Charlotte headed over to Aunt Bea’s house with Valri today to visit with her Aunt Dorothy and her cousin Britta. They were up from southern California, so it was a great opportunity to visit with them.

Monica’s artwork was on display at the Brook Knoll open house tonight. I think we have another budding artist in the family.

Gabe gears up for a swim at La Madrona, while Nibbles dries off after his dip. Notice any resemblance?

We’ve had a great trip, but it’s time to head back home. The happy travelers endure one last ride in the airport shuttle and then a long flight home.

We stayed with my mom for our visit out east. Kyle and Rachel spent the night, but now it’s time to head over to Lynda’s for hanging out and BBQ. Carole, David, Jonathan, and Joni headed down for the day as well. It was great seeing everyone. Lynda likes Valri’s paintings so much, she created print versions from some postcards she had picked when she was last out in California. They turned out great. I wanted to show Valri and Charlotte how great they looked. ...

Lynda had her big 40th birthday party the weekend before her actual birthday while I was on my SVEF bike ride. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to sneak out to Philadelphia for her actual birthday. Since we had to bail on Monica and Charlotte’s trip to Chicago for Rachel’s birthday, we decided to surprise her by bringing Monica along too. The scene at the restaurant worked out just like I had hoped. ...

I offered to color my hair blue for the recent SVEF bike ride in exchange for large donations. A few people were generous enough to take me up on my offer, so I didn’t want to disappoint. It didn’t come out as dark as I expected, but you get the idea. Thanks to those that helped me raise over $1000 for our schools.

The day of the big fundraising ride has arrived. Charlotte has been working incredibly hard with a number of other people to pull off our 2nd annual SVEF century ride for the local schools. Last year’s ride to Big Sur was a load of fun, though our first year was very loosely organized given that there were only about 15 riders. This year we’ve got over 70 riders and it’s as well organized as some of the biggest rides I do this time of year. Everyone is excited to get rolling. ...

It’s back to SLV high school for another track meet. I couldn’t make this one, but it looks like Nick is continuing to enjoy himself.

Nick enjoyed cross country a great deal at the start of his first semester. This semester he’s doing track and seems to like shot put and the long jump. His first meet is over at San Lorenzo High School over in Felton. It’s an awesome day and I decided to take off early from work to be there. It was fun seeing Joe and other friends from school. The sprinklers came on late in the day just to make things interesting. ...