Tree Decorating

Over the last few years I like to have help decorating our tree. Brianda, Eli, Sophia and Tinoly help to put up the ornaments. Every year we play "Hide the Pickle". It is an old German custom where the parents would hide a pickle ornament on the tree for the kids and once found they would receive a prize. As the kids got older I had to get smaller and smaller pickles for them to find. Eli being the youngest has the biggest pickle. Sophia's is half the size and Brianda's is a quarter of the size. Deo hid the pickle for Brianda this year which took her awhile to find. Last year when I hid it she found it in 2 seconds. Sophia found hers pretty quickly and Eli took a bit to find his.

Eli, Sophia and Brianda pose in front of thier masterpiece! Thank you Pereira's for your help!

Apple Hill

Eli, Abbey, Thomas and Isabella get ready to pick out their trees

Eli poses in front of the tree we picked. We all yell "CUTTER" and down she comes.

Joe carries the tree to the car

Eli and Katherine sitting by the fish pond. This year the fish were a whopping $8.50 a pound. We only did that one year and luckily no one caught anything!

The Mitchell's and the Gouveia's getting in the spirit of Christmas

Thanksgiving 2008

Joe takes out the deep fried turkey which we tried for the first time this year. We still did a traditional bird in the oven. It was a big hit!

Uncle Guy anxiously awaits the delectable deep fried turkey...

Bunco Babe Bash

My friend Suzy celebrated her 40th birthday last month and all the Bunco Babes got together and had a fabulous Bunco/Birthday bash with yummy food, a stroll down memory lane, sassy waitresses, a few tears and alot of laughter!

Halloween 2008

Eli gets ready for trick or treating in his Clone costume from Star Wars.

A few days before Halloween we went to the Pereira's for our traditional pumpkin carving night. It's nice the kids are getting older so they can do them instead of the adults! Eli next to his free style pumpkin and Sophia's scary spider and cat pumpkin.

Pumpkin Patch

Eli on the 50 foot slide at Bishop Pumpkin Farm. We watched the pig races, rode the train and the hay ride as well as visited the petting zoo and hay trampoline. All the gang at the pumpkin patch for Abbey's 9th birthday. What hams!I tried to purchase one of these to use instead of a babysitter............WHAT??????
Eli and Joe enjoy an ice cream cone after the festivities.

Fall Tahoe Trip

Out for a brisk walk to see the salmon spawning. You can see Mt. Tallac in the background with quite a bit of snow cover. We hiked in a snow storm one day. Here are the remnants of the storm. Didn't stay on the ground for long.

In early October we spent the weekend with the Ruiz's up in Tahoe. Eli and Kaden created their scary haunted house and graveyard with Auntie Laura's help. Creepy!

Happy Anniversary!

On October 3rd Joe and I celebrated our 16 year anniversary. Every year we go to the church where we were married and the hotel where we had our reception and take our picture. After many years of balancing the camera on a bench or the car we are getting wiser with age and using a tri-pod!

Oyster Feast

Look at the size of those puppies!

Joe, Ron and Jeremy go to town on the oysters...

After a beautiful day of boating on Lake Berryessa we celebrated our friends Ron 40th b-day with an oyster fest. 120 oysters for three guys! Wow!

Karate Kid Jr.

Eli and Dad started Karate Do last week. They both seem to enjoy it.

Big First Grader

Eli started first grade today! He was very excited. He has his own desk and sits with a couple of kids he knows from kindergarten.

Joe and Uncle Guy toodle around Angora lake

Eli and Kaden built a tee pee in the back yard

Expert diver!

Eli and Joe build a sand castle down by the water.

Back to Meek's Bay with the Ruiz' which they loved. The boys played dive bomb with their action figures.

Casey, Jayne, Hannah abd Eli goof around on the hammock

Football scrimmage out front

Eli and Casey have a serious discussion about 'Ben 10'

Tryed out a new beach at Meeks Bay with the Savadkohi Family. Lots more shelter from the wind and the water is crystal clear! Kids built a rock wall and had fun swimming out to the buoy. Water was pretty chilly!

Spent the day at Lake Berryessa with the Mitchell Family and Budish Family who were nice enough to take us out on their boats. Did some waterskiing and tubing. The kids had a blast. They were in the water most of the time.

