Lake Tahoe

Pete and I just got back from a really nice relaxing weekend in Tahoe. It's been a while (9 years to be exact) since we've been there. You really forget how beautiful a place can be.
We stayed literally on top of the mountain. On the back side of Heavenly ski resort. It wasn't the best hotel, but the scenery made up for it.
We went without kids. It was the first time in 3 years we'd been anywhere just the two of us. We really needed that. Sometimes you forget how to just be you and not be the mom or the dad. It was great. Although, both of us the entire time were saying things like "oh Jake would love this" or "we need to come back here with the kids". Funny how that happens.
Anyway I don't seem to have a lot of words today so I'll just fill up with pictures.

First view of the lake coming down highway 50:

This is actually from the other side of the lake but it fits well for the story:

Breakfast at Heidi's Saturday morning. You can't go to Tahoe and not eat at Heidi's:

Emerald Bay:


Pete playing with his new point and shoot. That camera is awesome.

Boats on the West shore:

Clear blue water on the North shore. If I wasn't in Tahoe and surrounded by pine trees I would have sworn we were in Hawaii. The water was so crystal clear. Unbelievable.

Sunset Saturday. This pic was taken from Pete's point and shoot from inside our hotel room. It's straight out of the camera too. Blogger is not doing the colors justice.

Perfect ending to a perfect weekend.

American dreams...

hey look! I'm blogging again :D Two days in a row.
So, I've been thinking about vacations. Here we are again with 3 and a half weeks of summer left and I feel like we've done nothing. Well, we went camping but that was before school was even out! And we had a great 4th of July but...I guess I'm just looking for something more. I was reading blogs this morning and when I got to Cathy Zielske's morning post I think I got a twinge envious. She talked about her family's weekend up at some lake in Northern Minnesota. A lake house that her husband has been going to his whole life. A lake house that he has such fond memories of and surely their children will now too. She has pictures of her kid jumping off the dock, and the family playing games at the kitchen table at night, and perusing the town and playing a round of mini golf during the day.
Oh how I long for that. I really do. I want a place that we as a family go to. A place we all look forward to every summer. A place were we go and relax in the musty old furniture. And cook in the funky old kitchen. And relax on the porch and watch the sun go down and play cards till the wee hours. A place that in 20 years is still the same. See I'm rambling now, but you get the point. I'm such a sucker for traditions and nostalgia. I'm a sucker for that classic American lifestyle. I hope we can find a place like that someday. I've been to places like this a few times in my life. My stepsisters have been going to the same mountain resort for something like 28 years. They grew up going there and now they rent their own cabin. I tagged along quite a few times over the years and I loved it. We used to go to a beach house every once and a while, but haven't been in years. Is it too much I'm asking for? To have a place we call "ours"? I don't even want to own it. I just want to be able to rent it when ever I want :D ahh well...our family is still young. We'll find a tradition somewhere along the way, I'm sure.
Pete and I are thinking of doing a little get-away this weekend. Maybe up to Lake Tahoe or over to the coast. We haven't been to Tahoe since we got married. Hotels for the weekend are wicked expensive though! I think I'm willing to sacrifice for a little time away though. We'll see. We had to cancel our camping trip to Big Sur. Man, I was SO disappointed about that. But it's ok, we will definitely be going next year.
I guess that's all I got for now...
I'll post some pictures soon. Blog posts without pictures are boring. Please forgive me.

It's been a really long week. Having your kid on restriction kinda of sucks for everyone, not just the person it was meant for. It was ok though. We made the most of it. Jake still hasn't apologized to the lady across the street. It's not that we haven't tried, it's just that they haven't been home each time we've gone over there. At this point it's been well over a week and I just wonder if an apology is just kind of moot at this point. I don't know. But he probably still should apologize.
Anyway, Friday was my 3rd trip in 3 weeks up to Sacramento. It's only an hour and a half from my house, but when you go and you drive all that way and then stay there all day or all weekend and then drive back again it's just kind of tiring. Friday was good though. I met up with an old friend from high school. We hadn't seen each other since graduation 14 years ago. (i know! i'm getting old!) But it was so fun! It was just like old times. Thank you Facebook for making it all possible. Ha! Since I had the kids with me we decided to take them to see the new Ice Age movie in 3-D. It was really cute! And not bad in 3-D either. We'd seen Monsters vs. Aliens a few months ago and it just about made me sick from all the motion and those stupid glasses. Ice Age was much easier to watch.
During the week of no movies and no swimming I decided it was the perfect opportunity to get out some of my favorite kids books and read to the kids. Jake picked out Matilda by Roald Dahl. He is really loving it. He asks me to read and read and read some more. I just started it on Thursday I think and we're already 1/2 way through. The best part is when he gets all snugly next to me and puts his head down on my lap. That's not going to last forever. Read to your kids! Our next book in line is The Phantom Tollbooth. Oh I just love that one!!

