So we came back from vacation and went right into Optimist Football. I got back on Thursday, the kids got back on Friday night and we had Jamboree at Bronco Stadium on Saturday morning.
With all three kids playing, we were at the stadium ALL day long. Jake and Faith were there 1st thing in the morning. The tackle players all get weighed in, get their photos taken and then play a short game. Jake hadn't practiced enough to make the minimum play requirement in order to play, so he went to take photos, get weighed and cheer for his team.
Faith hadn't been to a cheerleading practice yet and was a little overwhelmed by the whole experience. It is a college football stadium and from a kids perspective there are A LOT of people in the stands. She did very well listening to her coach and they did some simple cheers on the sidelines. As the smallest cheerleader she did get put in the front of the team photo doing the splits, so we can't wait to see how they turn out. Come to find out, a couple of weeks of practice in now that her coach says she is the best cheerleader on the team (and the youngest) she is a very good listener. Our daughter has aptitude as a cheerleader...this is just KILLING Marisa.
Tanner's flag team got to play their game inside the Broncos practice facility. He hand't been to very many practices either, so he couldn't play a whole lot, but did get in for a few plays. I was surprised at his aggressiveness. He doesn't display a lot of outward emotion (unlike his brother) so I wasn't quite sure how he would respond when he started to get knocked around. To my surprise, he did just fine. He lined up across for the biggest kid on the other team who proceeded to knock him back about 10 yards. That happened a couple of times, then he figured out what was going on and started to fight back. He ended up holding his own and had a good time playing.
We have gotten into a good rhythm as a family with football. With both Jake and Faith at the same practice schedule, we are back to splitting up. We are all able to eat together before we head out for the football fields. I am coaching Jake's team and helping with Tanner's team. I have been splitting the practices so far and we seem to be doing well with it all. Jake and Faith have their first travel game this weekend in McCall (which is a couple of hours away). We'll be heading up early on Saturday morning and will be there for most of the day. They play at the high school field so it should be a fun game. Marisa and Tanner will stay in Boise as he has a home game. Football season is on!
After celebrating birthdays and getting spoiled rotten in Folsom (Thanks, Mary and Auntie Sue!) we headed back up to Tahoe, this time staying at a house in Tahoe Donner that Kim and Bill had rented. In addition to Kim's family, Lisa and John flew their girls out for a "solo" trip so we had all of the cousins together for a few days.
We spent all day Tuesday at our favorite beach, Sand Harbor. We packed a pound of raw bacon so the kids could go fish for crawdads. They were entertained for hours building their own make shift fishing poles and hunting the crawdads. They caught a few over the course of the day and had a blast. We also revisited our jumping rock- about 100 yards off the main beach is a cluster of rocks that people swim to and then jump off. Brian and I had jumped off of them a few years ago and this year the boys wanted to try it, too. Faith and Nana stayed on the beach while the rest of us paddled/swam out to the rocks to give it a try. Brian and I thought the boys would get out there and decide against jumping... but to our surprise they both climbed up the slippery slope and jumped into the clear water below. It was GREAT! After having a late lunch at the cafe at Sand Harbor, we let the kids play until almost 630 before we sadly packed our things and headed out in search of a pizza dinner. Found a place in Incline that was able to seat all 12 of us almost immediately and had a really good dinner out before heading back to the house and putting the kids to bed.
I met Shannon for coffee on Wednesday morning and had a leisurely time catching up (it had been two years since our last visit!) then met up with the most of the crew and went shopping downtown. The kids still had their $25 from Papa from Christmas burning a hole in their pockets but no one found anything worthy of their money. In fact, Tanner decided to spend his on an hour horseback ride with Quincy, Jessa, Abby, and Aidan. I sent him off to meet his horse, then took Brian to Reno for his flight back to Boise. Tanner had a great time riding a 37 year old horse named Skipper. I was so proud of him for making that choice, getting to experience something new, and being independent enough to do it on his own. That night we ended up meeting Shannon and her crew at Donner Beach for dinner and s'mores. It was a beautiful night and the kids all played some hybrid game of tag/football and swam off the floating dock for several hours as the adults enjoyed more time to reconnect. Again... a great night.
On Thursday we headed down to the public beach at Donner where Jake decided to use some of his money from Papa on a paddleboard rental. I think he is hooked! Faith and Tanner kept busy building sandcastles out of old pepsi and snow cone cups. That evening we headed back into Downtown Truckee for their Thursday night street fair. We shopped and ate and wandered around. It was really crowded and a little hectic keeping track of all the kids. Each one wanted something different to eat for dinner so I sent Jake off to the Taco stand with 5 dollars and strict directions on where to meet me. He came back about 20 minutes later , with a carne asada taco in hand, and handed me the money back. Turns out the owner of the stand was so impressed by his good manners that he gave him the taco for free. Combine that with the fact that he spent the rest of his money from Papa buying a gift for Emerald (our summer sitter) and making a donation to the Humane Society and it was definitely a Proud Mom Night.
