Lunch

Nikki encouraged me to drive her to work in order to get comfortable in the California traffic, as well as have a car in case I wanted to go places with Liam.

The first day was crazy, after dropping Nikki off, I got lost. Liam woke up and cried emphatically that he did not want to be in his carseat. I pulled off at a gas station, forgot I was driving a stick-shift, put it in reverse forgetting to use the clutch. The transmission belched, "BLOP,"  the car shook, and I thought I broke their car. My mind freaked. I'm close enough to their house, I could walk home with Liam, but how will they get to work? I put the car in first gear. Nothing. I tried reverse. Nothing. (Commenced sweating.) I turned the key off and restarted the car, placed it correctly in gear and we drove off! Whew.

The second day went much better! I was so happy about it that when I dropped Nikki off in front of her building, I rolled the window down, stuck my big cotton-headed ninnymuggin noggin out, waved and shouted very happy, "I LOVE YOU!!! HAVE. A. GREAT. DAY!!!" (Note to self: Nikki's cool factor may have dropped with my actions. Do not repeat embarrassing Mommy-ness. Thankfully, I have been forgiven.)

I drove back to Cupertino at lunchtime because Nikki was excited to have lunch with Liam and Mike.

Liam and super happy Mommy at Caffe Macs.

Nikki and I got ahi tuna. Mike got sushi.

Nikki: "Um, ToniMom, you're not allowed to take pics here. 

I believe we had this conversation last year when EvanDad pulled the video camera out."

Weather forecast

Nanny G-ma, week one in review

Mommy Nikki's first day back to work.

 Liam and Sophie the Giraffe

 Mommy hugging Liam goodbye

Emma dog

Pics I took throughout the day to send to Mommy

rolling over

 Sierra, I seriously think Liam already says,
"Look at me!"

falling asleep to songs Si loaded on my phone

I made chicken noodle soup for Mike,
 didn't use enough broth and the

noodles became dumplings. So,

Dad informed Mike and Nikki the

soup I'd made before I left Ohio 

had become split pea paste.

Week of soup fail.

Sad Mommy Facetiming with Liam

after a terrible, horrible, very bad day away from Liam,

they are back together and Mommy smiles

Daddy Mike and Liam getting the mail.

 It was 60 degrees

 Mike thought he'd do a good thing and take the Christmas tree down.

 After Nikki's tough week, the tree removal plan had not been cleared with her,
and Nikki was sad and unprepared for another change.

So, we placed the green remains of the Christmas tree in a bowl with ornaments.

Quiet time together.

With the weekend

out car shopping for the growing family

Meanwhile, back at the Atlanta ranch,

Jamie was playing with Daisy and was injured.

They conked heads  :( 

Jamie got nicknamed Dog Chin.

(The name comes from a fantastic joke that she played on Nikki in a quiet mall court. 

Nikki screamed when Jamie delivered the punchline and we all howled with laughter.

Everyone looked at us making noise. Very startled and embarrassed 

Nikki laughed and cried at the same time.)

Jan. 1, 2013 new beginnings - Nannyhood

flew above a wall of clouds for quite some time

Rocky Mountains from about 25,000 feet

The way the snow outlined this town it looked like a map.

Liam helped pick me up at the airport.

We stopped and got groceries.
Coming from the land of winter snows

the sunny weather and palm trees
makes it feel like I'm on another planet.

Liam and Mommy welcome me!

Visited with Evan, Sierra and Diego.

Jamie completed her New Year video--
great job and LOVE it, Jamie!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rYwFX2Qs2M&feature=youtu.be

Mike was down with a bad case of flu. 

Quarantined he welcomed me via FaceTime. 

He was missing his buddy.

Hope you get well soon, Mike!

I wish all my friends and family a safe, blessed and happy new year!

from Tahoe, with love

Waiting in South Lake Tahoe

were Liam,

Emma, and blankie.

The mission: getting there.

We took to the skies

drove north from Las Vegas.

By hour 20 of our journey

it was very dark,

no moonlight. 

Our headlights lit on the snow-covered mountain

winding through hair-pin turns. 

Fortunately, we did not need tire chains.

 We searched our Mapquest printout for the road to the cabin.

Strange, but signs and the roads were not adding up.

We'd gotten lost. 

 We passed a sign that said,

"Next 12 miles watch for wild horses."

Lost.

 We were bleary-eyed. Slap happy.

Lois had developed a mild case of Turrets.

Mike texted and told us to let him know if we needed detailed directions.

We texted back and said that we could use some help.

Ever helpful Mike and Brandon texted us the "map to the cabin".

Of course, map belonged to Lyla (age 2).

 This map did not show the four cool "Bear Crossing" signs that we passed.

At 1:30 a.m. Ohio time, we arrived.

We were pummeled with snowballs

from Mike, Brandon and Brent.

It was sweet. 

The cabin, snow and family.

We tip-toed in to see sleeping Liam. 

Then visited with the late nighters:

Brandon, Tara, Brent, Mike, Nikki. 

Aunt Bonnie and Lyla were asleep.

Landon cooked pancakes for breakfast. YUM. 

(See Mike's blog post of Nov. 19, 2012)

Dad, Reed, Emry and Digs arrived Monday night.

Digsy's early 6 a.m. walk






and his tree in the front of the lodge




view from the back yard

 waiting for the house to wake up

Day one: adventure on the Tahoe Queen

"It's my bo-at." 

Our captain shared information and history about the lake














 including the woman who owned the house on the shore.
 The BrentPeters hiked and explored the area.

A fire hit about 4 years ago down the road from our cabin.

The Rubicon Trail-- Mike's dream off-roading

*grocery trip #1 for me; #2 of a dozen for Bonnie -- Mike said he'd text me my list I'd forgotten at the cabin. Text came through super teensy on my archaic cell phone. Couldn't read it, went from memory and forgot the dog toy. Mike rubbed it in to Emma when I got home about how I'd forgotten all about her.

***(Bonnie set the record on grocery trips. She is our hero and also makes the BEST bacon in the whole wide world.)

Wednesday: CoolPeters. No explanation needed.

Sierra arrived and met Liam!
  





      
        Thanksgiving Day

our royal Tahoe princess

 Hollopeter men--ages 3 months to 61 years hanging out.

 






Matt and Jamie went on a hike.


















          Some of us went horseback riding.

     horses horses horses
things were going well until...

 Reed broke from the group.

Went something like this:    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=if9p1TnDvRY 

once down the mountain, we dug in to eat

Thanksgiving feat. pool table

Family pic

Lyla and arts and crafts

Friday: Heavenly Gondola ride

Yes, they were.

There was conversation about the pronunciation of gondola.
Rural folks in our group called it "gon-dough-la".

Metro folks in our group called it "gond'la."

agreement among the girls--gondola was just plain scary and we wanted a different escape route down

Liam was unaware of the scary heights

EmEryPeter enjoyed the view and his new name.

halfway up the mountain we stopped to take pics

"Look, Ma, no hands!"

boots sold exclusively

Liam loves G-pa

Liam's first ski pass

LandonPeter and Lois went skiing

Warming by the fire.

Most puzzling; a piece was missing.

Saturday morning: leaving and cleaning out the fridge.

We chomped the pie down and made smacking snarfing sounds like Homer Simpson.




Pretty great Thanksgiving was had by all. Thank you to our hosts, cooks, dog walkers, drivers, wee ones, pups, and shoppers.

postscript:  photography
views behind the spectacular shots

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