Lake Almanor

Our road trip to California got off to a rough start. We were all loaded up, buckled in, cartop carrier strapped on top, and the van wouldn't start. We pushed it out of the garage and tried to jump it, but no go. After wiggling battery connections, cleaning battery connections, and another jump start, the van finally started up. Not wanting to deal with battery issues across Nevada, we decided to just buy a whole new battery. Once on the road we had no other issues - thank goodness. Here are a few (well, more than a few) pictures from the fun we had at Lake Almanor:


On the 4th of July we played games on the lawn and had a great barbecue (hence the smoke in the background). That night we watched fireworks from the dock out on the lake - not bad.

This is the view right from the lounge chair on the deck. Not a bad way to spend a vacation - eh? The water was literally 90 steps from the back deck (yes, I counted).

There was a fair amount of this going on:

A deer came to visit, reminding us that we were "out in the wild".

What would a home in the mountains be without a hammock?

Oh, and we did manage to have some active fun, too. (Leon & Steph holding on for dear life.)

The boys could have spent the whole time on the Jet Ski. I think the big boys did, at least.

The women did a whole lot of this - snacking and sun catching on the "beach".

Dallin wanted to learn to water ski and even got up on his second try - way to go!

Dallin also learned how to knee board!

Every trip to California ends with the traditional "couch picture." (Landon was asleep and had no clue this even happened.)

Lake Almanor is truly a beautiful place and we are vey grateful for the Bonino family and thier willingness to share the week with us. We couldn't have asked for a better way to spend the 4th of July.

The first video is a panaramic view from the edge of the dock. The second video is Dallin's second attempt at waterskiing. I think we were all shocked to see him actually get out of the water.