Lake Tahoe

We just got back from an amazing, fun-filled family vacation to Lake Tahoe. We did not want to leave- it was such a great time. We hadn't all been together since Christmas and it was wonderful to spend time together as a family. We haven't done a trip all together in several years- and since then we've added Chase, Katie, Hudson and Nora to the family! 

We drove, which is a long drive, but it went surprisingly well. My parents took Chase with them (they left a day earlier than us) so we had Hudson and Heidi in our car. I expected Hudson to be super hard on the long trip, but he was surprisingly delightful the whole way! We kept marveling at how great he was being and how easy the trip was- then literally ONE MINUTE away from our hotel he threw up. Everywhere. It was disgusting. We spoke a little too soon. Overall, it still went extremely well. Hudson restored my faith in him, which was completely dashed on our trip to Virginia last winter (in his defense, he had the flu and an ear infection which we found out later). The drive back home with both boys was seriously smooth sailing (albeit long) thanks to dramamine. 

Our first day we were all together we spent at the lake. Lake Tahoe is one of the prettiest places I've ever been. The smell of pine trees while sitting on the beach is just unparalleled. 

 The boys loved playing in the sand and recruiting anyone they could to build sand castles with them.

 The water is cold- Hudson did eventually warm up to the idea and put his toes in but it took awhile. Only my mom and Heidi were brave enough to swim all the way out!

 One day we all headed up to Virginia City- an old mining town in the area. It's cute and charming and mostly we went because they have a real life old train you can ride (as Chase describes it, a chugga-chugga-choo-choo train, not a ding-ding-ding train -which is frontrunner). Besides the train ride we enjoyed lunch together in which I let Hudson just order ice cream and nothing else because he was ornery and that's what he wanted. The boys loved having so many people around- I just always told them to pick someone's hand to hold- and they loved all the options. Everyone is so sweet to the boys, I know they feel so loved. And we all loved doting on sweet Nora, as Hudson told me "I'm not a baby. No-wa is the cutest baby. I'm big now!"

 Our last day there we went out with just our little family to the lake. We played in the sand for a little while and then rented a kayak and took the boys out on the lake for a bit. Hudson serenaded us with his version of Row, Row, Row your boat (Row, Row, Row your boat, gently in the WATER! Merrily- life's a dream!) over and over again. Chase ran wind sprints on the beach for awhile and we just enjoyed being in nature!

The boys didn't get their normal naps while we were there, but almost every time we got in the car they fell right asleep. They played so hard! 

We cooked in our condos each night for dinner which was really fun and relaxed. Most nights we played games or watched a movie. We had the best laughs in our Trivial Pursuit boys against girls match-up (the boys won by a narrow margin the first night, the girls blew them away the next night). We had a family council one night to talk about the needs of our family with our new dynamic (added in-laws and babies and people moving away) and to decide on a new family motto. Nate has been telling people for years that our family motto is "Suck it up and eat it." My dad thought we ought to change that and make it official. We toyed around with "We don't do drama" (because we don't) and "citius altius fortius" (the Olympic theme) but eventually landed on "Believe the best and forgive the rest." (Which technically is kind of our recipe to having a close, loving, drama-free family). 

We had an amazing time and feel so lucky to be part of such an amazing family! I feel sad that our fun trip is over, but so glad that we got time together to create new memories. Thank you mom and dad for making this trip possible!