Bear-ly Rescued

Our friend EW snapped this picture on Sunday of the Rainbow Bridge at Donner Pass (that's Donner Lake in the background). Check out the link to see the full story... Nice pic E-dub!

1st Anniversary in Our House

This weekend marks one year since we moved into our first home!

The entry way...

The Mezzuzah...a gift from Mama & Papa G to bless our home...

We thought we lost this tree last winter during a big frost... in April, Papa G cut it back for us & now it is coming back to life!!!!!

And its gorgeous purple flowers are BACK!!!!!

We even still have roses blooming on our bushes!

And, of course, no picture of the house is complete without a shot of our attack cat, vigilant at his post!

Trust me, you DO NOT want to mess with this dude!

On a completely unrelated, random note... we took a nice walk by the river this morning & caught a nice pic under one of Folsom's beautiful bridges... ENJOY!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!

Brent asked Vanessa to marry him last night and more importantly... she said YES! We couldn't be happier for the two of you and can't wait to welcome Vanessa into the Gimpel Clan! Don't worry, the hazing rituals really aren't all that bad- my eye has nearly stopped twitching now, all bowel functions have returned pretty much to normal, and I don't have to rock myself to sleep for quite as long as I used to! Seriously, we love you both & are so happy!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Another Fabulous Weekend!

Our friend Todd & his new baby, Gage flew in from Atlanta this weekend for a visit! His parents threw a BBQ at their house in their honor. Most of you know already that Todd & I grew up together in Placerville and that he served as "Man of Honor" at our wedding & his daughters Skylin & Cali were our flower girls. Unfortunately, Todd's wife Kim & the girls couldn't make the trip out. Skylin is a big kindergartener now & missing school just wasn't in the cards... but it was so great to finally meet Gage (Kim was pregnant with him at our wedding).

Ali & Todd


Sweet Baby Gage


"Say What???"

"Uncle Bud is sooo silly..."

Ali & Gage


Monkey toes...

Ross, Todd & my dad

Chris (Todd's bro), Gage & us.

Chris works for the park service in Yosemite teaching school groups & came up for the weekend. It was great to see him again too! Chris, Todd, Ross & I all went out to breakfast the next morning & got to spend a little more time together! All in all, a wonderful visit! We missed Kim & the girls like crazy, but are excited that the whole family will be out again for Christmas. Ross' parents will be too so we are planning a Wilford/ Gimpel/ Willoughby holiday blowout... the cops may be called!

So we got Mama G a "Bedazzler" for her birthday last month & she has been putting it to good use... I think she has a new career designing visors for retired golfers... she now claims that "sequins is her world"... we're happy you're having a blast... and you'll be easier to spot at the airport now!

FIRE IN THE 'HOE!

Saturday afternoon, Ross & I decided to take an impromptu trip up to Tahoe to see some friends & do some hiking.

We were feeling rather lovey-dovey, so we decided to take a hike at Eagle Falls, where we had our 1st date (awwww). This is the view along the trail of Emerald Bay in Lake Tahoe.

Ross joked that he wanted to kiss me so badly when we were there over 3 years ago, but didn't want to creep me out, it being our 1st face to face meeting & all- so this time he FINALLY got to kiss me... although an older couple came around the corner at that very moment & shouted that they caught us! That creeped me out a little anyway!

It wasn't so much Eagle Falls as it was Eagle Trickle.

On our way up the west shore, we encountered a fire. We were getting mixed reports from friends as to how bad it was & whether or not the road was open. Like Ross says, rumors spread more quickly in Tahoe than fire, so we decided to continue on & if we had to turn back we would.

If you look closely you can see droplets of water on our windshield from the helicopters. They were filling up their buckets in the lake & then dropping them over the fire.

The road ended up being open going north into Tahoe City, but they were only letting residents back down. We had some time to kill before dinner, so we bummed around Tahoe City for a while. We never took pics when Ross lived there, so it was fun to play tourist. This is the dam between the lake & the Truckee River.

The inlet of the Truckee from the lake.

We headed down to Commons Beach Park to relax a little & watch the fire fight.

You can see how hazy the sky was getting- not too bad but definitely noticeable.

The helicopters pilots & fire fighters did an amazing job! In the end 5 houses were lost & about 35 acres burned, but it could have been a lot worse!
That evening we met up with our friend Scott (aka Pump- because his head is as big as a pumpkin). He & Ross were neighbors for years & he just bought a house in the Lake Forest area of Tahoe City. He just got back from a 2 week trip to Argentina to visit his girlfriend who is there for a month doing a Spanish immersion course. She is a 10th grade Geometry teacher in Reno. She was also on the U.S. para-Olympic ski team & won gold in Nagano. Bad ass girl! She doesn't get back from Argentina until Tues. & we were bummed that we didn't get to meet her yet. It was so great to see Scotty so in love!

We had a ridiculous meal at a steak house where we all consumed far too many beef & pork products! We were definitely hurting. Somehow we managed to roll ourselves back to Scott's & slip into food comas while watching Ice Road Truckers... I don't care what you say... their job may be dangerous but I don't think they've ever experienced the fear & pain involved in digesting 5 lbs of animal products!

The next morning we were feeling slightly better & hauled ourselves into town for some coffee... I saw this sign for Kaya & Maggie... they may let you in, but there are strict stipulations!

We said our goodbyes to Scott & headed over to Squaw Valley to hook up with our friend Eric (EW) after he was done with a hike... yes, THAT Eric. He ended up not going to Oregon after all (much to our delight)! Turns out he loves Nor- Cal just as much as we do & couldn't justify leaving just to leave.

To our surprise there was a beer & music festival happening later that day... pretty lucky! Turns out it was a charity event for the Humane Society... & there were dogs EVERYWHERE! We had a great time hanging out talking, eating, drinking, and listening to music... not to mention critiquing dogs & their owners!

Eric & Ross relaxing & picking out dogs that they felt they could take in a foot race... that group consisted mostly of fat weiner dogs!

Mmmm... beer...

Not a bad view & not a bad way to spend a weekend! Now I feel rested & ready to face the rugrats again tomorrow!

We hope you all had a great weekend too!

We enjoyed another great night up at Boeger Winery in P.ville. Lots of good food & great company. Our family friend, Cheryl came up to spend the evening with the wacky Wilford crew. Cheryl & my dad worked together for forever at DOJ and are now both happily retired! It is just so relaxing to go there, have a picnic, a bottle of wine, and listen to some great music. It's such a family atmosphere... sometimes you see 3 generations just hanging out, laughing & soaking up the good vibes.

This shot was so much prettier in person... we live in such a beautiful corner of the world!

And for no reason whatsoever, I leave you with a creepy picture of Ross... he was driving at the time (while sticking his tongue out) so the car was in motion & the camera had no flash... freaky!