ATV Day

Between our lake days, we decided to do a forest exploration day in ATVs. We rented 3 four-seater side by sides up near Truckee and explored some ATV trails. We split up into 3 groups and hit the trails. We put Danny, Alyssa, Tyler, and Tommy in the lead so they could navigate for us. Danny and Alyssa took turns driving their ATV. Brian, Robbie, Camden, and Katherine were in the 2nd ATV, Brian and Robbie took turns driving that one. Maryn, Laura, Ashley, and Lydia were in the 3rd ATV. Maryn and Laura mostly drove, but we let Ashley have some time behind the wheel as well. 

At first, we got lost and were unable to find the correct trail. We ended up on a motorbike dirt track and one of the ATV's got stick on a steep little hill. But once we got it off the hill with some pushing and maneuvering, and had explored all other options, we came back to the same area and learned that we just barely missed the turn off that connected us to the correct trail. Once we were on the trail, we drove over to the closest lake. We got out and stretched and the kids threw rocks in the water.

Then we headed up a small incline to some shade and sat in the pine needles to eat lunch.

After lunch, we headed over to lake number 2. It was so blue. Again, we parked and got out to stretch and throw rocks.

We took some pictures here as well.

After this lake stop, we decided to go find some fun/pretty trails to drive.

These flowers with the big leaves were all over the place.

On one of our quick stops, Tommy tried out the drivers seat.

As the day went on, we learned why it was better to be in the lead car then the other 2. We spent the day eating a lot of dust.

And it showed on our faces.

Tyler was in the lead car and I was not. I am just glad that I had sunglasses because they at least kept most of the dirt out of my eyes.

But I didn't want to be the navigator, either, so thankfully a nice, long shower was able to fix the dirt.

It was a really fun day and towards the end of the day we let all of the little kids have a turn in the front seat with one of the teenage drivers. The river crossing was especially fun so we did that quite a few times.

We were supposed to have the ATV's until 7pm, but the owners cut our day short by a couple of hours and requested them back at 5. It worked out because I think most of us were done by 5 and ready for dinner.

Boating on Lake Tahoe

We rented a boat and a sit-down jet ski one of the days that we were in Lake Tahoe. It was a full day of water fun. The lake was pretty cold, so that ones that ended up in the water were pretty unfortunate. But the weather outside of the lake was perfect. We rented an innertube along with the boat and almost everyone took a turn on it.

Ashley and Katherine

Danny and Alyssa. Alyssa is terrified of deep water, so we were pretty impressed with her not only getting on the boat, but also taking a turn on the innertube and the jet ski.

Camden, Katherine, and Tyler. These three ended up in the water on this run. We decided not to try 3 at a time after that. They fell in before it even really started going.

Tyler and Camden

Laura and Camden

Robbie

Robbie, Tyler, and Ashley were definitely the bravest on the innertube. I think they all got up to 30+ mph and took some pretty big jumps during their rides.

We also had fun hanging out on the boat.

The front of the boat was the warmest spot since it was in the sun. Anyone that got wet went here to hang out for a bit afterwards.

Alyssa and Ashley both took turns driving the boat in addition to Danny and Brian. They had a lot of fun with it.

The jet ski was fun. We rented it for 4 hours. It was kind of a pain switching off for it though because the people we rented the boat from made us call them out to dock the boat for us anytime we wanted to get to the dock, so that required a lot of trips for them out to our boat while we had the jet ski. We ended up splitting into 5 groups of 2 and after the first group of 2 that took it out for an hour. The rest of us got off the boat in groups of 4 and split and hour and a half between the 2 groups of 2. It worked out and everyone had a chance to ride the jet ski that wanted to. We happened to go by Ashley and Danny on the jet ski while we were on the boat, so this is the only pic I got of the jet ski.

It was a fun day and everyone was worn out from the sun and being on the water all day. We all went to bed early that night.

Donner Memorial Park and Truckee

On the first full day of our trip, we went up to Donner Memorial Park. There was a visitors center there that we walked through and learned about the Donner Party and what they suffered.

After the museum we joined a walking tour with one of the Rangers. He took us to some of the cabin sites and the memorial in the area. There was an event that day and one of the booths was giving out snow cones, so we stopped to learn about the difference between shaved ice and bigger pieces of ice and why that made a difference for the Donner party. And then we got to enjoy a snow cone.

The littles were a little bored with the tour, but they had some nice rocks to play on.

I broke off from the tour towards the end because these kids were bored. There was a little trail that went through some greenery. The mosquitos were bad, though, so we didn't take our time walking through the area.

We waited by the memorial. They claimed that the snow was as tall as the stones on this pedestal, but the tour guide shot that theory down saying even in a record-breaking snowfall year, it hasn't even made it more than half that height. They should probably change the plaque.

Ashley found a bug on the trail and the little guy entertained her until the rest of the group caught up to us.

Then we took a picture and decided to try and drive over to Donner Lake. But when we got over there, there was no parking and we realized that we had to pay to enter the beach are. So we headed into Truckee instead.

They had this portable jail set up in the parking lot of Donner Memorial Park, but we visited the real think in Truckee.

The kids got locked in the cell.

After the jail, we went to eat at Jax on the Tracks. It was an hour wait though, so we walked around the shops a little before eating.

We found this cute little bookstore and stopped inside to look around.

The kids found a favorite book and sat down to read for a bit. It was a nice, air-conditioned place to wait so that was good for them.

Dinner at the diner was good and everyone was in a much better mood after eating.

We found a park in the city to play at for a while. We also took a football and frisbees. It had the cutest little train track around the playground. We found out that we missed the mini running train by a couple of hours (it is only open every other weekend for a few hours).

The kids had fun playing though. We headed back to the cabin when everyone got bored there.