It took a really long time to pack up the four of us for a three-day trip! I keep telling myself I’m going to create packing lists for all the places we usually go and then pull out the appropriate one every time we go. That would be Very Organized.
Packing was kind of funny. I drew pictures of clothing items on Lucas’s blackboard with a number next to each item. He was bouncing around the house and getting into trouble until I set him on this fun task. I drew short-sleeved shirts, long-sleeved shirts, pants, underpants, toothbrush and paste, hairbrush, pajamas, socks, shoes, his Tidoo doll, etc. He dutifully packed and crossed stuff off the list. It wasn’t until Sunday morning that we discovered he didn’t actually pack pants.
There was a little bit of snow on the ground from a storm on Friday, but it didn’t stick on the roads. It surprised us, as we didn’t have snow boots with us. We took Lucas’s bike up there because the cabin is in a neighborhood with very little traffic. We felt comfortable letting him ride outside in the cul-de-sac without supervision. That made him feel pretty grown-up, I think.
Sunday and Monday were warmer. On Sunday we drove to Pope Beach on the lake and Lucas rode his bike in the deserted parking lot. We walked a loooong way while he rode and discovered a lovely bike trail. It made me want to take bikes up there next time. Asher slept comfortably in his new baby carrier (http://www.ergobabycarrier.com/), which looks like this:
It’s way more comfortable carrying him in this thing than in my sling. He’s just too heavy for the sling’s one-shoulder design if I have to carry him very far or for very long.
Anyway, we picnicked on Pope Beach, which is gorgeous and I can’t understand why I’ve never been there before. Now that I’m older, I realize that all those trips up to the cabin were mostly about hanging out with family and friends, eating good food, and playing in the creek in summer and the snow in winter. We never really explored Tahoe much! It was a beautiful day: warm in the sunshine and chilly in the shade.
After lunch, we hiked a bit up Mt. Tallac—probably an hour and a half. This time, Asher rode in a backpack on Ian’s back. Lucas trudged up the hill and was a great sport about it. He seems to like athletic challenges. I got more exercise that day than I have in a long time. Ian cooked a wonderful pork tenderloin for dinner, which we ate with yams and caesar salad.
On Monday, we went to town and did some shopping. I bought a Christmas present—first of the year. We had all those cabin clean-up tasks to do, though, and those took up a good part of the day. On Sunday night, for various reasons having to do with snoring people and bed-hogging babies, I sneaked upstairs to the spare bedroom and slept three glorious hours. In a row. Alone. By myself. It was pure BLISS.
I worked a bit on several projects while we were there. Ian found me an ISP and a local number and I used dial-up to connect to the Internet. Man, I love my high-speed cable connection!
Although they won’t read this, I’d like to publicly thank RoRo and Nana for hosting our lovely weekend. It was great!
