Carson City

The boys and I went up to my dad's house in Carson City for about 10 days, to see him, my sister Emily and brother Brent. My sister-in-law Erica came in from Texas with my nephew Dallin, and neice Bailey, and my grandma went up from the Bay Area, my brother Brian came up for the weekend (married to Erica). My aunt, Maryjo, rents a cabin at Lake Tahoe every summer, so we went to the beach for the 4th of July. The boys had an amazing time playing with their cousin and basking in being loved by my dad and grandma. We went to Virginia City and rode the train, visited my good friends Tammie and Becky, walked the Lake Tahoe Nature Trail, played at the park, ate 7 lbs of chocolate cake and 6.5 lbs. of apple pie over the course of 5 days between 5 people, went to dollar scoop Tuesdays at Baskin Robbins, chased Steve the cat, enjoyed fireworks, visited our old ward from when we lived there, E went to the movies with dad and grandma. The boys spent every evening playing outside until bedtime (most of the time clothing was optional for M and Dallin) and eating popsicles, chasing the dog, squirting her with a squirt guns (hooray for the $1 store!), playing water-balloon toss, running through sprinklers. It was everything summer is supposed to be for little boys. It was so nice to be with my sister and sister-in-law, we laughed and laughed and ate lots of 'sensible' pieces of pie, I taught them the joy of pazookie and So-You-Think-You-Can-Dance. It was a perfect vacation, much needed. My dad's health is not great anymore, he's had to go on dialysis, so it is important to to me be sure my boys have as many good memories with him as possible, and I think I accomplished that with this trip. Here are lots and lots of pictures.

These two pics are to show how being outside playing with boys for long periods of time gently morph one into The Lord of the Flies, the one below show a small sprig of grass adorning the crown.

Ahh, summer perfection.