Hi ho, hi ho . . off to Tahoe we go . . . again! :)

Didn't see any bears but there was a scary Orange Monster!

There's our sweet bird. Such a great protector!

Daddy & Hailee biking all over the place.

The Thorne kids with a few of the Smith girls.

WHOOO HOOOO . . . playing in the lake. Doesn't get much better than this.

Wow! What a fun camping trip. Back in February we planned and booked a camping trip as our "last" getaway before the start of school. It seemed like the weekend would NEVER come and finally it did. This camping trip was so different than any other camping trip we have been on for two reasons. The first is that we were camping in bear country (Emerald Bay in Tahoe) for the FIRST time. The second is that we were tent camping - we've only ever trailer camped as a family. As scared as I was of sleeping in a tent and having this be bear habitat all went well and we saw not one black bear. We were well equiped with whistles and of course we had our trusty bird dog to protect us.

We joined some of our close friends and had a wonderful weekend, eating, drinking, swimming, playing, biking and just enjoying each other's company. The kids had a BLAST playing with their friends and going on all sorts of adventures. They especially liked looking for the bears (which they never found thankfully!) and roasting marshmellows around the campfire. It was a short but very sweet camping trip and we can't wait to go back!

Forever friends! Nolan, Faith, Leah, Hailee and Rae