Our festivities started after lunch on Tuesday. I left work early to get Peyton, who was sitting nicely at the table while her classmates were preparing for nap. She always looks so sad, waiting there by the door in almost darkness. She was happy to see me and leave. In fact, while we were walking down the hallway, she was still whispering to me. I told her she didn’t have to whisper anymore since we were headed out. We went home to pack, while Dave had just made it home. We had until Brandon was done with school, so not that much time. We were a bit sad to skip out on Brandon’s swim class, but we were told the pool up in Tahoe was heated and to bring suits. We wanted to head out before traffic got too bad. I left Peyton to watch TV while I threw a bunch of warm clothes together. This is what I found when I came back to check on her: 
Brandon was happy to be picked up early since he knew we were headed up to the snow. Peyton was still a bit groggy, since she hadn’t really slept long. I felt bad picking her up like this, but we had to get Brandon. It took us awhile longer to get there than expected due to the traffic and the stops for food and potty. We made it up there in about 5 hours. Luckily, we didn’t stop to get our tires or change them. It wasn’t snowing, so we didn’t need our snow tires. Though we’d already eaten, my mom had a little more for us. The kids ate a little, then were off to bed, while I went to the gym, to stick to my training schedule. The altitude was a little challenging, but luckily, the training wasn’t calling for much distance. My mom had signed us up for the turkey trot on Thanksgiving day, so it was a good chance to get some work outs in. We did a lot of lounging around. On Wednesday, we made it out to just walk around the village. Dave and I went together to the gym on this day; we both rode on the bike for 30 minutes, then ran a mile. On Thanksgiving, we had breakfast at home, then headed out to the run. It was pretty cold, and I had two layers on the bottom, and 3 layers on top. The kids could care less that we were headed out. I left my iPod on all night so there was little charge. Luckily, the gym had chargers at each station, so I hung out there for 15 minutes while Dave checked us in and got our numbers. There were about 50 participants, based on the numbers we were seeing. Initially, my mom told us it was 3 miles, but the actual route was 2.5miles. I was happy about that, given it was so cold. The race started, and the first mile was uphill. I couldn’t run the whole way, but I did maintain my pace behind Dave. I passed two people to make sure there was nobody between Dave and me. Well, one of the people I passed was, I later found out, 5 years old 🙂 . The other guy was probably in his 30’s but wasn’t all that fit. In any case, he helped pace me, as after I passed him, I did all I could to make sure he didn’t pass me back. Dave ended up finishing 3 minutes ahead of me, but my time was 28:37. Dave said we were somewhere in the 10-15th place, judging by those who were already at the finish line. We headed back home to be told that the kids wanted to go swimming. They were so excited to see us, since my mom told them when we got home, they could go out there. We were facing the pool, so they’d been looking at it for some time. My mom and Dave went in with them, while I covered myself in towels trying to keep warm. Before heading in, my mom asked the kids, “What are the rules in the pool?” Brandon immediately answered, “NO drowning!” Haha…you got that right, buddy. Dave and my mom didn’t think it was that heated, so they got out after 5 minutes. The kids were chilled, but sad to be getting out. Here’s a picture I took before Peyton headed in (we got this suit from Vancouver last year…the legs used to go down to her ankles): 
I didn’t have time to take an after, since I’d just grabbed Peyton and ran to take her back inside. We wanted to watch football at 5pm, so we headed out for an early Thanksgiving dinner. We were going to the casino buffet, like we had four years ago with Brandon. Apparently, others had the same idea, since there was about a 30 minute wait. Peyton was in the stroller, and we’d gotten ahead of Brandon and Dave, who were back at the room. A right dosage of Kamagra tablets is required to get or maintain an erection. cialis no prescription But bear in mind, patients with ED should to be aware viagra low price of.Administering Tadalafil Take Tadalafil medication exactly as prescribed by your physician. In such an event, link from website A to website B using a text that comprises of online cialis purchase keywords pertaining to website A will increase the authenticity of the price charged by the manufacturer from you for the desktop. Side-Effects Of Kamgra levitra no prescription Though it is a good cure for acidity or heartburn. Brandon hadn’t napped, but had finally fallen asleep just 30 minutes before we were set to head out. By the time we’d gotten to the front, Dave and Brandon had only been waiting for us for a few minutes. We were hungry by that time, so when we got seated, my dad and I headed to get food. I grabbed two plates of food, with an extra plate underneath, planning to feed myself and the kids. Dave had already gone up, and I relieved my mom. I saw a man who was dressed in a red shirt, with a full white beard and white hair. I told my dad it looked like Santa. He even had little round glasses. Later, he put on a hat, and was walking around saying hi to all the children! I told Brandon Santa was there (holding his own 2 year old grandson). Santa waved from far away, and then came up again, this time closer and told the kids, “See you next month! Merry Christmas!” It was really neat that he made his way around to see all the kids. Some even took pictures with him, but we were kinda lazy, and had already done that last week. We made it back to the room, but the game wasn’t on that my dad could find. So my parents headed back to the casino to watch while Dave and I got the kids to bed. I was kicking back to relax, when I found the game on TV! It was nice to watch in our own room, but sad because the “home” team wasn’t winning. My parents came back after the game was done, and the kids had just fallen asleep. On Friday, we wanted to avoid the black Friday crowds and went to the ghost town about 20 minutes away. It’s just an old town, Virginia City, and there was a Santa there, too! We went in to see him, and there was a news camera set up inside the Visitor’s Center. Turns out they were filming a piece about the city. We were told the broadcast would be at 5pm. We walked around, had lunch, and headed back to the outlets to hit up a couple of stores. We headed back home before 5pm so we could see if we were going to be on TV. Here is what we found: We were headed out on Saturday, just down to my mom’s house. Dave, Brandon and my dad went to go get the car, and when Peyton heard that we were leaving, she came out like this: 
The drive down was uneventful, with the kids falling asleep. We met at the outlets, since Dave wanted to do some more shopping. He got a shirt, while we got Peyton two pairs of Superstars, one with Ariel and another with Rapunzel. It’s funny since back in the day, Dave wanted to get Superstars, and now Peyton will have them as her next shoes. Thinking back, we should have gotten her two different sized pairs, but we got the same size for both pairs. They were only $8!! She only wanted the Rapunzel ones (pink and purple), but the Ariel ones are similar to the shoes she currently has (blue). We didn’t find anything in Brandon’s size. We made it back to my mom’s. She brought her box of toys out for them, and Brandon went straight to work on the coloring book, while Peyton dug into the puzzles. We sent them off to bed, with a plan to wake up early and head home to avoid the traffic headed down the mountain. Brandon wanted to play Kinect, but didn’t get to last night, so we started early this morning with a few songs. He really had a good time, and was much better than Peyton at it, though she got some of the moves down, like crossing her arms in an “X” in front of her head. We left after breakfast, and dropped my dad off before 11am. Not bad at all! That’s even with an extra stop for Brandon to go potty. Dave asked Brandon what his favorite part of the trip was. His answer, “Staying in a hotel!” And after more prompting, “Kinect and swimming” (both of which added up to 10 minutes of entertainment value). The kids were in bed by 730pm, and not a peep from them after!! Success.
Finally, a picture of the Dave and the kids doing what they do best…hanging out.
