Swimming!

5 days after the pool had filled our pool contractor came by to inspect the pool.  He said we could get in anytime.  Mom after talking to him decided to look again on the internet if it was safe to swim.  She decided it was and went and told the kids "We should just get in".   She asked the kids if they wanted to get in and at first they all said "no, lets wait", but then they decided with Mom that it looked to good to not jump in.  So they all ran and got swimsuits on and jumped in.  Sarah was the fastest, so she officially was the first one in the pool followed quickly by Lily and Alex.  Mom jumped in too and texted the following picture to Dad.

Mom felt a little bad that they didn't wait for Dad, but it was so hard to sit inside and look out at a finished pool and not get in.  

We are so glad to have this project done.  We started in January meeting with our contractor and it is finally finished!  We have learned a lot about permits and pool building. Once is enough for us.  

We have been swimming every day since.  Dad has been super busy with work, so it worked out nice to be able to be home and feel like we are on vacation.

Scerinda's Visit and Camping at Lake Tahoe

Scerinda and her kids came to our house on Wednesday, July 15. They went to visit San Francisco with Uncle Mark on Thursday. Then on Friday we drove up to Lake Tahoe to go camping and shorten Scerinda's Saturday drive home to Salt Lake.

We went camping at Sugar Pine Point State Park on the west shore of Lake Tahoe. We were greeted by a Park Ranger who asked us if we had ever camped there before with a look like "do you know what you are getting into?" We said, "No," and she said, "There are a lot of bears at this campground." They had seen six that morning already! We tried not to panic, smiled, took our parking pass, and drove to our campsite. Mark and EJ were already there and camped one site down from us.

Scerinda shared our campsite, since we had eight people total (Mom stayed home to fill the pool). We had dinner (hot dogs, corn bread, and s'mores). Then it was dark, so we started getting ready for bed. We were loading things in and out of the bear box after cleaning up dinner and getting toothpaste and toothbrushes out for bed time. Dad, Sarah, Alex, and Lily were just kneeling down in the tent to say a prayer when Uncle Mark yelled, "Hey, there's a bear in your bear box! Go away bear!" We all started clapping and yelling "Go away bear!" inside our tent, unaware of what was going on outside. We came out to talk to Mark, who could see everything, once the bear had left. It turns out it was three black bears -- a mom and two cubs. Uncle Mark said the cubs had both climbed in the bear box and the mom was standing on her hind legs next to it. So we were more vigilant about keeping the bear box closed after that.

Our campsite with Scerinda's minivan and our minivan.

 The bear box and the bears were right by our blue tent!

On Saturday we woke up early, but not early enough. We wanted to hike to Vikingsholm mansion on the shore of Emerald Bay. But all the parking spots including the road spaces were already taken by 9:30am! We drove around to the overlook and got some good pictures though. We love Emerald Bay -- it is a slice of heaven.

We decided to swim at Pope Beach instead. We like this beach from the TRT100 trip last year. The water is fairly warm and the sand is fun to play in. Sam made a big sand fort/castle with Alex, Lily, Catherine, and Tommy.

Catherine, Alex, Lily, Sarah (far out in the water), and Sam (left to right)

It was a fun visit with Scerinda, her kids, Uncle Mark, and Aunt EJ. The bear visit was a little more than we were expecting. But we all had fun talking, camping, and playing at the lake.

Race to the Finish

Our summer days are quickly going by and we are all eagerly watching the pool getting finished up so we can swim.  It has been hot! Jumping into a cool swimming pool sounds so good!   It's almost done and we can't wait.  Here are some pictures of the progress that has been made these last few weeks.

First they finished up pouring the decking around the outside of the pool.  Once the decking had dried the tile guys came back and finished up the ledge stone tile.

 Once the tile was done, they were able to put the Pebble Fina finish on.  Yeah!!  That means we can start filling it with water.  We were hoping to be done with this weeks ago, but unfortunately we weren't and when Aunt Scerinda and her kids came to visit us we couldn't swim.  But, we could watch them put the finish on and then start filling it up with water!  WE HOPE OUR COUSINS WILL COME BACK AND SWIM WITH US!

 WATER!!

 Dad and the kids left to go camping to Lake Tahoe with Aunt Scerinda, Uncle Mark, Aunt EJ and their cousins.  Mommy stayed behind and watched the pool fill up.  She set an alarm all through the night to keep checking on it.  She didn't want it to overflow or get too full.  She wishes she hadn't though because it was done at 8:00 a.m.!!  She could have slept peacefully throught the night and then woke up to a full pool.  Oh, well...better to be safe than sorry.

Once the pool was done filling we were told conflicting messages on when we could actually get in.  The pool builder told us 1 day and the pool equipment guy told us 10 days.  Mom read on the internet conflicting information also.  We decided on Day 7 we would get in. How long did we wait?  Find out in our next post!

Pool Progress

Here are some pictures on the progress on our pool project. It has been fun to watch each day a little get done.  It is very hard to wait though.  We are all learning patience and just how much work goes into a big project like this.

 They built a steel rebar frame and put all of the plumbing and drainage in. Suddenly our big dirt hole had some shape.

  Next, they sprayed they gunite on the metal frame.  Dad took the day off work to watch with us through the windows.  It's starting to look like a pool!

 The finished and sculpted gunite drying in the hot sun.

 The next step was putting on the glass tile.  It has a little film on it so you cant see the real color yet, but I peeled a little back to take a picture.

 Then they came and framed out the pool deck.  They had to put rebar all around it again before they pour the concrete.

 Panorama of the progress so far.  Tomorrow they are going to pour the concrete deck.  We can't wait!

The 4th of July 5 Mile Fun Run

Dad and Sarah ran in a "free" (donations accepted) 5 miler the morning of July 4th. The race is put on by Buffalo Chips, which is the running club the kids do in the spring and the fall. Dad really likes it because it is flat, in a nice neighborhood in East Sacramento, and it's free. There are no numbers or finish times recorded either. So it's good one for families. This was the 39th year for this race.

Sarah had a good run and enjoyed herself. She wanted to beat 50 minutes, which she did by a several seconds. This summer she is working on running 200 miles for her high school cross-country team. So this helped her get some extra miles recorded.

Dad somehow found himself being hunted down at the end of the race by another runner. He was shamefully passed up right in front of the finish line. Dad claims it was non-competitive and he was only racing himself. Mom thinks someone should have reminded the the guy who passed him it was just a fun run and they weren't anywhere near race leaders. ;-)

 Dad lolligagging to the finish line.

Dad suddenly realizing this is a race. 

Dad getting schooled at the finish. 

Sarah trying to beat 50 minutes. 

Floating like a butterfly. 

Stinging like a bee.

4th of July!

Each year, if we are in town, our friends the Brown's invite us to their house for a pool party and fireworks.  We had a fun time with our friends and celebrating America's birthday!