A Wet Memorial Day Weekend

       Whew. We're back from a very wet and cold weekend. We're giving our washing machine a work out getting the smell of campfire smoke out of everything. When we walked in the door, I was in a hot shower in less then 10 minutes. Something about rain and a damp campground for 3 days, just makes you feel chilled to the bone. 
       A while back we booked ourselves a campsite at an old favorite of ours, Scots Flat. Last year I was about 32 weeks pregnant and lounged in my swimsuit on the rocky beach. This year, things worked out a bit differently.
       Last week, we were both checking the weather forecast each day. 60-67 degree temps throughout the weekend was not exactly what we had hoped for, but we knew it would be better than Tahoe, so things moved forward as planned. We grocery shopped on Wednesday, packed our bags on Thursday, and Friday after work we were ready to load it all up and get on the road. The forecast had started to show a 30% chance of percipitation on Friday but still sunny and in the 60's for the weekend. We weren't afraid of a 30% chance, so away we went.
       I thought that keeping a now crawling 10.5 month old content and entertained would be tough at the campsite, but Nolan was pretty amazing throughout the whole weekend. 

He spent a lot of time in his walker,

and lots of time bundled up.

On Saturday morning we took a walk.

It was brisk and there were some clouds,

but we were hopeful that it would start warming up soon.

The cooler weather meant that the normally busy lake,

was pretty quiet.

We were happy to be back on this trail

that circles the lake.

Fast forward a few hours. 

A couple of friends arrived with their baby girl

and shortly there after...

it started to sprinkle. 

And then rain. 

And then we got cold. 

The guys were able to rig up a tarp that we huddled under. 

I apologize for the lack of pics 

(they probably would have been the most entertaining), 

but the camera was not on my mind. 

So we decided that when the rain gets going,

we go to the nearby restaurant & bar.

We threw the kiddos in the cars,

and headed a few miles away to our dry haven.

The 5 Mile House was a blessing with a bar.

We talked to locals and

we even got to glimpse highschool seniors

having dinner on their prom night.

As we sat there I couldn't believe it. 

Out the window I wasn't seeing rain, I was seeing snow.

It's hard to tell in this shot,

but it was snow, 

and the flakes were getting bigger.

Nolan was gifted a balloon, 

which he was pretty enamored with.

After taking cover there for a couple of hours,

the weather let up so we headed back to base camp.

A break in the storm

gave us a chance to re-cover some things,

 do a tent leakage check

and sit by a warm campfire. 

The night was cold, but our tents did the job

and kept us dry.

In the morning I whispered to Jon, 

"If rain is forecasted for today I think that we should leave."

I was relieved to step outside and find this.

Blue sky was just what I needed.

This pretty much sums up the weekend:

Our beach umbrella stood in as a rain umbrella,

a tarp was strung from the trees, 

and we were bundled up the whole time

(I don't think Nolan or I went without our hats for all three days).

Sadly, our sunscreen and swimsuits

never made it out of our bags.

The rain saddened Blue, who had his heart

set on lots of swimming.

Our very smart friends headed back home to warm up, 

but before they left I had them snap a family photo of us.

And here's one of them, and their daughter,

an amazing trooper.

Soon, I realized how smart they were.

Technology failed us. The sunny forecast that we saw via Jon's 

iphone was a lie. A couple hours later it started to rain again.

And then hail.

So we did a little of this.

Okay, a lot of this.

In case you're wondering, my son is eating a pretzel. 

He loves pretzels. 

I'm slightly worried about his sodium intake.

It did let up, so we ventured out to get ourselves warmed up.

And because I like to drag my husband out on a lot of walks.

The rain caught us on our way back, 

and we took cover under some trees, 

but Buzz didn't even notice.

We had some fun around the campfire on Sunday night.

Our final night in the tent was COLD. 

It probably got down into the 20's, yikes!

For those of you who are a tad bit worried, 

we kept Nolan very bundled and I checked on him frequently.

You can see his little head in there, 

under the many layers of blankets.

We are very happy that we stuck it out for the wet weekend.

We actually didn't want to leave,

because we didn't want to face the new snow that had fallen

in Tahoe while we were gone.

But we're here, we're home,

and it's still snowing.