The Peterson Life: Lake Tahoe

In June we had the Jones Family Reunion in beautiful Lake Tahoe. LaWayne planned a great vacation at Camp Richardson, CA. We were lucky enough to get to spend more time there than everybody else because the cabin we shared with my parents and LaWayne had to be rented for a week and even then we didn't feel like it was enough time.

We tried to a get a picture one night of Alden with the gorgeous lake behind him and this is what we got. This kid cracks me up.

Every day before the rest of the Jones family clan showed up we decided to take a hike. This is one of the cool things about Lake Tahoe you can go from hiking in the mountains to lounging on the beach in a matter of minutes. At the beginning of our first hike!

This is all of us at the end. There was a waterfall that we almost didn't make it to because the trail just turns in to big rocks and we weren't sure how long we were willing to wander in the wind with two small children, but luckily Cass went ahead and scouted out the trail so we could reach our destination.

And here is what we were looking at.

On the way up to the trail head we drove past this beautiful lookout of Emerald Bay.

We liked it so much we brought LaWayne, Mom, and Dad back to check it out again.

Then we read that there was a lighthouse on the lake and LaWayne loves light houses so we had to go find it. Unfortunately LaWayne didn't get to see it in person because there is about a 1/2 mile hike to get to it. So Cass and I ran as fast as we could thru the trees to get a picture while the rest of the adults waited in the car with 2 starting to grumpy kiddos. Here is the amazing light house. It actually was really cute and definitely worth the journey to get to it.

The next morning Cass and I did a hike without the kids. There was this cool home called Vikingsholm that we could see from emerald Bay so we hiked down to it. This home is seriously like a castle right on the edge of the lake. Although we didn't get a tour we looked through all of the windows that we could and absolutely loved it. Next time we go back we will definitely make sure we get a formal tour.

The person that built the home also bought part of the lake. Here is the view looking out from the front of the house.

Once we got down there we discovered another little hike that led to some waterfalls that we decided we had to do since we were there. Here is what we found.

That afternoon as we waited for the rest of the family to arrive I took Alden in to the little town nearby for a little one on one time. There happened to be a safety fair just wrapping up so we stopped to see the fire truck.

We had so much fun once the rest of the family got there as well even though I don't have a lot of pictures of everyone else (that was Jamie's job). One day we took a trip to Virginia City and had a great steam engine train ride that boys loved.

Going thru a tunnel with the steam in our faces.

Then drove in to town to check it out, so cute. We stopped at a catholic church called St. Mary of in the Mountains which has a museum in the basement.

This is a mural painted on one of the cement walls in the museum.

Finally we stopped at the Gold Nugget on our way back to the cabin for a sweet treat.

One day we took a chance and tried out a nearby state park. It was not what we expected, but we were with family and got to enjoy a lot of walking around the beautiful lake. Eventually we found the "tunnel" we were looking for and got to check out the fish up close.

Part of the walk, they had fun.

The tunnel

Finally, there was a lot of time playing in the water at the lake.

Gracie almost always ended up like this, when we were at the water.

Here are just some fun pictures from of Gracie. She loved her cousin Kenzie, and I think the feeling was mutual.

Just hanging out with dad on the way to the tunnel.

Gracie and Benjamin are so close together in age hopefully they will be good friends. They took quite a few naps like this, so sweet

LaWayne also planned an activity for every night after dinner. There were games and even cake for Terry and Nicholle and Mom and Dad for their anniversaries.