Kristen’s Birthday Celebration in Sacramento!

So fun that my sister, Kristen, moved to Folsom recently!  (Her husband, John, graduated from BYU in December and got a job at Intel.)  And so fun that her birthday happened to be on a Saturday!  (A Saturday that Dan had off work, nonetheless.)  And so fun that Folsom is halfway between us and my family in Saratoga, so we decided to meet in the middle and celebrate Kristen’s day with her!  We left in the morning and all met up at John and Kristen’s apartment.  They have a great little place . . . . I always love seeing where my siblings live so I can picture them there.  Then we went out to lunch at Islands. 

We then took the party on over to Fairytale Town in Sacramento.  We’ve never been here before, but I’ve always kind of wanted to check it out.  This was our group that day (plus Dan who took the picture).  Dad stayed home with Michael, who had basketball, Brigham had to work, and Scotty also had basketball.

Running over to the old woman who lived in a shoe.

Looking at some ugly sheep!  haha.

This crooked mile was a favorite for the kids.  They loved running down the crooked path!  It comes from one of my favorite nursery rhymes when I was little: There was a crooked man and he walked a crooked mile, He found a crooked sixpence upon a crooked stile.  He bought a crooked cat, which caught a crooked mouse….

And they all lived together in a little crooked house!

Checking out some more ugly animals! 

And here we are watching some little pigs fight!  haha. 

The kids loved running around and discovering the next thing to play on!

Happy Birthday, Kristen!!  It was a fun princess party at Fairytale Town!  (This is all the girls in the family, except Ashley . . . . we missed you, Ash!)

Jeff’s car was having some problems, so he ducked out of Fairytale Town to take it in.  It wasn’t looking too good, so they decided to head home early in case they broke down during the 2 hour drive.  My mom and Steph went too, so they could follow Jeff and Katherine.  We were bummed out at first that they were all leaving, but it ended up being good they did because Jeff broke down half way home.  They made it home safely, but it definitely took them a lot longer.  So it was just us and Kristen and John to finish out the night.  It was still really fun . . . . we drove up to Roseville and walked around the Galleria mall for a little bit and then ate dinner at The Cheesecake Factory!  We left around 8 pm and were home by 10.  What a great little day trip!  So fun to have John and Kristen just 2 hours away in Sacramento and now we have the perfect middle meeting place for everyone!  We’ll have to do it again soon!!

The Rest of our Weekend

After going to church in Tahoe on Sunday morning and saying our good-byes to Mike and Beth, we drove an hour west to Loomis (near Sacramento) to visit Dan’s cousin, Mark Redford, and his family.  We just love Mark and Amy and were happy when they recently moved to Loomis from Arizona . . . . now they’re not too far from us!  We thought this was the perfect time to go visit them and check out their new place.  They had warned us that they live “in the country” and wow, were they right!  They bought a cute little house on some land, and it was so fun to see where they live.  We went on a walk to tour their property and surrounding area . . . . and to visit the buffalo!  Yes, the people that live on the property behind them raise buffalo.  We got up to the fence but couldn’t really see any buffalo because they were all over in the other pasture.  So Mark just yelled, “Hey Boss!” a few times, and sure enough they came over to see us.

Continuing our walk and crossing over the main water source for some houses up there (or at least up until a few years ago).  We hiked up a little hill for a cool view of Folsom Lake.

That’s their white house up on the hill.  They love having their own little lake!  Well, I guess they kind of share it with some other people, but it’s pretty much theirs.  Although Mark said it’s a lot of work to maintain it. 

Dan took James for a ride in the canoe.  He was loving it!

Swinging on the rope swing!

Sunday evening we had dinner, chatted, I got a baking lesson from Amy (homemade rolls and cinnamon rolls – yay!), and of course played games!  When they asked us what game we wanted to play and we said, “Have you guys heard of Dominion?” they looked at us like, “Uhhhh, yeah, we’ve heard of Dominion.”  And then Mark goes to the game closet and literally brings out like 8 huge boxes of Dominion games and expansion boxes.  Well, ok, then!  We had quite a few rounds of Dominion, playing with all kinds of new expansion packs. 

Monday we had fun checking out the area with Amy.  She took us to her aunt and uncle’s house which was gorgeous.  We drove around neighborhoods and picked out areas we wanted to live someday.  I LOVE driving around and checking out houses and neighborhoods . . . . Amy and I could have done that all day!  But we had kids in the car that were getting bored, so we got some treats at a cute little pastry shop and then over to Taylor’s in downtown Loomis for some seriously good milkshakes and headed to a park to let the kids play.  Mark was home from work in the afternoon so we played another round of Dominion before heading on home to Reno.  It was such a fun little visit!

Tahoe Ski Weekend - Movie!

