Diving for Dave

Last night, we thoroughly enjoyed the Dave Matthews Band show from the sixth row (Trav's 10th Dave show, my 8th) at the horrible Usana Amphitheater. Two girls in front of us were dancing and having fun and one of them became increasingly drunk. She left for beer six or seven times and was just a tiny little skinny thing, so you can imagine the effects. Toward the end of the show, one of their buddies showed up and all three of them began carelessly passing around a joint and they then became increasingly high. Dave and the guys then bust out an 18-minute version of "Two Step," my all time favorite DMB song, live or otherwise, and at the end of the song, Dave throws his guitar pick out to the audience. Drunk/high girls don't even notice and it lands at their feet. I see that no one is going for it, so I dive head first over the immoveable row in front of me and lose my shoe temporarily. Trav sees that I can't quite reach the pick, so like what every wonderful husband would do to help, he puts his hands on my butt and shoves me over the chairs. I then grab the pick and wrestle to stand back up over the row of chairs and then proceed to scream and yell and carry on, proudly holding the heavily worn pick high over my head to show the world. Some guy immediately offered me cash right then and there for it, starting at $50 and finally ending on $250 when I shouted "No! It's not for sale!" in his face. The drunk/high girls, five minutes later, finally realized something happened with a guitar pick on their row and one of them turns around, sees that I have the pick, yells "THAT'S AWESOME!!" gives me a high five and asks to kiss the pick. I oblige, knowing that if she had been paying attention, I wouldn't have this sweet Dave Matthews guitar pick that he played all of the Salt Lake 8/30/2006 show with. I rock.

Oh, an in other news... my photo business is now officially official and legal. I signed all the papers and paid all the fees today. Yay for me!

Behold, the pick:

Katie and Cass

Katie at Disneyland


An advertisement for Bonanza, the world's largest gift shop.


On the way to an 80s party... I think you guys should dress like this all the time.

Jackson's first day of Kindergarten. Way to go, buddy!

The cool Superman backpack

Thanks everyone for a fun (and successful!) family trip to Bear Lake. We rocked the KOA.

Kacie's sand goatee

Kacie, Emma and Jackson

aw, how sweet

Max enjoying his first Twinkie

Here are a handful or two of photos from our trip to Lake Tahoe.
Keeping our boats safe in Reno, the town from Hell. Trav was watching Rachael Ray at 2 in the morning!

Emerald Bay and Fannette Island on the Californa shore. If you click on the picture, it'll open up bigger and on the left of the photo up near the mouth of the bay, you'll see a group of boats. That's the boat camp we paddled into for two nights. It's a 7.2 mile hike roundtrip (which we did too) and probably a 3 mile paddle one way.

Calawee Cove and Rubicon Point from the water

Trav learning to get back in his kayak after purposely getting out. The boat behind him was called "Snafu." Weird name for a boat, we thought.

Trav, the gymnast, playing at D.L. Bliss State Park

Lake Tahoe is never lacking in great sunsets... Looking past Calawee Cove to Rubicon Point at D.L. Bliss State Park

Boathouse and boats from the beach at Tahoe City in California

From D.L. Bliss State Park, looking across the lake to the Nevada side

the steps from our campsite right down to the water in Emerald Bay

Shasta daisies in front of Vikingsholm. There were thousands!

Vikingsholm at Emerald Bay. The owner was a lady who married into railroad money and if I remember correctly, then married a man heavily involved in stocks and bonds, so she had more money than she knew what to do with. She had this 38 room mansion built for herself to replicate Scandinavian architecture. She thought Emerald Bay looked so much like the fjords in Scandinavia that she wanted to create her own little haven here in America (she was American). She bought furniture to match and what real pieces she couldn't get her hands on, she had replicated down to the scratches and dents on each piece. The mansion was amazing to see inside. Oh, and the teahouse in the next picture was hers as well and she'd have her staff load up the contents of her tearoom in the main house, load up her guests, paddle them all across the bay, hike up to the teahouse, set up the house contents and have a tea party.

Fannette Island and what's left of the teahouse (stone structure on top) in Emerald Bay

the Tahoe Queen showboat as it cruised past our Emerald Bay boat camp at sunset

a great jam band called Tapwater that we listened to on the streetcorner on the CA/NV stateline

"Lookin' good for Jesus!" at the Gateway.

Did anyone else get this in the mail? Ha ha