Lake Tahoe, Part Two

At the beginning of September, Doug had a week long business trip to New York. He left on a Sunday and was not returning until the following Sunday. He was staying through the weekend to attend a dinner for his father's birthday. During this time, my parents had decided to plan a week long trip to Lake Tahoe. They usually do this every summer and most often they have some friends join them. This trip they were going to be solo. So, since Doug was away, I very politely invited myself and the kids to join them on their trip for a few days!

After a very busy week and Doug being away, it turned out to be some much needed relaxation. We packed up and hit the road on Saturday morning at 8:15am. My hope was to drive straight through and make it up there by lunch time. We almost did. We had to make one 15 minute stop in Sacramento to stretch our legs and change a diaper. The last 45 minute stretch through the winding mountains on Highway 50 is when Alyssa decided to cry...nonstop. My parents had called and said they were going to McDonald's for lunch at the Y and we should meet them there. My children have not eaten McDonald's, nor are they really allowed to, however it was quickly becoming meltdown city in the van and I was secretly hoping it had a Play Place in it. It did! And all they really ate were some french fries.

Of course we had to take this picture and text it to Daddy to let him know it was inevitable we would end up here someday!

After lunch we went back to the house. My parents rented a really nice 3 bedroom/2 bath home on South Shore. It had a perfect layout for all of us to stay there and it was in a really nice neighborhood that was completely flat. Perfect for taking a lot of bike rides. I had packed 3 bikes so the kids could have some time on their bikes. Something we don't get enough of here at home because we live on a hill.

Jimmy posing on the porch.

Ready for a bike ride. Even Alyssa had her first bike ride experience.

Our first afternoon there we went to the store for some groceries and then took a ride over to the lake in Tahoe Keys. Of course my children can never stay away from the water. It started off as "ok, just put your feet in", to stripping down to underwear and jumping in. I shouldn't have been surprised, really. They are my water babies! Alyssa took a header in fully clothed. I was too busy saving her from drowning, so I didn't get any pictures of that! After the lake experience we went over to the park to play before heading back to the house for dinner.

After dinner and putting the kids to bed, my dad and I headed over to the casino to play some cards. I haven't gambled in years and had a really good time playing poker with my dad. I didn't make any money, but I didn't loose any either!

The next day we spent the day at the beach. It was an absolutely beautiful day. The kids had a blast playing in the sand and splashing in the water.

Alyssa loves to eat sand. Yuck.

 At one point my mom spotted some Canadian geese and thought it was a good idea to have the kids feed them. We had some bread in our lunch cooler. Paige was all over this idea and was loving it! Alyssa was a little unsure of our visitors and stayed safely in Grandma's arms. Shortly after Paige began to feed a goose, she was quickly joined by the rest of the flock as well as a couple ducks and seagulls. Even after we ran out of bread, they hung around for a bit to make sure we didn't have any other snacks in our cooler!

Paige feeding one goose and its friend is coming in for a closer look.

The duck comes in to check out the situation.

And the entire flock decides to arrive and Alyssa is on her way out!

One of the mornings were there, the kids got to bake cookies with Grandma. My mom brought up ingredients to make chocolate chip cookies that they could add M&M's too. Boy was that a hit. Grandma is brave too, she let them do all of the work. Even put their own cookies on the cookie sheet. Hilarious to watch them spread cookie dough all over the sheet. Grandma had to step in and help create actual cookies. It was so cute to watch them and they had such a great time!

The house we were staying at had a hot tub that fortunately was only heated to 95 degrees. Well that became the kids own personal pool! Oh what fun they had playing in the "pool". It was awesome. Even in the cramped quarters, they managed to pack in some big fun.

We were only there for 3 days and of course it is never long enough, but we had such an amazing time. Everyone was anxious to get home and see Daddy, since we hadn't seen him in 10 days. This was the first trip we have taken with my parents and I was curious how they would handle consecutive days with the kids around. Especially my dad...who enjoys his quiet! We left on Tuesday morning and I emailed my mom the next day to jokingly ask her if she missed us or if they were thankful for a quiet house. She responded that they missed us a lot and were hoping to do a week long trip next summer. My dad even said, though he likes his quiet, he really really enjoyed having us. We all had such a wonderful time and I am so glad we invited ourselves to go up.