Our Family

May 2025 - July 2025 (most recent pictures first)

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On July 18, Bob joined two of his good friends, Len Savage and Mike Kazmierski, for a wonderful 8.7 mile hike in the beautiful Lost Sierra region of the Sierra Nevada's. We are always amazed at the outdoor activities within a couple of hours of where we live. For a full write up and pictures of this hike, make sure to visit our Round Lake Trail, Pacific Crest Trail, and Silver Lake Trail Loop hiking page.
July 11th through the 13th we took a beautiful drive up to Sisters Oregon to enjoy the 50th Annual Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show. Not only is Sisters a beautiful place to visit, the Quilt show was amazing with over 1200 quilts and 10,000 people. So, even though it was a bit crowded, the crowd was largely quilters or people that just really love arts and crafts and were great to be around. In addition, we stayed in a very nice AirBnB in Bend, Oregon and had a great and relaxing, wife and husband time. For a full write up and pictures of this trip, check out our Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show vacation page.
One of our traditions when it comes to special days like birthdays, Mother's Day, or Father's Day is to celebrate them first thing in the morning at breakfast. Here's Bob celebrating one of his greatest achievements, being Dad of a couple of great kids.	In front of our home before taking Chester for a walk on a beautiful Father's Day morning.
Our first camping trip of the year was to our favorite local campground at Fallen Leaf Lake. The campground is only an hour from our house and was a great test drive of our new Toyota 4Runner pulling our camper and carrying all our gear. It worked great.	Nothing like blueberry pancakes for breakfast while camping.
Lisa enjoying her blueberry pancakes and bacon while Chester looks on wondering where his plate is.	Out kayaking on beautiful Fallen Leaf Lake.
We live in an amazingly beautiful place. It's hard to believe this spot is only an hour from our home.	Bob paddling on Fallen Leaf Lake with 9,739 foot Mount Tallac in the background.
On May 21st Caleb started his internship with James Hardie Building Materials. They have a great facility just outside of Reno and are actively recruiting promising new workers like Caleb.	Caleb is studying Mechanical Engineering at UNR and is really enjoying his internship with James Hardie because it's a perfect fit with his degree.
One of the first things that James Hardie does with their new interns is bring them all together for a conference to talk about the company and learn all about it. This year the conference was held in Chicago and Caleb had a wonderful time.	Caleb on a walking tour with some of his fellow James Hardie interns.
Chicago’s Lakefront Trail	Caleb and his fellow James Hardie interns at the famous Billy Goat Tavern in downtown Chicago.
On May 24th we joined about 10 others for an amazing hot air balloon ride over the beautiful Carson Valley where we live. We had taken another hot air balloon ride with the same company, Balloon Nevada, in 2020 over Lake Tahoe and we had such a great time that Lisa and the kids bought this ride for Bob for his birthday two years earlier. It wasn't till this year that it worked out for us to go and it turned out to be the perfect day to do it. Everything was so green and lush and there was no wind. We had an amazing time. The pilot of the balloon, Sheldon Grauberger, is a great guy and he invited us to stand in the balloon while it was being aired up before launch so he could take this picture of us.	After using big fans to mostly fill the balloon while it's on the ground they then fire up the burners to heat up the air and as it warms and rises it brings the balloon vertical. It wasn't long after this picture was taken that we all had to get in the basket for our amazing ride.
In the basket and ready to fly.	Bob took this picture up through the inside of the balloon of it's top vent that is used to hold hot air or release it depending on whether the pilot wants to go up or down. The blue circle is the sky.
This is a panorama of the Carson Valley looking north and west over the towns of Gardnerville and Minden and further on to the Carson Range in the distance.
A sister balloon taking off soon after us.	Our launch was at 6:00 a.m. to take advantage of the cool, windless air and we got to silently rise over this herd of cows out for their morning graze.
Gaining elevation and looking over the town of Minden.	Looking up to the north of the Carson Valley with Hot Springs Mountain in the middle distance. Our home is just to the left (west) of Hot Springs Mountain in this picture.
This picture was taken when we were about 2,000 foot above the Carson Valley floor and when we could look over the Carson Range and see Lake Tahoe in the distance. The road going up to the lake is Nevada State Route 207 commonly known as the Kingsbury Grade.	The shadow of our balloon over the Gardnerville neighborhood where we were looking for a place to land.
Letting the air out of the balloon after landing.	Lisa sitting contentedly in the shade of a lamp post in the neighborhood where we landed. We had an amazing time!
Bob decided to build this Coffee Accent table to give Lisa more of her kitchen cabinet and counter space back while having another fun project to work on. This is a picture of it before and after he finished it.
Bob's setup at the Douglas County shooting range for another test of handloads for his 6.5 PRC target rifle. This has been a really enjoyable hobby for Bob.	Other than the one "pull", Bob's shots are grouping pretty well at 300 yards.