Emerald Falls

On our last day in Tahoe we decided to do some more hiking. We went to Emerald Falls and then on to another lake. This was by far the hardest hike and the first one the boys had a really hard time on. They were super tired and the hike was rough for Zach. At one point Brady was screaming in the backpack and I'm hiking up boulders carrying a crying Zach. It was sort of a mess. But we all survived and it was really pretty. Plus we ate at the Burger Lounge again after which was totally worth the hiking.

The falls

Grandma Geri and Papa Frank

The best part was this bridge that went right over the falls, so cool!

This kid was grumpy at the top. Everyone went in the lake (at least their feet) except him.

This one was SUPER tired. Of course he fell asleep about 2 min before we got back to the car

checking out the falls

The next morning we left Tahoe and were on to San Francisco!

4th of July

On the 4th of July we were a little leery of heading too far from the cabin because we had heard that Tahoe got super crowded and the traffic got bad. So we did Adam and Tracy's games at the park by our cabin and had lunch there. It ended up being one of the most fun days! Then the big kids did a bike ride while the little kids napped and that night we went back to the same park and got an awesome view of the fireworks. The Tahoe fireworks are the biggest this side of the Mississippi, they were awesome. We hit no traffic and had such a fun day.

Uncle Gregor brought his tee and Zach LOVED hitting off of it. I want to get one now because I hate throwing the ball to him (since I can't throw a ball!)

Maybe by the time they're 10 and 8 I'll be able to get a picture of both of them smiling. But no such luck these days.

We played a bunch of water games like pass the wet sponge over your head

And then Brady played in the buckets of water

A water balloon toss and more water balloon volleyball

Zach was into his throws

Then we had a watermelon eating contest

and decided to let Brady have a try

which was adorable

Zach went for it

and Brady followed suit

finished!

digging in

Uncle Adam took Zach around the park on the trailer bike which he LOVED and still talks about

Fireworks at the park, we ditched Brady with the ones who stayed behind at the cabin since he was asleep

the group on the hillside

the finale, seriously amazing!

Painting shirts

For Grandma Geri and Papa Frank's activity they had t-shirts for the kids to paint. It was a hit, everyone from the 3 year olds to the 14 year olds loved it.

Zach and Cam

Brady didn't paint but had lots of fun running around outside

They also got to paint these little wooden dogs which were another hit

Everyone got in on the fun

The finished products!

Beach Day

We spent one day at the beach on the lake. I liked it because I didn't do much besides sit in my chair and enjoy the amazing views. The "sand" was more like gravel and it did take a toll on our feet. I even took a dip in the frigid lake. It felt good once things warmed up in the afternoon. Our kids were filthy but had such a good time.

Brady really bonded with Grandma Geri. Partly because of her GIANT bag of m&m's but mostly just because she was so cute with him.

Despite the fact that the sand was sort of like gravel over dirt, the kids still had a blast playing in it

The highlight of the day-- water balloon volleyball. There was some craziness and some diving and some people at it. It was fun. So fun we had to repeat it later in the week.

Games

Someone (Aunt Stacy maybe?) had the great idea to have each family be in charge of an activity. This turned out to be a GREAT idea and a good time filler. With all of us in one house it was good to have something going on. Some people did day time activities that sort of shaped how the day was spent and some of us did evening activities which was good to have things to do in the after dinner down time.

We stole Nelson's idea from the last Hansen reunion and did Minute to Win it games. We pretty much just copied their ideas. However, we forgot to take into account the O'Farrell competitive genes. Definitely not as present in the Hansen family the O'Farrells got a little crazy with the games. We had a few casualties.

First Game: keep the balloons in the air
First casualty: pregnant Aunt Jill eats it (no pictures of that)


Game 2: keep the alka seltzer in your mouth. The O'Farrells were crazy with this one! Sick!
Second Casualty: Ashton vomits (no pictures of that either, you're welcome)

Game 3: suck the m&m's up with a straw and make a smiley face
no casualties (phew)

Game 4: cotton balls stuck to nose into cup (do these games have names?)
we were done with casualties once we moved inside



Game 5: cookie face (get the oreo cookie from your forehead to your mouth)
casualty: my thighs (I think I ate 10)

I didn't take pics of aunt Amy's family games probably because I was too busy being beat to death by Autumn in hot potato. It seriously got violent. Those O'Farrells are a crazy bunch! But it's totally contagious.

More to come...

Lake Tahoe, Con't.

2 lakes, so pretty!

Day 1 continued...
After binging on what was probably close to a 5,000 calorie lunch at the Burger Lounge (can you say CHEESE fries, yum!) we decided maybe we needed to do another hike. We headed up to Cascade Falls which proved to be a slightly more difficult hike but the kids still did really well.

No real naps and still a trooper!

Aubrey was ADORABLE with Zach. She was his "hiking buddy" and was so cute, I wanted to take her home with me to be his buddy every day!

Throwing rocks into the river/waterfall (up close we were sort of too close to see the actual waterfall, hence, no pictures)

copying the big kids by gathering rocks and throwing them although in this picture he looks sort of ready to give someone the bird, ha.