Lake Tahoe-Week 4

Last week, we had a fun family trip to Lake Tahoe for our Nielson Family Reunion. 

We have been looking forward to this trip since it's our only getaway vacation this summer. And we were excited to see our family. 

We left Wednesday morning and headed to Reno. On our way there, we stopped at the Salt Flats. They were so cool and we had so much fun exploring. 

 Caleb wasn't so sure about the salt. But we got a cool picture!

 Tessa got cozy during her nap in the car. 

 We made it to Reno Wednesday night and stayed in a great hotel that had lots of room for the kids to play and even a dvd player for movies. Caleb was pretty bugged that no one would share their popcorn with him. 

 Thursday we met up with the rest of the family to head to Lake Tahoe. We had some time to kill in the morning. Adam and Tessa got a couple of Chess games in before we left the hotel. 

 We stayed in a giant cabin and Tessa was so, so happy to get a top bunk bed to sleep in. 

 For days, all Gwen has talked about was going to the beach with Mamma. It was raining on Thursday, so we weren't able to head to the lake once we got settled at the cabin. Gwen was really confused. We had made a long drive and found Mamma, but we still weren't at the beach. She had to chill out for a while with a movie. 

 All the newest babies were finally together. Baby Stevie, Baby Hazel, and Baby Caleb. 

 Thursday night, (every night, actually) all the grandkids piled in the hot tub. We had to do a lot of reminding that this was not a swimming pool. 

 Thursday night, everyone relaxed with Big Hero 6.

 Friday we headed to Emerald Bay. It was beautiful! We hiked down to Vikingsholm and toured the house. We hadn't planned on swimming because the weather was still cooler. That didn't stop any of the kids. They swam and swam and had a ball!

 The kids found this cool tree on our hike and Zeke told fortunes through the hole. 

 Gwen finally made it to the beach with her Mamma. 

 Caleb loved the water. 

 We stopped for some yummy ice cream on our way home. 

 Friday night, Aunt Courtney had crafts for the kids and we watched The Lego Movie with Uncle Jeremiah.

 We spent most of our time keeping Caleb off of staircases. 

 Saturday we spent a fun and full day at the beach. Everyone had so much fun swimming and playing in the sand. 

 Caleb and Milo. 

Caleb just wanted to eat the sand. 

 The kids loved playing in the raft.

 Caleb and Aunt Briette

 Caleb loved splashing in the water.

 Caleb and Stevie had fun stealing toys from each other.

 Gwen and Rees

 Adam and Daddy tried out the paddle board

 Tessa had so much fun catching crayfish with Zeke and Uncle Jake. They ended up catching like 20!

 Tessa wanted to try out the paddle board too. We loved her warrior pose. 

 Uncle Jer and Uncle Ben having an intense conversation about cars. I loved that they were standing the same way. 

 We couldn't keep Adam out of the water. 

 Saturday night brought more games, including our chaotic version of the candy bar game and the big boys had a Pool tournament. Bampa ended up winning like 7 times. 

 Sunday we hit the road to head home. We had such a fun trip and we were so happy to see all of our family. We sure miss Mamma and Bampa a lot!!

We stopped for lunch at McDonalds. The kids were so happy to play in the playground and get Happy Meals. 

 Caleb did so great on our long drives. Adam was a great help and kept Caleb entertained with funny faces. I was laughing so hard, I couldn't stop shaking to get a clear picture. 

 We came home to lots of laundry, yard work and a broken car. We had to have Uncle Jer jump our car when we left Tahoe and thankfully we made it home without any other problems. Monday, we had to jump it 3 times. So we took it in to get a new battery. We were thankful we were watched over on our drive home and that we made it home without any problems.