Tahoe or Bust!

Ever since our 4th of July trip to Cannon Beach in 2008 with the Sages, we had been counting the months until we could take our next family vacation. Originally, we planned to go back to Cannon Beach with the Sage family to repeat the wonderful experience we had last year; in fact, we had hotel reservations and everything. But earlier this year, Megan's uncle generously offered the six of us the use of his huge, luxurious condo in Lake Tahoe over the 4th of July, so how could we refuse?!

Chad and I hadn't been to Tahoe since January 2, 2000 (the day after we got married), and neither of us had been there during the summer. We couldn't wait! It's a 10-hour drive from our house, so we decided to leave a day early and stay overnight in the tiny border town of Weed, CA.



Here's a shot of the majestic Mt. Shasta just after daybreak:



The drive to Tahoe was beautiful, but unfortunately we didn't stop to take any pics. We just wanted to get there! Grace was so funny. Once we hit the road, we told her we were going to a big lake. So for the ENTIRE drive, she kept saying "beach?" and "Grandma's house?" We have since come to understand that, to Gracie, any large body of water is the beach. I think she equates "vacation" with Grandma's house, and for good reason. Haha!

Anyway... about an hour outside of Tahoe, Gracie discovered that she could open one of the bags in the backseat and retrieve her diapers. This was the hilarious image we saw when we looked back at her:





As we neared our destination, we climbed to an elevation of over 9,000 feet in the Sierra Nevadas. Here's a shot of the landscape just before we rounded the summit.



... then, at long last, we got our first glimpse of "the beach":



Coincidentally, my dad and Debbie were staying at a condo in the same town we were. We arrived the day before they were scheduled to leave, so we spent a few hours together as soon as we got into town. We hung out at their condo for awhile, and GG had lots of fun feeding the chipmunks and blue jays from their balcony. (For some unknown reason, we did not get any pics of that.)


Later that afternoon, we hit the beach for the first time. Here's G with her Gma and Gpa "Cuddles."



Gracie wasted no time before dipping her toes in that crystal clear water:





That evening, we said our goodbyes and went our separate ways. After meeting up with the Sages and settling into the condo, we all went to bed early to rest up for the coming days.



The next day (our first official day of vacay!!), Megan's sister Julie, her husband Steffan, and their daughter Hannah joined us at the condo for the 4th of July weekend. (They live in the Bay Area, so it's just a four-hour drive for them to get to Tahoe.)

Here's a pic of Gracie and Ben settling into vacation mode:


Chad and I wanted to explore the area a bit, so we took Gracie to another local beach where she had fun playing in the sand:





... and wearing Daddy's shoes:



That beach had a great playground just steps from the shoreline. Grace thought it was pretty cool that she could run back and forth between the water and the park.





That night, we all met back up at the condo for dinner; then the kiddos took a bath in the huge whirlpool tub.



Well folks... that's just the beginning of our 2009 vacation! There is MUCH more to come, so please check back again soon.