Family Vay-Cay

Well, I don’t think I’ll get our whole vacation synopsis posted all at once, but we’ll see how far I can get tonight.

We left on a Saturday morning, and drove 5-ish hours to David’s sister’s (Rob and Jennifer) house in southern CA. His parents and sister Allison also came by, and we had a nice BBQ, and watched all the kiddos play. Shayla loved having cousins to play with, and she loved swinging on the swingset and sliding down the slide. I was hoping to postpone that purchase a couple more years, but we may need to get one sooner than planned. Lydia gave all the adults a hula hoop lesson, and we got a lot of laughs from our failures, and from Grandpa’s attempts to hula hoop. (I’m lame and have no pictures of this. David did get one on his phone which is now dead from Shayla slobber).

It was just a short overnight stay (free bed and see family at the same time…can’t beat it!). We left early the next morning to head out to Lake Tahoe. It was about an 8 hour drive. We kept seeing signs on the side of the road that said chains were required, even though we didn’t see any sign of snow near us. We finally stopped somewhere and bought some “just in case.” As we started climbing up the mountain pass on the way into Tahoe, it did start snowing, but chains were not necessary. They were cheap, so we’ll keep them for any other “just in cases” in the future. There was some pretty scenery along the way. We saw Mt. Whitney, and stopped and ate our lunch outside at the visitor’s center there.

When we made our reservations a couple months previous, we checked the weather at this time of year to see how cold it got, and if it would be snowing at all. Average high was about 70 degrees. Perfect getaway from Phoenix. Well, as we did our last minute planning and checked the weather, we found out that it was supposed to snow almost the whole time we were going to be there. Awesome. (While it dropped down to the 70’s in Phoenix. It seems like all the good weather here happens when you go out of town).

We checked into our room, grabbed some groceries, and got ourselves unpacked and settled in. Not a bad view from our balcony, huh?

This is taken from the parking lot where we stayed, and is the gondola up to Heavenly ski resort. We were hoping to be able to do the ride up, but it doesn’t open until Memorial weekend. Boo.

Unfortunately our first full day up there ended up being a bit of a waste. We got talked into doing the 55-minute timeshare presentation for a $75 gift card. They swore to us it would only be 55 minutes. It was a least 3 hours. So not worth doing on your vacation, unless you get your whole stay for free. We did take Shayla outside to walk around the marina a little bit. It didn’t matter to her how cold it was. The kid just loves being outside and running around. Can’t you just see it in her face?

Playing in the sand. It didn’t bother her one bit that she had it in her shoes.

Another view of Lake Tahoe and the mountains. I think we only got about a day and a half where we actually had clear skies.

Family picture in front of the resort. It’s the back actually. Whatever.

Not sure what this was supposed to be, but we couldn’t pass up a picture with our name on it could we?

Another day we took a trip up to Donner Pass and the visitor’s center there. There is a really poorly made film (slideshow really), that is probably well over 30 years old, but it did it’s job and told the story. There are also some artifacts in the museum as well.

 This is the memorial statue thingy. It is supposed to be 22 ft up to where the people are standing, which is how deep the snow got that year.

 All bundled up. Poor kid. We live in AZ, and we do not own warm jackets for little kids that grow out of them in a couple of months. We tried to keep her as warm as we could, but the gloves, hat, and blanket never stayed on for very long.

  This rock was the side of one of the cabins that they built for their stay. We were a little confused how they got to this if the snow was 22 ft. deep??

Donner Lake. We sat in front of this lake and ate our lunch in the car, pondering what it would have been like to have been here that winter starving and freezing. As you can see from the pictures, it was snowing and cold, and it was the middle of May. I can’t imagine what it would have been like for these people here in the middle of the winter, especially a winter that was one of the harshest ever.

Time for bed. To be continued…

11-11-11??

