Thanksgiving in Tahoe

The boys look absolutely thrilled their mom made them get in a fake canoe thing

Following Meema around the lake

All the boys on a Thanksgiving walk

At the lake on a hike

On a hike with Bodie and Bryson - Bodie led the way back and was soooo proud of himself!

Teaching Bryson to crochet. Here you can see the beginning of the scarf he made for Riley!

Bodie in Bodie!

So picturesque!

The Barnes family got together in Tahoe this year for Thanksgiving. We took Bryson out of school for the whole week and it was so nice to have such extended quality time with each other and family. We came up to San Jose early and celebrated Bob's birthday by playing 9 holes with the WHOLE family. Yup - the Griffins and Kimmy and Kirk and all the grandkids. So fun! i even played! bryan took a picture, but he took one of me missing the ball, so we just won't show that here for posterity sake. I actually played okay and Bryson was sincerely shocked that I could hit the ball. I also remembered why I haven't played in 10 years - that game is SO hard!

We enjoyed the weekend with the family and headed up to Tahoe on Tuesday. Bryan's maternal grandfather has a cabin up there that he has had since Bryan was a kid, so it is pretty special to have our children creating memories in that same cabin. We did not have a single plan or place to go, except for to eat a Thanksgiving meal on Thanksgiving, so that was so amazingly amazing. We watched a lot of movies, caught up on some reading, did puzzles, drank lots of hot chocolate and apple cider, went on lots of hikes, bryson raked up pine needles (for about 3 hours), we found a hill to sled, i taught bryson to crochet and bryan and i even got to hit the casinos!

The only bummer is that I forgot the good camera, so all I have to document are silly phone pictures. I also did not take nearly enough photos, which has been a thing lately - but when it feels forced or I'm not excited about it, I think its a good sign to just be in the moment. And I definitely had a desire to be in the moment. To slow down. We do not get to take much time off in the summer, so in the winter holidays we try to take advantage and really take a vacation, and I can honestly say it was a restful one.

On the way home we took the back way (395) down and one of our stops we wanted to make was Bodie - so we finally got to take Bodie to Bodie! It was so much fun and he was sooooo excited and felt so special. On the way in Bryan thought I paid and I had thought he paid, so on our way back to the car we saw the ranger writing tickets and so we booked it back- bryan threw bodie in the car and went to grab a payment envelope - the ranger asked him if we just had gotten there and Bodie said yes and then offered up to him that his name is Bodie, like the town Bodie...so he saved us a ticket (unknowingly) and bragged- way to go! It was neat to take them to one of my favorite spots. You always see something new and I always leave with a yearning to learn more about the town. I love learning about that time in our history...maybe because it is the only real history California has...but its interesting to me.

So happy we were able to spend that time with Bryan's parents and family - they are very dear to us and our children, so getting a good chunk of quality time is good for everyone's soul. Plus I am pretty lucky to have a mother in law who enjoys waking up with my children :)