CLIPS FROM THE CLARKS: It's All About Who You Know!

So we are definitely North of the line to where the term "Southern Hospitality" applies but here in Northern California we have met some of the nicest, most gracious people. All of David's coworkers are great and he has the privilege of going to other clinics at certain times of the month which allows him to travel outside the city a little bit and meet even more great people! One of the doctors he has since worked with has a lakefront home on Lake Tahoe-4 bedrooms with a hot tub overlooking the lake on the 3rd floor patio....yea, you heard me!! She told David anytime during the year he wanted to use it for the weekend to let her know so we invited two other couples (with kids around Bella's age) to go with us for a long weekend. Unfortunately Thursday night I started with body aches/chills and felt pretty lousy the whole weekend unless I was loaded up with Tylenol and Ibuprofen-Guess not all of Bella's symptoms were vaccine reactions like the doctor told me!

We left for the 4 hour drive at 7pm Friday night so all the kids would sleep in the car on the way there. I was so grateful that there was a lot of snow but the roads were clear so no chains were needed. Saturday we took the opportunity to take the kids out into the snow for some fun. Although Bella didn't think the snow was nearly as fun as she did over our Yosemite/Sequoia trip. She is just getting over a cough and several teeth coming in that she is just not to happy about being asked to do things too out of the ordinary. I also think it was frustrating her that she couldn't walk in the snow because her feet would just sink.

Sunday the two David's went snowboarding and then Sunday night Me, Heather and her husband, John got to hit up the casino, which were only 10 minutes from the house :) I am pleased to say I only lost $10 and had about 2 hours worth of solid fun!!! The best part of this trip was that our kids all eat and sleep and essentially the same times so there was no question about when we needed to eat or be back at the house-it seriously made for a seamless weekend.

Enjoying the snow

Fascinated by daddy's monstrous snowball!

Maddie and Bella ready to go sledding

A view from the car

David had off for MLK day on Monday so on our way back home we stopped at the Jelly Belly factory in Fairfield to take a tour. John's brother-in-law pastors a church and one of the members is the daughter of the owner! So you better believe we got the hook up!!! Since it was a holiday it was quite crowded but we got VIP passes to the front of the tour line. It was so neat seeing the size of the place and learning the process of making the Jelly Beans (it takes 7 to 21 days!). At the end of the tour we got a goodie bag FULL of free stuff-I mean enough Jelly Beans to last us a year or if David gets into them maybe a month!

The entrance

David's hamburger which along with pizza was shaped like a jelly belly!!

Bella LOVED this car, I did not love how germy I am sure that steering wheel was!

Jelly Belly art-this was one of many portraits made entirely out of Jelly beans!

See that line behind David, that's just the very front part of the line we got to cut in front of; at one point the line went through the cafe and out the door!