Lake Tahoe, days 1-3

My mom and dad take us on a bigger vacation every third year, and this year was one of those years.  The place they chose for us was Lake Tahoe.  My dad had been there before, as a kid, but no one else had ever been there.  We sure are glad they chose to go there...it was beautiful and we had a great time!

We did the 9 hour drive all in one day.  Our kids did great..thank goodness for modern electronics!!  The drive from Spanish Fork to Lake Tahoe is not very scenic but it was pretty unadventurous-in a good way.  We were hungry once we finally pulled in around dinnertime so instead of trying to throw a meal together at the condo, we headed to a local pizza joint.  The kids were so happy to finally be out of the car!

Brynn, Tessa, Molly, Chloe, and Harper...Stockton was feeling a little outnumbered!

After dinner, we headed back to our condos and settled in for the night...we were ready for some fun the next day!

My mom had a few things planned but not everything planned out.  We also knew that we wanted to save some of the bigger, more exciting activities for later in the week when everyone had made it (we were waiting for the Moyes' and Broadbent's to get there over the next couple of days).  So we decided to drive around the lake and just check out the beauty and some of the sites.  My dad was a little turned around (very unusual for him) but I had a pretty good handle on my directions so our car took the lead.  Lake Tahoe is absolutely stunning, hopefully some of these pictures show how beautiful.

The first stop we made was to a place called Pope Estates.  Pope Estates is an old 1920s summer estate...a big house, with lots of little cabins surrounding it where the servants lived.  Some of the buildings were fixed up like they would have been and we could walk through it and see how they lived back then.  It was interesting, and the kids enjoyed it. 

Brynn, Tessa, Harper, Molly, Stockton, and Chloe

This was also their first taste of the beach since the estate was right on the water.  The pine cones were huge!!

After some treacherous driving (seriously, the roads are so narrow that there is not even room for guardrails...at one point it is a steep drop-off on both sides of the road...beautiful, but very scary) our second stop was Emerald Bay look-out.  It is called Emerald Bay because the water is so deep it takes on a greenish hue...very pretty.  The combination of water, beach, pine trees really is so gorgeous.  I'm so glad I was able to go and see it.

Next stop was King's Beach.  The kids were happy about playing at the park there.

We also played a little beach soccer and baseball.

And we couldn't stop without wading in the lake a little and running down the pier.

We decided it was time for a treat so the next stop was an ice cream shop.

 Bubble gum ice cream for these girls.

We'd almost made it around the whole lake!  Our last stop was just a scenic overlook, Logan Shoals, and the pictures really don't do it justice.  It was gorgeous!

Justin climbed to the top of these rocks with the kids...I imagine their view was even better than ours down at the bottom.

 

Our scenic drive around the lake took most of the day so we just headed back to the condos, ate dinner, and let the kids play until bedtime.

First on our agenda for Day 2 was a boat tour around the lake.  It took a few hours and we were able to view some of the things we'd seen from the car the day before from the water this time.

We decided to spend the afternoon at the beach, since we were right there.  The water was kind of chilly and it was a bit windy, but that didn't really bother the kids much.  They were so excited to be at the beach!

There was also a cool place with a whole bunch of big rocks so we trekked over to it and the kids had fun climbing the rocks.

We went back to the condos for dinner (thanks to my mom who made dinner for our big, rowdy crew every night!) but ended up back at the beach to see the sunset.

It was too cloudy so we didn't see the spectacular sunset like we were hoping for, but it ended up okay...playing tag on the beach is super fun too!

And that was the end of Day 2.

Day 3 was a day-long adventure at Heavenly Resort.  In the winter it's a ski resort but they make it fun in the summer too.  My kids loved riding the gondola to the top of the mountain.

Here are some pictures from the lookout point.

When we got to the resort we looked around for a bit and then ended up on a hike.

We made it to the top!

And we even saw some wildlife on our way back down.

When our hike was over, we headed over to the summer tubing hill.  We grabbed our tubes, and headed up the ramp to the top.

They've set up a pathway down the hill with water spraying on it the whole way down and you just ride your tube down, either on your own, or hooked with another rider.

We got three rides and had a blast each time!  (Although Stockton did not appreciate the wait at the top.)

I had to snap this picture...one foot in Nevada, one foot in California.

Then we rode the gondola back down the mountain.

We didn't have anything planned after dinner that night and the kids were dying to go swimming so that's what we did the rest of the night.  It was too cold for me, but Justin was a good sport and got in with the kids.

I felt a little bad that we completely bombarded the hot tub.  There were a few people in it to begin with and they stayed for a little bit before they left and it was just our crazy crew.

The water was cold and the air was chilly as well, but there were a few brave kids who would jump in the big pool and then scramble back into the hot tub. 

We stayed there for a while before heading back and into bed.  That was the end of Day 3...two more still to go!