Ok guys, there is something truly beautiful about tall, encompassing trees, filthy dirty little baby feet, the sound of freedom's echo through a campsite, the feeling of cold, clear water on your skin after a day in the hot sun, and the comfort of a hot chocolate made on the fire while you watch the stars from your tent with your loved ones.

This week our family spent some time doing all of these things! On Monday morning, we headed out to South Lake Tahoe. After one stop and a 4 hour drive, we made it to our beautiful campsite amidst the beautiful trees and meadows. After setting up and letting the girls run out some of that wild car energy, we made the 5 minute trek to Pope Beach for some fun in the sun. It was the perfect weather, not to hot or cold, and the water was calm and shallow for miles-it was such a change up from the gorgeous, but treacherous beaches we're used to here, where you have to watch the kids like a hawk to makes sure the waves don't take them out. Here, the girls could be free and play wherever they wanted. After several hours of relaxing and playing here, we headed back to campsite to build our fire and cook our foil dinners. The girls we're able to explore and play freely, and it was such a nice chance to disconnect.





We woke up bright and early the next day with the sunshine glaring at us through the tent and our trees, made a big campfire breakfast and headed back out. Our first stop of the day was the beautiful Sand Dune Beach. Technically, this crosses the California Nevada line, but for the 45 minute drive it was worth to say the least. This beach boasted the same calm, gorgeous, kid friendly water the other did, but had even more stunning views of the mountains and trees surrounding the crystal clear blue lake. We spend half of our day here, playing in the water, building sand castles, talking and just hanging out. It doesn't sound like much, but I will always remember it as one of the best, most simply perfect days that we've had as a family. Eventually, we pulled ourselves away from the beach for a late lunch over in Heavenly where we stopped for lunch before taking the Gondola up for the views. If you are not afraid of heights, I would recommend it. No matter where you turn, there is something awe inspiring, and you almost can't take all the beauty in. The girls called it flying, and that is indeed what it felt like. At the top of the mountain, we stopped to play at the little park before heading back down for ice cream and the drive back. After more campfire, dinner and outdoor play we headed back to bed to read and sing the girls to sleep before hanging out just the two of us till we crashed.















Our last morning we woke up and let the girls run wild while Lester cooked breakfast and we cleaned up the campsite. Bittersweet, even for such a short vacation, but still good to think of sleeping in our beds haha. The campsite we stayed at was called Fallen Leaf campground and had its own private lake accessible for campers. So far, we hadn't even had time to check this one out, so we did so before leaving. It amazes me how different, but equally gorgeous all of these different spots here are. Lester and I are determined to some day get rich enough to get a time share up here-all the houses had private docks for their canoes and swimming, and it looked like a blast. Before heading home, we also stopped at the gorgeous Emerald Bay where you can see where the glacier broke through to create it, and the Vikingsholm Castle Trailhead.

Now that the mini apocalypse is over in this here house, we have gotten back to filling our weeks with outside time, preschool and learning, and a healthy dose of chores. Still, we've definitely packed in some fun. Here are the high lights!

Unlike typical Pacifica summers, we have had quite a few clear, warm days here. While I personally love me some fog, it has been a nice change up and we have had some amazing views and walks as a result. Our latest ones were over the old Devil's slide road and Mori Point where my Mom found several wild rabbits heading home every night around sunset. We've also found some new [to us anyways] views over by Battery Crosby Road [by way of Land's End] and a few other ones. I think the kids favorite was probably the Discovery Museum in Sausalito though. SO much fun, so creative and interactive with the gorgeous bridge backdrop and great weather. Seriously, one of my favorite days-why can't Lester be off all the time, am I right?!?



























We have also been hitting up our usual hot spots of the zoo, the Academy and the parks. Doesn't matter how many times we do these, we always have fun and learn something new. Luckily, our friends and the girls seem to enjoy it as much as we do. We've also visited with Lolo & Lola here and there of course. All of this has been great!











We also had a chance to catch up with some of my Mom's side of the family when we met up in Santa Cruz for a beach day. The girls loved hanging with their cousins almost as much as I did and it was so fun having Lester around to play catch with and get to know everyone better. Our little family went to the Boardwalk afterwards by ourselves and we were impressed with how many fun rides they had for the girls. We also loved the food and reminiscing about all the good memories and people we used to hang out with there.














Like I said earlier, apart from this its been regular life as we know it, with preschool and learning and chores. It is such a joy watching and helping our girls develop each new skill, and we are always amazed at how much they seem to figure out themselves. They are amazing girls, and we are so lucky to be a party of their journey. Isla is now a full fledged walking machine [she goes Frankenstein style with both arms out and we love it] and has quite the sense of humor, trying to make jokes and silly faces, and copying her sister and singing and dancing. Addy knows everything from her alphabet, colors, shapes, numbers and of course, all of this with a healthy dose of hilarity and attitude. She likes to tell us jokes and secrets, and is working on processing and developing her emotions a bit, as expected, but its kind of nice having her being a little more attached then usual. She also finally has enough hair to do ponytails and braids. We love our ladies!



We still have a ton of fun stuff coming up, and we are coming up on our 5 year wedding anniversary next week. Such an incredibly blessed, wonderful life we are living right now. So that's our update for these days-until next time!