Friday, June 25, 2010



Oh me, oh my, has it really been 5 years that we have been married? The older we get the more I realize how true that saying is, "Time really flies when your having fun." Joaquin and I have been through a lot and I am so happy and grateful to have had him by my side. Sure, we've had our ups and downs but now that the time has flown by, I can't really remember the downs and the ups have remanded in my memory.

I can remember being married for one month and we decided to go up to Lake Tahoe and celebrate our 1 month anniversary on Rich's boat. Well it was a big adventure and I actually came home and wrote it down in my journal because I knew I'd always want to remember our trip. Here is the entry from my journal almost 5 years ago.

We headed up to Tahoe for the weekend. We met his dad on Saturday, then we drove around on the big boat with him and his Dad's buddy, Ted along with his girlfriend. We drove over to Emerald Bay and swam and fished with no luck. Anyway, the plan was to use the big boat, sleep over and head home the next day. Well, rich and his friends left and we drove our boat back over to Emerald bay and hung out. We had a blast, we swam and jumped off rocks. The water was really cold but it is so clean and it felt really refreshing to swim in it. Well after we were done swimming we got in the boat and Joaquin fished again and I read the notebook out loud to him. The sun started to set and we decided it was time to go back and dock up. Well, the boat didn't start. He tried again and again. There was nothing. I started to freak out because we were stranded and my phone was dead and Joaquin had barely a bar left of battery. Joaquin did call his Dad with the last bit of juice on his phone and left him a message. I was getting tired so I put sweats on and crawled into bed. I fell right asleep but Joaquin had me get up once to see how beautiful the sky was. It was so romantic and I wish I could re-live that moment because did I appreciate it?....NO! If I could, I would do it a little different. I was #1 a little crabby, being in the sun all day and nervous about what would happen to us in the middle of Lake Tahoe. (I think secretly I thought we might die of starvation.) Joaquin probably slept an hour that night. He was worried the boat would drift into the rocks. Anyway, in the morning we woke up watched the sunrise and we went back to bed. Then around 8 or 9 am, I was really freaking out. We tried using oars to get us back to shore but it was really hard and we were not seeing progress so Joaquin put on a life vest and tried to tow the boat with his body. That's right! Macho man thought he would bring us to land with his body alone. I tried to wave people down, waving an oar in the air from the top of the boat. People just thought we were saying hello. Finally I jumped in the water with him and I try to help. Then these people drove by on their speed boat and I'm waving and they wave back. I think they could tell there was a problem so the stopped. We told them the problem and the guy let Joaquin use his cell. He talked to his dad and his Dad said Ed and another guy were coming out with gas. We thought something was wrong with the engine. Nope, just out of gas. (The gas gauge was broken and Rich put 100 gallons of gas in the boat when he first got up to Tahoe so he thought we were ok.) Well Ed showed up and sure enough, that was the problem. We drove our back to dock up and we went home. That was our first adventure as a happily married couple.

So fun huh? Hope that wasn't too personal but it was a good memory. Love you Joaquin you really are such a good man and a great Dad!


Tuesday, June 22, 2010


Look at these little muffins. Shaved heads and all. I have to say, they look so stinking cute. Everett has a perfectly round shaped head and Brock, well lets just say that Brock has his mother's head. Shaped like an big, extra large ostrich egg. But even with his funny shaped head it looks good. (Others might disagree, or let me rephrase, others have disagreed but we don't care.) They seem to feel free. When I put both of the boys up in front of the mirror, they just laughed at themselves. It was as if they thought I had put a hat on their head or something. My little boys, oh how I love them.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

The BIG 27

I don't have much to post about today. I just had my birthday, which by the way, was so nice. I was a little worried about turning 27, which is weird because I have never, in my life cared about the age I have been but all of the sudden, I woke up a couple of days before my birthday and looked in the mirror and felt a little sorry for myself. In my "crazy" head, I was thinking, I'm turning 27, I look old, my eye's have bags under them and I'm over weight. (I know, cry me a river...what a baby I was being....I am now over it.) However, my actually birthday was so nice. I barely did anything the entire day. I went and got a pedicure and a manicure, a friend (Kara) took me out to lunch and then I came home and we had a little bbq with some friends we have around here. To me, it was the best. Couldn't have asked for a better birthday. Especially how I was dreading it so badly only two days before. Thanks Joaquin for being the best husband I could ever ask for!!!