We packed up the car with plans to head our first thing Friday morning. We were on the road by 945 (not quite "first thing" but best laid plans...) and the kids played games on the iPad and iPhone for the 8 hour drive home while I listened to music. We made just one stop- in Winnemucca for lunch. The kids played in the McDonalds playland while I caught up on work calls. They were really well behaved and easy travel companions until the last hour when we were all getting tired and cranky. We arrived back in Boise at 745 PM.
Friends, family, and new adventures. It was a great trip for everyone.
After Squaw Valley, we headed down to Folsom to see my Mom's new home and celebrate her 70th birthday with her. With Marisa, my Mom, Auntie Sue, Aunt Lisa and Poppas birthdays in August, it's a busy month for celebrations.
We stayed at my Mom's house with her and Auntie Sue, who was up for the weekend. After our annual first day of school clothes/shoes run to Scheels in Sparks, we got to Mom's pretty quickly after Squaw Valley, it was a nice easy drive. There were, of course, welcome gifts for the kids, salads, cookies, brownies, cheesecake, candy and spaghetti sauce. We had family tickets for the Train concert that night. Faith was a little under the weather so she stayed home with Grandma Mary and Auntie Sue while we took the boys out into the middle of nowhere to see their first concert. They were exhausted form the trip and the concert had two openers, so by the time Train came on, Tanner was trying to sleep on the blanket. They were interested for the first few songs but then were both done. It was a good concert, but we ended up leaving early and got back to Mom's about midnight.
We spent the next two days between Mom's house and Lisa and Clarks new place. They have great backyard with a pool that was full of children swimming, diving and shooting basketballs. All of their kids started school the next day, Cayden's first in High School, so it was kind of their last fling of the summer also.
On Mom's birthday we had a great lunch and dinner, surrounded by more swimming (and some pre-season football). Eric and his girlfriend Cody made the trip up from the Bay Area to join us. Eric swam with the kids and everyone had a great time. We got a tour of Mom's mobile home park and neighborhood (which seems to be great), and spent the weekend catching up, eating and swimming. It was great to see everyone and just hang out a BBQ like we used to do and Grandma and Grandpa's house back in the day.
We left Monday morning to head back up to Tahoe for another couple of days with Kim, Bill, Cori and the cousins before heading back to Boise.
We drove to Tahoe for the first part of our last summer vacation on Thursday, August 8th. We stayed two nights in Squaw Valley before heading to Folsom to celebrate Grandma Mary's 70th birthday. Having visited SV lots of times in the past we had never actually stayed there, so I was excited to stay near the village and celebrate my birthday there. The night we arrived we ate outside at the pizza place in the village and had a great dinner! We followed it up with an evening soak in the hot tub while the kids swam.
My birthday started with an early morning solo walk to Starbucks while the kids continued to sleep in our condo (apparently the drive the day before wore them out!). Even walking leisurely and hanging out in the village for awhile, I still returned to a condo that contained 3 sleeping children! It was lovely. Once everyone finally got up we headed out to breakfast to a place I read about on Yelp. It was a beautiful drive to Tahoe City and we had a delicious breakfast on the patio. Next we headed to Commons Beach and I rented a paddle board for an hour. Jake and Tanner had a go on it, but mostly I just paddled around and enjoyed the scenery and the peace and quiet on the lake.
The kids were dying to play miniature golf at the outdoor course in SV so we headed back there for the afternoon. The kids played 18 holes while Brian and I shopped in the nearby stores. "OK, Guys... play holes 8 and 9 then sit on THAT bench right there and wait for us!". It worked out great! We had told the kids before we arrived that they could do one activity each during our trip to Squaw so the boys picked the trampoline/jumpy thing. Faith decided she'd rather use her 12.00 to buy a new "guy" so after the 5 minutes of bouncing and backflips we headed to the toy store where she picked out a bunny puppet that was her favorite thing for about 5 minutes and then was discarded in the pile of blankets and pillow pets in our condo.
After another pool visit we headed to River Ranch where we dined on hotdogs, nachos, and Rum Punch (OK... that was only me). We continued our drive through Tahoe City and ended up in Kings Beach where there was live music on the beach that evening. The kids played in the sand while Brian and I enjoyed the music and view.
After typing all of that it seems like it must have been a really busy day... but it felt leisurely and relaxed! I seriously couldn't have had a better birthday. If the first day of this trip around the sun is any indication of things to come, then I certainly can't complain.
So we came back from vacation and went right into Optimist Football. I got back on Thursday, the kids got back on Friday night and we had Jamboree at Bronco Stadium on Saturday morning. 
