Tahoe Trip 2009 About every other year or so, Carl's parents take us all up to Lake Tahoe. By take I mean they foot the bill for a nice cabin that fits us all (barely). Each family gets a room (Carl's sister's family get the downstairs that has one big bed and a trundle. They take turns sleeping on the floor, 5 in the family and all). We make it pretty cozy in our room with one big bed and air mattresses for the kids. Kaleigh actually slept in the walk in closet, it was like a little cave. Blocked a lot of the noise (Carl and Cole snore). I just use earplugs!

One of our first stops was Sandy Beach. Aptly named for the soft smooth sand! The kids loved building with it, but the best thing about this beach was how shallow and far the beach actually went! The kids were able to walk out about 75-100 yards without even coming up to their necks! In this photo they are on rafts but the bottom is only a couple feet below them. It was nice just letting them go on their own and since there were no real waves ( just the little swells from boats going by) I didn't have to worry.

Another excursion was our traditional Truckee River rafting trip. It is always enjoyable! The whole family gets in two rafts and floats down the Truckee River. There are a few areas where there are rapids and we got stuck a couple of times, but lucky us there are always rafts coming up behind us, to bump us off the rocks! Whee!

Kaleigh and Cole have to wear life vests (anyone under 12), and the rest of us have the ones the raft company gives us on the bottom of the raft. The area is just beautiful and we enjoy getting off the rafts and swimming a little too!

Our last day all of the adults and one child (actually he is 17 so...) went on a Sailboat with Captain Mike. He has a 50' sailboat and it fits up to 25 people and goes out on the lake for about 2 hours. It was just wonderful and relaxing!

Captain Mike is the one NOT holding the wheel, he is the one with the blue shirt and the white ball cap on. Apparently the guy holding the wheel is a regular and enjoys being hands on!

Except of course when the said sail boat tipped waaaaay over! Wow, that is exciting! Now, apparently it would take a lot to have the boat totally tip totally over (something about a 2 ton something or other under the boat). But for a minute or two I wasn't so sure! It was really fun though! Kaleigh and Cole would have freaked out part of the time and been bored part of the other! I was ready to take a nap toward the end of our trip, it was so relaxing! The photo above is when I could take a photo again, after the almost vertical tip! While we were really tipped I was hanging onto the rail for dear life!