Glass Half Full

Lake Tahoe

We kicked off summer with a lovely trip to beautiful Lake Tahoe.  We had never been there before and we were smitten.  Luckily, we had great weather and even better company.  It was a family reunion on Steve's side, with his parents, all 5 of his siblings, and everyone's kids (30 people).  Lake Tahoe was an ideal location for Steve's active family, with an abundance of mountain biking trails and rock climbing routes, in addition to paved bike paths and hiking trails.  We loved going to Sand Harbor beach, which was breathtaking (I mean that figuratively AND literally - the scenery was beautiful but the water was FREEZING).  A little cold water didn't scare the kids, though.  We shared meal-making duties, and the food was fabulous.

The highlight of the trip for me was going on ladies-only bike rides with my awesome sisters-in-law.  I was also stoked to get new family pictures taken by the one-and-only Shannon Montez (Steve's sister). The highlight of Steve's trip has to be missing his flight to Reno and losing a whole day of vacation (long story that we are trying to erase from memory), followed closely by exploring Tahoe's incredible mountain biking trails. The kids were in pure cousin heaven.  We had such a wonderful time.  I am already looking forward to our next reunion with the Caldwell clan.   

   

Still buzzing...

So, a few weeks ago I posted about that weird honeybee episode in my backyard.  I spoke too soon when I said there wasn't a single bee out there anymore.  Turns out, a handful of bees came back later that day, then a few more, and a few more.  Truth is, they NEVER went away.  The 50-100 that we see at the same spot each day are actually very busy at their job of creating a new hive.  When I thought the queen had flown away, I was very mistaken - she actually flew straight into a hidden "cavern" in our house, a rock pillar/edge that didn't get properly sealed off during construction.  The hive is confined to that pillar, which is entirely outdoors, but it is still unnerving to think that thousands of bees are making themselves at home in MY home.  

The beekeepers don't know what to do.  In order to retrieve the queen and the hive, they'll pretty much have to break all the rock off of one portion of our house and probably destroy the framing underneath.  Or, they can seal off the top and the bees will all die.  I certainly feel bad about thousands of honeybees dying.  I also feel bad about the side of my house being destroyed.  Tough.  We're having our rock contractor come over to give us his opinion.