I'm Back!! :-(

Yes people it is true. SR and I returned yesterday afternoon. We truly enjoyed our 5 day's in Tahoe. The cabin was wonderful as usual. We even brought home about 7 brochures/ Homes and Land magazines for homes for sale in the Truckee/Lake Tahoe area. But that is just a pipe dream at the moment. We can't come close to affording the 1+ million dollar price tags on these properties. The cheapest we saw so far was 400k for a 1/4 acre lot with NOTHING on it. But it has given me a renewed interest in playing the lottery again like every Tahoe trip does to me for a few weeks.

I did as predicted take Tue off work as well as the rest of the week. Let me just say that my stress levels on Tue were extremely high. They continued to be even higher on Wed. morning until we actually hit the road. An hour later than planned. I'm a huge stickler for leaving at the planned on time. The fact that we were going on the trip with very little money at all led to more of the stress factor. I felt like nothing was getting accomplished at all on Tue. night and Wed. morning. I didn't start packing the truck until after 8 in the morning. It was supposed to be packed the night before. Couldn't load the truck though because we had laundry to wash to finish the suitcases. Those are the first things that I always pack. But I persevered and we finally got everything loaded.

We finally left and got 25 miles from home when I realized I forgot the first item. My cell phone. Now I know I'm on vacation but I feel naked with out it. I decided to suck it up and feel naked for the duration of the trip though. There's no way in hell I'm turning around now. The rest of the drive went very well. I tell you the best Christmas present I have ever bought for the family was the portable DVD player. The kids didn't fight at all the entire drive. They just watched the movies quietly with their headphones on. Leaving Summer and I to talk on the way.

Finally we got to the cabin. We unload all of our stuff and get everything put away, beds made, making ours for a dew days. Then we realize that the BBQ that was there last year was gone. We also didn't bring one this year because there was one there last year and we didn't have room this year. So that meant a trip to the store to by one. Went to a few stores and couldn't find one at all. We did however find a raft that we did buy. At the last store we found a BBQ. The price wasn't bad either. The tag below the grill said $14.95. I could handle that. We go to pay and come to find out that price was for people with the Safeway Club card. What a crock. So the grill ended up costing $32.00! But we needed it to cook dinners for the whole trip. So I got it. Went back to the cabin ate dinner and sat and relaxed reading a book. I haven't read a book in ages. It felt good to read again. The stress levels finally started to disappear. We all went to bed early that night.

Thu we woke up earlier than expected. I was on vacation though dam-it! I was going to sleep in. So I forced myself to lay in bed for about another hour or so watching Summer sleep. When she woke up we got out of bed and got ready for the day. While she was in her morning shower I cooked one of my big breakfasts. Did dishes and it was time to go down the Truckee river in our newly acquired raft. That was a great part of the trip. I haven't gone rafting in years. We did have a few set backs like bringing to much stuff along with us. So it was hard to get comfortable but we managed and we also learned a lesson. Don't bring along a bunch of fishing poles when the raft is full of people. The worst part of the trip was we realized that we put a hole on our new raft. At the same time my left foot fell asleep. When my foot was asleep we hit the "rapids" which weren't really that big but my sleeping foot hit a big rock and bent backwards quite a bit. I thought that I had broken it at first. We got to the bank and I move it a little and it started to "wake up". It wasn't broke just hurt a little bit. We continued on and the river got moving faster and that's when youngest got scarred. He started top cry a little bit until we got to the end. Then he said that was fun let's do it again. Kids. What are you gonna do?

Fri. was the day that Summer was really looking forward to. Her dad drove out from Salt Lake City to spend the weekend with us. While we were waiting for him to get to Truckee I went to look for the whole in the raft. Started pumping air into it so I could find the hole but the air wasn't staying at all. The air was going out as fast as I was putting it in. I originally thought that a hook had gotten into the raft and put a pin hole in it. So I was looking all over the top. Nothing. I turn it over and Youngest says I found it! He was right. There was a hole big enough for me to put my index finger in. I must have hit a log real hard. Right next to it in another chamber was a pin hole leak. I fixed both holes and we drove to Truckee to meat Summer's dad. He was running late due to a flat tire so we drove around Donner lake and went up Historic Route 40. I tell you that was a gorgeous drive. We drove to the top of the mountain and got out at a scenic overlook. That's when I remembered that I left the cameras at the cabin. Summer did have her new camera phone on her though so we did get a pic or two taken with it. Just need to get them on the computer somehow.

Went back to Truckee and met up with F-I-L. Summer got in his car and rode with him to the cabin. When we got there the kids were really excited to finally meat there grandfather for the first time. We got him settled in and went down to the lake to test out the patch job on the raft. What do you know it worked! So the kids and I went out for awhile while Summer and her dad sat on the shore and talked.

The next day (Sat.) we went to South Lake Tahoe for breakfast. We ate at Harrah's Lake Tahoe on the 18th floor. It's the top floor of the building and they have an excellent buffet there. I'm ashamed to say how much I ate. Let's just say that I definitely got Summer's money's worth for my portion. So did youngest. Good lord that boy can eat! After breakfast we took some pics from the top floor before we walked the streets for a little bit. Summer's dad surprised us by giving her a $100 bill and told her to split it between the boys. They were so excited about having money to spend. It didn't take long either. The rest of the day was spent driving around the lake taking more pics. I'll go ahead and let Summer fill you in on the rest of that day.

The last day we woke early and had to get the cabin ready for departure. There was laundry to be done, dishes to be washed,floors to sweep, you know the usual cleanup. As I started to load the truck that';s when I realized that we had a slight problem. Although we were coming home with a case of beer and 2 cases of water less than we arrived with we now had a new BBQ and raft to find space for. Along our garbage bags because there's no garbage service at the cabin. Luckily I just barely squeezed everything in the truck. It was like trying to play tetris. :D The drive home was good. Stopped off at Emigrant Gap to take more pictures of the scenery. Then off to home.

And that my friends is an abbreviated version of our trip. All in all it was great. We really needed to get away for those few days. But next year we need to take more days to be there. We try to pack to much stuff into a short time span. It really makes it feel like we are rushed for time which in turn raises my stress levels up. So next year we are shooting for at least 7 days in the summer and possibly a 3 day weekend this winter just to play in the snow. My only regret about the trip is not stopping at Emerald Bay to take pictures. I wanted to get to Harrah's for breakfast so to save time we just kept driving. Apparently we should have woken up earlier. But it was great. I got a lot of reading done. Read over 150 pages on the trip. Got in the fresh air of the mountains. Away from the people I don't want to be around. The only thing I missed was the internet I'm ashamed to say. I was great without TV for 5 days. But when we went to Harrah's I saw an internet station in the lobby and wanted to get on so bad. Summer had to drag me away. ::hanging head in shame::

I'll post more pics of the trip after Summer gets her post done. I don't want to use anything that she is going to use.