Gondola Ride

 

In Tahoe there are soooo many fun things to do, one of which is the Gondola ride to the top of Heavenly Ski Resort! I believe the top of the mountain is about 10,000ft, the bottom of the ride is about 7500ft. This is such an awesome ride, it takes you straight up the mountain and you can see everything on the way up! My sister Shannon decided to visit us while we were here and this is one of the many things we did. About 3/4 of the way up there is an observation deck, where you can get out and walk around. Again such an awesome view!!!!! Once you have spent as long as you want on the observation deck you get back on the Gondola and continue to the top. Up at the top they usually have rock climbing and stuff for the kids or depending on the time of year they have tons of hiking trails! This is one of my favorite things to do here in Tahoe!

Isa Swimming

 

This is the only way Isa would go in the lake. The water is very cold, after all there is still a glacier at the bottom of it. She only wanted to get her feet wet but only if you held her and made her feet splash! If nothing else it was great daddy/daughter time!

Swimming in the Lake

 

This is how Brandon spent our entire time in Tahoe, floating on this tube! I can't say that I blame him though, the view is to die for!

Fourth of July

 

This year for the 4th of July was awesome, we went to Lake Tahoe! Jo & Blake were nice enough to invite us along on their trip, the hotel they had was right on the lake. For the 4th we packed up our picnic baskets, blankets, beach toys, & chairs and claimed our stakes on the beach. There are usually so many people that spend the day in Tahoe that you have to hang out at the beach all day in order to be able to see the fireworks in the evening. By all day I mean allllll day, we were at the lake by 9am in the morning and didn't leave until after 11pm!!!! It was a very looooong day but sooooo much fun. I have been to a lot of firework shows in my life and this was by far one of the best ever!!!

Swim Lessons 2010

 

At the beginning of the summer we put Brandon in swim lessons at the pool here on base. I put him in the level 1, the same he ended in last year. I figured since we hadn't been in the pool all year that would be a good refresher course. It turned out that he only needed 2 weeks at that level and they bumped him up to level 2. By the end of the summer he was swimming almost the entire length of the pool and treading water! I wasn't even able to get Brandon out of the pool!!!

Hiking in California

OK, so I just recently decided I was bored of doing the same ole stuff every weekend so we have decided to start trying out some of the hiking trails here in S.California. It is suppose to be some of the best hiking, but personally I will always love the hiking in WA better. We have gone hiking the past two weekends and I believe the plan is to go again this weekend, it is so much fun and a great way for us to get good quality Dave time(It is great to see him and Brandon do total boy things on the trails!).

The first trail we decided to try said it was only 2.2mi & moderate---they lied! It may only be 2.2 mi but it is 1.1 mi straight up the mountain side and then straight back down. We were not prepared for this strenuous of a hike but we powered through because the view from the top was absolutely breath taking. This only reason people do this hike it for the trip back down, beautiful! So because of our first hike we decided to change the location for our second one. The second place was great also, it is an actually park with tons of trails coming and going. The trail we decided to pick was 1.5mi in to a waterfall, so 3mi round trip. Now Dave and I were expecting a WATERFALL, but when we got there it was an awesome rock wall with a little trickle down it with a few pools where the rocks leveled out. Still really pretty but no waterfall that we were used to. :) I think this weekend will head back to the same area and just pick a different trail. It is so relaxing for me and great to get away from all the hub-bub of LA!

Dave next to "The Waterfall"

The top of "The Waterfall"

Brandon Hike #2--Chumash Indian Hut

The Top!

Brandon & Shelby on Hike 1

Dave & Isa on the first hike!

Santa Monica Pier

 

During our wonderful spring break we went to the Santa Monica Pier. There is so much to do down there that every time I go down I swear we come across something new that we didn't see the last time. There is a restaurant called BubbaGump and outside sits Forrest's bench with the shoes and everything, so we couldn't resist. Also on the podium where you give your name are all these license plates, we again, couldn't resist. My older sister actually has the one on the right as her wallpaper on her phone because that phrase comes out of her mouth every 15min. HAHA!