Date Night at the Verizon amphitheatre

Rosanne and I got free tickets to the Pacific Symphony at the Verizon Wireless amphitheatre last night. Read here for the program entitled Gotta Dance . We picked up dinner at Panera Bread and headed out to the amphitheatre for a picnic on the grass before the concert. We really love to go to the summer concert series to see the Symphony when we are lucky enough to attend. Needless to say it was a great date night!

By: Mark

Vintage Chicago Schwinn Bikes

This was an interesting weekend as you can see above. I found a men's Chicago Schwinn Beach Cruiser next to a trash can on Friday and Saturday Rosanne and I stopped at a local garage sale and we found a girls Chicago Schwinn for only $10.00. Some of you who read this post are probably saying to yourself "I can see why the men's bicycle was being thrown away and I wouldn't even take the girls bicycle for free. The thing is Schwinn bicycles stopped being made in Chicago several years ago which makes them more rare antique type bikes and worth a lot more money. Although the bikes appear to be in really bad condition the frames are solid and straight including several other salvageable parts. I've been interested in getting a Chicago Schwinn for 15 years but never been able to purchase one. Finding the girls Chicago Schwinn was a very special treat also because both Rosanne and I will be able to cruise in retro style at the beach once they are restored. Now for a restoration timeline that's TBD. Fortunately I can do all of the labor with the exception of paint. It will be fun to restore them as time permits and we'll keep you updated...

By: Mark

Wacky Packages 70's trading cards

If you were a mom, dad or school age child in the 70's you will likely remember Wacky Packages which are primarily spoofs on products. You can read more here and here. I can remember being in grade school having a big stack of these cards and trading them with friends. They were first released in the early 70's then they stopped being produced, came out again 1-2 times then stopped. They were just re-released in 2004 and 2005. Rosanne bought me both sets and I am addicted to collecting them. E-bay has tons of them for sale as pictured above I purchased 10 un-opened packs above from the 1991 series for around ten dollars. The only problem is the sets from the 70's are not ten dollars hence I have to start saving for the older sets. Kayla and Kendra have started collecting them as well and we have been having a lot of fun with this new hobby.
By: Mark

Our Patio Project Update

We finally got rid of all the gravel after several trips to the trash can. Additionally we pulled out 4 stumps from the small dirt patch. We actually had to take both trellises completely apart because the first time I built them in the drive way and they were pretty crooked. Rosanne and I built them together the 2nd time on the wall and they came out great. Compliments of my birthday money I was able to visit Home Depot several times. One time in particular they had a new pallet of stepping stones very reasonably priced that I really liked so I went through the whole pallet and hand picked out the stones we placed in the yard. We then picked out some really nice vines from Target with a birthday gift card and it was off to Home Depot one last time for some flowers which you can see in the pictures. Last but not least probably Rosanne's favorite was hanging our humming bird feeder. We already have humming birds lining up for their sugar fix...
By: Mark

Extreme Roller Bladers in training

Kayla and Kendra are too cool for school atleast for two more weeks. They have been roller blading to work off all the summer calories... Pictured here they have been taking advantage of our new driveway...

By: Dad

Summer in the Pool

This summer has been a fun one for the girls and I. We have tried to do many fun things on a very low budget. Some of our fun activites include free movies on Tuesday or Wednesday. (Thanks Regal for your family free day!), Disneyland, and swimming at Jackie's house or visiting my cousin Kristen for an outing on the lake or a swim in the pool. On this last visit the girls had fun diving for dimes, nickels and pennies to see who could collect the most sense (I mean cents!). Kristen helped throw the money in as they patiently waited... and then they were off in search of the loot!

by Rosanne

A Quick Road Trip

What is a summer without a roadtrip? I was lucky to be invited by my mom to go with her to Sacramento to see the national best selling author, Betty Eadie, at a conference she was having. We woke up early Friday morning to try to beat the Southern California traffic. What a beautiful golden state California is to drive up. Sacramento is a cute town with many huge trees and historic building. We did not have time to sight see while there but plan on taking another trip some day. The conference was Friday night, so after a long day of driving, we were able to sit and relax as we listened to Betty Eadie in the FRONT ROW! The next day our plan was to head out toward Highway 49 and take it south... with the goal of arriving home by evening.

We started out in a cute town called Auburn. It has many cute historic buildings. The picture of the large building is their court house. Auburn was a short stop because we had a lot of ground to cover. So we were off back on Highway 49. Our next stop was Sutter's Mill where the first gold was discovered by James W. Marshall. The pictures of us above were taken near the mill location. Again the stop was short as we set off for our next destination: Sutter's Creek. Due to my bad headache, that is about as far as we got on Saturday (the day we were supposed to go home.)

So we set up camp in a cute bed and breakfast in a little town just before Sutter's Creek, in Amador. The Mine House Inn is a cute B&B that was built in 1870 for processing the gold that was discovered in the mine across the way. It was a nice stop to rest for two tired young ladies and we were treated to a delicious breakfast in the morning. (The 4th picture.) This was our last stop as we headed back on Sunday and actually made it home.

by Rosanne