More of the California fun

Friday we went to South Lake Tahoe and it was gorgeous!
During the drive up, I heard Andrew tell one of his cousins that "This isn't an everyday thing for me." : ) (No, not when you are a Floridian!)

This is Emerald Bay. You can't tell from this picture but the water is this pretty greenish color that reminds you of the Bahamas! Beautiful!!!

At the bottom of the mountain is Vikingsholm, a small castle built for a wealthy woman to summer in, in the late 1930's. She even had a 'tea house' on an island in the bay!

My hubby's brother caught some photos of a BEAR that was poking around near the restrooms!

Here we are on the hike down, which was pretty fun.

Then came the hike back up. Let's just say, it couldn't have been 1.7 miles. Everyone we saw said that couldn't be true. One man measured it on his pedometer and he said that just part of the way was 2.2 miles. All I could do was gasp out a hearty "Amen" to that because I thought I just might pass out! I had to laugh when M said "I take it you aren't exercising anymore?" : ) True, but I'm going to blame it on the altitude and thin air! Don't ya think that's a good excuse since we live below sea level and the elevation was over 7,000 feet!!! Well, it works for me! -Now, don't ask me how the rest of my below sea level-living family handled it....LOL! (I'll have to get back to jogging)

Saturday was Uncle P's birthday and the kids decorated the house for the Napoleon Dynamite party. 'Vote for Pedro' signs were everywhere. We all watched the movie again. Then the cousins acted out their own scenes from the movie using a Napoleon wig and glasses from the party store... They made some really cute videos with Nathan's Flip Video. So funny!!!! Maybe I'll get savvy and see if I can post one here on the blog.

Sunday we went to church and then relaxed. We also extended the birthday fun into that evening when we eventually had a good time with the Tina the Llama (once a unicorn) pinata. And since this was a testosterone loaded event, Tina became an archery target before she was busted open for the candy. : )

Monday we had some field trips to take! My sister-in-law is a home school mom too.

~Who knew they lived 20 minutes from where gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill! I was so excited. Don't you home school moms get a thrill out of studying something and then seeing it in person with your kids?! I LOVE that! So, we headed off to Coloma to see the museum, the mill and the American River. Here's James Marshall looking mighty well at 260 yrs. old. (ha ha) His discovery of gold started the California gold rush!

Since we were still on a Napoleon kick, my hubby told us all to do a "Kip pose." : )

Next stop was the Jelly Belly Factory for a tour!~But first we had to drop off my hubby and Zach who could not be talked into that field trip! : )
And don't ask Nathan what he thought of the drive! (It was longer than we expected, lets just say that!) But, we ended up having a great time!
Who knew they had "gag flavors?" Such as toothpaste and vomit. We didn't try those.
But we found out that 2 blueberries and one popcorn jelly bean equal something that resembles a blueberry muffin...or maybe it was blueberry popcorn!? Anyway, pretty yummy. And we brought home a 4 lb. bag of 'Belly Flops." -Cute name for the deformed ones. Or as somebody said 'the ones that fell on the ground." LOL!

The next stop: San Francisco...

~Becky