Fall Colors

The colors are SPECTACULAR this year!  I got to join Jess this week on her 1st grade fall field trip up the canyon, so I saw them 1st-hand.  Then, Mike and I took a little drive yesterday.  Here's a little taste of what we saw:

Oh, BOY!!! A FALL bird-visitor!

We've gotten used to the springtime visits of birds trying to nest in our dryer vent.  Jer even looks forward to it.  But today (of course while I was in the shower trying to get ready for the Brigham City Temple dedication...) we had a fall visitor.  It was announced, as we've become accustomed to, by the shrieks of Jennifer who said, "MOM!!!!  There's a bird in the dryer!!!"  And, as usual, my heart stopped, and I instantly felt a surge of panic.  How was I going to take care of this NOW?!?  Why again this year?  We already housed 4 starlings this spring.  Here comes the cleanup of feathers, food, droppings, and various cages...  Ugh.

Well, there was only one.  Jer happily caught it, placed it in a licorice tub decorated quickly with a recycled robin's nest, some grasses, and some bread crumbs. He took pictures of it, and tried to feed it microwave popcorn.  When he placed a "leash" of string around it's neck, Mike and I decided it was time (also in a panic) to let it go...IMMEDIATELY!  Jer did, with some discontent, and we managed to clean up and still get to the dedication on time.  Barely.

What fun he has!

Jer Finally Got His Electric Guitar!!!

After lessons at school with a ukelele (and a gift of his Gram's special childhood uke), dreams of guitar lessons for over a year, a wooden guitar made by Jer and Mike, and much planning/begging/pleading, Mike ordered the much-researched (by Jer) item, along with amp and case.  It came while we were out of town.  I'm sure you can guess what Jeremy's been doing every waking minute since we got home...  He is one happy camper!  :)

Sly Park, part 3

We took down camp and checked out Friday morning.  (Sadness all around.  We were ready to go home, but we would miss this week.  And...Jess actually didn't want to go home yet!)

We said our goodbyes, then headed back to Lake Tahoe.  Care/family and Dad headed straight back (she has a house to pack), but we decided to take our time and see a few things along the way.  First we checked out the Tahoe airport (where we saw a jet and a turbo prop land and a jet take off, all within 3 minutes!  It was very exciting!)

We drove around the south end of the lake and to the overlook of Emerald Bay.  It was so beautiful!  (Jess especially appreciated the castle.)

We then went back into town (South Lake Tahoe) to see "the keys". This neighborhood was so cool!  We had seen it on Google Earth--it's a neighborhood where every house has a boat docked in its backyard!

After driving around Lake Tahoe for a while, we started back up the mountain.  Next stop: Virginia City.  Dad had suggested it, and I'm so glad he did.  What a fun stop!  It's an old mining town, with plenty to see and do.

We had a yummy lunch:

We toured the Ponderosa Mine (a mine which later had a bank built over it, and which is now covered by a saloon):

We walked down the main street:

And we stopped in THE COOLEST-EVER candy shop!!!!!  (It sold BARRELS of candy--scoop what you want--and they had every taffy flavor imaginable--including butter-flavored popcorn and maple-flavored bacon!, as well as all the old-timey candies.  LOVED it!)

After playing away the afternoon in Virginia City, we decided we'd better stay somewhere for the night, to break up the drive a little.  We stayed in Winnemucca, which helped.  We've never enjoyed showers so much!!!

The rest of the trip home on Saturday was calm.  We drove straight back from there, though there were still little highlights such as the I-80 tree sculpture...:

...and the candy the kids had brought...:

...and the license plates from 21 states that we marked off our list....

Happy travels!  Loved our summer vacation!  Glad to be home.

Sly Park, part 2

We got up the next morning (Monday), enjoyed breakfast together, stopped for some last-minute supplies, and headed up the mountain to South Lake Tahoe.  Hello, California!!!

We stopped as soon as we had the chance to get a fun pic on the beach:

Next stop: SLY PARK!!!

Aunt Lol had reserved 4 campsites, all in a row, along the beach of a peninsula.  We had the whole beach and a large swimming cove all to ourselves!  The tents were all shaded by beautiful trees, and the beach was clear and sunny!  It was picture perfect!