Tahoe Ski Weekend

Well, after being gone for two weeks for Christmas break, we were home for all of 5 days before packing up and taking off again.  Destination – Tahoe!  So, yeah, not very far.  But it was a very fun weekend and it felt like a mini vacation to us!  Mike and Beth had been planning this ski weekend in Tahoe, so when they suggested we meet them there, we were all for it!  Dan arranged a four day weekend, and Monday was Martin Luther King, Jr. Day anyway, so we only had to take Annie out of school on Friday.  We drove up to Tahoe on Friday morning, and checked into the Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe Resort at like 9:00 in the morning.  Luckily the hotel was kind of empty (due to the fact that Tahoe has gotten no snow yet) and so we could check into our room right away.  We met up with Mike and Beth for breakfast and then headed up to the ski resort!  We just went to a place 3 minutes away from our hotel called Diamond Peak.  It’s a smaller resort, but they were offering a deal for kids that day - $29 for rentals, lift ticket, and lessons.  Can’t beat that!  And we weren’t sure how long the girls would last, so this was great.  All the snow at the ski resorts is manufactured.  Not so great for die hard skiers, but for two little girls going out for their first time, the conditions were pretty ideal!  It was pretty warm out there . . . . no hat or extra clothes needed.  Perfect!

Leah was so excited to go skiing.  She got her boots clipped into her skis, put her gloves on, looked around, and said, “Now I just need a hill to slide down!”  I left her standing on her own for a minute to go get James, and, unintentionally, she slowly slid a few feet, ran into the netting, and fell down.  She looked up at us with a huge smile on her face and proudly exclaimed, “I SKIED!”

Once all the skiers were ready to go, I had to get a group picture!  Unfortunately, I don’t know how to use this new camera, and somehow focused on the building in the background, so all the skiers are blurry.  But you get the idea.  This is my uncle, Mike, with 3 of his boys (my cousins), Shawn, Seth, and Anson.  And of course, Dan and the girls.

Dan was excited to take the girls skiing for their first time!!  He did great helping both girls down the bunny hill . . . . although it was very slow moving the first time down:)

Annie did great!  When she got going too fast for her own comfort and got a little out of control, she would just slide down on her bottom to stop.  But by the end of the day, she was really getting the hang of it, and made it down the whole hill without falling!  Way to go Annie!

This picture really shows how there is absolutely NO SNOW up there!  And can you see Beth and I at the back of Beth’s car?  We set up a little area for the little boys (James and William) to play in the back of the car while we watched the skiers go down the hill and then back up on the chairlift!  It was kind of fun to be just right there watching.  We could talk to them as they went by on the lift.    

Annie even mastered the chairlift all by herself! 

Leah and Anson burned out pretty quickly.  They thought playing on this bench was just as fun.

I took Leah and James back to the hotel for naps in the late afternoon, and Dan took Annie higher up on the mountain.  Again, check out that snow!!  haha . . . .

Gorgeous views of Lake Tahoe up there!

Phew!  What an exhausting day!  Seth and Annie (the two first graders) coming in at the end of the day:

This little girl had so much fun.  She’s already asking when she can go skiing again!  She LOVED it! 

That night we walked across the street from the hotel and ate at a little restaurant called Austin’s.  Good ole’ home country cooking!  It was good.  Then we went back to Mike and Beth’s hotel room and introduced them to the game, Dominion.  They had two adjoining rooms, so the kids watched a movie in the other room.  It was a great setup.  And Mike and Beth really liked Dominion, even after we warned them that it was a really nerdy game!  haha . . . . .

Saturday, after eating an awesome buffet breakfast at the Hyatt, we headed up to Northstar.  Dan and I had never been up there, and we’d been wanting to check it out.  We decided not to pay the steep prices to go skiing and just do fun stuff around the village, but when Annie saw Mike, Shawn, and Seth get out of their car decked out in their ski clothes, she said, “Hey!  Why can’t I go skiing today?!”  She was really wanting to hit the slopes again!  But when she saw the ice rink, she was quickly convinced that we were going to have fun too:)  

Nice save, Dan!

Beth and I hung out, watched the kids, pulled them around in that ski cart (above), lounged by the cozy fire pits, chatted, and ordered yummy drinks from Starbucks:)

Two little boys wanting so desperately to be big kids and do big kid things.

Dan and I headed back to the hotel in the afternoon, and while James slept, Dan and the girls walked down to the lake. 

Mike and Beth picked up pizza on their way back to the hotel, and so that night we ate pizza, swam in the hotel pool, and played some more Dominion!  Sunday we woke up to another delicious buffet breakfast (Hyatt sure knows how to do buffets:), checked out of the hotel, went to the Tahoe North Ward for church, and then said our good-byes to Mike and Beth and kids.  It was such a great weekend.  So fun to get away on a mini vacation!!!  And now stay tuned for Part 2 of our long weekend!