Tahoe Encore

Two weekends, one lake - I love the summer. This weekend the whole family traveled up to Tahoe. Bless Brieanne and Brandon for pretending to be sardines and squeeze in with us on the drive to and from the lake. The weather was a bit more predictable this weekend - no thunderstorms and little cloud cover. We remembered to get the chips so we didn't have to play poker with matchsticks.








Josh was giving Claire an early start in long boarding.


Brieanne and Brandon hanging in the kayak. This was Brieanne's first time kayaking.




Look at that synchronization! Teamwork! Good job dad!


Kayaking at Angora lakes, no Claire did not go out on the Kayak with us.




Angora Lakes hike


A rare snooze in the beco after an afternoon playing on the beach.


Brieanne decided she liked Claire's swimsuit better than her own. Fortunately for Claire, Brieanne has big knees.


Brieanne and Brandon enjoying a beach beverage.


An afternoon walk on the beach with Auntie B.




A tender moment with dad.


A mom moment at the beach.


Claire, you've just been awarded "Super baby" of the year, how do you feel?





I think this was hour four in the car (should have been a three and a half hour trip) and we were nowhere near home. This is Claire's "I'm so tired, are we there yet?" face.

Lake Tahoe...my summer get away

It has been years since I was at the Lake during a thunderstorm. I had to settle for a few thunder claps and some clouds. It was enough though and it didn't scare Claire which was a plus. I spent the weekend relaxing with my parents. Josh had to stay home and get some work done.



This is Claire's goat cheese face. She LOVES her goat cheese.



Claire gnawing on a piece of french bread...







My dad taught my mom and I a few variations of poker but since the chips were in the room Claire was napping in, we had to settle for match sticks.







We took a nature walk at Taylor's creek. Such beautiful scenery.





My mom got to practice her narrating skills for school on Claire. Claire was enthralled.

Coupons

If you talk with Josh for very long about me he will inevitably bring up my love of thrifty sense of shopping and budgeting. I don't deny that I love a good deal and by good deal I mean something for a great price that was on my list of needs, not my list of wants.

Recently a couple of friends of mine have enlightened me to a couple of coupon websites that I had not known about before and I thought I would share them here.

• CouponCravings
• Money Saving Mom
• Retail Me Not

I was also alerted to a new program safeway offers. Safeway grocery stores now allow you to upload coupons to your safeway club card! How awesome is that, now with a swipe of the card you get the store savings as well as the coupons you've uploaded.

I also discovered this week that my favorite diapers for Claire also have coupons from the corporate website. Seventh Generation has coupons for many of their products including their chlorine free diapers!

If you have any other tips for coupons and money saving, I'd love to hear it! Happy shopping!

Visiting with Grandpa & Grandma Smith

Josh's parents came into town for a visit. While Josh worked, we went to the Solano County Fair courtesy of my grandma. Thanks Grandma!
Claire got to meet these little piglets, she was fascinated by them.Janice and Claire watched the splash dogs jump into their pool.Janice and Claire checking out the baby chicks.Does anybody remember the wuzzles? This bunny reminded me of them. If there was ever a cross between an owl and a rabbit, this is what it would look like.If any of you had any questions about Claire and teeth, let this smile answer it all for you. Nothing but the gums!On Saturday we visited the Lindsey Wildlife Museum. Josh had some passes because he's brought in a number of animals to their hospital. I hadn't been there since elementary school.Josh and Claire watching the bobcat get his food.Claire got a fire engine to play with. She and grandma were checking out all the bells and whistles on it.I've been wanting to cook fish this summer because I love it but I'm just not brave enough. So, I got up the courage to watch Janice cook fish. We had a lemon dill salmon recipe from Sunset Magazine. I thought it was delicious.

Sunday Josh ran in the San Francisco half marathon with my sister, Brandon and Brieanne's friend Tatiana. After their race, we explored Golden Gate park. Claire also got to meet Brieanne & Brandon's kitties, Ben and Stu. Unfortunately we don't have any photo evidence. Ben, true to character was standoffish and hissy (literally) and Stu, while curious about Claire, kept his distance.


Family picnic by the windmill. No better way to end a busy day than a dip in the pool, especially when the temperatures are in the 90s.