Lake Tahoe 4th of July!!

So after working for Marriott as an advisor over Lake Tahoe for 6 years, I FINALLY made it over there!!!

This is the famous Emerald Bay, and it is where some of the most famous things in Lake Tahoe are...


We had so much fun - and my favorite thing we did was to rent bikes and ride along the trails!




We thought the kids would have a ball too, but after 8 1/2 hours of car ride, I don't think they were exstatic to sit in the carrier for 3 hours.... :( oh well ;)-


I loved it, and it had been sooo long since I had ridden a bike, but it's like they say - You Never Forget!



We also took a Paddle Boat ride across the lake to Emerald Bay, which was a great way to get out on the lake and see around. The lake is really choppy, so boating can be a little crazy!Timber Lodge had this fabulous restaurant called "Fire and Ice" that was soooo good. You would select what food off the ice you wanted and then take it to the grill and stand and watch them cook it for you!

It was all you can eat so we were sooo full!!!

But the coolest thing we did was pay to be at a private beach club to watch the fireworks over the lake. The barges that set them off were right in front of us and the fireworks went off right over our heads. They also did them to music so it was really cool!

Here we are waitinig around at the beach and in the dark for them to start.

The lake is gorgeous and HUGE!

We hiked up to a waterfall - we thought we would do a lot more hiking, but NOT WITH KIDS :)-

They were done after 10 minutes,.... next time we will go alone!

There is also a lot of bordering lakes around, and they are just as pretty and more secluded. This one is a small one off the beaten path called Lake Lily.

It was great to finally see the property and lake. It was a wonderful place to visit!

Catch Up!!

We went through the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house a few weeks ago with our kids, and after having been through the Draper Temple, they new what to expect.

We gave them a huge lecture on "They better be good, quite and behave... OR ELSE"

And it was so cool, they really were better, they new to be quite and not push through the line and try to run around.

McKelle still tells us almost every day that, "Mommy, we have to be quite in the Temple!"
And she tells us out of the blue, I guess we really made an impact on her! ;)

We went to the Zoo!

Always an adventure :)

Lance loves this guy, he has a picture of him as a child by the Lion water fountain, so everytime we go, we got pictures by it too!

And it has been a little while, but -

Lance and I had our 7 year anniversary! Woo Hoo, lets see if the itch goes away! J/K, no I know that this man and me fit together like a hand in a glove!

We tried out a restaurant up by the canyon called Trio, it was Italian, but with a mediteranian flare, it was really good! I would recommend it!

And of course we got 2 desserts, Creme Brulee' - My FAVORITE, and some tart thing too.

Peonies!! This is for you Nikki!

All those days in training, and now you finally no why I was obsessed with learning about how to grow these lovelies!



From the time I first started to learn about plants, I fell in love with Peonies, and have planted numerous around my house.






I love these shots and they really show you how this plant can be so powerful, I just wished they stayed longer. They come in June for about 3 weeks and then are gone until the next year :(





This was the first year I was able to really get a good show with a ton of blooms on a plant. I was soooo excited!!