WOW! August was a busy month folks! The highlight was returning to school for Derek, Brady and Drew! Derek is back at Sacramento Academic & Vocational Academy with the usual awesome team and students in Elk Grove! Brady is now a Second Grader and Drew a First Grader with Brady's former teacher Mrs. Tran! We know the kids are in their early years of school, but dang if feels like this morning that they got into Pre-School! Watch High School be next week!
After 24 years of being together, we still need to find time to be with each other! When life gets hectic, kids running in all sorts of places and directions, commitments with family etc., we still must find time to hang out and laugh and remind ourselves as to why we are here in the first place!
At first Drew was not into it at all, Derek got her going on the small stuff and eventually on the bigger sections of the track! Once that was but together, she had a blast! Proud of her courage!
This dude on the other hand, he rolled the starting hill from the moment he got there! However, as predicted he crashed! Yet, he went out there again and again and kept doing his thing! he looked very comfortable out there! Potential BMXer I think!
Two happy kids on their bikes at the track! Proud Daddy!
While spending our annual week at Dillon Beach we had special guests on the last day, The Orick's! The weather was great, no sun! But it wasn't horrible like its been in the past! Thanks for coming out!
A few months ago Brady and I decided to take a day and make a "Boy Trip!" That day finally arrived last week! We took off on Tuesday night to San Rafael to stay the night in a Motel 6, commonly called, Ghetto 6 in our home! The next day woke, had our cereal, watched the Tour de France stage on the ipad and off we went to SF. We hoped for stop at the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge, but fog kept us in the car and on our way down to the Marina District!
So the LiveStrong Challenge rolled in thru Davis, Ca. this year. Riders raised nearly 1 million dollars for the LiveStrong Foundation! I didn't ride it, wish I had, but it looked like a lot of fun! Hey, Lance rode on the same roads that I ride and train on a weekly basis, that's pretty cool!
Can you find our little Drew in the line up? Clue: flower girl! She's now a First Grader! She had a great first year of school; she loved class, finished all of her work on Monday's for the most part, read really well, math is coming along and she's just cool! We love you Drew and congrats!
Another front yard shot using HDR! Dang it, I just need to fork over the cash to get the full version! Then its ON!
Yes, its been a weird and strange Spring around here! Yesterday was a bit of a trip with tornadoes in the area! With the awesome clouds I just had to bust out a shot or two! The images were enhanced with a killer software called, you guessed it, Photomatix! Its a free trial, hence the watermark all over the picture; nevertheless, its a super cool shot! Enjoy!
A couple of weeks back we all took a weekend trip with our old and great friends Brandon, Sarah, Emma and Chase Meadows to South Lake Tahoe for some hangout time and to catch the start of the Tour of California. Well, we hung out alright, but the race did not due to weather as you can see! Regardless, we had a great time going up a new route, awesome friend time, did catch some cycling action(not much) and we ended up buying week vacation for Kauai next year! Yeppy!
So Brady decides to ask me if he can use my camera...gulp, but ok, he's willing to try something new, so why not right? "Put the strap around your neck!" Here's his photography at hand! What is all this you ask? His recycling cans! Daddy shoots bike races, Brady shoots cans! Fair enough!
Yes, another project at The Novaes household! This time it was the front yard! We spend so much time in the front of the house during the summer months, tomando uma cerveja and watching the kids play, so why not make it nice out there right? With Melissa and Derek's vision, Bob pulled together a great plan for us! Clean and simple, yet elegant! Awesome job to all involved: Rocky with the concrete(thanks brother), Bob for the design and the fence, Melissa for painting and Pedro for his mao de obra and Brady for his green waste cans!
I only wish we had a decent picture of the front with all the big bushes still in the front! It looked like a jungle, trust me! Now we need some warm weather to celebrate!
Our Cycling Team, Rio Strada Racing, hosts an annual race series where riders from all over Northern California come down and hammer each other! The weekend went great in terms of the event; however, my poor fitness level proved to be true! On the bright side, no broken bikes nor body parts! Sunday I had treat where Melissa, Brady & Drew showed up, and to top it off even more so, friends Gabe, Val, Ainsley and Mila came out to cheer! After the race, we a great dinner at home with the family and life was grand! Summer time is here, step the miles Derek!
After a stop Didi's house, sorry no pics, we headed to Vacaville to complete the Tour of Mother's Day! There the girls got their face's painted, the grown ups had some great wine, and we all had an awesome dinner! All in all, it was a great family day, all the AWESOME Mother's were happy!
The first stop was at Nana & Papa's where we met SJ & Jane, who came out from Iowa for the week. And of course the usual suspects; Merle, Bob, Chris, Ryley and "Beiber!" As always, we had a great time and loads of great laughs, only gets better and better each time, so fun! 
And, we HAD to get a few group shots, thankfully every tends to cooperate!
