Tahoe Donner

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.