Our Time in Tahoe - Road Trip Part 1

Our vacation started out with a mini-heart attack the day before when I jumped in the car at 4 p.m. and it was dead. Completely dead, not even a little half-hearted click. I had been sooo proud of myself for all of the packing and cleaning I had accomplished to that point, it was the inevitable monkey-wrench that wouldn't allow me to go to bed on time. Ah, well, good news - it turned out to just be the battery, which still had some warranty left, so it was fixable at night and not a trillion bucks. So, despite our late start, we did get out on the road, and it felt GREAT. I love to be out on vacation with my family. Just being with them is really the best. Poor Lissy had a really high fever, so we gave her medicine, and all was well - until it came back. She was bouncing around between happy and sad all day. As for the boys, I bought them $1 video games at Walmart the night before, and holy cow, that was the ticket. They were transfixed all day. Andrew actually got a mini-magna-doodle instead, and that was the ticket for him. The games were so boring for me it hurt to play them, but we had a very peaceful trip due to their presence.

First stop- lunch in Elko. It was cold, but we always love a good park, and watch how much fun we had.

Just everybody with their lunchables at the park. Trips are about the only time our kids get  lunchables, so it's a really fun treat.

Gotta get a peek at Baby Girl.

There was a giant hill, so on your marks, get set . . .

Go! Gary and I weren't "letting" the kids beat us on the way down the hill, it was seriously hard to not fall on our faces. Short legs ruled.

Of  course we had many different races. I took lots of pictures to try to capture the sheer joy on Noah's face. Don't think I quite got it, but here are some attempts.

Lissy wanted to attempt a little racing on her own - progress was slow, and at times she climbed backward down the hill, but she's determined.

The park was nice enough, but there was something very strange. At any given time there were 2-3 cars in the parking lot, but the people were just sitting in their cars. They would never get out, just sit for a while, and then drive away. While we were there probably 10 or more cars rotated through the parking lot in this fashion. I thought either the park is a popular thinking spot, or there is some "other" explanation. When I went to the bathroom, the "other" explanation was supported.

Yeah, no doors on the stalls . . . nice.

Lissy climbed up these stairs all by herself before I noticed. When I saw I hurried and snapped the picture, then ran over to make sure she didn't fall. Looks like treachery, child!

On the road again, the next stop was The Black Bear Diner in Reno. I just don't like the sound of the word Reno at all. But, the kids got ice cream so it's not all bad. In Reno Josh said, "That place is just called Chinese Restaurant, that's it. Weird." It's funny to see Josh getting big enough to find things amusing that I do.

 By the time we reached Lake Tahoe, the sun was beginning to set, and I had to gasp - it was gorgeous. So much bigger than I had anticipated, it just took my breath away. Gary said the same thing, and as we looked in awe, Noah said, "This is really creepy." We were kind of driving along the edge of a cliff, and he felt like we were just going to drive right into the vastness of the lake. I said, "It's beautiful." " . . . and creepy," Noah tacked on. "Well, no, with the snowy mountains in the background it's awe-inspiring," I said. " . . . and really creepy," Noah insisted. Once we were away from the cliff, Noah would relent a little that it was beautiful.

When we arrived at the hotel the kids were pumped out of their minds. Luckily, all of the bell hops were laughing and not annoyed when my boys ran around yelling, "Chips and  . . . sal-sa!" Gary told the boys a bedtime story that night to get them to calm down, and they were in heaven. Gary is the best at telling stories to those boys, we're all pretty lucky. The next morning the kids wanted to eat their yogurt on the balcony first thing, and Andrew declared, "It's a beautiful!"

First I just took a picture of the boys enjoying their breakfast . . .

 . . . then Lissy started yelling, "My cheese, my cheese!" So I got her in a pic, too. Note they thought the ash tray was a resting place for their yogurt.

We had them wait here while waiting for the car. It was a battle to get them to sit here, so taking a picture took up some time.

Hiking was our first activity of the day. There are so many hikes to choose from, but we decided to go for one that was only 1/2 mile to a little lake. Our kids were really excited to go hiking, but we thought we'd start out easy to see what kind of hikers they are. Turns out the place we chose was kind of far away, but I was glad because we got to see a lot more things on our way. As soon as the car stopped Noah said, "Everybody has to find a hiking stick!" So that was the first task. They found one for us, too. We saw a lady coming back down from a hike and Andrew said, "She's looking for a hiking stick."

Their faces are in the shadows, but they were all pretty proud of their hiking sticks.

Josh wanted to take a side route climbing some rocks, and Lissy thought she would be able to make it, too.

