Lake Tahoe half week

TAHOE!

Comfy enough little dude?  What a rough life…

I took zero food photos while we were on vacay.  Zero.  We ate all but one meal at our rented house in Tahoe City.  The one place we went out to – Fire Sign Cafe – was SO good though.  I highly recommend for anyone staying/traveling through the area.  They make their own [everything] and have allergy friendly options aplenty (think coconut and almond milk, gluten free bread, vegan/vegetarian faux meats, etc.).  Not to mention, our waitress was fantastic.  Seriously, cannot say enough good things about it.  I’d go there every single morning if I lived in Tahoe City.  This post is therefore not remotely food related, but I sometimes like recapping our family adventures on HHH for my own personal benefit.

As you can see, my iPhone is barely functional so I opted to let my mom and Kyle take on the role of family photog.  I have a very old 4 that doesn’t even do it’s job as a phone, but I’m too cheap to get a new one until my upgrade so I’m suffering through until then.  Meanwhile, I don’t get texts, my internet works as well as North Korea’s, and my maps doesn’t even bother giving me directions when I attempt navigation (see above – wheely ball of death).

Point being – I don’t have actually many people pics either and the ones I do have are grainy/blurry/lame.  There’s the post’s second disclaimer.  Anyone still reading!?  😉

And yet, I couldn’t help myself when presented with this view.  It was cloudy the first morning we were there, but the rest of the time was nice and mild.  Not too sunny, but warm enough to get you excited about the pool.  [Lake? Not so much.  Brrrr.]

We hit up WF on the way out of town so I could get something for the road.  Unfortunately Kyle and I had to drive separately because I stayed longer into the week while he came back for work.  Too bad this little chauffeur doesn’t have his license yet.

Hands free food options mean…beverages.  This Rau drink was pretty good!  Not very sweet and definitely rich with that dark cacao kind of flavor.  It made it easy to sip and not chug.  I also had a quest bar (my first ever) which was actually better than I was expecting.  They are pricey for a bar, but I was looking for not super sugary snacks (again, that were portable).  It didn’t mess up my gut either, despite the sugar alcohols in it.  Probably small enough in amount.

Anyway, once we arrived P immediately set to work on the fridge magnets.  I brought crayons and paper, too, so the “art” was also on display through the following days.  I’d say coloring is one of his favorite things to do right now.  And by coloring I mean scribbling all over the very specific things he asks me to draw for him (a digger with a shovel pushing blue rocks with himself in the driver seat / mama and her watering can with green beans and tomatoes growing on plants from the garden / etc.).  Hilarious the things he comes up with.

We tried putting them in the same room at night (double pack n play action) but it didn’t work out at all.  The first night P woke up at 2 am and (presumably) freaked out about where he was.  I went in and calmed him down and then he went back to sleep but by then he’d already woken up the little lady, so she was off from that point on.  After nursing her lots, I gave up and brought her to bed with me, which ended up great for her, but not great for me.  Let the record state, twin beds are not meant for sharing.

After the second night’s attempt at putting them together backfired, we gave in and separated them and all was good.  P slept in our room and she got her own room.

It’s hard to tell from the photos (I took a video too) but these kids are just soooooo in love with each other.  He wants to hug, kiss and pet her all day long.  And she’s a smiley ball of giggles when he does so.  Seriously, my heart could not melt any more.  I want to bottle up the heart bursting emotions I feel in these moments to use years from now when they are moody teenagers.  Or later that same day when my patience for stinker antics and crying is depleted.

 

I’m not sure if we have this experience in common with other families (daring to) travel and/or vacation with young children, but it’s not as easy or relaxing as you’d think.  It sounds obvious typing it out now, because duh, we have a 3 month old and 2.5 year old, but going into it, I didn’t really consider the ways it might be overly ambitious and stressful for us (the parents).  Kyle and I have said this entire past year (since I got preggo) that we weren’t going to do anything vacation-wise for a few years for a variety of reasons – financial and logical being the main two.  And that’s because we were (are) under the impression that it’s kinda insane.  I’m sure there are people out there who do it, and would disagree with us, but I think there’s a window of time that it’s not really that fun to vacation with your kids.  And we may be in that zone right now!  I mean, this Tahoe trip was a quickie-no-big-deal getaway a mere 2 hours away by car, and it was still no walk in the park.  Imagine plane, trains, time changes, and more!?!  Yikes!  Anyway, even for this little jaunt out of town the beginning was hard.  But once we adjusted to being off our routine and sorted out everyone’s new vacation schedule it got much better.  And by “everyone’s” schedule, I mean V’s erratic nursing times.  She’s the boss after all.  For now and probably for always.  Kidding.  I hope.  In reality, I’m getting better at asking for help and asking my parents/sister for assistance when they are around rather than attempting to do it all on my own.  It’s something I struggle with for I don’t know why, but I’m working on it.  I think it has to do with feeling (a) a loss of control and (b) not self sufficient.  Both of which are very essential to my personality.  It’s so great talking these things out here on the internet where the world can offer opinions and judgement.  HAHAHA.  I should get my journal out because pen and paper seems a way better place for this jazz.

MOVING ON…

Guess who found her thumb!!!!  Yay for self soothing!  PS  Can we note the massive crib and yet she falls asleep with her legs in between the bars.  Figures.

Last bit of randomness, I promise!  I resisted for a long time but finally joined Thrive Market – you can do a free 30 day trial membership and cancel anytime before without paying the annual membership fee.  I’m in the trial period right now.  I actually got a free jar of coconut oil when I joined!

Click this link to try it out…I may get a discount or something (?) so feel free to hook me up if you’re so inclined.  Worst case scenario, you buy something like I did for WAY cheap (coconut aminos for like 35% what it costs at WF) and then cancel on day 29.  Boom.  You still get a mega deal but don’t have to commit to the yearly fee.

It’s kinda amazing though.  They have more than food, but that’s primarily what I’d use it for.  But they have bath, body, and baby products (and more) for wholesale prices that make me want to avoid WF (because we all know how that goes…).