekend was a busy one for us. Friday in itself was fairly low key. Eric did a few chores around the motor home in order to get ready for the trip to Tahoe this Thursday, for the wedding this weekend.  Friday ended with Carol going out with Scott and Cheryl to celebrate her birthday and Eric staying home and working on Cleaning the grout on the tile of the motorhome which has been making Eric crazy recently. Saturday morning, Carol, Eric and Charlie went to Old Town Sacramento to join many other Chako supporters for the Annual Pit Bull Awareness day. There was a great turn out of Pit Bulls and their owners and everyone got along great with others in the community. Our walk on Saturday took us through all of Old Town Sacramento as well as a trip to the Downtown plaza and walk the dogs through the lower floor meeting and greeting many wonderful folks!

As you may have noticed, the vast majority of Pitties were dressed up for the up coming Halloween celebration!



After the parade Saturday Morning was over, we returned to home so that Carol and Charlie could rest up by taking a nap. Eric worked on sorting through the pictures taken at the Dog walk event. Saturday evening we hooked up with a number of friends from Carol's office and went to Plymouth and the 49er RV park to join in the trick-or-treat festivities. The word is out about 49er, there was a large crowd there of outsiders like our selves. We ran into the park owner Chuck who remembered us from when we were tenants there. Charlie, the intrepid trooper joined us again for the evenings festivities!

All of the RVers did a great job of dressing up their rigs in preparation for the trick-or-theaters! This event is very popular with the RVing crowd as well. The park is already sold out for next year!

Sunday we did our normal house cleaning and more getting ready for the trip to Tahoe later this week! Sunday evening, we joined most of the Chako team for a potluck and celebration of those that have fostered for over a year. It was a wonderful gathering of great folks that just love taking care of dogs! One of the dogs was a new little Chako Foster by the name of Sabrina who was recently pulled from the Sacramento County SPCA.

We'll be back in a couple days with posts from the wedding.

Happy camping! Eric and Carol!

The annual family reunion

It was once again that time of year again for the annual Waite Family Reunion. This years event was another wonderful event. Though it seems like the event gets larger every year (we know there were at least 65 in attendance) this years event was much more enjoyable because it was a bit more subdued than it has been in years past. Maybe it's because we are all getting a little older! :-)

Though every years event is special, this years was especially nice because we got to see Whitney Conner who we haven't seen since she moved to Florida some number of years ago. Whitney came with her boyfriend Nick who was warmly received by the entire family. And, the two of them dove right into the whole Waite craziness by anchoring the winning team on the tug of war competition!

Also, once again, the Pot luck at the end of Saturday night was a huge success! Another special aspect was that though Whitney had to go to work on Saturday afternoon, she and Nick returned Saturday night after she got off work and they enjoyed some time around the camp fire with the family!

Here are some pictures and a video from this years family reunion.

Before you know it, it will be time for another Waite family reunion in just 12 short months.

Some other great news of something that happened recently is that Carol was recently promoted to Staff services Analyst for Cal-fire. Her husband Eric is so very proud of the way Carol has excelled in her career change from that of being a 25 year veterinary technician to that of entry level limited term Office Technician for Cal-fire and working her way up to an analyst position in just 3 short years. Carol, your husband is so very proud of you!

Stay tuned folks, 'cause in less than a week, the rig is pulling out for our trip to Truckee for the wedding of Eric's nephew Marq Wraight to a wonderful young lady Stephanie Chambers!

Happy Camping! Eric and Carol