Happy Birthday Tia Lindsay

We are wishing Tia Lindsay the happiest of birthdays today!

First Camping Trip of the Summer

Back in January I booked this camping weekend (I still can't believe that us Californians have to book our camping spots six months in advance for some cheap summer fun!).  I decided to try Big Basin State Park, as it's pretty close to home, one of the oldest state parks in CA and it's covered in my favorite redwoods trees.   The sites have little tent cabins which were a plus too, with space alongside for a tent for those who really wanted the full camping adventure.  I brought our tent as the kids swore that they wanted to sleep in it, but we all ended up piling into the tent cabin, and used the tent to play in and eat in (only spot to keep the mosquitoes away!).   I took the kids up on Friday as Josh had work and other commitments.   We got everything set up and then quickly discovered that our site was right next to a fun creek to play in.    It didn't take long for the kids to strip down to their undies and get into the cold creek and play for the afternoon.   We joined the ranger led campfire for the evening for marshmallow roasting and tales of owls.  
We're on the road:

 Discovering the creek:

 

 

 

 Day 2:  painting, crafts, ambitious 3 mile hike, an hour in the creek, major exhaustion meltdowns and ended with more campfire of course.  

 

 

We found banana slugs of course!

 Only casualty of the weekend:  poor Jake was attacked by mosquitoes on day 1, and was endlessly itching on day 2 poor guy!

Gorgeous park.   We took a great hike on the last day as well.   I can't get enough of being outside away from the craze of normal schedules right now.   The kids however, are ready to be back to school and camp tomorrow.   It was a very fun but busy week of vacation time!

10th Anniversary Celebration in Tahoe!

For our 10 year anniversary Josh and I decided to take a special family vacation up to Lake Tahoe.   It's a place that makes us both incredibly happy with the fresh air, gorgeous views, endless outdoor activities and slower pace.   Josh is moving around much better now, so he could walk around with us although he continues to take it very easy as he rehabilitates his leg.   We stayed in the spectacular and perfectly located Plump Jack hotel in Squaw Valley in North Lake Tahoe.   The drive was painful given the July 4th holiday, but it was well worth it.  The trip ended up including a long list of firsts for us and the kids, and we are vowing now to make it an annual vacation every summer as we all just had a blast.    Our list of firsts:
1. Going to Squaw Valley- none of us had ever been, but it is a beautiful resort village with restaurants, stores, endless hiking and biking trails and of course many ski lifts.   It was crowded in the mornings, as the resort actually kept their ski season open through July 4th this year given the amazing storms this past winter.   It was hilarious watching all of the skiers in their shorts and tank tops heading up the mountain each day!   Of course we had to go to the pool/hot tub every day this trip.  It was fun to see all of the Olympic rings throughout the village as well, even though it was host back in 1960.  

 2. Playing giant sized chess and connect four (all three kids have now learned chess and regularly want to play it with Josh daily!)

 3. Daily morning/evening hikes up to gorgeous waterfalls or to the snow!   It was a wonderful and rejuvenating start or end to my day to be able to hike into the beautiful mountains and have a moment of peace and quiet every day this trip.   Loved it!  

 4. Crazy crowded beaches!   We spent half days at the beach on two days, and there were so many people there we had very little space to move around and play as we normally like to.   It was literally like the movies where everyone's blankets were up against each other- not the best experience, but thankfully the lake is fun to swim and play in and we did get there early enough to get some good sand digging in.    

 

 5. Renting a paddle boat.   As Josh can't really put much pressure on his leg yet, I attempted to rent a 4 person paddle boat and paddle it all by myself with the kids.   It was like a super intense 30 minute cycling class, with anxious kids who didn't want to get wet.   Not the most brilliant idea, but they did really enjoy being out on the water, and now I know to wait a few more years until we try that again!
Video coming....

6. Seeing SNOW!!!   Amazingly, our kids have never really played in snow before!   Josh and I are not skiers, nor do we feel comfortable driving in the snow, so we just haven't attempted getting all of the gear and bringing the kids up to the snow.  BUT, the mountains of Squaw Valley were still covered in snow, so we took the tram up to High Camp one afternoon and the kids and I got to play!   It was bizarre, as all of the skiers were swimming in the large pool at the top of the mountain, and we walked out a quarter of a mile and were in beautiful, powdery snow!   We didn't really have the right gear, so we could only make a small snowman as our hands started to freeze, but we made snowballs to throw, tried some sliding in the snow banks and hiked around.   The girls felt pretty unsteady in the sinking snow, but of course Jake was overjoyed.  

 

 

 7.  Rollerskating- Squaw converts it's huge ice rink into a roller skating rink for the summer.   None of the kids have roller skated before as we don't really have any rink near us.   It was really, really hard trying to hold all three of them up by myself as they went around the rink.   None of them quite got the hang of it, but it was pretty darn special letting them try to roller skate for the first time, right under the huge Olympic Rings over our heads.  

 8.  Fireworks right over our heads.   Squaw puts on their own fireworks snow on July 3rd every year, and sets them off mid mountain right over our heads.   It was pretty incredible to watch the fireworks going off with the ski lift chairs right under them.   The kids were in heaven.

 9.  Addison and Colbie ran their first official race on July 4th with Jake and I.   The nearby town of Truckee holds a little fun run immediately before their cute Fourth of July Parade to raise money for their ski teams.   The kids were all hyped up to do it with me, so we joined in.   It was quite warm that morning up in the mountains, and so they weren't in the best spirits having the wait in the hot sunshine for a half hour before the race started.  Needless to say, trying to coax the tired and hot girls through the race was tough.  Poor Jake would have blazed through the entire thing if he wasn't held back to stay with his sisters and I.   Next time I think we'll leave the girls to watch until they have slightly more interest :)    The parade was very sweet and small town afterwards, and certainly was a great celebration for the holiday.  

 

 The started the race running holding hands together.  I had high hopes that it was going to go really well....

10.  Ninja Warrior practice in nature!   The kids are all obsessed with the American Ninja Warrior shows on right now, so everything we do has to turn into obstacle courses for them.   So of course, we had to find many new types of obstacles out in nature this trip!   

 11.  Speaking of ninjas, the kids all tried those crazy trampoline jumping things for the first time too.  

 

 AMAZING trip!  We didn't want to leave.  We will be back- and we will all be riding bikes by then so we can fully take advantage of the gorgeous trails!   Many thanks to Grandpa Bill and Grandma Lee for the gift certificate years ago!