Lake Tahoe Pictures (Finally!) Part 1

For over a week now I've been planning to add some pictures and a little about what we did on our trip to Tahoe.  It's hard coming back from a wonderful trip and facing reality again.  There's too many wonderful things to tell my family's reunion at Lake Tahoe so I'll let the pictures give a lot of the detail.

My family's condo is perfectly located on the west side of Lake Tahoe near a variety of things, but in a quiet area at the same time.  Only a mile away is a little market, Tahoe City is only 9 miles away, South Lake Tahoe is about 20 miles.  A state park with camping, a historic turn-of-the-century mansion, boathouse, an old mid-1800's cabin, a beach, and a dock can be reached by bike in less than 15 minutes. One of our favorites is spending the day at Meeks Bay (only about 15 min away) playing & swimming in the water, playing in the sand, riding inflatable rafts & boats, and just sitting around talking, reading, and eating on the beach. .  We spent two days at Meeks Bay.  Unfortunately, we forgot to take our camera the second time so we didn't get as many pics as we'd like.

Our family at Meeks

Andrew (L) isn't so sure about the water.  I don't blame him- Lake Tahoe is COLD!!  Aaron (R), on the other hand, loves the water and did not want me holding his hand.  He was ready to jump right in.  

The sand was their favorite.  They both tried eating sand more than once but I had to watch Andrew close to keep him inhaling it.

My four siblings and I took turns cooking dinner for everyone, which included 16 kids (ages 16 mos. to 14 yrs., most between 3 and 7) and 12 adults. After dinner we'd usually do some kind of activity or just talk. One night we laid on the tennis court and watched the spectacular meteor shower in the sky.  After most of the kids were in bed we'd meet at one of the condos and play games or talk.  Here are two of my brothers playing a game with some of the kids.

Two of my darling nieces- Lexie (10) and Sara (8 1/2).  They were great helpers and loved holding, playing, and caring for the twins.  Aaron, of course, only wanted Mom or Dad to hold him.

My older nieces were terrified of bears the entire week and wouldn't walk alone outside after dark.  One of them even claimed to have seen a bear while walking to her condo.  Until the end of the week I blew them off as just being paranoid.  In the middle of the day my sister's car window was shattered and the inside was a wreck (of course, if may have already been like that!) in an attempt to get a bag of pretzels left in the car.  At first they thought someone had broken into their car but after closer observation saw paw prints on the door.

Later that day two of my nephews are hard at work building a bear trap.