Lake Tahoe

What a great day! First thing, the kids had practice with their ensemble; we were fortunate enough to see and hear them practice. They are good. After lunch we drove up to Lake Tahoe where we spent the rest of the afternoon. The weather was spring-like and made for a pleasant outing. We circumnavigated the entire lake with some stops for quick hikes and spectacular vistas along the way. We had dinner at Lupita's in Incline Village. Back home we ate ice cream and cookies, and the day finished with a haircut for Anders.

 JamPro ensemble practice

 Lovely life guards

 Game of catch

 Bright sunshine

 Rock walk

 WTH

 Anders and Clara

 The crew

 No waves today

 Sierra Nevada

On the trail

 Madonna of the Rocks (and Tucker)

 ATH: handsome devil

 A walk through the forest to Fallen Leaf Lake

 Still winter, just

 Happy wanderers

 Long shadows

 Fallen Leaf Lake

 Still pretty bright

 Encore de Fallen Leaf Lake

 The group, less the photographer

At the Emerald Bay overlook

 The High Sierras above Emerald Bay

 Eagle Falls

 

 Emerald Bay

 Lupita's

 Rob works his magic

A great day in the Sierra Nevada! 

That's all for now.

OXO

D.

Out and About in Reno

The day begins with a flurry of practicing and preparing for school.  Today after the binkers  headed to school, Anna took me on a great walk up the Thomas Creek Trail. I hiked it once in the spring when choke cherries were in bloom. Today's walk was equally beautiful, though the color palate was subtler. When we returned, we hopped in the car and went looking for a few items for Anna's kitchen. We finished our outing with a stop at Pho. We made pancakes for supper and spent the evening reading, playing electronic games and horsing around.

 Tucker has an unusual way of practicing

 Almost ready for school

 Downtown Reno highlighted on Thursday evening

 Headed to school

 Anders is an enthusiastic sagebrush jumper

 Their destination: seen on Anna's and my walk

 Beginning our assent up Thomas Creek

 On an absolutely beautiful morning

 Mount Rose in the distance

 Ice clings to branches over the creek

 Anna's neighborhood is laced with these wonderful walking paths

The pho and bun at this place are DELICIOUS!

Robert is home from Elko and it is bedtime here. Who knows what tomorrow will bring?

That's all for now.

OXO

D.

Elko to Reno

This morning we awoke to a fairly serious snow storm, which was a complete surprise. After breakfast we headed out on intermittently snowy roads. Thankfully, by the time we reached Winnemuca the road was clear and the sky was blue. Anna greeted us just after noon and we toured the wonderful new house and visited until the kids came home. We had a great dinner and now are enjoying the all the comforts of home life at the Hastings.

Rob's (the practice's) House in Elko

Northern Nevada is a marvel

A meet and greet with the elementry-school crew

Grammy prepared the berries

Anna in her spacious kitchen

Clara at the spinet

Grammy consuming a book with Reno spread out behind her

Spectacular view any time of day

In the gloaming

After dark

The drive was great and it is fun to be here again. We will post adventures both exciting and prosaic as they unfold. 

That's all for now.

OXO

D.

Snow-Covered

Nevada is Spanish for snow-covered. Today we saw the snow up close and personal. After packing and straightening, we took Debby to the MOA to see the Sacred-Gifts exhibit. The paintings are lovely; I especially like the work of Frans Schwartz. His paintings are looser and more modern in spirit than the other two artists (who are wonderful in their own right). We stopped in SLC for lunch at the Blue Lemon before dropping Debby at the airport. We just kept right on going west on I-80 to Elko. We arrived fairly early with time for a trip to the Ruby Mountains. They are beautiful! We returned to Elko where we picked up some take-away for supper with Rob who was kind enough to let us stay with him at the practice's Elko house.

The ladies at the BYU MOA

Frans Schwarz: "Agony in the Garden"

 

When you see Pilot Peak, you know you are in Nevada

 

At Wells, you get your first glimpse of the
spectacular Ruby Mountains

Lamoille Canyon not far from Elko

Lamoille Canyon

 

A high-mountain bowl they call The Glacier

The Glacier

Lamoille Canyon

The snowy road marked the end of our drive

Lamoille Canyon

The Ruby range from near the town of Lamoille

A bit of take-away from the Blue Moon

Reasonably good food with our genial host

The trip to the snow-covered mountains was inspiring and spending a bit of time with Rob was great. Tomorrow we continue west to Reno. 

That's all for now.

OXO

D.

January to February 2014 (Including an Organ Recital)

We had planned to go to Reno at the end of January to see Anna, Rob, and family, but Kris's gallbladder had a different idea. On the 21st she awakened in the night with a severe pain her belly region. When I finally woke up at 6:30 A.M., we ran through all the possible courses of action and settled on the emergency room. They got her pain under control, performed an ultrasound, did blood work,  examined her, and determined she had gallbladder issues. Strange, because she had never had any problems ever, prior to that morning. The doctor sent her home with pain meds and ordered a HIDA scan which I scheduled for Wednesday. It revealed a non-functional gallbladder. I had also made an appointment with a surgeon, Dr. Francis, for Thursday. After reading the reports from the ER and the HIDA scan, he said the little beggar had to come out. I twisted his arm and he scheduled surgery for the following day -- Friday. Same day laproscopic surgery: slam dunk. Well, there were issues. The gallbladder was full of stones and some had entered the bile duct. Either remove them surgically (not a good choice) or extract them by way of the throat. So she was admitted and scheduled for the ERCP procedure the next day -- Saturday. After hearing the possible complications, we were terrified, but it went very well: some kind of a world record of just ten minutes. She began to feel better almost immediately and was able to go home on Sunday. So Reno didn't happen.

In February, Madeline performed in Macbeth at Timpview High School. I'm not a huge Macbeth fan, but the production was really good. The dry spell in the weather also broke in February and we were treated to rain in the valley and snow in the mountains. The day before Valentines, Debby flew in from Houston for a few visits with "Dr. Pain." It is always a delight to have her come. There have been dinners, movies, some shopping, and loads of good visiting.

 The morning walks went on hold with the surgery and the wet 

weather, but this is how the temple site looked on my last walk

 Provo sunrise from Kris's  UVRMC room

 Home from the hospital

 The rains came

 Timpview's Macbeth 

Hecate, Queen of the witches, and her mom

 Grammy and Madi post production

 Katy and Daniel headed to a Valentines fête

Debra Sue Darling Gibbs

Tomorrow, February 18, we will drop Deb at the SLC airport and keep right on going west to Elko to spend the night with Rob. Thence on to Reno on Wednesday at long last.

That's all for now.

OXO

D.