July 24th - Taylor's 1st Birthday Party

We could hardly believe that time had flown by so quickly, but on July 24th it was time for our niece Taylor's first birthday party.  Bobby and Renee invited lots of family and friends to their house to celebrate.

The kids liked Bobby's robot.  Caitlyn even reached in to play with his "pee".

The kids were kept busy by a big bouncy in the front yard.

The adults hung out in the backyard and visited.  (Except for the ones watching the kids out front of course!)

Taylor pooped out right in the middle of the shindig.  They tried to wake her up for cake but she was not having any of it.  That's one unhappy birthday girl!!

Presents perked her up though!  Taylor hit the jackpot.

Grandpa says "she made out like a bandit!"

Tyler says "thanks for the candy Grandad!"

After all the festivities were over, Bobby and Renee decided to take a whirl in the bouncy with Taylor.  I LOVE these pictures of my brother.

Ok, now I'm hot!

I hope this first birthday was the first of many fun birthday we'll get to celebrate for Taylor.

Lake Tahoe - Sunday

On Sunday we had to fly back home so we got up, got packed, drove through the tunnel one last time, and went back to Reno to catch our flight.

The weekend was so wonderful!  I'm so lucky to have such a thoughtful husband who gave me a fantastic birthday gift.  He really made my birthday great this year.

Lake Tahoe - Saturday

We decided to sleep in a little bit on Saturday and then to drive around the lake and check it out.  We took the road around the lake and made our first stop at the visitor's center.  We went on a nature walk to Taylor Creek.

I had John stand next to the tree so we could see the scale of how huge it is.

I liked watching the little fish swim around.

After getting a good dose of nature, we hopped back in the car and made our way around the lake.  It was so pretty and great drive.

After driving around the lake we drove through the tunnel again and were back in the city again.

The fun wasn't over for the day though because John had arranged for us to have a birthday celebration dinner at the Riva Grill.  It was absolutely delicious!

Afterwards we enjoyed the sunset and then went back to the hotel for some relaxation.

Lake Tahoe - Friday, Day One - Part Two

After driving into town and checking into our hotel room, we decided to relax a little bit before dinner and the concert.  It was nice to just lay around for a little while.  Then we freshened up and we were off for a night of fun!!

We drove over to the casino that was holding the concert and walked around some.  We decided to go to the Hard Rock for dinner.  It was yummy!  (I've been to so many Hard Rocks in Europe that it's always kinda weird to eat at one in the U.S.  Just feels different somehow.)

 
After dinner we went over to the concert and checked everything out.  We were surprised to not see any booths to buy memorabilia but we were ok with saving our money too. :)  We hung out next to the stands for awhile before heading up to our seats.  Since the arena was so small, we weren't so very far away even though we were in the back.  It was awesome!

 
First up was Chris Young ... he sounded great!

Then it was Kelly Pickler's turn.  She had a really fun set.  We liked it.

Then it was time for RASCAL FLATTS!!!!!!  I could hardly contain myself, I was so excited!!  They were so amazing.   The set started with their first album and went through to their current one.  They sang a few songs from each.  We even got to hear one of the songs from the album they hadn't released yet.  It was such a great show.  John really liked it too.  I'd do it again in a heartbeat!!

Here is some (bad!) video of Bless This Broken Road: http://vimeo.com/17716761

After the show we saw that they had finally set up a memorabilia booth, so I had to buy something of course!  Then we got to spend some quality time in the car trying to get out of the parking structure.  It was packed!

We had such a great day and were excited to explore Lake Tahoe the next.