Tahoe, 2014

As you may recall, last year's trip to Tahoe was a bust.  We had the kids in pak n' plays in the living room to approximate cribs, but it didn't work well, and the refrigerator broke, and we were generally miserable.

This year, we were heading up with tempered optimism.  Uncle and Wendy came up for July 4th weekend to open the place up, remove the dead animals from the back yard, and check to make sure everything was working.  The phone/tv/internet was NOT up and running as it should've been, so he made us an appointment for July 14th between 5 and 7, giving us a timetable for our trip up the hill.

We caravanned up with me and the kids in the van and Uncle in his Smart Car following us.  We stopped only once before we left town and a handful of times as we proceeded through the eastern bay area.  The plan was to make it all the way to Placerville for a stop at der Weinerschnitzel.  But Daniel's bladder protested the plan around El Dorado Hills and an adjustment needed to be made.  I saw a sign for a shopping area that advertised a Target and thought, "well, that'd be a good place to go for a clean bathroom where we won't have to buy food."  Once in the parking lot, though, I realized that of the five of us, nobody had packed a toothbrush.  So we did some quick shopping for toothbrushes and paste, Daniel reminded me that I'd promised to look for some SuperMan underpants for him so we bought some of those, grabbed an extra bathing suit for Daniel as well, since Max has two, and then some yellow Oreos for Caroline and we were ready to roll.

We made it to Placerville and got corn dogs and ice cream (and discovered that kids do not enjoy "dipped" cones).  And then Uncle broke off from the caravan and ran up the mountain the rest of the way to make sure he met the cable guy while we meandered our way up making occasional stops for dropped pacifiers and toothbrushes.  

When we got to the cabin, Uncle offered to take Caroline to the meadow while the cable guy worked, but she decided she didn't want to go if her brothers got to go too, so she stayed behind with me, pouting and unhappy.

When she decided to be nice to me for a while, I walked her over to the meadow and swapped her for the boys, who were ready to come home.

Running to find her brothers

Seeing Max around the tree

Daniel in the distance

Uncle!

Storm clouds, threatening

Finding "fishing rods"

Fishing on the dock

Daniel

Max

Donning raincoats "just in case"

How hilarious is Daniel?

Caroline wanted to fish too.

And got her feet wet in the creek.

Settling in at the cabin, the kids took a moment to check out the piano.

And then we ordered a pizza, got slurpees  and watched tv until it was time to set up sleeping bags on the floor and settle in to "camp" for the night.  It took a while for them to settle down, but eventually we all slept and the next morning woke up at a relatively decent hour.  Unfortunately, Uncle woke up sick, so the beach was out for the day.  It was hot and sticky out and I tried to get the kids out to the Visitors Center, but when we arrived everyone was miserable and begging to go home and so we picked up  more slurpees, and headed home to set up the inflatable pool on the back porch.  After a very slow and unpleasant start to the day, Caroline proclaimed it "the best pool day ever", which is good because we'd discovered she falls prey to heat rash.

Heat rash. :(

 The kids found a DVD of Stuart Little and they were totally engrossed by it.

Max and Daniel watched tv from ON TOP OF MOMMY

It was HOT, did I mention?  

Oh, and during this time we got the new refrigerator replaced because it was dead again!  This time we got a really nice whirlpool one that DOMINATES the landscape of the kitchen.

Max showing off his "mustache straw"

That evening, we went to Denny's for dinner because Caroline wanted spaghetti and Daniel wanted a milkshake.  Kids meals are only $3.27 and include a mix and match entree and side.  Daniel ordered a cheeseburger and fries, asked us to take the cheese off his burger, and still only ate his fries.  Max ordered chicken nuggets and broccoli and only ate the broccoli.  Caroline was very proud to order spaghetti for herself, including asking for an additional meatball, and then refused to eat any of it because she didn't have any chopsticks and finished my quesadilla instead.  Grrr.  The night also included Max running through the sprinklers so he could wear his raincoat, except he chose to run directly into the sprinkler at the knee level and had to change his pants.  Caroline dumped yogurt on her skirt and had to change into pants.  And Daniel wanted to go on a walk with Uncle, which he got to do and brought Max along, only to pick up rocks and get in trouble with some other people.

Then we went shopping to get some food to put in the new fridge, went home, had popsicles, and went to sleep.

The next day we hit the beach and Daniel continued to enjoy the water more than his siblings. Apprehensive at first, he got to a point where he was comfortable being armpit-deep in the water alone. Caroline waded out a bit and enjoyed being carried in by Uncle, and Max mostly hung out on the shore making sand sculptures.  We went back and washed the beach off the kids and then we went back out for mini golf.

Mini Golf!  The same course Uncle and I played on as kids - completely unchanged in the past thirty years.  I was getting a little frustrated trying to show the kids how to putt and keeping score and preventing them from beaning each other and keeping track of where the balls went and who had which color ball.  And then by the seventh hole, I decided they didn't need to use the putters and I didn't need to keep score and as long as nobody was seriously injured, we were fine.  And then it was a lot of fun!

Of course, their favorite part was the coin-operated rides we didn't bring money for.  Oh well.

(Interesting side note - there's a decal in the window at the golf course identifying it as a "safe surrender" site for unwanted babies.)

The last day, the kids had no interest in doing anything.  We went shopping to find a birthday gift for their friend Brianna and avoid the sprinkles of the thunder storms that had finally reached the valley.  Before it rained, we stopped at a craft fair and found nothing to buy, but got a hotdog, an ear of corn, a pretzel, and some lemonade.

Max loves his corn!

Caroline had a big tantrum in the Heavenly Valley shopping center, and then fell asleep in the car on our way to the Y.  We foraged in the cabin for food for dinner and then packed up the next day and headed home.

The kids "cleaned up" by putting EVERYTHING behind the couch.

Caroline zonked out on the floor.

Max and Daniel snuggled toe-to-toe on the couch.

Daniel blew his nose for the camera.

Caroline mugged for the camera.

 Before we left, we made sure to measure the kids on the doorframe where Uncle and I had been measured growing up.

Caroline has grown a lot since last year, but is easily an inch and a half shorter than I was at the same age.

Daniel and Max are nearly the same height, but considerably taller than Uncle was at OVER 4...