This weekend was the 2nd Fowler family reunion where all siblings were able to make it to play together. We started the trip out on a high after Soleil officially became ours, legally and fully documented. She's our bonafide daughter now. We left Orange County around 6 pm on Thursday and rode the rush hour traffic wave north until about 10:30 PM. We stopped at some podunk gas station oasis on the 5 North and made camp at a Best Western Plus. The "Plus" seemed to be applied to the price of the room. Soleil had a bit of a rough night because we weren't able to bring a Pack 'n' Play so she slept in bed with us. We all kind of tossed and turned until 7 AM.
We hopped back on the road, had some good conversation, finally made it to South Lake Tahoe around 2 PM. Funny, we ended up in another Best Western, but a nice one. Our room was right on the beach. We checked into the room and went out exploring. Soleil even had her first encounter with standing in the waves, which she didn't seem to care for all that much.
The whole family met up around 5:30 PM for some dinner over at Mike and Laura's place. I can't believe how big their kids have grown. Burke looks like a little Mike. The kids all went nuts over Soleil. There might have been some pinching by me to Burke. He's fun to tease. And Bailey looks like a little teenager. We had a killer burger and Liz bought a huge Chocolate malt. Then it was off to bed after some hot tubbing at the hotel, for Soleil. Liz and I stayed up and watched The Hunger Games on my laptop. We only made it about half way, then we fell asleep. And thinking about that movie kept me up a lot of the night. The concept was kind of scary, and the movie presented it very well.
So on to the next day. The plan turned in to going up to Sand Harbor Beach. This was actually a really fun beach to play at. There were tons of big rocks just sitting in the water which made for great makeshift diving boards. I figure we got about 10 ft high.
Later we met the family, minus Mike G. and the kids, at an overrated placed called Riva Grill. Was way too expensive and I was bummed we didn't get to eat as a whole family. But I'm finding you do what you can when you have kids. We grabbed some ice cream on the way home, sat with Michael and Liz and talked, watched the twilight after sunset, then I finished The Hunger Games movie. Loved it.
For the next day, we tested out my mom and dad's endurance in the hiking arena. We met up early after eating breakfast at the Red Hut Cafe with everyone. Michael and Liz left after that to go home. But the rest of us headed on over to Vikingsholm for a nice little hike. The water at the bottom was some of the bluest I've seen, and reminded Liz of Bora Bora. I jumped in and swam and even bought a water off some kids hanging out by a boat at the pier. After that , Soleil lost it and cried really hard. I ran up the trail to get her some formula and start the A/C for my mom and dad. Liz stayed with them as they hiked up the trail in the heat. It was hot. After the hike, we separated ways for a few hours so that Soleil could sleep and Liz and I could hang out at our hotel beach. I think our beach was the best out of all the hotel beaches. It was very blue and clean.
We eventually met back up with the family for pizza at Mike and Laura's place. The kids were fun and wild. It's fun seeing how much they've all grown up. After that we took my dad to the grocery store to get some road trip goodies for him. Then Liz and I put Soleil down for bed, watched Brave in bed together, and then we tried to sleep. Soleil had other plans though and made Liz hold her all night. I actually slept pretty well, so I know Liz did a great job holding her.
And now, here it is morning on the last day and we're all packed up. I'm finishing up this blog entry and Liz is running stuff out to the car. And I think we're off. It was a fun reunion trip.
And that's the end.
1 comments:
awesome trip. HEY mark!
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