California Fun

Last night we got back from a very fun week in California. Last Saturday, June 6th, we drove out to California in our very packed car (amazing how much stuff a baby needs) to spend some time with our families. We got there Saturday evening and had dinner with my family. My sister Amy was there with her family and my little sister Heidi was there too. Then on Sunday we went to 8:30am church with Jeremy's family (yikes!). His brother and sister were there with their families, so we had a fun time spending the day with them. Unfortunately I forgot our camera at my parent's house that day, so I didn't get any pictures. :( But we had fun playing at Jeremy's parents house and then we went to a park to take some pictures. All of their 6 grandkids were there, so we got some cute pictures of the kids with their grandkids, and then we got pictures of individual families. I haven't seen them, but I'm sure they're cute!

Then Monday was the prep day for my family's trip to Tahoe. It's kind of becoming an annual thing I guess. My parents rent this amazing cabin up in Northstar with 7 bedrooms and 7 bathrooms, so everyone has their own (well, my parents, all 5 kids, and my grandparents). So Monday Amy, my mom and I went to WinCo to get all the food. Holy cow. It was a lot. We now have 20 people in the family! (Including my dad's parents). 12 adults and 8 kids. 3 are babies, so they didn't count for the food, but it was still a lot of stuff.

Here's my mom's trunk. We had stuff in the back seat too.
Tuesday we got packed up and we headed up to Lake Tahoe. It is so beautiful up there! We got there around 2:00 and then my sister Wendy and her family and my grandparents met us there a couple hours later. It was so fun to see everyone. Eli was up a lot the first few nights, so I felt like I was in a daze for the first few days. Just as I was coming out of it, it was about time to leave, but it was still tons of fun. Here are some things we did:

• Went to the beach - a place called Sand Harbor; very pretty
• Played some games; we always play "Scum" and we also played "Encore", very fun
• Went to the pool & hot tub, some played tennis
• Took a personality test my dad got at work
• Went to the Donner Museum (Jeremy, Steve & I stayed home, but we heard it was really neat)
• The guys played a lot of pool and the kids loved to watch
• Ate delicious food and way too many sweets :)
• Watched a couple basketball games
• Nursed babies a lot (as seen in the picture below)
  

Here's Jeremy telling a story to the kids:
The weather was very cooperative. It was a little colder than it usually is, but the forecast said it would be cold and rainy the whole time, so we were pleasantly surprised by the more mild weather. It was sunny for our beach day and just a little cloudy the rest of the days.

As you can see, 60 degrees doesn't stop kids.

Jeremy was trying to shade Eli's eyes. So cute!


My parents with Eli:
The three babies: Russell (7 months), Vanessa (5 1/2 months) and Eli (7 weeks)
So Saturday morning we left and came back to my parents' house for about an hour before heading down to Modesto for my grandma's 90th birthday party. My mom's whole side of the family was there, which is a very rare thing. In fact, I can't ever remember it happening. My mom has 2 living older brothers and an older sister and they were there with most of their kids and grandkids, etc. It was fun to see people we hadn't seen in a really long time. There were a lot of people Jeremy had never met so that was fun for him to get to know everyone. We had an amazing lunch prepared by my mom's sister and her husband and 4 daughters. They are incredible cooks and it was SO GOOD! We also watched a slide show of old pictures which was also fun. My mom has another brother, 10 1/2 months older than her, who died in a car accident on his mission, so it was neat to see old pictures of him and the rest of the family.

Mom's brother Kent, sister Marilyn & her husband Jim, brother Larry and his wife Mary, my mom and dad, and grandma:
My uncle got a picture of the whole clan that was there, so I'll have to figure out how to get a copy of that.

My immediate family: Mike, Wendy, Kenneth, Vanessa, Steve, Heidi, Shannon, Mom, me, Eli, Dad, Jeremy, Seth, Russell, Amy, Rob, Brenna, Grant
Me and Eli with my sweet grandma

This is my cute cousin Christy with my cute sister Heidi. Christy lived with my parents for about a year and a half while she was going to dental hygiene school, and Heidi was at home for a year of that, so she's like another sister. And she has the perfect teeth to be a hygienist. :)
My family plus my grandparents and grandma:
Then we came back up to my parent's house that night and then left the next morning to come back home. We had such a great trip and it was so nice to see our families and to just enjoy spending time together. Eli seems to have grown a ton in just a week. He's smiling so much more now too which is so cute! We love it. So it was a great trip. Jeremy got a whole week off of work and I think he feels like a new man. Yea for vacation!