Probably not. So, as most reading this have probably already heard, we are expecting another little Snow. My due date is December 3. Shayla was a week early, so I’m hoping maybe if I eat enough on Thanksgiving, we can get this little guy out at least a week early. What I’m really hoping for though is an 11-11-11 baby. 3 weeks early is probably pushing it, but I can still hope. Let’s be honest, though. The hospitals are going to be packed that day with scheduled c-sections and inductions and such. I would be much better off on another day.

I’m thinking it’s gonna be a boy this time around because this pregnancy is a lot different than my last. I am nowhere near as nauseous, and have not thrown up much at all. I still have a problem with the prenatal vitamins, but I can at least get them down. With Shayla, I threw up everytime. I threw up brushing my teeth. I threw up at the thought of eating a meal. With Shayla, I started feeling sick within a couple of days of finding out I was pregnant. With this one, it really didn’t start until about 8 weeks. My sickness is not so much nauseous, but just headaches and general feeling icky. I’m definitely tired though. That hasn’t changed. Between the ickiness and the tiredness, it can be hard to motivate myself to get much done. I will admit the house hasn’t been cleaned much in the last couple months. :) Even still, I’m a whole lot better off than I was with Shayla. I think it helps that I’m not working 10 hour days on my feet either. It’s nice to be able to lay down and take a nap with Shayla on days when I’m not feeling so great.

The other big difference is that with Shayla I didn’t break out the whole pregnancy, and for several months after she was born. Along with that, my hair stopped shedding during that time too. My bathroom floors were much cleaner. Not the case this time. Still breaking out. Still losing hair. I’m hoping maybe that will still stop? We’ll see. Those were the only benefits of pregnancy (except the baby at the end of course), and it would be a shame to lose those.

I’m seeing a different Dr., and will deliver at a different hospital this time since we’ve moved across town. We’re actually less than 10 minutes away from the hospital. It’s the same company as where Shayla was delivered, and I’ve heard good things about this particular hospital.

I had an appointment at 10 weeks, which is about the earliest they can hear the baby’s heartbeat. It is often too early depending on the baby’s position. We were lucky, and after a few minutes of searching, we were able to pick up the little one’s heartbeat. It always makes me feel better, knowing that the baby is still growing.

Photos

These were supposed to be Shayla’s 12 month photos, but our “usual” photographer had just had a baby, and I had a hard time finding someone in a price range that we could afford. They ended up being 14 month photos instead.

Can I rant a bit? Why are so many photographers so unwilling to give digital copies of photos? It’s the digital age peeps. Get with the times. I get that it USED to be that that’s how the only way they made their money. I get that photographers spend a lot of time editing the photos. That’s fine. What we are paying photographers for now is for the time (and expertise of course). Charge the session fee accordingly. We take pictures to preserve memories, and in an era where it’s so easy to preserve digitally, I don’t get why photographers won’t let you do that. How could I share these photos with family and friends here, or on Facebook, if they don’t let me have the digital copies? One photographer that I looked at wanted you to buy $800 worth of prints before you got digital copies. I can’t afford that. Another made you pay $25 for every digital file you wanted. Can’t afford that either unless I only want to keep one or two photos. Another photographer wouldn’t give digital files because she felt like you couldn’t appreciate how wonderful her work was unless it was printed from a good lab and not Costco. I understand that more expensive labs are going to produce higher quality results, but if you do good work, it will still look good printed at Costco. And the affordability of Costco will allow me to print and display more of your work than if I were to pay $80 for every 8x10 I wanted.

That’s my rant. I just want digital copies of my pictures so I can actually preserve them for a lifetime, and be able to share them with others. Anyway, after some searching, we finally found someone who did just that. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the show…

I just love the look on her face in this photo.

This is one of my very favorites.

All Shayla wanted to do the whole time was to run around and play. It was very hard to get her to stay still long enough to get photos. Poor girl doesn’t know what it’s like to play in grass. You can see by the look on her face how much fun she was having.

She was also obsessed with the dirt, but what kid isn’t?

Another one of my faves.

What little girl doesn’t look adorable in a hat?"

 

That’s all folks.