Another exciting thing I had done this week, (Well today, in fact) was had the boys hair buzzed. It's gone! I'll have to post pictures sometime this week but, it's all gone. Brock about fell asleep when Heidi was cutting it. They both loved the clippers. The vibrations must have felt good on their little brains.

Look forward to pictures this week.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Our last day in Bishop

Joaquin's cousin's at the Ranch.

Everett at Convect Lake. Throwing rocks into the water would entertain him for hours.
The back ground is so beautiful it looks as if it were fake but it totally isn't. :)

Beautiful Melina holding Everett.
Melina's big sister, Feather. Oh my breath taking little beauties they are. And as sweet as a peach pie. Oh I wish they were mine, they were so sweet.

Daddy with the boys on the Ranch.

First horse ride of his life.

First horse ride of his life.

So this was our last day in Bishop and ALL of the family (or almost all of the family) got together for a bbq. We ate, the kids played and rode horses and chased sheep. It was such a blast. I'm looking forward to when the boys get bigger and they can actually remember their cousins. It will be so fun. All of the family is so nice and everyone helps with the kids. It was really fun. Since we've been home, the boys have been going crazy since while we were there, all we did was play outside and now they are home and there isn't much space for them to roam free like there. One good thing about this trip is that they didn't get sick. Every single trip we've ever taken them on, they've gotten sick and this one they didn't. Thank goodness. We had a blast and now can't wait for next year. We're so lucky to have family that lives all over. It's hard because we don't get to see them very often but it makes for fun vacations. Thanks Toni for letting us stay with you. It was a blast!

The Mule Day Parade, hip hip hooray!

Grandma and Everett hanging out at the parade!

Brock and I at the Mule Day Parade! Yay!
Everett and Aunt Marian. Everett was loving her! She gave him so much attention.

This is a shot of the actual parade. Jerry and some other friends of theirs from Soda Springs were riding on the float as well.

This was after the parade. Jerry put his hat on Brock and Brock thought he was pretty cool.

Auntie Veronica and Everett after a very long day. Veronica had just drove in and made it to the tail end of the Parade. She was loving on her nephews and we were loving on her too. We couldn't wait for her to get to Bishop! Miss you sister! (You don't even know!)

What we did...








Once we were in Bishop, we did a lot of hanging out. A lot of letting the kids do what ever they wanted. They loved being naked and playing in the water. Most of the time we were there, we just hung out on Joaquin's Moms back porch eating and talking. It was so relaxing and fun. We miss it. One day while we were there, Toni, Joaquin's Mom and Jerry bought us tickets to go see Lonestar. Which is funny because neither of us really listen to country music but we had a lot of fun. Just the two of us. No kids. It was so nice....we realized we like each other again. Haha! It was nice to get away and have Grandma and Grandpa Jerry watch the kids.














On our way to Bishop




Our 2nd annual Ficker Family Fun trip to Bishop, California was list last week. It happens to also be Memorial Day weekend and Mule Days in Bishop. We have decided to make this a family tradition to go there every year during Mule Days. The drive is a little harder with the boys as they are getting bigger and less tolerant of being in the car for long periods of time. Not to worry though, we got there eventually, even if it took forever and a day. These pictures here are where we stopped and had dinner. It's a small town called Tonopah. It's an old mining town and there is something about it that I love. Joaquin thinks i'm crazy for saying that too. It's tiny and there is nothing there but a mining museum and a couple of antique shops.