Tahoe Trip, Take 2

Just week and a half after we got home from our Turkey Day Trip to Tahoe, Noah and I packed up the car again and returned to the mountains to visit with Auntie Sarah and Lily! This was their first trip back to Tahoe since their big move up to the Oregon Coast and we were so so so excited to see them! Of course, just before we left, while I am packing and running around like crazy, Noah manages to hurt himself! The poor little guy managed to rummage through my bathroom stuff and got my razor! As soon as I saw it, I snatched it away and kept packing. A few minutes later I noticed some blood on the counter and then followed a trail down the hall...my heart about stopped. Noah managed to cut open his pointer finger on his right hand and it was was bleeding like crazy! It didn't seem to bother him until I cleaned it up and tried to put a band-aid on. We went through 7 of them before I found on that fit and he didn't rip it off. The kid acted like he had a broken finger for 2 days! He would hold his arm away from his body and keep his little finger out in air. He refused to use that hand for anything! It was quite entertaining, but so so sad! Good thing they heal quickly. Anyway, Jason stayed behind this trip, but on our way out of town, we met him at work for a quick lunch to say good-bye and break up our drive.

When we got to Tahoe, everyone had gone to watch Rose perform in the pit orchestra for the High School's "White Christmas" production, so Noah and I had some dinner and got cozy. He remembered the house and all the toys and sure did love the gigantic Christmas tree! While I was cleaning up dinner, Noah managed to get one of the "balls" (aka glass ornament) off the tree and threw it onto the tile :) He said "Uh-Oh!" before running off! He made it till 10 pm waiting for the fam to get home but crashed out just 10 minutes before they walked through the door!



























The next morning though, he was happy as could be to see everyone. While Sarah and I visited, Rose wrangled up the kids and helped them make snowflakes with coffee filters. This was Noah's first go at markers and was having a blast. Lily was great sharing with Noah and was quick to point out that Noah was coloring on nearly everything but the coffee filter and was so proud to say, "I don't color on the table! I'm a big girl!" She couldn't have been more right. I cant believe just how big she has gotten and how vast her vocabulary has become. It really does happen over night! The snowflake extravaganza ended with Noah and Rose in a "Snow fight" and Noah throwing it all over the floor. We cleaned up and headed to Gardnerville for Tristen's big 2nd birthday bash!





























Noah took a 15 minute nap in the car and was a bit overwhelmed by all the new faces, but was in love with all the balloons and too busy taking it all in to eat. He warmed up as the house started to clear out a little, but only had about 30 minutes left in him before melt down-thirty. It probably didn't help that I discovered a GIGANTIC splinter in his little finger and had to get it out. But Auntie Angel came through with a lollipop that made him forget the whole trauma, and little Tristen tried so hard to get Noah to play cars with him, "C'mon No-ahh! C'mon No-ahh!" Soooo cute! Our visits with the Ellis 3 are always too short, but it was good to see them and our old friends even for a little bit. Happy Birthday Tristen!!!

I sure do miss all those smiling faces! :)

Noah's melt-down continued in the car for about 20 minutes before he gave into the fatigue and passed out...but we had an hour to kill before we were supposed to meet up with Sarah!! Sooooo in the cold snowy snowy weather, we drove back to Tahoe to pick up Sarah and Lily and went back down to Gardnerviile for a visit with Papa and Hanama! Noah and Lily had so much fun playing together, running around in their socks and diapers, laughing and singing and entertaining us all!











































The next morning Sarah and I took the monkeys out to play in the snow...Noah wanted little to do with any of it....especially after Lily landed a snow ball right inside the hood of his jacket! HAHAHA! After we took a ton of photos, we packed it all up and headed back to the Lake. Noah went down for a nap and my mom and I headed out to go watch Rose's performance. Sadly, when we got there it was sold out :( So I missed another one of Rose's bajillion performances, but had a nice few hours visiting with my mama at Starbucks while we waited for Rose. Quiet moments with my mom (or just quiet moments in general) are few and far between and we sucked up every second of it! LOVE YOU MAMA!



















































The last morning was a bit of a whirl wind with appointments, kids, packing and having to say good-bye to everyone. It seems like there is just never enough time to do everything and saying good-bye comes all too quickly. But we did all squeeze in a lunch at the Thai Orchid...and Noah reminded me of his fascination with fish (which lead to another aquarium trip). Anyway, after all the chaos, we sent Sarah and Lily off to the air-port and with sleeping babies in tow, each of us headed off in opposite directions to make the long journey back home. But not for long....just 9 days later, Jason, Noah and I made the whole trip all over again!!!

Thanks for making the trip down Sarah & Lily!! We had so much fun....we love you and miss you oh-so much!