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?