Graeagle Fun

We kicked off summer vacation with a trip to Graeagle, CA. Graeagle is a small town,about an hour north of Truckee. We've gotten really good at road tripping to Tahoe now, that we can make the drive without stopping. Although, we did stop in Truckee for groceries and while we were there, we had Panda Express for lunch! Ack, what was I thinking?!?

Anyhow....

Graeagle is beautiful! It's so small town, so slow pace. We loved it here. Thanks to our friends the Kilbys for sharing their vacation home with us. There was a small fishing/swimming pond down the road that we patronized everyday. Every morning John took the kids fishing, then they'd come home for lunch and naps, then in the evening we went out swimming. It was great! After swimming, we'd take the kids to the General Store and ruin their appetite for dinner by giving them ice cream. But we were on vacation! And it was hot! And it was a treat! And yummy! 

We'd sit on their porch, eat our ice cream and watch for any cars that would drive by. That's because it is so small town that only 1 or 2 cars would pass by in the 30 mins while we ate. Glorious! So different than our town. 

Here, they are exploring the property. No, that is not poop that the boys are playing with. They found ants in the water bowl and stuck a piece of wood in it to see what the ants would do. And the ants! They were so big. Much bigger than the ones we have here at home. 

Isn't that Odin silly! He loves putting himself in a box, or a laundry basket, or a storage cube.

The silly people hanging on for fun. 

On our last day, we stopped at a BBQ joint for lunch. It was nothing worth writing about. We did fill our time posing for some pics. 

As we were driving home, someone had a tummy ache from the BBQ(we won't mention who). We pulled into a rest stop and the children found this little hill. So they ran up the hill, they ran down the hill. It sure doesn't take much to entertain our kids! And whatever the big ones does, the little does too.

Thank you Kilbys for helping us make memories! The best sleep we ever had on vacation!

Skiing in Tahoe

When we went to Tahoe, we took the kids over to Soda Springs to do some skiing and snow play. They have an area just for kids 9 and under and it was perfect for our little ones. On this particular day, a snow storm was brewing. It started out with a light dusting of snow, then darker clouds, then heavy winds, then heavy snow fall. And did we leave at the first sign of the inclement weather, um no! We stayed and stayed! 

We had a blast! Not many people ventured out like us crazies so we basically had the whole place to ourselves. Occasionally a family would join us, but they never stayed long. 

We got Magnus skiing lessons and he did really well. The instructor said it helped that he has been ice skating. Hooray-ice skating! There was a lot of wind blowing in the video, so I suggest you mute it.

After Soph saw Magnus do this, she wanted to do it also. It was a little difficult, but for her first time, I was quite impressed with her. She stuck with it even though she was a little scared of it.

That Odin, I was impressed with him also! We stayed for about 5 hours and missed his nap time and he didn't throw too big of a tantrum. Don't be fooled, this was when we first got there!

Soda Springs also had a tubing carousel. Look at them trying to high five each other!

And this was Odin, after he had had his fun and was waiting for everyone else to be done. I'll take this, any day, over screaming!

 We would definitely go here again. The only tricky part is that Magnus is getting older than the recommended age for the children's playground. So we might have to split up next time. I'm not quite sure how that would work out. Overall, we had a great time!

Snow House Vacation 2014

 In Feb., we splurged and took a trip to Carnelian Bay. This house had a pool table, a foosball table, and an air hockey table, plus a hot tub. The kids were so excited!!! Ok, we were too!!!  Every morning they would wake up early and hit the game room. Every afternoon they would ask to go in the hot tub. Fun times!

When you are in the presence of snow, you must build a snowman.

 Working together to gather the softer snow.

The finished product! I think it looks pretty awesome! In fact, it's the best looking one we've made so far!!!

And check out the hair on this one. Who knew that a snowman could sport a mohawk?

So, what happens when you get tired, cold, and hungry when you're 4 years old? Obviously, you cry!

A bear box can double as target practice!

I don't think the camo hat did the deer any good since he ended up on the wall...

I think this was the start of Odin's infatuation with shoes. John's snow boots probably weighed as much as him!

This place had a gigantic bath tub! It's only natural that all children must bathe together and be silly together!

It is always awesome to go to the snow and actually have fresh ones falling!

 Oh, poor Mr. Snowman. You're looking a little shabby there...

I am so thankful we get to make memories like this with our children.

Beach house vacation

It's interesting that you don't realize that you need a vacation, until you go on one! We had a great time here. Although we all suffered varying degrees of a cold. We had Emily come over one day and spent some time with us and we had one of our friends come hang out at the beach too.

First time in a hot tub and they really enjoyed the communal hot bath!

This house had all sorts of games in the closet. They liked this too!

Love the joy and fun you can give the kids, just by bringing some sand, water and friends together!

Odin unsure of the texture of sand. 

Ah, vacation is so so good!

Vote for me on FaceBook!!!

