Never, ever, Ever, EVER again!

If I only had his nerves of steel.

No Room In The Inn

 Sandy singing the blues.

Comfort Inn.....

 

Sandy and I were feeling like Mary and Joseph the first night in Mammoth Lakes.  We were wondering WHERE is this economic recession every one is talking about.  There was a HUGE blues festival going on.  There were NO hotel rooms.  We FINALLY found a room, (Thank you American Express) at a Comfort Inn which was a DIVE with no air conditioning for an INSANE amount of money.  The next two nights were were able to stay at the Westin Manache Resort in a one bedroom suite with a full kitchen and balcony for LESS than our nightly rate at the Comfort Inn.  But, I'm not bitter.......

Next Stop....Mammoth Lakes

We drove from Tahoe to Mammoth Lakes.  It was a beautiful drive.  We stopped as the DIVE in the middle of nowhere for lunch.  We had very good burgers at Walkers considering it was in no where land.

 We had the opportunity to visit Mammoth Lakes a few years ago.  We loved the town.  We found this awesome restaurant that we revisited this time.  Surprisingly, "Burgers" is famous for RIBS.  Not burgers.  Odd.

This was one of my favorite days of vacation.

We rented a boat for the day and spent the day chillin' (literally) on Lake Tahoe.  This was such a fun day for us.  The boys tubed, skied, sunned, swam, and had a great time. The water was SO cold.  It was 58 degrees. BBRRRRRR!!!!  Didn't stop the boys.

 

 The view from the end of my toes.

 The water was SO cold.  This is Daniel getting out of the water warming up hugging Le.

 Turtle Kitty is Cold!

 I love this law!  In Lake Tahoe if you have a man down in the water the spotter has to wave the orange flag.  I wish they did that on Lake Keowee.  I wish I had a dime for the times I've started frantically flapping my arms to alert a boater to one of my kids in the water.  In fact. I may get an orange flag for our boat, law or not.

 After a long day in cold water we had cocktail hour in the hot tub.

Daniel chatting up Grandma.

I love this picture.

A Horse is a horse of course of course.

Our first full day in Tahoe we went horse back riding.  This was the first time Sandy had EVER been on a horse.  He did great.  Daniel was excited he got to "drive" his own horse.

 Dan and his trusty steed.

 It's like riding a bike.

Family photo.

California Here We Come

Sandy and I didn't really plan on a big trip this summer.  But we did a good job pulling one off anyway.  We realized we had enough frequent flyer miles to fly all of us "somewhere".  We started researching where we could go with the miles we had in the time frame we had.  The end result was Sacramento for two weeks.  So that's what we did!  Our first full day in sunny CA we drove to Lake Tahoe.  The drive was WONDERFUL!  We were on no time schedule and we literally pulled over on the side of the road where ever we saw fit.

 The pictures below are of a pretty little waterfall we found.

 We took the opportunity to hike on the way to Lake Tahoe.  The weather was perfect.

 Our first glimpse of Tahoe. (Far left corner.)

Early summer morning. No words needed.

We should be ashamed......but we aren't

This is Sandy and Tinkerbell's new routine.  Every morning at breakfast Tinkerbell jumps up in my chair and waits for Sandy to share his turkey....with her....on the table....that we eat off of. 

 

 She almost died a couple of months ago.  From the best we and the vet can tell she stuck her head where it didn't belong and rammed a twig up her nose. (OUCH!!) She was very sick and lost over a pound, which is a lot since she only weighs 5lbs. She has recovered and we weren't sure she would.  If you thought she was spoiled before! Now she the queen of the house. (And we wouldn't have it any other way.)

Le's Birthday

Le is consistent if nothing else.  He wanted his birthday up at the lake again this year.  Thanks to Ina and Colin we were happy to oblige.  It was a fun filled weekend with a house full of raging testosterone.  We survived the weekend with very little sleep and no broken bones.  As you can see from the photos we spent the weekend jumping off cliffs and swinging from rope swings.

 I was so proud of Daniel.  He is the little one in the bright blue swim trunks.  He ran with the big dogs all weekend.  He has always been reserved when it comes to doing daring things.  He decided to get out of his box and he jumped and swung with the best of them. 

 I can't believe he is 14.....

 'Pontoon, jumpin' off the back. Don't act like you don't want to.'

Sandy my sun god.

We love it when Greg, Jen, and the Gang come

We were lucky enough to have the "Florida Chaces'" stop in for a visit on their way home from vacation in Tn.  The only down side was that the visit was too short.  But it was so great to have them even if ever so briefly.  I love how the boys just pick up as if they saw each other last week.

 Chattin' on the floor.

 Le and Daniel acting silly.

Can you tell they are all related????