Vacation Makes us Tired

Well, our vacation was varied and exhausting. And then we arrived home to find an inch of dust in the bathroom and hallway and tracked throughout the house. While we were gone a handyman replaced the popcorn ceiling in the hallway, and since this is an old house, I wanted to get as much dust up as possible before we unpacked, so I spent the first couple hours back cleaning. And there is still dust about, so I will have to do some more. Oh well.

Here are the highlights, since I need to get back to watching the Olympics. (Amazing - a 33 year-old mother just won a medal in gymnastics, not to mention Dara Torres' great performance and some of the older long-distance runners. Maybe I should start training in some sport. Ha-ha.) So, first there was the trainride up the coast. We splurged and had dinner in the dining car. There was only a minor meltdown when the kiddo realized his chicken strips had "sauce" on them. The joys of a picky kid...

We then visited my sister (#3) and her family, which included a birthday party, a waterslide in the backyard, a trip to the beach and a roller coaster ride. JT loves, loves, loves his cousin LT and he really loved his new cousin, too. It was really sweet to see him interact with him.
Then we headed out to the wine country, which was scenic, but not so fun if you aren't into wine tasting and being all fancy and schmancy. We did enjoy a tour of Korbel and visiting with my mom's cousin in Healdsburg, though.
On the way out we stopped in Sacramento (where it was 105 or so degrees) to visit the State Railroad Museum, which had a smily engine.

Somehow we made it to Lake Tahoe, where I saw this:

And on the way back to Auntie S.'s place, we stopped at a gold rush town and another Railway museum.
And so we had to unwind with some more splashing in the backyard...

before we flew home. Oh now I just missed a fall on the pommel horse. Got to go!