Lake Tahoe 2021

 It's been 14 years since we visited Lake Tahoe.

A lot has changed in those 14 years! :)

Like that none of our girls at home actually remember Lake Tahoe. haha

So it was time to go again!

It was a long drive that seemed even longer since we didn't head out til 1 PM. 

But it was totally worth it!

(Lydia and Jadyn were coming home from Girls Camp that day so they got all showered up and we were off.)

We made it to our resort, The Ridge Sierra around 12:30 AM Sunday morning.

So our first event was Church.

We then headed to our first Lake Tahoe Beach... I'm glad we did this one first because it ended up being our least favorite of the week.

POPE BEACH

Fun fact: we saw a news story that 2 weeks before this, a mama bear and her 2 babies had wandered down to this beach and played in the water... surrounded by as many people as were there this day.

The next morning we headed East to CHIMNEY BEACH.  It was a hike down, but we had a fantastic time.  Lots fewer people... there were A LOT of people visiting Lake Tahoe this week!  The parking lots fill up by 8 am and if you don't make it by then, you're parking on the road and walking a LONG way!

"Nails by Kenna" are my favorite nails!

The next morning we headed to a little lake near Lake Tahoe... BARON LAKE.

We were the first ones there.

It was so peaceful and a nice change of pace from busy Lake Tahoe.

Actually pretty spiritual for me... Heavenly Father sure gave us a beautiful world!

We're so glad we brought our paddle boards to Lake Tahoe, cuz we had a lot of fun out on them!

14 years ago we stayed at a sister resort to the one we were at.  That's where our pool was too. So while we were up there for the pool, we wanted to recreate a picture/memory of Kenna... who would sob every time someone in the family got in the elevator without us all together.

I found the exact elevator... except we couldn't find the picture to compare (since I hadn't started blogging yet :))... but it turned out pretty good for guessing!  hahaha

We ate yummy food all week.

Ironically the only restaurant we got a picture at was the place the girls liked the least. hahaha

Shane wanted a hamburger.

These girls did not.

They all ordered fries. ;)

There was plenty of time browsing all the shops at the "Heavenly Resort".

Wednesday we headed to HIDDEN BEACH.

This was my favorite beach.

We really wanted to see a bear.

We didn't see a bear.

Fun Fact:  if you google to learn where to see bear in Lake Tahoe.  You'll learn that, "bears in Lake Tahoe are friendlier than bears other places." hahahahahahaha

We know that bears where close though.  Because every morning the dumpsters were surrounded by torn up bags that they'd pulled out of those HEAVY "bear prove dumpsters". ;)

This was our HUGE "roof top" hot tub.

Keaton and Saige made it Wednesday evening!

We were so happy to have them join us.

They're two happy people that just make everything more fun!

EMERALD BAY

What a gorgeous spot.

Don't let this picture deceive you.

The mile hike down... but mainly back is harder than it looks. haha

(Or possibly I'm just wimpy)

A short walk to "Eagle Falls"

Clearly we're in a drought...

Cuz I remember it a little more like this...

We toured Vikingsholm.

What an amazing history there is behind this house and Emerald Bay.

Fun Fact:  This is Kenna's favorite pictures cuz the wet suit under her coverup is looking awesome! ;)

This is a view from Fannette Island that some of the family paddled out to.

She was pretty proud about being "King of the board"... until she wasn't. ;)

Saige is looking pretty proud of Kenna in this pic though.

It took a while... but Lydia FINALLY made the jump.

For the record... I did as well, and it took me a while too.

We stopped for a few slurpees this week!

Fun Fact: July is free slurpee month.  If you had the app you could get 1 free slurpee in the month.  But they let you do UP to 4 at that same time for free.  So we all got the app.  And went 4 different times... and ended up paying for 2 slurpees + dad's drinks. haha

Thanks 7-11!

Our last morning we headed back to Hidden Beach.

The weather was fabulous all week... we made it to the beach everyday by 8:30 am and it was perfect!

We tried Tahoe Pops...

they were pretty good... but not $20 for those 4 popsicles good...

We spent a lot of time at restaurants and shops at the Heavenly Resort.

We were going to ride the gondala to the top from there.

But here's a not so fun fact:  the cost for ONE ticket was $60.

Yep that's right... to ride a gondola to the top of the mountain... to then pay another $25 for a ride on the  alpine slide + another $25 for the mountain coaster.

What??!!

I'll take my $110 a person and ALMOST get me a day at Disneyland. ;)

We had such a great week.  Lake Tahoe was beautiful.  The weather was perfect.  We were high enough in elevation that the skies were free of smoke from all the fires around.  We had an altogether fantastic time!

The cherry on the top was finding an appointment for baptisms in the Reno Temple.  Now that Lydia is old enough to go it's fun being their altogether.

Such fun memories to add to all the others!