Another milestone!

Well over 200,000 reads for this blog now!

This week has been football week for Cade so we've been at Delsie Drive most of the time. Jo has been out for early morning walks the last 3 days and I went for longish cycles on Monday and Wednesday - 24 and 30 miles respectively (details and photos on my cycling blog - http://bvetscycling.blogspot.com/).

Today (Thursday) we're planning to get the boys out of the house - probably down to one of the local golf driving ranges.

There are, of course, some photos on my other blogs - Cycling, Ale Adventures and Hill-walkers - but all I have to offer today is one of Jo's efforts from last night. She went with Lucy to drop Cade off at his football practice and took a photo of him through the car windscreen. Apparently, Cade was swinging his bag and when Jo came back, she excitedly showed me the magic moment she thought she'd caught on camera. She peered at the screen and saw Cade was in a circle, which Jo assumed was the whirling of the bag in motion. I took one look and told her it was Lucy's necklace that hangs from her dash mirror!:

Still, it's not bad, is it? Kind of Cade's "Abbey Road" moment.

Scott and Lucy finish work today and have all next week off, so we might be getting out and about a bit.

Tuesday morning

The adults are up - the Lesinas have gone to work and I've had breakfast and showered. Jo has taken it upon herself to go for a walk - she got a bit stir crazy staying at home all day yesterday. I hope she can find her way back. No sense of direction and no phone either - what are the odds?

We're under instructions to ensure that the boys get out of the house today - even if just to take the dogs for a walk. It won't be much because Cade's football season started last night - two sessions - 5-6 pm then 7-8pm - and he's got that every day this week, so he's going to be pretty tired come the weekend.

I went for a longish bike ride yesterday morning (see http://bvetscycling.blogspot.co.uk/) so I had enough exercise for one day and spent most of the rest of the day reading my book (over 600 pages so far - just 200 to go), although I did spend a bit of time in the pool - and Braeden joined me. I made the mistake of applying the wrong sun protection, however. It was a spray-on water-resistant, lotion and it ran in to my eyes and I just couldn't get rid of it. Eventually I had to resort to using some of Cade's eye drops.

We watched Gordon Ramsay's Hell Hotel last night - it featured a local lodge - http://www.applegateriverlodge.com/. It was filmed last year and the family that own it didn't come out too well. The old man was a stoner and didn't give a damn. We weren't sure Gordon solved all the underlying issues there - and we certainly won't be rushing off to stay there, despite its beautiful setting.

Temperatures forecast to be a bit lower today - low 90's. There's still a bit of smoke in the sky but it seems to be staying higher in the atmosphere this year as we can neither taste nor smell it - it looks just like a bit of haziness so far.

Cade 14!

The day guests have gone now - Grandparents Bill & Karen, Aunt Laramie & cousins Davis & Lincoln, plus 2 slightly later guests - Scott's cousin Dusty and her partner Cody.

Nice afternoon - and a tad cooler too, with a hint of smoke in the upper atmosphere. We had chilli hot dogs, followed, of course, by cake and ice cream. Lucy presented the cake and Cade had to blow out his candles - a little sheepishly as everyone watched, but cousin Lincoln was more forthcoming:

Lucy took the cake away for cutting up, watched carefully by Chris, Cody & Dusty:

Eve of Cade's birthday

It's still Saturday night here on the West Coast. We've already had 2 of Lucy's G & T's - with cucumber - and Scott has fired up the barbie - tri-tip steaks tonight.

So Jo and I did get up and climb up Upper Table Rock this morning - and very nice it was too. There's some details and photos - mostly of me - on my hill-walking blog (http://bvhill-walkers.blogspot.com/) and some on Facebook too, but here's another couple of Jo:

We then had lunch at Kobe's Sushi Buffet - an all you can eat affair. The sushi comes round in little boats but there's also separate places for cooked foods, salads and desserts. Here's Cade, his pal Chris and Braeden in action:

But what about yesterday's photos at Galesville Reservoir?:

Getting ready to drop the boat in the water

Boys in the water

Jo's hair getting buffeted by the wind as Scott accelerates

and then Scott stopped the boat

All done - loading up again for the return journey

Check out the videos of the boys kneeboarding - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIWtSjrT0vY and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGV5yRvZjmU