Lake Tahoe

In August we took a week off from life and went to beautiful Lake Tahoe with the Vincent family. Brian and I decided to leave late Friday night, drive as far as Elko, NV and get a hotel room, and then meet up with his family Saturday morning and finish the drive. We figured it would be easier on the boys (and us!) to break the drive up rather than tackle the whole thing in one day. The first 24 hours of the trip proved to be filled with bad luck. Bad luck in order of appearance:

1. Stopped to buy gas somewhere between Wendover and Elko and our card didn't work. The kind store employee who tried to get it to work for us, said they had been having problems with the card readers all day. No big deal. We ended up paying cash.
2. Ryker and Jaxon slept pretty good in the car on the way to Elko. Ryker, however, wanted nothing to do with sleep once we got the the motel. He cried, and played, and cried some more the majority of the night.
3. Stopped in Winnemucca (seriously?!? Who comes up with these names!) to buy gas on Saturday. Card still won't work. Paid cash again. This time Brian called the bank. Apparently the company who had done some work on the car before we left charged the card 4 times! On top of that the kind store employee from the night before had attempted to run our card 27 times! Yes. 27 times! The bank had been trying to contact us, but we weren't home, so they put a freeze on our accounts until the whole thing could get sorted out.
4. Stopped at a park somewhere between Winnemucca and Reno (it was a big city, just can't remember the name) to let the boys get out and move around. The big boys (Brian, Brady, and Adam) were throwing a football around when Brian tried to block a pass and dislocated two of his fingers! It was super disgusting!! He was able to put one back into place immediately, but the other one was too bad. Brian told his dad what to do to help and then together they were able to get back. Yuck!
5. Stopped at the same park, immediately following the dislocated fingers. Scott realized that one of the golf bags was missing from the top of the Excursion. As they looked closer they realized that it couldn't have fallen off....the other two bags were still securely tied. We had gone to a casino to eat breakfast in Elko earlier that morning. We figure someone must have taken them while we were eating.

The rest of the vacation was filled with lots of family fun. It was so great to spend a week with the family sightseeing, playing games, laughing, and creating memories!

This is the cabin that Scott and Anne rented for the family for the week.

VIRGINIA CITYWe spent one day going to an old mining town, Virginia City.

Ryker was a good sport to spend the day being pushed around! I didn't realize when I took the picture that Jaxon and Brian had the same expression. They must be related! They had a lot of fun little shops to walk through and an old-school police car. Jaxon was excited to see a real Sheriff like in the movie Cars!

THE BEACH

Jaxon and Ryker LOVED playing at the beach! Jaxon would not take his goggles off! He

thought it was the coolest thing ever to be able to see underwater. They had sand in every crack and crevice, but they had a great time!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AND A HOT TUB

We celebrated Scott's Birthday while we were there. I think a vacation is a fabulous way to spend a birthday! We went out to eat at a little Italian restaurant that night and had cake and ice cream back at the cabin. We also spent a few nights enjoying the warmth of the hot tub out on the deck. Hot tubs+mountain air+starry nights=ahhhhh!

LAKE TAHOE & BIG ROCKS

We stopped after our hike (see below) to climb on these HUGE rocks on one of the shores of the lake. I seriously could not get over how beautiful, and BIG, Lake Tahoe is.

SPOONER LAKE



One of the days we went for a little hike (leisurely stroll, really) around Spooner Lake. Jaxon had his binoculars and was a great nature guide!

LAKE TOUR/LUNCH CRUISE ON THE TAHOE GAL

Can you see the fog looking stuff out there at the base of the mountain? That is water evaporating off of the lake! So cool!

On the cruise we were served lunch. I had the best chicken caesar wrap I have ever had! Oh, it was truly divine!! While we ate the captain of the Tahoe Gal, Captain Scott, told us all about the history of Lake Tahoe. The picture of the "castle" is Vikingsholm located in Emerald Bay, it was built as a summer home in 1929. The picture of Ryker is not in focus, but it cracks me up! That plastic cup saved us!!

Soccer

Jaxon started playing soccer this year and had his first game yesterday. He loved it! He made the first goal of the game. We couldn't tell at first who had made the goal (they all run in a pack!) but it was easy to see from the look on his face that it was him. The first words out of his mouth were "Mom! Did you see me get a goal?!?" He was thrilled, and I was thrilled for him!! He wasn't expecting treats after the game (after all isn't playing a treat in and of itself?) and was just as excited to get a treat as he was to make a goal. I have a feeling that the treat is going to be equal on the coolness scale when it comes to playing soccer.

Jaxon and his friend Mason having a little heart-to-heart on the field!