Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Vacation Series Continues

June of 1996 finds us back at Lake Tahoe. This year we told the kids they could each bring a friend. They had picked out their friends months in advance. Our son took his best friend, who lived next door to us. They did everything together and he was like part of the family. It was the logical choice. Our daughter had asked her best friend, and then her second best friend, but both of their families were already going to be gone. She asked a close friend from swim team and she said yes. One week before we were to leave, this girl got into trouble and her parents pulled the trip from her. My daughter was devastated. I was furious. The prospect of having to spend the week outnumbered by boys was not appealing to her nor to me. I learned something in the parenting department that day. First of all, I respected their decision to make choices for their daughter and do what they thought they needed to do, but it didn't just hurt their child. Surely, something else could have been done? Finding someone to go at the last minute didn't seem like it was going to work out.

Now it is time for a side note. At this time, my daughter had a boyfriend. I use boyfriend in the very liberal sense. She was 14 and he was 15. We went to the same church and they only did things together in groups and with Youth group. Neither could drive and traditional dating was out of the question. To make a long story short, he expressed a desire to go on vacation with us. I did not even entertain the idea until he had said it a couple of times. Hubby and I talked about it. We called his parents. They talked about it. He came on vacation with us. It turned out to be a great decision.

The weather wasn't real warm in June. We had rain and it even snowed.We did all of the usual things and a couple of new things. We rode the cable car up to the top of Squaw Valley and went ice skating. Our daughter's boyfriend brought his guitar and we would sing songs around the fireplace in the evening. I think it is safe to say a fun week was had by all.

Four butts on Fannie Bridge:



I think they think they look cool:



Not too old to visit Tahoe Tessie:



One week with four great kids......$562.00

Next year....Yosemite.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Why is 14-year-old Lori showing so much tummy? Geez, didn't you guys have a hold on your kids?