*Other random bits from our life:

Megan has given herself her own nick-name. She calls herself Sissy. It's funny because I've never called her that. She just figured it out on her own I guess. Sometimes I call her Missy or Little Girl or Megs but I've never called her Sissy. She usually says "I'm not Missy I'm Megan!" But now sometimes she says "I'm not Megan, I'm Sissy!" She's a funny little thing.

Jake has become fearless in the water. That is, with one catch..... He has to wear arm floaties. In the baby pool or hot tub or anywhere he's comfortably touching the bottom he's fine. But put him where he has to tip toe or not touch and he's a dead weight. But with the arm floaties...he might as well have angels wings on. The kid jumps in, goes under and now does front flips from the side of the pool. I'm sure he'd be fine with out them, but they make him feel safe. No matter what, it sure is nice to see him actually enjoying himself and really having fun, rather than sitting around sulking like he used to. Sooner or later one of his friends is going to tease him about the floaties and he'll take 'em off.

Speaking of Jake...School starts in 3 and a half weeks! I can't believe how fast this summer has flown by. I'm so not ready. He is though. He asks me every day...how many days is it till school starts? That won't last forever either.

Anyway, I'm rambling...

Drama, drama, drama.

I'm just sick with frustration right now.
I'm mad and irritated and embarrassed. And sad.
If you've read my updates on Facebook, then you probably know what I'm talking about.
Neighbor drama. *ugh* It's awful. There are two sets of neighbors on the street that I've never really got a good vibe from. Remember the anonymous letter about my lawn care last year? I've written about the neighborhood snootiness before. Not only do I not really like the adults, but I don't really like their kids either. Of course Jake likes to play with them. He doesn't seem to mind that they tattle all the time. Or that they don't invite him to their swimming parties. He just plays with them anyway. Because that's what boys do.
So anyway rewind to Tuesday I guess. Maybe Monday I don't remember anymore. Neighbor comes knocking on the door saying he's going to have a "conference" with all the kids on the street and as a parent I'm welcome to come join the conversation. Apparently Neighbors wife got a bunch of scratches on her car and they're pissed about it. I say ok, whatever, do what you gotta do and I send Jake over to the "conference". The whole time I'm thinking...how do you know it was one of these kids? Couldn't it have happened in a parking lot somewhere? Are you sure it wasn't your punk ass tattle tail?
But whatever. I was glad they didn't single anyone out.
Jake comes home, I ask him if he did it, he says NO and I say are you sure? he says I didn't do it! and I say OK and give him the speech about respecting peoples property and to be careful and to stay away from the cars. Ok Mom.
Fast forward to Thursday. I'm walking home from the park with another neighbor, one I actually really like, and we discuss the "conference" the kids had the other day. We agree that they whole thing seems blown out of proportion and they're making a big deal out of nothing. And that their little punk ass kid is a punk. Glad to know someone else agrees with me.
Forward again to Friday. I'm outside talking to The Good Neighbor. The kids had a little tiff that morning (because of the little tattle tail across the street) and I wanted her to know that I talked to them and everything seemed straightened out.
Enter Miss Priss from across the street. Tattle Tails mom and victim of a Hate Crime on her precious car. I can see the smoke coming off her head has she approaches. (and let me just note here again...I don't like this woman. Not because of the lawn letter, I'm over that, but because she's not friendly. Oh at first she seems friendly, but it never gets past the fakeness. There's only so much fake I can handle. I'm done with fake. She comes off very snooty when you talk to her, I don't like the way she talks to the kids and I don't like how she expects all the other kids to follow her rules but her kid gets away with murder) Anyway so here she comes...my heart starts to pounding. I'm thinking Dear God, what is going on now?! Well she starts laying into me and The Good Neighbor about how her car got all scratched up again, how mad she is, how some one's gonna pay for this....blah blah blah I pretty much just shut down at that point and then how she wants to have another 'conference' with all the boys again.
*ugh*
I'm not the kind of parent that never thinks their kid does anything wrong. In fact I'm usually the one that says What did you do? But Jake and I had already talked about this. And he told me he didn't do it. And I believed him.
So I send Jake over there and I tag along behind. There are about 8 kids between the ages of 5 and 9 standing there and she is ripping them all a new one. Seriously. She goes on and on about how You better fess up! I'm going to find out who no matter what! You better hope none of your friends tattles on you! You're going to be washing my car for an entire year! That's 54 times! (ahem. there are only 52 weeks in a year, dumb@ss) I'm just standing there dumbfounded. And that was probably a good thing because if I could have got any words out of my mouth, it wouldn't have been good.
So I bring Jake back in the house. I sit him down and say:
Jake, I already asked you this before. I asked you if you scratched her car and you told me no. I believed you. I still believe you. But if you know something or need to tell me something, you need to do it now. I need you to be honest with me.
*silence*
Jake?......... .......
He takes a deep breath. Tears well up in his eyes.
Jake? ....
Well....*sniff* Well I had one of Johns Bakugans and...and I rolled it down the side of her car.
What? You did? Did you scratch it?
I guess. Maybe. I don't know. Am I going to get in trouble?
*sigh* Jake....

