Lake Tahoe

The day after Julia's birthday party, we headed to Lake Tahoe for our "babymoon" trip with 2 other couples who are also expecting. Megan and Travis are due in December with their first girl and Kristen and Israel are due in January with their second girl.

We had a wonderful time and packed in as many activities as we could in 5 days. The weather and scenery were beautiful. The highest temperature during our stay was 73 and the low was in the 30s.

The first evening we were there, we headed to Steamers for great pizza and beachfront views.

Left to right: Israel, Travis, Kyle, Melanie, Megan, Kristen

Day 1: We rented bikes and rode along the Truckee River from Tahoe City all the way to Squaw Valley and back, which turned out to be 16 miles. It was a gorgeous ride, and the weather couldn't have been better.

Under a ski lift at Squaw Valley

We ate lunch on the patio at River Ranch, which sits right on the river.

Day 2: We were going to kayak, but it was too windy so we headed to Donner State Park to see the Donner Museum and have a picnic lunch on Donner Lake. Then we drove to historic downtown Truckee to do some shopping that afternoon.

Our picnic spot

Day 3: We toured Vikingsholm in Emerald Bay. Then we had lunch on the south shore of the lake and continued all the way around til we got to Sand Harbor Beach, then back to the house. We drove the full perimeter of the lake that day.

Beautiful views from the parking area at Vikingsholm.

The 1-mile downhill hike down to the castle was a breeze!

The 1-mile hike straight uphill back to the car wasn't as much fun.

A look-out point on our way to lunch.

Sand Harbor Beach

Day 4: It was a much calmer day on the lake, so we decided to kayak. That afternoon, Kyle and Travis toured historic Thunderbird Lodge. The rest of us stayed at the house to rest. That evening we went on a nice dinner cruise on the Tahoe Gal to celebrate our last night of the trip.

Travis and Kyle at Thunderbird Lodge

The "Thunderbird" yacht

Dinner on the Tahoe Gal

Julia's 2nd Birthday Party

The invitation

The birthday girl

We were fortunate to have a drop in humidity and slightly lower temp the evening of the party so we could have it outside.

Cousin Madison was very interested in all the neat gifts Julia had to open.

The Harless family

Ana and Melanie

Unfortunately no one thought to take a picture of the cake before we cut into it. It was so cute and matched her invitation.

She still talks about having cake at her party.

Pop read the new Dora book to Julia and Madison

Caring Smiles

We've become involved in a new organization, Caring Smiles Foundation, and had a great time helping with the first fundraiser event. Julia enjoyed herself too!

Julia had her face painted.

Julia being held by Micah, her babysitter, and checking out her elaborate design (face painting sure has changed since we were kids.)

Mommy did it too!

(Beautiful photos taken by our friend, Sarah)