i know it’s been a long hiatus, but i thought i’d jump in with highlights from our awesome trip to california. thanks, jon and kate for getting us out there!
playing in Donner Lake in Truckee, California
rehearsal ready and color-coordinating with the bride and groom
the view from Glacier Way
the funniest wedding reading i’ve ever heard by nick i. what a trip!
kate and jon with all the kiddos before they melted down. kate looked gorgeous and radiant, and jon was as handsome as could be. 
benjamin really liked grandma’s flowers. how they survived the night after he was playing with them is beyond me. both boys liked cutting a rug, and had fun with mommy and auntie lou.
look, benjamin is still trying to woo kate. do you think it’s working? jon had high praise for his ring-bearing nephews, even if they didn’t follow their designed route for the ceremony.
the view from the top. literally. what a sight from the ritz carlton at the top of the northstar gondola. so glad jon suggested we take the trip. it was great!
a day trip after the wedding (3 hours round trip) got us to emerald bay in lake tahoe. it is picturesque and popular. benjamin missed the entire trip. he was asleep about 5 minutes into the drive and woke up as we were coming back into truckee (although it was a great nap for him!). jasper was awake for portions, and got to throw rocks into the lake in tahoe city. rubicon bay has amazing, unreal really, striations of blue in the water.
after so many hours in the car, we needed to stretch our legs and enjoyed a quick hike to the donner lake overlook at glacier way (the wedding site).
jasper loved looking at all the tractor trailers on I-80 below and talking about how small they looked even though he knows they are soooo big.
as the early evening shadows grew long, we headed back to our home away from home in tahoe donner for dinner with the extended family. jasper was tired by this point and wiped out royally at one point – but still finished the hike. what a strong trooper. we’ve found if we play i-spy it really helps keep him moving. or we count to see how long it takes for him to run and catch up to us.
but a bath makes all things new, and makes the boys ready for books with auntie lou.
there were many other adventures the boys had on the trip after drew and i escaped for two days to wine country. they went back to donner lake to swim, visited with the construction workers multiple times (and brought them leftover wedding cake), went shopping in downtown truckee for treasures and generally had a blast with grandpa and grandma. it was a treat for us too! we didn’t worry about them a bit.
not only that, but papa and nana came for the wedding and were a huge help during the rehearsal dinner and the reception. i think the reception was the most relaxed i was all weekend, because literally nana and papa just corralled the boys and walked with them around the country club when they were getting antsy. then they took them home and put them down for the night so drew and i could stay through the crazy dancing that topped off the official evening. it was great to have both sets of grandparents there. what fun!
