Donner Lake, Truckee, California

Definition of VACATION (source Merriam-Webster)

1: a respite or a time of respite from something : intermission

2: a scheduled period during which activity (as of a court or school) is suspended b : a period of exemption from work granted to an employee

3: a period spent away from home or business in travel or recreation vacation at the beach>

We returned home yesterday from our vacation. I needed to look up the actual definition of vacation to see if that was really what we had. It turns out we did. Though it may not have been a vacation that most people picture, we did have a "time of respite from something" (ie: the dogs, daily chores, etc). Kenny had a "period of exemption from work". We also had "a period spent away from home" (10 days to be exact). 

We were vacationing at Donner Lake with Kenny's family in celebration of his parents 40th wedding anniversary. We decided to drive there instead of fly. (It is still up in the air if this was a good idea or not). It took us two days/14 hours to get there and the same for coming back. Shane did very well in the car. He doesn't seem to mind just sitting there and looking out the window. Adalyn on the other hand wanted constant contact with me when she was awake. Meaning that I spent a LARGE portion of the time in the backseat. Her sleeping schedule went out the window and continued to be a problem the whole time we were gone. She was up often every hour or every two hours at night and napped very poorly during the day. She wouldn't let Kenny feed her or put her down for a nap. Making me the primary caregiver the WHOLE time for Baby Girl. Between the traveling, teething, missing her crib to roll around in and possibly even night terrors, Adalyn made our vacation seem very long and trying. 

Along with dealing with Addie all day long, I seemed to have a touch of bad luck while we were gone. One day I started off by getting pooped on, later in the day I was stung by a bee and had a minor reaction to it. The day was finished off by having Adalyn throw up on me. I woke up the next morning with a head cold. Awesome!

Okay, so that was the tough portion of our vacation. Here are some of the better highlights.

On the way there we stopped at a place called the Subway Cave. We only went in the front of it, but it was pretty cool, literally. Shane talked about it for days.

 We saw lots of these little guys on our stop.

Here we are at the lake. Adalyn and Shane both LOVED the water. Since I wasn't around most of the time they were at the beach I don't have very many pictures of Shane having fun in the water. But he did great. Even jumping off the little dock/swim float out in the water.

 All the cousins: Carolyn, Meredith, Shane, Grant and Adalyn

Shane and Kenny out in the Kayak together. They got to do this twice. Shane really loved it. I was so proud of him for going out with Kenny. He also went out on the sail boat, but I wasn't there for that either. (This is where the new camera lens I need comes into play!!)

Little Girl just loved the sand and water. Very happy to eat all of it and make a mess. She didn't like the clean up after wards so much.

 The WHOLE gang.

Two buddies. Turns out Shane will do anything Carolyn does. She seems to be one of the few people he doesn't care if Mommy or Daddy are around. He would run off with her, which is so unlike him. He usually has to have one of us in his sight. But Carolyn seemed to be like a make shift parent/play mate for him.

 Man, is it hard to get a good picture of us with two wiggly kiddos.

Overall, we all had a nice time on our vacation to the lake. Donner Lake is really pretty and has all the makings as a very relaxing place to be. We look forward to more summer trips there (probably by plane and with a much older Adalyn)! It was awesome to wake up to blue skies every morning and to have warm temperatures daily. It was also great to see the Cousins hang out and play together (big ones and little ones). Many memories were made by all.