Kath, Joe, Eli and Shakira in front of the Embassy Suites in South Lake Tahoe

Peter, Eli and Shakira

Eli, Kath and Shakira putt around Angora Lake

Kath and Joe up at Eagle Lake

Uncle Michael take a break at Eagle Lake

Joe hiking around Eagle Lake

Some dead trees that look over Emerald Bay and Lake Tahoe

View from the top of the Eagle Hill trail of Emerald Bay and Lake Tahoe

Kath and Joe in a meadow by Fallen Leaf Lake

Eli and Liam horse around on the hammock

Drew, Liam and Eli having dinner at the bar

Off to Tahoe again. We took a couple of extra days off for a long weekend. Our friend Suzy stopped by and we convinced her to stay with her kids. The next day Shakira and Peter arrived and we had a nice dinner on the lake. Saturday we took Shakira on a hike up to the Angora Lakes and went for a kayak ride. Liz and Michael arrived with Liam and Drew late morning and we took Uncle Michael on a hike to Eagle Falls. Joe, Michael and Kath were very over zealous about how far we were going to hike looking at the sign in the parking lot. The 'planned' hike was about 5 miles. So we all starting complaining about 2 minutes into our hike about various body parts that were already sore. The hike was 1.6 miles up a stone stair master from Hades. Needless to say we didn't get much further than Eagle Lake. What a beautiful lake. Totally worth the hike. Michael was nice enough to loan me his mega, stealth camera to take some photos.

Katherine and Tia Mena take a leisurely kayak cruise at Angora Lake

Sonia and J.R. bury Eli in the sand on July 4th

Cool shades Eli!

Happy Summer!

We all piled inside this redwood tree. It was huge!

Gal pals Shondra and Katherine

Casey, Eli, Jayne and Hanna in front of the 2200 year old tree

Eli digs up a sand crab

Boogie boarding dude!

All the kids boogie boarding

Joe and Eli at Castle Lake

Katherine trys out kayaking





The whole gang poses at Castle lake

Eli and Kaden build a house for the 'pinecone people'

Katherine, Laura and Eli hang out in Lake Siskiyou

Our view of Mt. Shasta from the campground

Almost at the top of Mount Diablo

Welcome to the Gouviea's blog! My sister Liz and her husband Michael inspired us to start a blog. Hope you enjoy it!

This Mother's Day we decided to do something different and hike up on Mt. Diablo. It was a beautiful day. We had to keep on alert for mountain lions and such. Liz and Laura heard something in the brush at one point so we moved on quickly. Unfortunatley Laura had a spill into a poison oak bush and had a bad case of it for a couple of weeks. We ended the day with a leisurly lunch and a pedicure! Spoiled mammas!

The middle of June we joined the Laura, Guy and Kaden for a long weekend in Lake Siskiyou. We met up with one of Laura's friends Mary and her husband Kenny and two daughters Kelsey and Brianna who were camping in the same campground. What a beautiful place! Our trailer looked out over the lake and we had a specatular view of Mt. Shasta. The boys had a hard time staying out of the water! We rented a pontoon boat and had a nice day on the lake. Water was a little cold for some of us! Visited another little lake and took a small hike around it. We went to the beach in the late afternoon as it cleared up and got warm. Kenny brought his kyacks so we were able to go out on that before we left.. We all stopped at the Shasta Caverns on the way home. Really cool tour..only if you don't have a problem with small spaces. Pretty amazing. Eli was a bit freaked out especially when the tour guide went on and on about the 20 bats that live in the cave. He did great though. He kept telling himself "I'm not going to be afraid, I'm not going to be afraid". What a trooper! After the tour the kids got to pan for 'jewels'. They had a blast.

We spent the 4th of July in Tahoe. We camped out at the beach all day. Joe's sister Mena made a Martha Stewart fouth of July spread. Talk about yummy! We stayed until dark for the fireworks...and we waited and waited...They didn't start until almost ten. We were all freezing our keesters off by then and once they started we only stayed for about 10 minutes until we couldn't take it anymore. Oh well! We had a fabulous day anyway! The highlight of the day was when we saw a bald eagle fly over the beach. Pretty cool to see that on the 4th!

The next weekend we were off to Santa Cruz to visit Katherine's college friend Shondra, her husband Shawn and their three kids, Jayne, Hanna and Casey. They were gracious enough to open their home to us and spoil us rotten! We went to the beach where the kids boogie boarded and dug up sand crabs. We saw a few seals off the coast checking out the crowd. The following day we went for a walk in the redwoods. Amazing trees. One was 2200 years old! And another could fit about 10 people inside it's burnt out trunk.