Notes from vacation

We are back after a very pleasant week away with family. We had one of those quintessential summer vacation holidays, with lots of family and sun and water and laughter.

First, we travelled to Grass Valley for a family reunion of folks on my mom's side of the family. It was lots of fun, and I met cousins I'd never met before. Caroline was especially pleased to discover that she has a 3-year old cousin Evie from the same city in China where she was born!

No, these aren't family photos! At my aunt's house (where I stopped to make the artichoke dip my aunt requested I bring) we found these wild turkeys wandering in her yard.



From there, it was an easy drive to Lake Tahoe for our annual week with Roger's two sisters and brother and their families. Roger's sister has a house just outside of Tahoe City, and we converge there to catch up and relax and be lazy. It's the one time of year when Caroline sees her cousin Dash, who lives in Oregon.

Most days, we wander down to the lake to sit on the pebbly beach, swim, read, chat, and engage in other similarly strenuous activities. Here's the view of the lake from where we hung out all week.



Yep, that's snow on those mountains! Hard to believe given the heat we were having (and are still having) but it was gorgeous to see in the distance.

Of course, we all made it into the lake for aggressive water sports....that would be bobbing around on floaty chairs, mainly.



The trick, which we've all mastered, is to hook a foot around the rope which lines the swimming area...that way, the wake from passing boats and jet-skiers doesn't just roll you back onto shore. You can see all of Roger's siblings lined up here, floating strenuously.



When she and Dash weren't diving under the dock for crawdads (they caught the same ones each day, I think, then dumped them back in each evening) she was floating, too.



So, a fun time was had by all. I read a lot (made my way through a fun thick trashy book by British writer Jilly Cooper, called "Pandora" about the effect a painting has on a big, wealthy English family) and even did some sewing in the evenings to piece some nine-patch blocks for a gift quilt.

Now it's back to real life, and mountains of laundry, and piles of work...But it was worth it!