Re-introducing....

Myself!
My name is Rechelle. Remember me? Of course you do! I have to tell you, I have MISSED you all and have really MISSED blogging too. When the computer blew I really went through with drawls because I didn't get my daily dose of computer and blogging time. The pro's of not having a computer that was easily accessible was that I had a cleaner house, I caught up on some reading and spent lots of time swimming with the kids :0)
I know it has been beyond "a long time" since I've been here but I tell you, who knew computer issues could run so deep? After it's repair, all the settings needed to be "tweaked and refined". I have an ancient monitor and I tell you getting the screen resolution to mesh with the settings was a big pain in my big old butt! No joke!
Just a quick update.
My youngest girl graduated High School... and my youngest "guys" officially began their summer in the second week of June.
We are enjoying our summer. The third week of June we took a family vacation into Northern California. Wouldn't you know "they" were experiencing a heatwave and temps were over 100 degrees the four days we were there. Of course, Murphy had to strike...as in "Murphy's Law". As we are rolling through Sacramento where the temps were 105 at the time, the air conditioning in the rear of the good "old" minivan decided to take a dump and stopped working. Okay, fine. The remaining hour on the road was hot and horrible but we reached our destination just a little bit worse for the wear...but we did manage to see sights anyway.
We took the kids to Coloma to Sutter's Mill where they panned for gold and learned about the California Gold Rush.

The Mill...The American River...
Tools of the
"panning for gold"
trade...

We also drove into Old Town Sacramento (had all ready found an a/c joint to give the a/c a re-charge) and visited the Train museum. We're talking "full size locomotives, rail cars, and dining cars". It is a wonderful place to visit to familiarize "oneself" with the history of the train and it's railways.
(sorry about the quality. They're dark, but if you click on any pic you can enlarge them for a better "view")

Overlooking the trains...

We then travelled south to my "favorite place" and if you've been following my blog you all ready know that my favorite place (aside from Disneyland) is the central coast. We spent three days on the coast just lazing about on the beaches, enjoying the small coastal towns and just enjoying the time we had together. Being that our youngest girl begins College this fall we knew that this would probably be our last "true" vacation where she was able to "come along".

Love the ocean...

Checking out the tide pools...

We love the beach!!!

Ahhh, it's a clump of sea weed trying to get me!

We also celebrated my eldest girl's 24th birthday with a yummy dinner of green chicken enchiladas and a rather tasty lemon cooler cake from Costco. These "lazy days of summer" are proving to be rather busy ones instead. We've been enjoying our local library and checking out books, renting dvd's, and next Monday my youngest two (the guys) will begin a round of swimming lessons that their "Tata and Nana Max" gifted them with just today.

So now you are all caught up (pfew!). Be sure to let me know you were here! I'll "see" you soon as I begin to make my rounds and re-acquaint myself with everyone of you!