Are we THERE YET?!!!

Hello friends! It's been quite a while since I posted, so I've decided instead of one SUPER long post, I'll split it up by days!  Get ready, ladies and gentlemen...it's gonna be a bumpy ride!!!

Leaving Utah was a bummer.  The hotel was gorgeous, we all had a great night sleep, a fantastic dinner at Olive Garden (my personal favorite!), and it was sunny and beautiful when we left!  However, on the other side of this trip is a casino calling my name...so on we go!

Utah is truly a gorgeous state...here's some more proof:

We had to stop multiple times...Myah had to pee...TWICE!  We knew it was going to be a long day at this point.  The kids were getting a little stir crazy being in the car two days straight...but we were going to power through if it killed us!

We finally made it to Nevada...with 5 more hours to drive...ugh.

We stopped and ate at Wendy's and then went acrossed the street to McDonalds to use their play place. It wasn't quite as awesome as the one before...but Eli loved the slide!  It was at least 15 feet high!  Myah refused to go down...I think we know who is more like Brian and who is more adventurous like me :)!

We had looked at the weather report before we left and knew we would be driving into some snow...but THIS is what it looked like while we were driving...quite ominous...

It was a long drive and my back was definitely regretting driving two days in a row...but we finally made it to the hotel!  It is, BY FAR, one of the most beautiful places we have been to!  The staff is amazing, the rooms are great, and the scenery is to die for!  When we arrived we received a s'mores kit with two sticks for the kids to roast at their fire pit by the lake...so cool!  They had a heated pool that you enter from the inside of the hotel and swim under a plastic wall to get to the outside...very smart!  Brian took the kids to go swimming while I had some 'me' time and got ready for the day.  It was a treat to be able to shower and blow dry my hair without being in a rush!  I even got to put make up on!  Whoa!

The next day, Brian wanted to take a tour of the lake.  He has been talking of taking me to Lake Tahoe since 2004 when we went with his fraternity on the Journey.  All I kept thinking about was the fact that we had just spent 8 hours in the car the day before and now he wanted to 'sight-see' around Lake Tahoe in a car, an easy 2 hour trip.  I told him my concerns about the kids and how we would be in the car all the next day as well, but he was too excited to relent...so off we went!

It was beautiful, albeit cold!  The lake is something to see at 6000 miles high and 72 miles around...absolutely beautiful!  The concierge gave us some great pamphlets and we learned some really cool information (yep, I'm a nerd :))!  Did you know that Lake Tahoe contains enough water to cover the entire state of California 14 inches deep!?  That's a TON of water!

Emerald Bay is one of the most photographed spots in America...so OF COURSE I had to get some pictures!  The bay is famous for having a green (emerald) tint to it while the rest of the lake in view is still blue.  Unfortunately, winter time isn't the best time to see this...but it was stunning nonetheless!

I'm telling you, the views on this lake are spectacular!  I'm excited it's only a 4 hour drive from our future home...summer camping trips!!

Eli passed out pretty quickly...

Myah was pretty cranky...she wanted to see fish!

We found a river along the way and got out so the kids could see some salmon!  We were told to watch them floating upstream...a very cool thing to watch!  The kids loved it and it didn't hurt to get out and stretch our legs a little bit!

Our final destination on the trip around the lake was Heavenly, NV known for it's super touristy shopping!  It reminds me a lot of Freeport, ME, without all the awesome outlets :(.  We wanted to eat some of the local cuisine, so we stopped for the super authentic NV Applebees (yep...total sarcasm :)). But it was really yummy!  Yep...I actually went to Applebees and enjoyed it...go figure!

When we got back to our hotel we did my favorite thing in the world....take a nap!  When we all woke up, I decided to look up the weather.  We were supposed to get less than 1" of snow that night...until now!  They were predicting 7"-12"...WHAT?!!!!!  That will NOT make for a fun driving situation down this winding mountain tomorrow.  I suggested we leave ASAP to San Francisco...so we checked out and drove to San Fran...JUST IN TIME!  The weather we drove through was awful!  We didn't breathe easy until the weather warmed up a little bit and we knew the roads weren't frozen with ice.  Since Brian was driving, we sat in silence for about and hour and a half...he had to concentrate on the roads...I'm really grateful we didn't wait any longer to leave NV...I can't imagine how much worse it would be!

We needed to stop for dinner and I suggested we eat at a Jack-in-the-Box.  I haven't eaten there since I was 5 and living in Fort Worth, TX, so I was super excited!  It was Brian's and the kids' first time going...and I have to say it was a success!  

We got back in the car and headed toward San Francisco.  It was too dark to see the landscaping, so we had no idea what it looked like!  Something to look forward to in the morning :).  We stayed at the Best Western and went to sleep (by the way, don't ever stay at a Best Western...they are gross).

Check out the next post for our San Francisco adventures!