Tahoe '09

Our "Garff Family" vacation began with a stop in Las Vegas, home of Lukey,

Tanner,

Mimi and Pop Pops house,

baby Cooper, Mimi and Pop Pop, Mimi's pool, Uncle Jake and Aunt Ash, my Franklin cousins and tons of Daddy's awesome old toys (including Star Wars!). I didn't get too many pictures but we had a great time. Mimi took care of the kids while I recuperated and visited my cousins and after two busy days we began our ascent to Lake Tahoe!! And we were so excited!

The arrival of everyone was greatly anticipated. You can see here that as the last of the cousins arrived there were CHEERS! It was so dang cute to watch these kids cheer the arrival of Kaymie, Hannah, Julia and Bodie.

Of course seeing Daddy after a week was pleasant too...Georgie couldn't get enough of him for the first few hours.

Here is Joey and his best friend and cousin Rocky. They were able to chat and catch up a lot over the course of the trip. The best part about Tahoe is definitely just being together (okay, okay, I enjoy the massively beautiful trees, the mountains, and the crystal clear water too;)

Hey, what do you know...our cousins like Star Wars too!

And don't forget Aunt Pams AWESOME puppet show tradition! The kids were begging for this for days! And she gave them two performances! We were so glad to be able to have Aunt Pam and Jamie with us.

The Ultimate Event of our trip was attending the sealing of Lizzy to our family. It was so touching and we were so grateful to have been able to have been there for Lizzy and the entire families big day.

Afterward, Kerry treated us all to a Reno buffet, a nice and delicious buffet!

Thanks Pop Pop and Mimi!

The kids piled into one big booth and were alive with silliness. I think I enjoyed watching them have so much fun as much as I enjoyed the yummy food. Something about the jungle decor must have set them off!

No comment neccessary....except Yes, that is the floor.

So, what do we do in Tahoe? The highlight for most everyone is getting up at 7am to hit the smooth as glass, crystal clear water for some water skiing. Most everything else revolves around this activity. This year, the water happened to be smooth even in the late morning so those of us that hate the cold morning (me;) could enjoy skiing as well. This year Uncle Jake and Aunt Ash introduced us all to boat surfing. It was a hit with everyone, even the little kids.

And Isaac even got up on skiis for the first time!

This is for you Isaac:

This was kind of a big deal because he worked through sooo much fear to get out and try this several times before getting up! We were so proud of him for being so brave! I just love hearing my sister-in-law cheering so loudly for him. Isn't that cute how excited she was for her nephew! Gosh I love this family!

Isaac also did some kneeboarding.

And Georgie did too.

Georgie wasn't much for the boat for some strange reason. It took some bribing just to get her on it. You can imagine how much bribing was going on to get her out on the kneeboard! But she seemed to do fine...no tears or anything but also no desire to get out there and do it EVER again!

But that's our girl! We love anyway Gigi P!

Here's a picture from the beautiful hike we went on.

And here's one of the boys being goofy, wearing underwear on their heads. They thought they were so funny. They were;)!

On this particular trip to Tahoe we played on the beach A LOT. Mimi was a trooper in the sand. I think she buried my kids at least three times!

Isaac enjoyed building sandcastles with Hannah.

It was fun to see the different cousin personalities connect. Isaac found a "kindred spirit" in Hannah. They are both the creative, independent, intense type so they really connected. We miss you Hannah banana!

And Georgie fell in love with Cooper:

okay, we all did! Isn't he adorable!

Great kisses G!

Like the cabin in Utah, Tahoe is also like coming home. There are so many memories there. I think, for the Garff family, a spirit of Love is in the air we breathe at Incline Village. It is obvious that it is filled with Garff memories. In a family home evening one night, Rocky and Michelle talked about the legacy of Tahoe and the legacy of Wayne and Jeanette Garff. I wish I had it on video because it really made us all feel grateful to be in this family. Thanks Wayne and Jeanette! I think we'll be talking about you for generations to come! And thanks to all the cousins that continue to make being part of the family so amazing!

We miss you guys already!

Here's to Tahoe 2010!

Christmas...the second time around

 Christmas #2:

Our second Christmas was spent at Lake Tahoe with the Merbacks.  We had a lot of fun doing things and just being together...I guess I'll just let the pictures tell the story!

We did a lot of this:

And this:

(I'm not lying when I say they did a lot of this...i.e. wrestling...when all else fails for two four year old boys, resort to wrestling!)

And this:

And this: (okay, okay...we only built a snowman once;)

And this:

( we woke up to find that the kids had moved their bed underneath the table in the middle of the night)

And this:

(we went to a casino to eat dinner one night and watch the Utah Alabama game.  We had to come home before it was over to put the kids to bed and guess what they guys were doing while the girls put the kids to bed!...GO UTAH!)

And this:

(Dancing together)

And this:

(Isaac set himself up with a book before the fire...see, it just comes naturally!)

Yes and this too!

We even helped Meems in the kitchen!

No family vacation is complete without banging our silverware on the table and chanting 

"Feed me NOW!"

Oh yes, we did all of these things but we did even more.  I have no pictures of Isaac tearing up the bunny hill at Diamond Peak!  He was such a great skier.  Joey and I were so proud of his good little attitude and his ability to snow plow and even make some turns in the span of one day!  I enjoyed skiing with him more than I enjoyed skiing the black diamonds!  Another great day we spent at the Rec Center swimming and then playing some fun games in a deserted aerobics room.  We played Dodge ball, soccer....ummm I can't remember what else...But whatever it was it was fun!

And yes...once again we are grateful!  But just let me say my peace and move on!  We are so grateful for family!  Mimi and Poppop provided us with a great vacation and Bob and Laurie provided us with the perfect, cozy little cabin!  Thanks to all.  My favorite thing about the Merback family is that we talk.  We talk for hours and hours about politics, relationships, people, parenting, problems, sports and all of the above.  I came home more tired than before because we stayed up so late almost every night just talking.  Thanks for talking to me guys!  I miss you already!