We've joined the cult!!! Yikes! We had to get an account because I had to enter into this contest for a free stay in South Lake Tahoe. Sounds like fat chance right???? Well I checked the sunbmissions and there are only four! Four!!! Only FOUR! There was a whole lotta chance that I could win because my photo is so much better, hence facebook here we come.

SOOO- I need you guys to vote for me from 4/15-4/30 until 11:59 pm. Send it to your friends, send it to your co-workers, whomever! You get 5 votes per day! The competitor inme now me is fightin'!

http://www.facebook.com/StayInTahoe

UPDATE: There are plenty of others besides :(  I am wrong with the voting times-starts on 4/16 Oops!  Thanks!

Most Fun in a Backyard

The house that we rented while we were in Tahoe, had a great big backyard. When we first arrived, there was already several feet of snow. So my niece Emily and I decided that we would make our own little snow hill to sled off of. It was a lot of hard work and sweat. After a lunch break and a few hours later, we had a functioning hill. It was awesome!

This is the snowman that the kids made. It's missing an arm, but I think that was intentional!

Magnus is trying to "make our slope better".

Whee!!!

Magnus is quite strong, he pulled Emily for a couple of yards!

Another whee!!!!

Casualty of a snow ball fight. Yes, my first reaction is to take a picture of him crying!

Admiring the amount of snow and wind we were having that day.

We had such an awesome time on this trip. Everytime I see/hear snow mentioned, my heart skips a beat thinking about all the wonderful things that happened here. Magnus and I shared a special bonding moment at a sled hill that we went to, Soph napped in her playpen while we were there, wonderful simple foods, a testing of patience by all, and teamwork from John and I on the way home. We were in blizzard like conditions on the drive back and it took us 7 hours to get home instead of the usual 4. I hope to have many more of these types of vacations! 

Borges Sleigh Ride

In Feb. we took a family vacation to South Lake Tahoe. While we were there we thought we should experience a horse drawn sleigh ride. It was only for a a half and hour at a price of $20.00 per person. In our heads, a sleigh ride would have been something of a fast pace. Such as those you see on TV, perhaps not rushing, but at least moving. Well this was not that. The horse trotted a few yards then stopped, it was taught to, then after 5 mins or so it would proceed again. This went on for the whole 30mins. Awkward, what can you do , but try to make small talk with the guide. Can I say it felt like watching molasses pour, except that molasses didn't have a baby crying the whole time because they wanted a bottle! As if that wasn't awful enough, it took us forever to get our keepsake photo because they had 2 classes of kids on a field trip. While we waited I told the kids to go play in the snow, so without their gloves, they made snowballs. Bad idea, their hands were cold and freezing from the snow. At the end of it all, we had some cranky kids! 

After this was lunch time, so I thought we should eat out. It'll make things easier for me. Drove down the street, decided that Chevys is good. At least here at home it is. Bad idea, we waited for 15 mins without a hostess even greeting us, then after I made up my mind that we should leave, the hostess comes. So I figured okay, we could fill up on chips and drinks until the real food came. At this point everyone was hungry-bad hungry. Like the kind where you want to scream at anyone who talks to you, that doesn't have food. We got seated, waited, 10 mins later, no chips-getting madder. Then chips-okay at least something. Then we are eating it slowly as to not run out because the waitress has not made it to our table. This was not statisfying enough. We looked around and realized that other people who were there even before us has not gotten their food or drinks. Now with steam coming out of our ears, we told the kids calmly that we are not staying and finding something else to eat! I have never done that in a restaurant, but yet I have never been subjected to that kind of jerkiness.

Finally we found a place to eat. It was delicious. Hamburgers! Did I say delicious??? The funny/sad thing about this place was that it was within walking distant from our house that we were staying at! If we would have just gone there we would have saved ourselves from the misery of that Chevys experience!

Skunk Train


This was such a great experience! This was about a 15 min. drive from where we were staying in Mendocino, in Fort Bragg. We've been to Fort Bragg many times before we had kids, but never ventured out furthur enough in town to know that this was there. Anyways, we packed a lunch and we were gone for a roundtrip ride for 4 hours. They sold food in the train and at the rest stop, but we didn't want to spend money on food that was going to be overly pricey.

They had a little pumpkin patch there, a perfect photo op. 

 This is part of the train. They had 5 cars total. One was an open deck, where you could hang out there and check out the scenery as you pass by it.

 The seats in this car was worned out. I mean like old school bus style. But we enjoyed ourselves anyways.

 One of the many creeks running through the trail that we were on. It was beautiful.

 Aren't they gorgeous!!!

 This was on the entire ride, redwoods everywhere. Some of the tree trunks were huge. Some have been around for hundreds of years.

 The train blowing off some of it's diesel. This is us on the open deck. We had a lot of fun there.

 This is what Soph did the whole time we were outside, picking up fallen leaves and debris. So dirty, but whatever. It kept her entertained and we didn't have to hold her.

Good ol Magnus, having lots of fun!