There he is, on the top of his big rock - I wanted to strike a balance between letting him explore and have fun, and getting the show on the road. I felt like we did, I hope Gary did, too.

Noah was proud of his rock climbing skills, too.

I don't remember who took it, but this picture cracks me up.

Noah was really excited to find the biggest pinecone any of us had ever seen. Turns out there were even more later on!

The attention Noah's pinecone got prompted Andrew to make this collection, so of course we took a picture of it, too.

Getting to the lake . . . we let them touch the water.

Stopping by the lake for a little granola bar and water break - Josh decided he'd be the photographer.

Josh and Noah found more rocks to climb, including this little cave.

A couple passed by us and offered to take our picture by the lake. Noah and Andrew declined to be a part of the family, but hey, we were in a beautiful place!

Photography by Noah

I decided I wanted to get another shot of how gorgeous this angle was, and Josh struck this pose for the picture - then my camera died. So this is it, the gorgeous view. :)

After the hike we were all exhausted - everyone but Gary and Josh fell asleep in the car. We stopped at a place called The Burger Lounge for a late lunch. I highly recommend it, delicious! Besides the part where Andrew wasn't ready to be woken up to eat so he screamed and screamed, that I don't recommend. However, all's well that ends with swimming, so the boys were more than happy for me drop them off at the hotel to swim while I got groceries with Lissy. It was fun to just be with Lissy - tons of people were smiling at her and commenting about how cute she is. Having a baby outside of Utah, fun times. We also had the fun of paying vacation town prices - $1.79 for 6 eggs. I'm serious, yikes! I was starting to think it wouldn't be cheaper to make our own food, but when I got to the checkout I was happy to see we'd be having tons of healthy dinner and breakfast for much cheaper than we could have gone out.

Lissy went down for a nap when we got back from shopping, and I went out on the balcony for a minute. I could hear my boys having a blast at swimming! They swam for a few hours, that Gary is amazing. The boys were especially enchanted with the plastic flaps that separated the indoor and outdoor pools, and told me all about how fun it is for Dad to throw them. We made and ate dinner, then headed for a walk on the beach nearby. I had thought that maybe we should rent a boat or something so the kids could have an experience on the water, but when we got to the beach I realized how unnecessary that would have been. They could have stayed and played at the beach for much longer. It was so gorgeous, and all of my kids were having so much fun, I couldn't help but take tons of pictures. Gary made fun of me for it, but it was too amazing!

It started with a little toe . . . but this boy got all the way in! He was freezing, but he did it a few times.

Noah got in a little, too.

Their favorite thing to do was just run on the beach. All three of the boys just ran and ran.

Gary played football with Josh for a while. It's fun for Josh to start being old enough to do  stuff Gary likes.

Noah started out digging this hole like a puppy dog, but then we worked together to make it deeper and deeper. He was really proud of it, and pretty ticked when Lissy would get more dirt inside it.

Noah found this feather by the water and asked me, "Why does it feel so fake?" I explained all about why birds need really light and hollow feathers so they can fly. Noah said, "Yeah, but why does it feel so fake?" I guess I don't know the answers.

After the beach Gary thought it would be fun to go out for ice cream. Unfortunately, the ice cream shop across the street had just closed for the night, so we thought of other options. I made the mistake of suggesting a popsicle from the gas station, and the kids jumped on that. They wanted to go there even when we offered McDonald's. Sorry about the ice cream shop dream, Gare, but the kids cited getting ice cream at the gas station as one of the highlights of their trip. Kids are hilarious.

Friday morning I set my alarm so I could go running by the lake. It took me a minute to find a trail near there, and the altitude was killer, but the run did not disappoint. So beautiful! I took pictures with my iPod, which I'm sure are highly unnecessary, but wow, what a run! We then had french toast together with each of my little cuties breaking 3 eggs a piece, then headed for our last swim at the resort. I took Lissy this time, and she loved it. We had to scramble to be ready on time after that, but we made it, only leaving behind a cupboard of snacks (sad). Gary and I had to listen to a time share presentation in exchange for our stay, but they had our kids go to their activity center for free, so it wasn't annoying. At one point Gary mentioned Dave Ramsey in our reasons why we couldn't buy, and they started criticizing him for taking really nice trips, and I almost said, "Well, he built that," but I didn't. I just smiled and Gary and I imagined some more trips we could take one day. After that, a delicious lunch at Baja Fresh put the finishing touch on our time at Tahoe - it went by quickly, but we loved it! On to Roseville!

I don't usually take pictures of my kids at restaurants, but I thought my boys sitting together at this high table was cute. I could go for some of their food right now.