Lake Tahoe

And we're off!  Lily wasn't quite sure what to think of the train.  In the rush to catch it I wasn't able to give the big kids a proper goodbye and I felt pretty sad about it.  I called to tell them goodnight and they seemed to be happy and having fun.  We had our friends come stay at our house to watch our kids (they have just one two year old).  Getting prepared to leave was A LOT of work...from cleaning the house, to having meals ready for them, to having all their activities coordinated.  Lots of little things I did to make their life as easy as possible...holding the mail, putting money in the school lunch account, etc.

She was a good little traveler and took some decent naps.  It was really nice to go from 4 kids, back to one.  Such a breeze (comparatively)! 

 :)

We arrived and had some time to kill, so we had a great time touring Old Sacramento.

Really fun little historic town, I loved it!

The Pony Express

Wishing she was BIG

 We always make sure to eat out at Mexican Restaurants when we're out west...it's something we just don't really have out east.

Living like a queen

 Evening dip in the pool...Lily's first swim

 The next morning we took a stroll to the capitol building.  They had these orange trees on the grounds.  So fun!

 And then a revisit to the mini donut shop.

MMMmmmm...melt in your mouth deliciousness.

 And one of the biggest reasons for the trip was to go see Jake's sister Nicole and Jed get sealed in the temple.

Jake had some important business to take care off...protect the Belgian chocolate from melting in the heat of the car.

 A dad and his daughter

The beautiful, happy couple!

Yea!

So happy for them

 From Sacramento we headed to Lake Tahoe for a little family reunion...(minus a couple families).  But we got to spend time with the ones we don't see when we go to Utah.  We stayed in a house with this fabulous view.

And rented a pontoon for a day on the lake.  Something about being on the water, in the middle of beautiful mountains...it's a great feeling.

Cute!

Lily shocked us when she let someone hold her (all my kids go through a big stranger danger phase)

So soothing.  I wish this is how I could fall asleep every night.

Taft is so fun!  I wish he and Tommy could be best buddies.

We got to meet our newest nephew, sweet baby Jonah

 And the evenings were a lot of fun...eating chocolate, talking, and playing cards till LATE. 

 Jake was in biker heaven

Good thing I wasn't around for this.  I would have been freaking out.  I'm grateful he is still with us today.

 

 We took this picture for Tommy.  Real life Lincoln Log house...he thought it was pretty awesome.

 A hike along the Rubicon trail was a definite highlight.  The water was such a beautiful green and blue, and the trail was scenic the entire way.