The First Part of Our Summer Vacation

After a great flight with one stop in Phoenix, we arrived to our first destination in Reno, Nevada to visit Greg's Aunt Kathy and her family. The kids were both very good on the flight which was a relief. Greg's dad and Greg's cousin Sean picked us up. Nelson could barely contain himself because he was on his way to see his cousin Kalei. (We heard Kalei was the same way waiting for Nelson to arrive.) We spent two days sight seeing and catching up with Greg's wonderful family. We were able to visit the historic Virginia City. It is an old silver mining town in the Sierra Nevadas. The original buildings have been preserved and it is now a tourist sight. It was fun to see all the old stuff. That is where the great pictures of the kids in the stocks came from. We are thinking we should incorporate this set-up into our time-outs some how. :) (Just kidding.) The next day while Kathy's family was at work/school, we (with Greg's parents) took the beautiful drive up to Lake Tahoe. I have always heard how pretty it is, but no words can describe how amazing it really is. We had a wonderful time playing in the sparkling sand. The water was freezing, but we still played in it for a while. We even used our "panning" skills we had learned the day before in Virginia City to find some gold flakes floating in the lake. The water sparkled even more than the sand. The boys spent most of their time playing video games. They LOVE being together. On our last night with our family, Marvin (Kathy's husband) and their sons, Sean and Keoni, favored us with their beautiful music. Alli was eager to join them on Kalie's ukulele. It was priceless watching her strum while they played theirs' and sang. We had the most wonderful time visiting. Ohhhh . . . and guess what . . . WE GOT A Wii!!! Greg's cousin Casey works for a game store and they got a shipment in on our last day. We had been looking for one for months in Austin and we finally got one. (It's an interactive video game.) It has been so much fun playing games together. YIPPEE!