House Boat Trip

We had the privilege of living on the water for 5 fun filled days. We traveled to Lake Don Pedro about 2 hours southeast from us. Can you say "organized"? I have learned that Fernando is meticulous about details. Love the color coded spreadsheet!We started off the week with a little wakeboarding, tubing, and swimming and ended the week with a little more wakeboarding, tubing and swimming. Rylee hates the sun in her eyes. On the boat she usually likes me to cover her eyes with my hand because the sun gets so bright. This time I was smart enough to bring the sunglasses! What a diva! Brody had a great time in the water and on the boat! Everytime we set foot on our boat, he would fall asleep to the violent rocking of the boat and wind in his face.Early one morning a deer came to visit. One guy tried to feed him but he just wasn't interested.
Rylee loved our boat as well especially when we would hit some brutal waves from other passing boats.The waterslide off the back of the houseboat was so much fun! Rylee even went by herself! She is not afraid of the water one bit!! It really made the trip fun! Jon and I even tried Rylee with wakeboarding. She wasn't too keen on the idea but was a great sport non-the-less.Once again it was a great trip and we all had a great time!

Another Folsom Trip

Starting July 1st all the boats at Folsom will have to be pulled out and they are talking about making the whole lake 5mph. The lake is low, low, low! Sucks!It was nice having a lake just 10 minutes away. Now we will be traveling a little bit farther, maybe 30 minutes or so...not bad! This time when we went out we took Jeremy, Chris, Mauricio, Aly and Addie.The kids did great and Aly got up on the wakeboard after just a few tries! Good job!! Here's Jon jumping the wake!! You're such a pro!!

Our Little Fishes!

We had to document our little ones having some fun in the sun!Everytime we go swimming, she makes us laugh. I love her in this silly looking outfit put together by Jon himself. This is to ensure that she doesn't drown, doesn't get any sun and doesn't ruin her eyes from the chlorine.How thoughtful is he! What a wonderful father! She loves it and doesn't even care what she looks like...just as it should be. She jumps in the side of the pool and swims to the steps. She also loves putting her face in the water to look at her dive toys, retrieve them and tickle Brody's legs under water.Above, Jon is holding Brody in a neoprene front pack for the water. It's been helpful when I take them to the pool by myself, but it's easy to dunk Brody's face in the water if you're not careful. Well, it is official, she's a fish!

Family Photo Shoot

Dress up!

A little while ago Grandma Kathy and Barbara came to visit and brought Rylee a "Sleeping Beauty" gown to dress up in.Since then, Rylee has been all over the princess dresses, high heels, wands and crowns at Oma's house. Oma has lots of fun stuff for the little girls to play with.Auntie Renee loves to dress Rylee up and put beautiful lips on her. Jon says, "She looks so old...like 8 years old". Where did he pull 8 out of? I guess that makes us ancient!

Annual Mt. Shasta Climb

Jon climbed Mt. Shasta again this year, unfortunately without me. I really wanted to be there with him, but it just didn't work out.So here they are, the only brave firefighters able to go. From left to right: Jimmy, Terry, Jon and Jeremy. They are at the base of the trail called Bunny Flat @ 6,880 ft. with towering Mt. Shasta in the background.This picture is taken at Horse Camp @ 7,880 ft. They decided to camp over night here because they were told that the wind and weather was so bad at 50/50 Flat that the tent poles were snapping because of the wind. 50/50 Flat is where we camped over night last year.They were able to find a nice flat place to camp for the night in between trees to help block out the wind. They went to bed around 8:00pm to ensure a semi-good nights rest before the big climb. Let me mention they had worked the 48 hours prior to this climb. So, once again, Jon was running on no sleep.They got an early start before the sun came up at 3:00am. This picture below was taken at 7:00am at Helen Lake @ 10,400 ft. Now, how cold does that look?The picture below is a pit stop at 8:00am. As you can see, they are still in the shadows and the sun has not yet peeked over the mountian.The picture below is at 9:25am. Good thing they rented helmets because the snow had already started to melt, which means there is a chance a rock slide could happen.This was also taken at 9:25am. Look at how steep of grade that is.Below is a picture taken at 10:05am at Red Banks @ 12,400 ft. This is where Jon got altitude sickness and had to turn back. He was nauseated and vomiting with a massive headache.Up here Jon said that the tubes of their Camelbacks were starting to freeze. Jon said that it was 18 degrees fahrenheit with 30-60 mph winds up there. As you can see...no vegetation. The three other guys pressed onward in there climb to the summit leaving Jon behind. Jon started his decent in defeat once again.Pictured above is Jon back at Helen Lake @ 10,400 ft. Below is the beautiful view. It couldn't get more breath taking.Finally, life on the mountain, the beginnings of vegetation.The others were also defeated by Mt. Shasta. They were within a couple hundred yards of the summit, but the 80 mph winds were too much. They feared being blown off the cliff. Below is Jeremy, happy to be warm...er and back at Horse Camp..."Ditto", says Jimmy.Thank goodness they all made it back in one piece. They asked each other if they would do it again next year. The response was unanimous, "The key is to forget how miserably cold, tired and fatigued your body felt on that mountain. Once you forget, then there is always hope for a next year."

Maximus Daniel

We'd like to welcome the newest member to the Skubal family, Maximus Daniel. He came out around 1:00am on June 11th weighing in at 8 lbs 3 oz and 20 inches long. Jessica pushed and pushed for 1.5 hours after a long laboring period. Thanks to Oma the L&D RN who helped Jessica, and Dan get through it. They said she was the best RN not on staff there and not to mention a great coach.Here they are, the proud parents of little baby Max!There is no mistaking who this adorable little boy's daddy is...definitely a Skubal.For some reason in our family, our "Little" genes do not dominate. We carry them for 9 whole months and do we get any credit? Of course not.Here he is winning the Heisman Award!Look at those eyes! Isn't he just the cutest little thing. I forget how tiny they are when they come out.Love those feet. It's amazing those feet just walked with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ...just a couple of hours ago. This is the closest to heaven we will be for a while.

First Time Out!!

So, I promised pictures of our first time out..especially of the "SUMO-TUBE". Don't crack up too hard! These two were very brave, the rest of us chickened out.This is Chris. He is the one with the SUMA-TUBE. He received it as a graduation present from Nursing School. By the way, congrats!Nice muscles, lover!Here he goes!There faces hardly made it out of the water. They both said they received a nice gentle flushing of the nares...actually now that I remember, they siad it wasn't so gentle.Brody, where's your life jacket? I guess he's too cute to wear a life jacket. "Breakin' the law, breakin' the law..."My little flag girl.Thankyou Kari for keeping an eye on the kids while I took a turn! It was such a great day!!! Thanks to all for coming!