Beach Girl

We showed Grandma B our beach at Lake Tahoe. It was a little windy and cool, but Delaney was delighted to be on the beach. Of course, she had a complete meltdown when it was time to leave and screamed in the car the ENTIRE way home. She certainly does have good stamina.

And We're Back.....

As my older sister Julie explained to me a couple of weeks ago, 'family travel' is very, very different from a 'vacation'. She is certainly correct. Family travel means packing, unpacking and more packing and unpacking, changing diapers on the plane, attempting to entertain a tempermental almost-2-year-old on a 7 hour flight (not to mention the hours in the car and waiting at the airport) and having two cranky babies that are on no type of schedule. However, that being said, I am so glad that we made the 3 1/2 week odyssey to the east coast. Along with all of the traveling hassles (and several mishaps!), we had a wonderful time with our families, and had many loving, helping hands. For better (or for worse), we had a complete break from our daily routines and had a total change of scenery. And, most importantly, Delaney and Elliot were able to enjoy their extended families.

While we were experiencing 'family travel', Elliot got his first two teeth and had his first bites of ice cream and pizza-two essentials; Delaney learned how to blow bubbles and do somersaults.

Here are a few pictures from our trip to Long Island.

And a few pictures from our trip to the Hemlock Lodge and Pittsburgh-

Blowin' In The Wind

There are no pictures with this posting for the below reasons:

1. How on earth could a picture ever do this scene justice? We were driving to Lake Tahoe late this afternoon (my idea-the beach sounded much more appealing than packing for our month long trip), when Dave couldn't find his cell phone, so he asked me to call his number. We quickly heard his phone ringing / vibrating but couldn't figure out where the sound was coming from. We pulled over, and yup, we had driven about 10 minutes with his cell phone on the car roof. Now, what wasn't on the roof of the car, or anywhere in the car?--Dave's wallet. On the best of days, losing a wallet with identification, credit cards, cash, social security card and everything else is really, really annoying. However, we are flying to New York tomorrow, so losing identification, credit cards, cash, social security card and everything else is a serious problem.

We decided to backtrack. Looking for a little brown wallet and / or the contents of a little brown wallet along the highway and neighborhood streets is just a little difficult and was not so successful. Dave then headed out on his bike, retracing our steps (or drive), when three punk kids asked him if he was 'Dave Schwartz'. They had found his license and credit cards in the road (THANK GOD!) and told him that the rest of his stuff was blowing around the street.

We didn't retrieve anything else that is noteworthy, and the vacation cash and social security card are gone, gone, gone. But all things considered, I think that we were really lucky-it was totally one of those freak things, and I still can't believe that Dave's license and credit cards are in our possession!

2. Our camera broke today-wonderful timing.

Summer Nights

This is where we spend most of our evenings-in the backyard. Regardless of how hot the day has been, the evenings here are absolutely perfect. Delaney (yes, she's still in her bathing suit from a morning trip to the beach!) plays with her water table, car and wagon, and Elliot happily plays with his toys on the picnic blanket. Penny and Clancey usually join us. It's pretty great.

July 4th Weekend

We had a perfect July 4th weekend. Our wonderful friends-Jodi, Jeff, Matt and Lexi braved the drive up from Vegas (NOT a fun trip with 23 month old twins) to spend the weekend with us. We went to the beach and did a lot of playing in our backyard. Delaney and Elliot were glad to see their buddies, and I was thrilled to spend time with Jodi! While we've been enjoying Carson City and exploring the area, we really (especially me!) miss our Vegas friends. I have many long afternoons when I wish that I could just call up Jodi or Sylvia to hang out for a few hours. Good friends are certainly hard to come by, and I was so lucky to have a couple of great friends in Las Vegas.

We look forward to many more fun weekends with the Maren's!

Baby Delicious

There is no better sound to me than my babies' laughter. Check out the below video-and, yes, I know that it is sideways, but we're new to this video-thing and we're too tired to figure out how to edit it-and it's super cute anyways! Be sure to listen to the sound-it's the best part!




At least a few times every day, Delaney and Elliot will play together, giggling and laughing back and forth, and it's the sweetest thing that I've ever seen. These moments, however brief, are my absolute most favorite times of the day; I can live off of these moments for days!

Our Redneck Woman

On the days that I take the babies to Lake Tahoe, I often let Delaney run around in her bikini top for the rest of the day, which often creeps up to her neck. It's really just easier to let her stay in her bathing suit than to chase her around, catch her, hold her down and then change her while she's kicking and screaming. So-she eats lunch in her bikini top and jean shorts, goes to the park in her bikini top and jean shorts, helps me run errands in her bikini top and jean shorts, eats dinner in her bikini top and jean shorts....... And then goes out to our backyard and pushes around her little red car (where else to keep a car than the backyard?) all while chugging down her milk. She's our little redneck.