Fun friends and fun places

Greetings! We have been so busy squeezing the last few drops out of summer that I haven't had time to post for a while. But now school has started and we are getting back into a routine. But let's back up to a couple weeks ago!

This is Amanda D. We met in 9th grade. She was instrumental in helping me start going to church as a teenager, we fooled a bunch of 1st Year campers that we were twins born 6 days apart (we actually were born 6 days apart, by the way), we were roommates at BYU and had weekly playdates for our kids until she decided she just HAD to move to Virginia! Her sister-in-law was getting married out here a couple weeks ago, so she and her family ventured back for a visit and stayed with us. It was so fun!

Aren't her kids just gorgeous?!? We had fun playing in the water and just catching up. Thanks again for coming out to see me (I know the wedding was just an excuse)!

And here is The Beast. Just a few days after Amanda left, we loaded up The Beast and headed out on a trip to Truckee, CA to visit Thunder's brother. They live in some beautiful mountains nestled in next to Lake Tahoe. We had an unexpected delay from a very stubborn hydraulic jack that refused to raise, but after only 4 hours we were on our way!

Before we left, I got pillowcases for all the kids and they decorated them with fabric paint. I surprised them later when it was dark and the paint glowed!

This is a pristine beach of Lake Tahoe called Sand Harbor. The sand was soft and the water was crystal blue. Thunder's brother, Kevin, made sure we got to the best beach and was like a tour guide, showing us all the cool rocks to jump off and explore. The kids had a great time splashing around with their two cousins. Later that evening we went to an evening church service with Kevin and Vicki.

This is a typical vista where they live- beautiful trees framed by a perfectly blue sky. We went swimming all together and had a great time.

This was baby Sunrise's first real trip, and unfortunately decided he hated his carseat. And missed his swing. He also didn't appreciate it when I forgot his pacifier at the pool and he wanted to go to sleep! After screaming for an hour, he wore himself out and had a short nap... before waking up screaming again. Sorry fellow pool-goers!

As a mom, don't ya just love days at the pool? I sure do. It was the quietest ride we'd had.

Thunder and his bro. He and Vicki were the best hosts.

Here is the whole clan! We met up at Squaw Valley, where Vicki works, for dinner and ice-cream.

And here are the cousins together!

Here are the boys at a 4-hour stay the the park in our RV campground. Not exactly planned. However, Friday morning we got ready to go play and discovered a flat tire (after having black water come out of the RV sink faucets, yum). The guys were able to blow up the tire enough to get to a tire shop just up the road, and I watched all the kids at the park. They were actually really good.

After fixing the tire, we went up to the Northstar ski resort. You can ride the tram all the way to the top of the mountain for only $5 and all the kids were free. There were tons of mountain bikers who would ride up on the tram and bike down.

We had a few tired kids, but they all wanted to go roller skating. So we figured, why not, it's vacation right? It was actually really fun and the kids did much better than the last time they went. All in all, a great trip to a beautiful part of the world with wonderful people!