Happy 9th Birthday

Happy 9th Birthday Mr. Josh.  I'm not sure I could sum up this child in a blog post.  The child has a sense of boundless energy, a contagious enthusiasm, a love of reading (The Cursed Child, The Lighting Thief and Garfield), an obsession with the Simpsons, an unhealthy addiction to his ipod (Minecraft, Clash of Clan, Geometry Dash) and has recently mastered a mute 180 grab (where you grab your bindings and do a 180 jump) on skis.  His favorite ski run is Estelle Bowl, and while he didn't get to go skiing today on his birthday (and instead saw the movie Sing, played video games, played with Nerf guns and ate pepperoni pizza), he'd happily ski in a blizzard any day.  His favorite food is curry and bacon (not necessarily together, but I wouldn't put it past him).  So excited to be a part of his world.

Happy Holidays

Oh the Thiem Family blog....  well I promise we've been up to fun things in the last 6 months...  (like running a campground).  In the mean time here are a few photos to help celebrate Christmas.

August Moments

I'm sure we will look back on this summer with awe.  The campground is definitely consuming a lot of our time and energy.  It's fabulous to meet the campers and see the campground come to life.  But, I thought I would take a moment and share a few other non-work related photos, for fear they'll get lost in the "to be done later" pile and never surface.  Underwater photos were inspired by my friend Lenka's underwater photography.  Having fun at the bottom of the pool on Dan's birthday.

The birthday boy!

Cousins...  this was the first time the boys had a chance to meet Baby Otis.  Ben wanted to know when do babies do something.  Nora just wanted to see "BenJosh" and asked Megan over and over and over and over again when they would be arriving.  Note to self, don't tell Nora unless we're 5 minutes away.

A visit from the tooth fairy inspired this photo.

The County Fair...  Why Josh wanted a poop emoji stuffed animal is lost on me, but he thought it was hilarious.

And really... the most important August moment in 2016...  Meet Otis.  He arrived on August 4th.  It was an honor to be able to witness Nora coming to the hospital and meeting her little brother for the first time.

Campground opening

I wish had words to describe the feelings behind finally opening the Inn Town Campground... I'm sure we'll look back in awe of that sheer amount of work we had to do to make our dream a reality.  I wrote a blog post attempting to thank folks... but I think the feedback I've gotten in the last couple of weekends speaks volumes.

"I met your son Josh and he was a perfect gentleman.  We loved that he was friendly and professional and offered us a free ice cream sandwich and said you guys have been working on this for 3 years and no he doesn't get paid for his job."

"I've been following you along on Instagram and feel like I've watched the campground being built and feel like we're invested in the story."

"I can't believe how forested it feels."

"You guys have thought of everything, the attention to detail is amazing."

"We can't believe you just opened."

"Did you guys just buy this place?"  To which we responded, "No we built it" and got a mouth open stare.

"You guys have thought of everything, the camp store with ice cream, the outdoor sinks, the amazing bathrooms, the movie nights..."  

"I spent the weekend there and I'd drive back from the Bay Area just for the outdoor shower."

"We can't wait to come back."

"We love the kitchen, it's so great to have the space available."

"We're so excited to be so close to town."

"Your staff were amazing, everyone has been so friendly, we feel like we're a part of the family."

"I found you in Sunset, congrats."

And I'm totally blown away by the amount of support people have provided, both in offerings of help, to folks expressing how proud they are of us, to entertaining our children.  It takes a village and we couldn't have done this on our own.  Surreal.  Our new reality.

Happy 11th Birthday Ben

Ben, 11 years old.  We celebrated his birthday a couple of days early to help accommodate the Inn Town Campground grand opening.  Many thanks to Nana for organizing a pool party with pizza, cake and a 10 foot tall inflatable minion.  The party consisted of water gun fights, nerf wars, zip lines, presents and birthday cake.  Thanks for being patient with us as we worked every possible moment leading up and during your birthday.  The party was a great chance to stop and celebrate the very special 11 year old person in our world.    

A weekend in Guerneville

Our friends Cathy & Aaron got married yesterday afternoon in the Armstrong Woods State Natural Reserve and Dan and I took the opportunity to get out of town and celebrate.  Campground building is a lot of work!  We randomly found ourselves at the one of the sections of the Tour of California bicycle race, so we stood on a bridge over the Russian River and cheered on the women's race.  

And we dusted off the trailer and spent two nights in a campground.  The disadvantage to building a campground is that everything feels like a learning opportunity (we were not that impressed with where we stayed).  But, it was nice to get away.  Looking forward to the return of the boys, who spent the weekend with Uncle Bob and Grandpa doing crazy things like the Maker Faire in San Mateo.

Safari West

A couple of photos from our quick getaway to Safari West, what a great way for the boys to experience fabulous animals, plus they loved sleeping in the glamping tent and can't wait to test out the tents at the Inn Town Campground.