Tahoe Trip

Phil and I were unusually spontaneous last weekend and decided at the last minute to take a trip to Lake Tahoe with the boys. A bunch of our friends had rented a house and gone down there for New Year's (Wed. thru Sun.). We weren't going to be able to get down there until Friday night and we figured that it was just too long of a drive with the boys for just a few days. After many phone calls and texts from our wonderful friends, we decided on Friday morning to make the trip anyway! I am usually an OCD planner, but this time we just threw some stuff into bags, packed up the car, left the house a semi-mess, and were off! The drive down actually wasn't that bad - it only took about 5 hours (including a 30 minute stop), and the boys were pretty good. We did wonder on the way down (during one of Emmett's unhappy-in-the-car-seat moments) if we made the right decision, but once we got to the house we knew that we did. Jackson had a blast hanging out with the other older kids, and Phil and I had a great time hanging out with our friends. The only disappointing part was the serious lack of snow in Tahoe. There was still a little snow on the ground, but by the time we arrived it was hard and icy and not good for sledding or playing in. At least the road conditions were good.

Here are a few pics from the weekend...

So happy to be out of the car! I swear, I could just eat that face. :)

The first night we played this fun game for hours. We each wrote a random word down on a piece of paper, stuck it in a hat, picked one out, stuck it to our foreheads, and then had to guess what the word was by asking yes or no questions. And for each round we had to speak in a different accent. Our favorites were British, New York, Southern, and with a lisp. It was hysterical!

Pretty lake...

In the village in South Lake Tahoe...

On our second night, here's the adult table playing a grown-up game involving cards and money...

... and the "other" table playing Scattergories and spades! :)

Phil showing off his "I'm-having-so-much-fun" face...

Lana and Klepto...

The house we stayed in was big and beautiful (although we were all chuckling about the decor... the owners obviously love bears... there were tacky bears all over the house), with a really nice view of the lake. Supposedly it was on the market for $3.9 million. And this is the owners' second home!! Who are these people that live like that???

On the morning that we left Phil put George in the DVD player to keep Jackson occupied while everyone was packing up. The kids were all eating breakfast and after a few minutes almost every single one was crowded around that tiny screen watching George. Jackson almost got squeezed out! I guess everyone was tired and craving some stimulation that didn't require much thought. :)

And I just had to post this picture, because it frustrated me so much! We went through this tiny town on the way to Tahoe... Susanville, CA. The Subway worker there told me that they have a population of 17,000 people, with 7,000 of those being inmates (I guess there are two prisons there). Anyway, it was a small town. And look - they have a drive-thru Starbucks! And a Starbucks kiosk in the Safeway grocery store, too! So two Starbucks (or Starbuckses?) in their little town! I could not get over it, and as a huge Starbucks fan was extremely jealous. Our town of 20,000 only has a small kiosk in the Safeway, which I hardly ever go to, because I'm not going to haul both kids out of the car in the cold and lug them both inside just to get a coffee. But on the bright side, it does make Starbucks a huge treat for me whenever we go somewhere else, and I probably save a bunch of money.