That Time We Went West!

Hi! Wow, unintentional month plus blogging break, geez! We had a CRAZY busy July and it absolutely flew by. Brian had another work trip, this time to Reno, NV for 15 days and he asked us if we'd join him since he'd spent a lot of time gone this summer. I wasn't completely sure if it'd be a good idea but figured, heck, why not?!  Probably would never choose to vacation in Reno and it is only 40 minutes from Lake Tahoe...so I was sold. So here's our trip! I'm probably going to post about it in 2 sections, it's going to be picture heavy so fair warning!

We left bright and early the morning of July 5th, showing up at the squadron with a crazy packed car. Brian, 9 cadets, and one other officer were driving out with us. They had to drive 6 trucks pulling trailers full of gliders and their battle wagon so I was just there to follow their caravan. Our first stop for the night was Hill AFB just outside of Salt Lake City. It was a loong 9+ hours following the trailers but the kids did awesome and we made it to Hill in 1 piece!

Thank goodness she napped!

We even found a park on base, whew!

The next morning bright and early again we made the trek for Reno.

Stopping for lunch and eating McDonalds next to the trailers, about as classy as you can get! 6 trailers with all of this AF stuff on it all parked together in parking lots were quite the spectacle.  People would stop and take pictures of them, it cracked us up!

Lots of snacks, movies, potty breaks, and even a nap or 2 in there and we were finally in Reno!

We made it! It was pouring rain but we didn't care, we were just glad to get out of the car! Oh did I mention that we were staying at a casino too? Yeahhh not ideal with 2 kids and a dog but we were up for an adventure!

Our pet friendly room at The Nuggett we quickly overtook! We packed basically everything since it was for 15 days! 

Brian and the cadets were off early the next morning to go unpack gliders and fly so we decided to go explore. We found a cute little swimming lake right near our hotel (that was also next to an outlet mall, YES!) so we threw our swimsuits on and enjoyed some sunshine, sand, and water. 

The hotel had a pretty awesome atrium pool on the 5th floor so we spent quite a bit of time there too. 

One morning we ventured to downtown Reno. This was the best picture I got of the sign. Downtown Reno was scary. This was at 9:00 am on like a Tuesday and there were some sketchy people everywhere soo we just stayed inside the car and left with just a crappy picture, haha!

Fun splash area at the outlet mall

The guys ended up weathering out one day so we decided to go to Sacramento for the day. We had lunch on the river and then headed to Old Sacramento.

We had fun exploring and then decided to take the long way home around the west side of Lake Tahoe.

We drove through rain almost the entire time but made it just when it was clearing and the sun was starting to set. 

It was 49 degrees air temp and the water was FREEZING! But when in Lake Tahoe! 

Biking around another lake trying to burn some energy!

The whole crew went out for all you can eat sushi, it was the kiddos first time and I wasn't sure what to expect with them. They didn't really want to try much sushi which I kind of expected. They enjoyed the rice and sweet and sour chicken though, haha! 

I am not a sushi person but vowed to give it another try. It was actually really good! I think I'm finally growing up a little!   

Layla's favorite part was sitting in the cadets laps. She is going to be trouble, pure trouble when she's a teenager. She's already boy crazy!

Another day, another lake! This time we went to the beautiful Pyramid Lake. 

You can park right on the beach it was pretty neat!

Hanging out on the 5th floor burning off some energy. Because being outside in the sun doesn't do that apparently when you're staying in a hotel! 

Putting her "pink lips" on to see "her cadets". Trouble.

Thankfully another wife joined the trip so we had someone to hang out with during the day!

We did go to the airfield a couple times though. It's too bad no fun was had there. Layla just hated spending time with the cadets. And I just hated that they entertained them for hours. ;)

Helping Daddy work by "talking" on the radios. "Keep flying good cadets!"

If you made it through all of that, I'm impressed! I'll be back soon with more pictures and more adventures! :)