STAYcation Day 3

Previously, on "Rachel's Blog"! STAYcation days 1-2 are finished. Our heroes, the Lindh family, must take on their next challenge...Day 3! So, day 3 was our large event. We had the choice between Wild Island Water Park or a zip-line/rope course. The vote was 8-1; 8 for the zip-line/rope course, 1 for the water park. Want to guess who that 1 was?
There are many clubs up along Lake Tahoe. One of them has a zip-line/rope course and Mom was able to book a time for us. We left the house early so that we could buy lunch before our appointment. We then swung, climbed, jumped, and played our hearts out for 2 and a half hours.

Here are the kids in their harnesses. There were two types of harnesses; one was meant for the small course and the other was meant for the adult course.

Even with my doubts in the beginning, I had a great time along with everyone else. We all enjoyed challenging ourselves and overcoming our fears... okay, my fears. I hate heights and really struggled when we first started but I pushed myself and kept going. Looking back, I'm really glad I did it. Also, I was able to show off to mom. Her upper body muscles, or the lack thereof, had a hard time. =) But she made, I made it, we all did it!
We then went home to relax for a little while before we were off again. If it weren't enough to try a new, physically exhausting activity, we then go and roller skate. We were sore the next day, to say the least.
Roller skating was a lot of fun though. The music was loud, fast, and a lot of bass. What more could I want? Oh yeah, having my family there made it that much better! All of the older kids and the parents helped the younger ones to get their feet under themselves. By the end of the evening, Sarah and Caleb were pros! It was a great night!

Some needed a break though.

It was a great day! The first half of the vacation is over and the next couple of days will be just as exciting!

STAYcation Day 1-2

Everyone has heard of a vacation. You go away, get as much crammed in into a short period of time and then go home. Fun, right? Well, you don't always have to go away to have fun. My family, mostly to save on money and time, decided to go on STAYcation. Instead of going away, we STAYED in Reno and had a great time! For one week, the first week of August, we did fun things in and around Reno.
The first day, we left early in the morning to go camping. We packed a day's change of clothes[you know, just in case someone falls into the fire or some mud =)] and went to Winco to pick up the greasiest and yummiest food possible. We then drove 45 minutes to Donner Pass National Park. Apparently, there's a campsite along with the park. We got into our campsite, unpacked, and decided to look around. We took a hike through the "woods" to the visitor center and read about the history of the Donner Company. It was all very interesting...well, the parts that I got to read. Sarah decided that instead of reading, I would enjoy running between exhibits and the gift shop with her. We missed the movie but we did get to see the monument, the site where the original cabin was, and the magical WEATHER STONE! Guess what; the stone can predict any type of weather you could think of. Is it going to rain? The stone says, "If I'm wet, it is raining." I can't think of anything better to predict the weather with! It's genius!
Besides the history of the Donner Party, camping was a lot of fun! We went on hikes, picked up sticks, climbed impossible rocks, and got dirty.
What better way to spend time together? Monday went by too fast; we were in bed... in the same tent... all together... way too soon. =) Tuesday was fun too. We packed up early in the morning, again. We then went to the lake. After about 10 minutes in the water, everyone decided it was time to go. Coincidentally, a glaciar fed lake is pretty cold. Especially in the morning. Luckily, mom and I decided not to go swimming. We were the happiest of the bunch for the time being.
On the way home, we stopped for ice-cream at McDonalds and the kids were fairly quiet for the ride. Bliss! When we got home, we were all tired. No one wanted to make dinner, so what's the solution? No, not making mom make dinner. We went out to Panda Express and had a lot of fun. We were then supposed to go to the drive-in theater to see Ice Age-Continental Drift but unfortunately, the movie wasn't showing. To make sure the night wasn't a total loss, we went to Walmart and bought candy for everybody and two new movies; The Secret World of Ariety, and King Arthur. We all just collapsed and enjoyed our movies and candy. What better way to end our first two days of STAYcation?