August 3rd

We went bike riding on the trails near the Lake! I loved it fresh air and sunshine and family! I said many time that i LOVED IT while we were riding! I had to teach Gabriel bike courtesy, etc. He was a trooper and listened well. He had 2 BIG wipe outs and didn't cry just got right back up! People got a kick out of it!

We did share food at a Rosie's cafe in Tahoe. Excellent food. Annalina was singing very cute songs in the car! ? The kids caught carpentar ants in our condo and made an ant cage and Annalina decorated the cage with toys. From time to time they would give me the count of how many were dead and how many were still alive. Nice.

In the evening we spent time on the beach!

Am I good at picking restaraunts or what?!!!!

So we are at Tahoe and want to go out for dinner. I see this little restaraunt with an area to eat outside. Nothing big or overly fancy or so I thought. We are seated and we get the menu I said to Babe "Do you notice something?" There were NO PRICES!!! Bad sign!! We all ordered water and just pizza (2 of them) it was a little over $40 good thing that was all we ordered! Pictures above were taken at that resteraunt. We used our kitchen at the condo more after this!

August 2nd, 2008

Thankful Babe was back we headed to our vacation destination--- Lake TAHOE!!!!!

The condo which Gabriel started calling "the hut" for some reason was away from the lake up in the mountains in a pine forest. I immediately thought the smell of pine therapudic and remenisent of my time up at Camp of the Pines in Colorado which over looked the Great Divide. I just started letting down and I got so tired and conked out on the couch and had a great nap. The windows looked out to the pine forest. AHHHHHHHH! Just what I needed!

The kids loved the condo too it had stairs which made for great new games like riding chair cushions down them, etc. We had also brought up some plastic dinosaurs and the game became that Annalina would tell Gabriel how much the dinosaur (she would line the dinosaurs up) was worth in points (75 points whatever) or if the dino was a "loser" or as she would say it "wooser". Gabriel took a ribbon and wound it around a plastic palm tree (toy about 2 1/2 inches tall) and used it to swing around and hit the dino's and try to knock them down! They had a marvelous time with that game! Ross enjoyed throwing balls down the stairs.

August 1st

I decided to change our hotel for this night. The last hotel besides having tacky decor blue walls, purple chairs, and a curtain like a circus as you entered the room area it didn't pass in "family friendliness/appropriateness" (keep in mind this RENO) so we checked out and needed to pass time until our check in at the next hotel. I found a Clay Canvas shop where the kids and I could paint clay stuff. Gabriel and Annalina enjoyed this but I must say it was stressful for me as I had ROSS which is like having a bull in a china shop shall we say (don't let the calm picture of him above deceive)!!!! Nevertheless, we made it!!! And got some neat keep sakes. Gabriel's dragonfly looks like a alien  and Annalinas butterfly is what we call "mono puffy yellow eye". I made a plate with each of the kids  hand print on it. It is fun to joke about the creations!! The kids get a kick out of it.

Our new hotel was FABULOUS and newly updated. Flat screen tvs on the wall etc. The kids and I went to a GREAT restaraunt in the hotel called Rosie's Cafe. I just loved it but we had to leave quick when Ross pooped his pants and it was smelling things up and I didn't want that around other people ruining their meals. As we walked to find the waiter for the check Ross made a mad dash into the waiters work area squealling with delight at his hilarity! A waiter caught him and probably got a good wiff of him but was in good humour about Ross!!! Thankfully!!

We went to the amazing indoor pool with a waterfall!!! That was fun!! As we were leaving that pool an elderly couple said to me "you have a beautiful family" then the kids got to talking with them. They were both retired military and a really sweet couple.

Babe came in late this night. The next morning he took the kids to the pool hence the "Lysne soup" picture at the very bottom of the pictures.

Our trip story begins... on July 31st

The kids and I took off last Thursday on our own mini vacation up in Reno as we waited for Daddy to fly in.  Above are pictures from the hotel. Yes, I let the kids jump on the beds and have a ball!! They played what Gabriel called "jump tag" from bed to bed. And Annalina came up with a "speeding bullet slide jump"!! Sounds cool, huh?

After all that fun the kids and I watched the X Games with BMX bike tricks and skate boards. The kids LOVED it! We also got to see some Bull riding on another channel. That was fun!

Friday morning Ross got up and went over to the table where I had put the brownies we had made before we left town for our trip and I heard him say "bekfast, bekfast". Yep, we had brownies for breakfast. A true vacation!!!

After our nutritional "bekfast" we went down to the pool and swam. We had a very nice time the weather was so nice for it. I bought the kids swim vests to help me out some. Ross pulled out $50 the other day at the store, second time he's done that. He pushes the $50 cash button when I am checking out of the store and they can't reverse it!! Anyway, extra cash for vacation and stuff like pool safety stuff! An elderly man swimming laps in the pool stopped swimming just long enough to say "you have well behaved children".

Misc. about Daddy coming and going

When Babe came home about 2 weeks ago Gabriel said to his Daddy that he was glad he was home and that "I knew you would come back". That is a comforting thought!!

Saturday night Babe tucked Annalina into bed and I could hear him telling her that he would be flying back next Saturday and that we would come pick him up from the airport. Annalina very matter of factly said "I don't worry about that Daddy". What a personality. I don't need to worry about it so I won't!!!!

Babe's workups for cruise are done! Hallelujah!!! This week he is at an Intel conference. Then he will be home some weeks with us before cruise.

True Quote

"There's nothing that can help you understand your beliefs more than trying to explain them to an inquisitive child." --Frank A. Clark

A few weeks back Brian was watching a war commentary on the War of 1812 and Gabriel asked "Why are they fighting when the Bible says we are to love our enemies?" Brian explained to him that the Bible was speaking personally not country against country. I was thankful that Gabriel was analyzing what he was watching with what he knew Scriptures to say! I may have already blogged this but the quote above is right kids will want to know WHY about what we believe!!