Vacay 2010

We just returned from our first family vacation in two years.  I’m thinking we need to start doing this once a month.  It was fun and refreshing and beautiful…and we forgot to pack the camera so the cell phone pics will have to do as usual.  A family in the church let us use their cabin in Truckee, which is close to Lake Tahoe.  It’s about 4 hours from here, which my road warrior kids can do with their eyes closed and one hand tied behind their backs, but I’m so used to our trips to AZ that I just couldn’t shake the hurry up and get in the car and let’s GO mentality.  The kids and I get home from church, I throw some sorry excuse for a lunch at them and put on a video, and I start the final trip prep.  When Bern* texts to say that he’s on his way home, I shift into hypermode.  Then he sorta saunters in the house, casually loads up the car, washes the dishes that I was going to leave in the sink in hopes that our housesitter would pity me and wash them for me, and I’m going, “Who are you?  This is not how we do road trips.”  He says, “This is vacation, there’s no rush to get there, let’s just relax.”   That just doesn’t compute.

Halfway there Kenzi says she needs to go potty.  Inwardly I grumble, “She just went right before we left; since when does she need to potty after only two hours? This is totally throwing us off schedule.” Bern takes the next exit and asks if I want to stop at Ikea.  I figure he’s joking so I choose the McD’s/Chevron combo, with the intention of running right back in and out.  Instead we end up taking a half hour break and sharing some grub.

For the record, we never get fast food on road trips.  We pack sandwiches so as to minimize our stops and our spending.  While I still can’t quite reconcile it with the man I married, I decide I should just relax too.  I think I like traveling with Vacation Mode Bern.  (Also for the record, we did stop at Ikea on our way back home.  I love letting the kids climb on someone else’s furniture for a change.)

On to the actual vacation.  The cabin was perfect and had a great deck that we spent a lot of time on.  The kids got to sleep in bunk beds but since there were two sets in one room, we made them each sleep on the bottom bunk.  They still thought they were hot stuff though.  Bern and I enjoyed sprawling out in a king sized bed, although last night back in our own eensy weensy queen bed we kept fighting for space.  How quickly we adjust to luxury, and the thing we were once accustomed to now seems like slumming it.

Monday was our first full day.  We drove up the mountain from the cabin and went for a hike.  Kev is superslow, which I wouldn’t mind if he wasn’t also so cranky about it.  “Mommy, I too tired.  You should carry me.  I tired of walking.”  Two minutes in.  We drug that boy up the mountain anyway and I know one day soon he’ll enjoy it a lot more.  Kev quote for the hike: as we were going up a really steep part, he asked “Mommy, is the sky coming down?” “No baby, we’re going up.” “Oh.  Yeah.  We are.”

We saw a little patch of snow and Kenzi agreed to go check it out with me.

That afternoon we went to King’s Beach, which was the #1 recommendation we got from people who’ve taken kids to Tahoe.  Neither Bern or I brought our phones to the beach so you’ll just have to take my word that it had the most amazing view.  We were burning our feet on the sand while looking at snow-capped mountains.  Keves was uncharacteristically brave with the water and we all had fun getting wet and playing in the sand.

The next day we went to the Donner Museum – totally fascinating to adults, a complete bore to children.  Didn’t help that when they hear “museum” they think “Discovery Museum” and don’t understand why there’s no playground or water tables.  I guess they liked the gift shop.  And the sprinklers outside.  And I don’t know about you, but I’ve never lived anywhere that it’s ok to have your lawn sprinklers running for the entire morning.  I can’t even fathom not being in a drought.  I wanted to bottle up all that water to bring home for my own lawn.  I took the kids outside to play so they wouldn’t be traumatized by the Donner video presentation.

I gave Kev this clump of pine needles and said it was like a broom.  He swept for a bit then asked me to find him a mop.

Then we drove up to a vista point.

See, it looks like I’m drinking Donner Lake.

We spent the afternoon at Donner Lake, which was a rockier beach but still lots of fun.  I even scored an awesome mostly-full bottle of spf50 continual spray sunscreen that some sucker left behind.  Bern teased me about taking it, but since he was coveting the Lake Tahoe jacket that some lady pulled out of the water and wishing he had grabbed it first, I know he has no room to talk.

Burger Me for dinner.  So. Good.  Everyone should offer chipotle mayo at the condiment bar.  I don’t know why it’s not standard.  And the mustard was apparently so good that you could eat it straight.

Or that could just be my disgusting little boy. Burger Me recently filmed a bit for Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives so keep an eye out for it, all you lucky souls who have cable.

Wednesday we went to Emerald Bay off Lake Tahoe.  It was a mile’s hike down to the beach and steep enough to warrant a “people with medical conditions should not enter” sign at the entrance to the trail.  Which meant that dragging Keves down was excruciating at times.  Our saving grace was all the little springs of melted snow that were running down the side of the mountain at different points of the trail.  He loved sticking his hands in the chilly water, and telling him, “Look, I see another little river up ahead!” could motivate him to move like nothing else.  Aside from some really aggressive chipmunks, the beach was relaxing and the kids liked watching all the tour boats that went by.

The bummer for me was that Bern left the sunscreen spray on a picnic table and it went missing.  Later we saw a dad using it on his daughter.  We figured since our kids were already sunscreened up and it wasn’t actually ours to begin with that it wasn’t worth reclaiming.  That soggy jacket may have been the better find after all.  Winning quote from Emerald Bay: a ranger came by and called out, “Has anyone seen a duck wearing a pair of goggles?”  Oh, how I wish I had.

As we loaded up to hike back out, barefoot Kenzi got an inchlong splinter on the bottom of her foot.  She didn’t want me to take it out because she knew it would hurt, but no way were we carrying her a mile uphill so we carried her screaming little self to the ranger station to bum some tweezers.  The actual removal involved no crying.  The splinter broke in two pieces – I handed her the first one while I worked on the second.  I looked up and she had the thing in her mouth. Such a smart girl and yet so…..I don’t even know the word to use. She was able to hike back out at a nice easy pace, and Bern put Keves on his shoulders (protesting the whole way) and booked it out in half the time it took us girls.

The kids zonked out on the drive back, and having them sleep from 4:30-5:30 is bad bad bad news.  They didn’t fall asleep until at least 11 and were up again by 7:30.  Kenzi was happy to zone out in front of cartoons while Bern and I packed and cleaned, but Kev spent hours whining about how he’s a little bit tired.  He fell asleep on the drive back just after 11 and woke up refreshed and in a great mood for an In N Out and Ikea stop.

We’re so grateful to the Young Family and their generosity – they really view time at their cabin as a gift to people in ministry.  Especially after a week where we had something going on 6 out of 7 nights, it was the perfect way to reconnect with each other and create some great family memories.

*Despite the fact that it feels totally awkward, I am trying to call my hubby Bern because that is what he prefers.  I’m taking suggestions on what I should change my name to so that I can throw him for a loop as well.