So at that point I just didn't know what to do. Had I become the parent oblivious to her child's behaviors? Did he really scratch the car or is he just so scared not to say something...What was I supposed to do now? I was so angry with that woman for how she spoke to all these kids, how could I possibly go over there and eat crow now? How could I go over there now when I was so sure my kid had nothing to do with this? I wasn't really mad at Jake for scratching the car. Of course it's not ok, but kids are kids and accidents are going to happen. And I really don't think he meant to do it intentionally. I was much more upset and disappointed that he had not been honest with me the first time.
Anyway, I didn't know what to do. I sent him to his room for the time being and put a call into Pete. He's at the ranch all weekend.
We were gone all day yesterday and I tried to not think about it.
So then today Jake goes out front and like white on rice Mr Neighbor comes right over to Jake and goes "Jake, did you apologize to Mrs. Neighbor?"
uhh...wha?? how does he know that Jake did anything? We never went back outside after the "conference" on Friday.
I hear this and I start to implode. I really don't want to deal with this until Pete gets home. Anyway the next thing I know Jake has high-tailed it back into the house. And its where he's gonna stay until we have a meeting with dad.
So for now he's grounded.
And he's going to go over there tomorrow to apologize.
And if she really wants a 6 year old to wash her car every week then whatever.
I guess he'll know he better not touch any one's car again.
I guess this is all part of being a kid. And growing up. And being a parent.
I think the hardest part for me is knowing that he really is a good kid. He made a mistake. An accident. And I feel like he's wearing the Scarlet Letter right now because of something being blown out of proportion. I feel like all of a sudden he's been labeled that kid.
I know in my heart of hearts he isn't that kid.

Blogging.
It's not like I don't have the time. I have the time. I guess it's just that I don't have a whole lot to say maybe? I don't know..I kind of go through these phases.
Random thought: Megan is now the age that Jake was right before she was born. That is so weird to me. How is it possible that 3 years have gone by? In some ways I'm Soooooo happy that my kids are growing up. There's no more diapers, everyone is much more self sufficient. I hardly ever use a stroller anymore. I hardly ever have to get up in the middle of the night to check on anyone. If we want to go somewhere, we don't have to stop and go home to take a nap. Although, she still really needs a nap most days. I feel like, in the last 6 months especially, that we finally can go and do family things and not worry too much that our kids are too little for certain activities. It's a good feeling. I'm looking forward to the day that Megan can actually buckle and unbuckle her car seat all by herself.
That all being said.... I can't help but get a little weepy when I look back at pictures of 3 years ago. I miss those first couple of days when all they want to do is sleep and eat and they snuggle into your chest and make those tiny little baby snorkel noises.


NO. I'm not pregnant.
Nope. I'm not planning on being pregnant either.
But YES, I do miss it a tiny bit.

Ok so here's some pictures from our 4th of July weekend. Which included lots of swimming, no naps, staying up late, lots of fireworks, and lame sparklers. I love 4th of July (have I mentioned that before??) even though they make lame sparklers in California.





Looking forward to our next family adventure...whatever that may be :)