adventures at the lake

Our first big family trip of the summer took us to Donner Lake.

This time the snow was melted and we were looking forward to a break from the hot weather, lots of family time



 and fishing.

Peter picked out his own fishing pole and had his first experience putting it in the water,

it only lasted about 2 minutes and then he was off to mess with Hannah's pole.

Which, of course, earned a big "NO" reaction from her 

(a much more patient, serious fisherwoman).

life on the dock

 

Our third day there Matt reeled in a Mackinaw Trout

 

 His biggest catch to date - 18.5 inches long and 2 1/2 lbs

 

 

(just for scale - no we definitely did not eat it like this)

Four days into our trip our friends' the Seitz's came up and joined us.

The kids had a blast playing in the cold water,

 watching the Canadian geese swim past them

 A "cheese" smile for the camera.

Roasting marshmallows for S'mores was of course a highlight

This was Joshie's first s'more

I'm pretty sure he enjoyed it!

As did the rest of the little people.

When two families are sharing one cabin and this sweet little face wakes up super early,
 it means a 6:30am coffee date with mommy.

Wild Cherries Coffeehouse in Truckee has great coffee 

and absolutely delicious blueberry scones!

The weather unfortunately turned extremely cold and we exchanged beach life for throwing rocks in the lake.

Peter was pretty excited about it!

 Our friends' went home and we entertained ourselves with Toby's tricks:

Jumping over both kids

and going through a Hannah-Peter tunnel

With the sun out again we were off to explore Stampede Lake - a lake you have to 

off road 1/2 mile to reach

more rocks

splash!

 And yes, I was on this vacation (not just behind the camera)

and I joined in on the rock throwing fun

and if you're wondering about the bump on the front of me - 

yes, next year on our Donner Lake vacation there will be three little Robbins' kids holding on to me!

(I'm pregnant)

yes, we are having fun

Just in case you are wondering - yes we are having fun in Kauai!

This about sums it up:

sand  everywhere

lots of rest

snorkeling in the water

crazy hats

beautiful sunsets

great family time

(p.s. so glad we have a grammy with us!)

relax

A couple of weeks ago I got time off from being a mom, a wife, a house cleaner, a personal shopper, a diaper changer, a face washer, a gardener, a sleep trainer and so much more - to just go & relax!

Here's how I spent it:

beautiful scenery

delicious food

good friends

Can we do this again next weekend?

one last tidbit

(one last tidbit from our road trip)

The last stop of our road trip was Fresno to visit our friends the Jones'!

We have a lot in common with these guys:

Cameron & Matt were fraternity brothers and traveled to Egypt together.

JR & I were college roommates and traveled to West Africa together.

Addy & Hannah were born 8 days apart and look fairly identical with their blonde, curly hair!



We stopped just long enough to have dinner and dance party with them!
To see the girls doing flips with their daddys' check out the Jones' blog:

http://teamjones.tumblr.com/post/1001928185/we-had-the-extreme-pleasure-of-hosting-the-robbins#comment-75161133

more from LA

(this is more from our first trip to LA. part of that 1,800 mile vacation with two children)

In addition to a playful bath with Grammie (see previous posts), Peter got to meet his Aunt Hope for the first time. He's already decided he loves her and like to snuggle with her.

We got a brief but fun visit with Aunt Liz and Uncle Craig!

And we celebrated my mom's big birthday!

I won't tell you which one it is - but she's 30 years older than me!

To celebrate, we enjoyed a fancy lunch party in downtown LA at the California Club.

(okay, so the noisemakers weren't the fancy part of it, but they were fun)

Thanks to Aunt Lucinda for planning the whole thing!

Incidentally, Hope and I wore matching dresses without even trying - can you tell we're sisters?

best part of mom's "many" years = her family!