Rasmussen Shindig 2017

First comes the t-shirt… then comes the schedule… then comes the Shindig in 2017!

Monday, June 19th – Have huge rental van… will travel! 🙂 And don’t forget our traditional Subway (in Wendover) stop for lunch. Travel to Truckee, CA is an eight hour trip. However, there were plenty of potty stops. With Erica being pregnant… we all used her as an excuse. Can’t have her sitting too long ya know! The boys used the excuse as well so that they could check out any geocaches they could! But even with all those stops… we made it to our cabin before dark. Beautiful cabin. There were stairs at every entrance. Dad was thankful for strong boys! Important side note: During our travels we played the “fun” game of learning about the Ham radio test. We went over question after question after question.

Tuesday, June 20th – Tarrin was testing the reception of his radio. We had hiked clear down to Vikingsholm at Emerald Bay while Dad & Kody stayed back at the van. It was quite the hike down and back. Not for the faint of heart! It’s a good thing Grandma and Grandpa get plenty of exercise working in our yard. They did great being dragged all over! The scenery was spectacular complete with massive trees!!! We wanted to get some kayaking in there… but all our efforts to find a way down for Dad failed. There was a geocache on Fannette Island that Tarrin was trying his hardest to figure out how to get to. Maybe next time.  So we ended up at  Baldwin Beach. Boy was that sand HOT! Only one shade tree to be had…. but we got it! Everyone but Dad had some time out on the kayaks. It was beautiful out there!

Wednesday, June 21st – TEMPLE TIME!!! My favorite part of the trip. Jayden went and did baptisms while the rest of us did sealings. Always a crowd pleaser. 🙂 Afterwards we headed to a nice Mexican restaurant where we all promptly took turns in the restroom changing into “street clothes”. The food was Y-U-M-M-Y and our waiter was awesome!!! What do you do after a temple experience and a filling lunch? Hang out at Cabela’s. Grandpa found the best way to enjoy that store! 😉 Smart man because after, we went shopping along the little street in Virginia City, Nevada. Lots of walking (and very warm)! Lots of watching Jayden be tormented over what to buy. Especially in the shop with all the sports paraphernalia! haha! We also drove around in a big van on narrow streets to check out some old churches. By the time we got to the burger joint to eat… we were all worn out! It was a cool little place where they had taken an old garage-type place and turned it into a food place but they kept the theme of the garage. It was pretty neat.

Thursday, June 22nd – San Fransisco Day. Once we arrived to San Fransisco we drove up the side of the mountain and checked out the Golden Gate Bridge from afar. Then we took care of the most important stuff…. food. We did some shopping as well, before AND after, I believe. 🙂 But the food was the biggest accomplishment. Deciding was the hardest part. We thought we had made a decision at a bakery type place. It was cool how they had the bread on conveyor belts around the two-story restaurant. But that wasn’t  convincing enough to eat there… so we left and went across the parking area to the Franciscan Crab Restaurant. Tarrin was so excited to try an oyster. (Hold on… I’m gagging.)  The smell… the texture…. I’m sorry…. there is NOTHING appealing about an oyster. They were created to make pearls… NOT to eat! By the time it was all said and done…. Tarrin, Kody and Jayden had all tried snot textured nastiness. But the day was saved with a family-sized order of crab legs. Oh man… there were some happy eating sounds, butter dripping down chins and big smiles. A meal to remember!!! Now that we were all full it was time to walk it off. Walked along Fisherman’s Warf and felt very small next to the big ships! Now it’s time to go check out the Golden Gate Bridge close up. Because… let’s face it…. with the fog you HAD to be close up to see it! But it was still pretty impressive! For some it was a bucket list item achieved!

Friday, June 23rd – No Rasmussen Shindig is complete without a mountain biking excursion. But to spice things up a bit…. it was in snow this time! Crazy boys…. mountain bikes are for dirt! But they did their best to make the most of the bike rentals. Because of the record snow fall the previous winter, the trail that we had picked out to ride on was still under a couple feet of snow.  Pretty sure that’s not an ideal mountain biking environment. So we loaded the bikes back up and headed for lower elevation.  We found a cool trail just west of Carson City that the boys rode down several times (I went down once).  It was AWESOME! And yes… that’s Jayden’s eye in the backup camera. Creepy.

Saturday, June 24th – The worst part of any Shindig… the end. It seems to always come no matter how much we try to ignore it’s coming. But before we could head off, we needed to get rid of the antifreeze where window wiper fluid should be. Now…. even though I’m a mechanic’s daughter, I’m pretty sure this should be common sense. It was a mess!!! Had to flush out the system and it was quite the work getting the muck off the window! Once that disaster was taken care of… it was time for a group picture or two or twenty. Trying to get a full family photo without a passerby to take the picture for us was a challenge! Running back and forth was great exercise I guess. Before we officially “hit the road”, we went into the little town of Truckee and wandered around it’s old main street. Had a nice visit with some older Jehovah Witness ladies, went into the vistor’s center and then went to the Old Truckee Jail… Tried to see if they’d reopen and take Jayden. No luck. Maybe next time.

Another Shindig in the books. There are a ton more pictures and a bunch of videos… but hopefully this highlights the main events. Feel free to comment with your favorite part of the trip! 🙂