South Lake Tahoe

Greetings from South Lake Tahoe, California. This is my first time here, it's quite nice! Corey came here once when he was younger, right before his mission I think. Let me tell you how we got here. So, two years ago when we were on a trip to Newport, Corey and I attended a presentation and started making payments to get a week at a resort, they showed us the list of resort options, and we chose Williamsburg Virginia, and we were going to take a US and Church History family trip across the country in July 2020 as our "last" big family trip before Melodie and Ethan left for their missions and, hopefully, after Joseph got home from Guatemala. He was planning on extending, but we hoped he'd change his mind and come home after Mel and Ethan had their calls so that he could see them before they left for a few years. Well, as we all know, Covid squashed that plan, so then Corey made arrangements for us to use our week at Lake Tahoe this year. So Corey's been planning this for a while. We didn't check into the Marriott until today, but we came yesterday because Corey had booked a fun rafting trip for today at noon (and it's an 8+ hour drive, and we didn't want to leave at 3 am Monday morning, so we left Sunday and were going to camp for one night. We had an ideal scenario of packing up and getting ready on Saturday, then leaving right after church, but that didn't happen but we were happy to be on our way around 2pm. We knew would be arriving late, but oh well. We were zipping along the salt flats at like 90 mph when Corey slowed down in front of me and pulled over. He said some warning came on that his transmission was overheating. He was carrying a lot of bikes, and it was almost in the 100s, so that contributed. We waited for like 10 minutes and I moved the kids from his car into mine to lighten the load. 

Then we continued at 60 mph for the rest of the day, which felt super slow, especially knowing we had several hours ahead of us. I was also kinda exhausted cause we had had a late night after having dinner with Father David and his friends in Payson. So sad for us that we wouldn't be getting a Sunday nap. :( I was really tired and had to call Corey, Nicole, Hyrum, and my mom to keep myself awake. Talking to Hyrum didn't help, cause I couldn't hear him and cause it was mostly just about his ingrown toenail, but talking to my mom and Nicole was good. Long drive, we were praying for Corey's car to be ok. He had the hot air blasting and his windows open, I said sorry. He said sorry to me that I was stuck with all the noisy kids, and that the heat was a fair price for the peace and quiet he was enjoying. Yeah, that's probably a fair trade. It was a long drive cause I didn't turn on movies to kill the time cause we didn't bring any Sunday worthy ones. Sorry kids. There was some rain that came in Wendover and Nevada which I felt was an answer to prayer and a blessing to help us get there safely.

We enjoyed a very pretty sunset too.

We were relieved to finally see city lights when we got to Reno. We got into camp around 10:30 California time and Corey quickly put up the tent and we went to bed. We woke up refreshed after our long drive. And hallelujah and thank you Corey for bringing extra ear plugs. The Granite Flats Campground was right next to a highway, and last night, before he gifted them to me, I was sure that I was not going to be able to sleep at all with the cars whizzing past every 4 seconds, but thanks to the plugs I slept soundly and I was warm and comfortable and it was a great camping experience. 

This was much better than our cold night of camping in Moab in April and better than my solo experience camping when Natalie was sick in 2017. It felt really chilly last night as we were getting ready, cause I had no jacket or long sleeved shirts, but once Peter and I were in the sleeping bag it was great. And I had him on the zipper edge of our bag, which was fine since he had a jacket on. I woke up once because my arm was cold, which I had over his head (he was tucked in my armpit) but then I pulled it in and he was fine. Wes left for this trip on Wednesday at 2pm and he spent a few days jeeping the Rubicon trail and camping with Uncle Mark and his cousins Seth and Isaac. Wes missed Peter and they shared some brother love this morning to celebrate their reunion.

Give me kisses Peter!

He'll tolerate a hug.

Morning coco.

We packed up camp and got ready to go rafting. Corey looking like a legit outdoorsy dad.

Kids under 6 couldn't go rafting, so Corey went with WALSN and Mark and his boys, and I was set to take the little boys with me wherever we decided to go. I didn't know what I was doing, but eventually found my way to Costco in Carson City where we had lunch at the food court. I bought one ice cream for the 3 boys to share, but Peter hogged it most of the time and freaked out if O or D tried to have a bite. Luckily their hot dogs kept them busy. 

By the time they had finished their dogs, Peter was a bit stuffed from his huge slice of pizza and then I was able to sneak some of the ice cream to share with them. Then we went shopping and I got enough food to get us through the week. Back to the car. We had a 40 min drive to the hotel. I had frozen stuff in a box and was able to check that in with the valet guys since our room wasn't ready yet. ODP and I drove around South Tahoe for a little bit until I got a text that the room was ready. 

Corey and the kids were all still out on the river. I put the kids in the room with the tv on and told them to STAY HERE as I ran down to get a cart full of luggage from the car. Our room was kinda annoyingly far from the elevator. It was a bit of a pain, but good for getting steps in I guess. Luckily when I turned the corner into the lobby, I saw Nancy and her girls. I asked if they would go babysit the boys, gave them my room key and said "2nd floor room 6254, or 6256? Maybe 6252... one of those!" as I ran outside to the car. I did a good job unloading by myself and took one cart up, then back for one more load, Rhyan came with me and we got it all out, yay. Dinner was ready for Corey and the kids by the time they got back. They had a blast, Corey said it was a 11 out of 10, worth the cost, great experience, very fun. They ate and then we all went swimming. Owen and Daniel wearing the yellow floaties. Jordyn playing with Natalie, everyone relaxing after a long and adventurous day.

Corey, Lily, and Wes relaxing poolside. 

There will be more fun tomorrow! I don't know what Corey has planned or know how much he needs to work, but this will be fun.