Our Niece Turns 4!

Well, this is the last of Tahoe but we can't leave out that we celebrated A's 4th birthday. She turned 4 a couple weeks before this but we all decided it would be fun to have a party...I mean seriously, why not? :)

We all gave her money and then the aunties took her shopping. She found three princess barbies and that was all she wanted. Cutie!

This is out of order but too bad...this was the Snow White Barbie...and the Snow White princess playing with her.

Monkey theme...

Ok, back at the beach.  We may have given the kids water guns as one of the party favors.  They turned out to be a HUGE hit.  Hit, ha ha, get it?

Seriously, my mom and my uncle played forever!  Fun to see all the old folk :-) acting like kids again!!

Since the water is so cold, there is still plenty of cuddle time for the rest of us.

On down time...

Saying goodbye.

It was a very fun time and great to see all the grandkids together for the first time.  They played awesome together and the rest of us got to catch up again.  Thanks for making it happen all!!

40 Years!!!

Is that the same title as before? Why yes! My parents are also celebrating 40 years of marriage this month!! What a great blessing for us to have two sets of parents who have shown us how to push through and stick together!  Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!!!

We wanted to celebrate while everyone was still there, so that meant a morning anniversary party...and since mimosas were already planned, we made them, even if we were all unsure if we should be drinking them at 9am.  :-)

My Dad surprised us all with a beautiful and grand speech about my mother...he even teared up and got emotional...pretty unusual for this pastor.

And then he gave her a brand new ring.

Playing bubbles on the deck.

Moon dough for noses anyone?

Ready to head out to the beach.

Always waiting for someone!!

Stretching...and doing a little yoga.

Silly Nana made gift bags for the kids...it was her anniversary and her birthday but she brought the presents!!  Well, ok, so we flew everyone in and rented a house in Lake Tahoe, but she remembered the little ones.

Ragamuffin goofball!

I know, I know, still more to come...what can a girl do?  Six cute faces doing cute things all day long, just wait til you see what's coming!

Beach Day

Let's get rolling on this vacation!! On our second full day, we went down to the beach and spent the entire day playing in the sand, the water and taking turns on a kayak we rented.  I might be a little biased but I think we make some awfully cute kids...well, you look and judge for yourself...after you look at northern CA and stop asking yourself why we want to move back up here!

Em wouldn't do anything except point to where the boat went and excitedly ask if it was her turn, so we documented it. Silly Em!! :-)

Just as a reminder, these are the three girls in my family...

It is so much fun to have Daddy around for at least some of the time!!

So the ages of the kids are 7,6,5,4,3,2...these are the 4 and 3 year olds.

The Kayak was a giant hit!  I don't think it spent more than five minutes at the shore at any one time for the entire day.

When the little ones got tired, we took them home for naps...don't let this fool you.  :)

Y is turning into quite the manly man, ribs and all!!

Ok, so M is my sister's oldest...

No one is overly large in my family, so piling lots of kids on the kayak, not a problem!

Did I mention Em loved the boat?

In this family, we just leave my camera and Mo's camera out and anyone who sees a good pic picks one up and snaps.  It still cracks me up though when I see other members of the family adjusting our giants!!

Since the was water was a whopping 45 degrees, we spent a lot of time warming up after swimming!

My sister's youngest is A...

If you feel like you recognize my cousin, it's because he and I are the ones who race together and last fall we did the Olympic triathlon together.

These two became best buddies!

When I said that Em fell in LOVE with the boat, I meant she was in it every chance she got and she hasn't stopped talking about it since.  She kept saying, "Take me on da boat!  Me go in da boat!  So wouwd (loud) - referring to the water splashing on the rocks - and Me touch da boo-eee (we ran next to the buoy and let her touch it)".  The next day, she climbed into someone else's beached kayak insisting they take her out.

Em is helping hold the kayak while they load...such a good helper.

K even took the oldest three out to teach them how to row.

M and I couldn't have been happier to discover that our girls like to be out on boats!!  When we get to live up here again, we will be out all the time!!

Well, I know it's a lot to look at but there is still more to come!!  When your fam only gets together once every couple of years, you tend to take a lot of photos and since I want to preserve these memories, you get to see them too!!  God Bless!!