We went to TAHOE! ALONE!

Our 10 year anniversary is in November but we wanted to get away while it's still warm. MANY thanks to Alan's parents who let us use their time share and to my mom and sister Carli for babysitting so we could spend a week just US. It was amazing!

 The beach right next to our resort.

 We hiked down to Vikingsholm at Emerald Bay.

 

This home was built in the 1800's right on Emerald Bay as a vacation home for a rich European heiress. So neat!

I did A LOT of this on our vacation:

We rented bike's from Andersen's Bike Rental which was one of my FAVORITE things we did. I felt like a kid again as we rode through the trees, not a care in the world.

It takes a secure man to wear his wife's girly back pack for her. 

We also stopped and bought ice cream at the parlor on the bike trail. This was a single scoop! It was HUGE! I had to get a cup for it!

We did a dinner cruise on this boat called The Dixie. It was beautiful! And fun! But I'm pretty sure we were the only ones under 45. A lot of the older folks were dancing to the live band and Alan and I started to join them but then he started busting up and said, "I'm sorry. I just can't do this. It's making me feel old." Ha ha! We were also the only ones who had non-alcoholic beverages. Sprite Please!

 We also hiked to the upper Angora Lake, which was every bit as breath taking as every one said it would be. This picture doesn't do it justice. 

Here's a better one: 

You can rent these cabins right by the lake. Let's do it!

One morning we rented a power boat for an hour or two. That was surely Alan's favorite thing. He couldn't wait to see how fast he make that thing go. It was about 50 mph.

We enjoyed all the wildlife:

We hiked to Fallen Leaf Lake.

And we reached our goal of finding the beach that we took our girls to last Fall. We could not remember the name of it, no matter how hard we tried. We finally asked around and found out it was Meek's Bay! Whew! Now I can sleep at night!

We slept in and watched movies whenever we wanted to. We also ate out for every meal. Wow! Good thing we hiked and biked to burn off some of those calories! Our favorite restaurants we discovered were RED HUT (breakfast food)

And TEP'S Italian food.

It was such a great time! I'm so thankful we got to do that!

Brooke's 5th Birthday!

Brookie Bear turned 5 on August 30th! After seeing the movie Tangled, she was set on having what she called a lantern festival.

Alan and I made some luminaries and as usual, Grandma Kari came through with plenty of beautiful decorations to transform our backyard. 

 

 Baskin Robbins Ice Cream Cake. 

Brooke requested chocolate cake with chocolate ice cream and chocolate frosting-- a girl after my own heart. 

 

 Brooke is doing her "scary soccer face" with Grandpa. 

 Emma insisted on crossing her eyes.

 Art supplies-- of course. 

 Grandma Kari found these little trolls that can sit on your shoulder, or wherever you want, since they have a magnet. These were a big hit!

 Brooke has wanted this little bird for over a year! She would ask for it every time we went to Walmart. I finally gave in. It makes a honking noise when you squeeze it.

 Now she has her very own scooter, too!

 Tyler put his hands over her eyes for the big surprise-- Alan bought her this big, purple, fluffy pillow to go with her big, pink, fluffy blanket named "Fluffy". She has loved Fluffy for years now and she sleeps with her every night. So this pillow goes perfectly!

Alan cut out the letters of her name on these luminaries. It was so neat!

It was a wonderful lantern festival for a wonderful 5 year old!

My feet

After a summer by the pool and a few weeks as yard duty out on the black top.

i love this cutie