A visit at the lake

We were leaving Donner Lake on Saturday and got a text from my sister that she & her family were coming up to hang out.  What an awesome surprise!

We met for dinner on Saturday night at a little brewery we eat at when we come up in the winter. Here is the boys with their cousin Ethan.

 Group shot (thanks Cameron).  Normally this walkway is covered in snow, it was so strange seeing it this way.

 Back at Donner Lake on Sunday.  Ethan, Mike, Cameron & Cooper got busy paddle boarding.

 Becky & I needed a turn

 Eddie helping Cooper get started the previous day

 Cameron had a knack for this sport

 Sisters enjoying the lake

It was fun for our families to hang out.  We don't see them often and it was great being somewhere so relaxing! Yay Tahoe!

Where is all the snow?

Tahoe in the summer!  Who knew?  It is absolutely gorgeous.  Our friends have a "cabin" up in Truckee and since they were going to Lake Shasta they offered it to us to stay in.  Lucky us!

This place is so fun in the summer.  There was so much we wanted to do,  just not enough time to squeeze it all in.  The lake is so incredibly blue - no wonder everywhere you go around the lake has stickers & t-shirts to "Keep Tahoe Blue".  It's freezing cold water but so beautiful to boat around.  There are several restaurants & beaches you can boat up to and just simply amazing views all around the lake including some housing that is unbelievable.

This is an area called Emerald Bay.  There is this stone structure on top of this island that you can hike up to.  The tourist boats go there and let everyone hike up.

Cooper & I enjoying the boat ride

This shot is actually at Donner Lake.  We spent an afternoon there at our friends private (well private for the HOA they belong to) paddle boarding and swimming.  We had always wanted to try paddle boarding we see people doing it all the time.  We love it!  We were all pretty darn good at it and went for a nice ride into this lagoon on this lake.  Uh Oh - a new sport we love!

More time at Donner Lake.  The kids played on these things forever -  I think we need to invest in some.

Enjoying Lake Tahoe

Eddie's amazement at the beauty of this lake

A shot of our friends "cabin" - so awesome they let us use it.

We hope to go back next summer.  We have a list of things to do up there.  There are so many hiking trails, river rafting, mountain biking  - and even hanging out at the ski resorts which open for swimming, hiking, biking and ropes courses.  We love Tahoe in the summer!

Winter Break Cont...

We got to get out of town for a couple of days over our winter break and we headed to Lake Tahoe.  We stayed in Truckee and went skiing at Squaw Valley.  The week before they had huge snow storms up there but we got lucky and had sunny skies but the benefit of all the snow from the previous week.  Perfect!  We had a great couple of days skiing.

Here we are at the top of a run - Lake Tahoe in the background.

 I'm not sure of the significance of this big chair up there but Becky (my sister) has taken pictures on it (most of you have seen in on her Facebook) so we figured we'd better as well - it is pretty cool after all.

 The kiddos and the dog.

 Roxy loves the snow.  She can play in it as long as you'll let her.  It is adorable watching her run around in it - she chases the boys around happy as can be.  After all she's just a kid herself!

 Cooper playing at the skate park in town.

 The top of Squaw with the tram in the background.  A little snack stop while skiing.

 Cooper decided to give snowboarding a try.  We hunted him down in his lesson and got some pictures and video.  He loves it!  Says he is never skiing again.

 Cameron in the village.

 We took a tram over to find Cooper's lesson and his class got on as we were headed back to the village.  I got this adorable shot of him loading.

 Cameron and Roxy sledding at the skate park.

 OK...so I said it was sunny, I didn't say it was warm.  This was as we were pulling into ski on the first morning.  Thank goodness we had our hand warmers!

We love Tahoe.  It was a great mini-vacation.  We hope to be able to head up one more time this season.  Let it snow!

Praying for snow

We had been praying for snow in hopes of spending our long President's Day weekend in Lake Tahoe. Although it hasn't snowed much up there so far this winter we heard the skiing was good so we packed up the car and headed to Tahoe.

We found a little patch here and there on the side of the road. Here we were playing in a park we always go to when we are there.

We found these awesome snowmen
best thing was we didn't have to build them...those suckers are hard to make
we had to stop for a beer
Here we are at that same park. If you remember any of our previous Tahoe posts we always take pictures here. Usually the snow is all the way to the end of the pier. The scary thing is we are usually out there on it. Little did we know we were walking on water.
Another park we played at. Roxy loved Tahoe. She ran so fast through the snow it was adorable.
Here is Cameron catching some air on the slopes
Cooper catching air. These kids are pretty darn good skiers!

This was so cool for me, the Starbucks lover. Squaw has the first ski through Starbucks on the top of the mountain. Here are the kids & I ordering some pumpkin bread. It's pretty crazy seeing people skiing with their coffee...

Heading to the lodge/ice arena at the top of Squaw Valley
We put the kids in ski school and had a few hours of "grown up" skiing. It was a nice having time to ski together and sneak to the lodge for a bloody mary. I love these huge outdoor fire pits you can chill around. I made Eddie pose for me. We had a great relaxing weekend. We love it up there.