Here is a view of our beach (yes, the whole thing) from the lake:

Meet "The Richard Dreyfuss", our 10-person lodge of a tent!  It was wonderful--3 rooms, with enough space that the kids actually didn't fight!  :)  Very comfy.

Here are some more Sly Park highlights:

Our week was amazing.  We all had a great time!  We camped from Monday till Friday, and, as Aunt Lol had explained would happen, we swam, ate great food, swam, ate, slept, swam, ate, and swam...  We had really special visiting/bonding time with family, and the adventures lasted all week.

The highlights of the week, for me, were the waterfall hike with Mike, family time (with my cousins, Lol/Lynn, Dad, and Care & fam--our last good time together before they move away for a while), the food, mountain biking with Mike for the first time (Lynn brought bikes and gear), KAYAKING!!!--another first, swimming, camping right off the beach, The Richard Dreyfuss, our new double air mattress, not getting sunburned!, and the geese and ducks that played along the beach.

For Mike, favorite things were private time with me on walks to the waterfall and the dam, fun with the kids in the water, and kayaking with Jonathan and Jen to another end of the lake.

Jer's "bests": the lake, KAYAKS! (Care and Mike brought 2, Lynn/Lol brought one, and Martin brought one)--Jer kayaked every available minute!, and "I caught a fish!!!"  He also liked the "awesome air mattress beds, our awesomely AWESOME tent, and skipping rocks (learned from Jared)."

Jonathan:  kayaks, "money" (he and Jen spent a lot of it along the way on treats...), and food.

Jen:  the lake, kayaking, swimming, "life-jacketing", "sitting in a kayak while Jonathan pushed me around", and "the teeny-tiny sign that you couldn't see until you were on the island [that we kayaked to] that said, 'don't step on the island'"!

Jess:  the lake (she spent every waking minute in it!), treats, finding lucky things (feathers, a $5 bill, a special rock), "pretending to be the princess of nature", and "doin' stuff I've never done like sleeping in a tent and living outside".

The only negatives the kids could even come up with--when they tried--were the pit toilets and the bees.  Not bad for a family who swore they'd never camp!

After it was all over, I asked the kids what they thought.  Jess "LOVED it!" Jer gave the trip a thumbs up.  Jen agreed it was great.  Jonathan (of course) said, "This was DUMB!", and then smiled!  :)  Success!!  Thanks, Aunt Lol, Dad, Mike, Care, and everyone who made this week wonderful!

Our Family Vacation to Sly Park, part 1

Last Thanksgiving, my Aunt Lol invited us to join her family at Sly Park this summer.  She has a gift of being able to get anyone excited about anything, and much to my great happiness, she talked our family into camping!  This trip was to Sly Park, just over the mountain from Lake Tahoe, CA.  We would stay on the beach of Jenkinson Lake.  She would make all the arrangements, and all we would need to do is get our family there.  Good deal, right?!?

I was thrilled!  I love to camp, but the fam has never been interested.  At long last, we had an opportunity to convince them that camping is actually fun.  The kids LOVE my cousins and their kids, and my dad and my sister's family would be coming, too.  Lol always throws a good party, and I knew we were in for a good time.

The kids and Mike committed, Lol made the reservations (she goes every year with her family and friends, but this year, she was kind enough to schedule it around our family's crazy calendar), and we've spent the last couple of months preparing.  We even bought a rockin'-cool tent!  (This also helped the kids' excitement level.)

We left for California last Sunday morning, stopping in Carson City, NV, where we met up with Care's family and my dad.  In spite of the 9-hour drive, we actually arrived at our hotel within 3 minutes of their arrival!  We spent the evening having dinner together (at Round Table Pizza, a restaurant where our family used to eat when we were kids!) and checking out some cool historical sites.  We even caught a fun concert in the city center park.

Here we are at the historic Carson City Capitol building:

We had a little fun messing around on the grounds.  There was a beautiful park out front, with trees from every county in the state of Nevada.  It was a perfect place to stretch and play after a loooong drive.

The kids finished the evening with a swim, then we got a good night's rest in side-by-side suites.  So fun!