Redneck in training

"So I fell in a little bit and got my shirt all wet, what do you do... well who really needs a shirt anyway, we are just fishing."
 

 

Until we meet again

Goodbye Tahoe, we miss you already. Actually we miss you so much, we called the cabin's owner and asked if we could stay just one more day, hooray for extra vacation!
You will notice the reappearance of Adam and his smiling face.

And goodbye to the racoons who tormented our pups and delighted our son.

We will be back next year!

Snowshoeing in the dirt

There was not a lot of snow in Tahoe this year. In fact, the ski resorts were not even running all the lifts and there was almost nobody to speak of on the slopes. That made it really easy to do a lot of runs, and get really tired, but we also were dodging branches and rocks and dirt in the middle of the runs. Didn't stop us from having fun though.

When you are going on a ski vacation with a baby, one of the best family activities is snowshoeing. You can pack the tot into a carrier and still get your heart pumping and take in some of the fresh tahoe air. Some people (my sister) will say, "why do you want to hike in the snow.?" To that we say, why not! Well, I will tell you why not, there is no snow. So, actually  it was more like snowshoeing around the dirt patches and watching the other hikers, without snowshoes, pass us on by. But we were having more fun because we had funny shoes on.

 Georgeous view from lookout vista in Kings Beach.

Sledding Fun

Cheap sled... check. Hill of the side of the road... check. Each family member squeezing into the small sled with the toddler and careening down the icy hill... check.

 Check out this daredevil going down the hill all by himself. He was a pro.

Owen just loved baby cousin Paige and would have been happy to show her how to sled if we would have let him.

 

Tahoe here we come

January went by in a flash. I think it was because we were so excited to start our family vacation - one whole week in Tahoe! Well Adam had to go and get himself hurt and ended up needing knee surgery. Of course it was scheduled for the 1st day of our trip. So, I packed him up in the truck right out of surgery and drove straight to the cabin where Grandma, Owen, Auntie Jess, and Cousins Liz, Evan and baby Paige were already waiting.

This was the last time we saw this smile that day, and for the few days following the surgery. It was just not the same having a family vacation without Adam goofing off, making everyone laugh, scooping the dog poo, shoveling the snow, packing and unpacking the vehicles every day, and carring all the heaving stuff. (Good thing Evan came along to help out with some of the man chores) But Tahoe was a pretty nice place to spend a week in recovery from surgery and there was a ton of people who could help fetch stuff for the patient.

PS. His knee is healing up quite nicely. Thank you to the kind person who donated their ACL, (post-mortem).

Bicycle ruffians

Watch out for these ruffians, last seen terrorizing local neighborhoods - the have been staying on the sidewalks, wearing their Cars helmets, ringing thier bells at passersby, and smiling, giggling and just having a fun time. You dont want to mess with these two troublemakers.

New Years Eve

New Years Eve is a time for bubbles and sparkles and celebration! But it is also a time for family. So we let all the cousins stay up and ring in the new year together. Owen had to put in a lot of effort to stay up for the ball drop and then he quickly passed out.

Not everyone made it to midnight though.

The ham of the evening was most surely Maddelyn.

 Owen was so exiced to meet his new cousin and gave her lots and lots of love.