Last week we went to beautiful Shasta Lake with my parents, my two brothers, and sister-in-law. Shasta used to be somewhat of a tradition for my family, but we hadn’t been for a long time. Nathan had been with us a couple times, but it was Elias and Kristy’s first time. I was especially nervous to take Elias because he is mobile now, and there was danger with so much water around. The pediatrician also seemed extra cautious so that made me even more nervous. It turned out to be very fun (although not a very relaxing vacation) It was so fun for Elias to go swimming, boating, and have so many people to pay attention to him all the time. I think I’ll tell the story of Shasta in pictures:
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- Elias and Nathan at Fort Rock Park in Sunriver. On the way down to Shasta, we drove through Sunriver and stayed the night so that the drive was split into two shorter ones. Elias still got upset by the end of the 4-5 hours so we ended up doing a lot of singing.
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- Once we got down to Shasta Lake and onto our houseboat, Elias got to drive with Grandpa Bartle while everyone else unpacked.
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- Elias and Mommy on the first morning of our vacation. We went on a short hike to see the sunrise over the hills early in the morning. It had to be cut short because Nathan kept getting mosquito bites. Elias and Mommy were lucky enough to stay unbitten.
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- One of the things we enjoyed the most was boating. My parents have a very nice fishing boat, but it works for tubing and knee-boarding too. Here is my Dad being the flagger for such activities.
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- Nathan and Elias enjoying the boat. They are watching Uncle Greg knee-boarding.
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- Scott and Kristy pause for a photo as we went on a family walk and skipped rocks.
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- Grandpa and Grandma on the walk we took.
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- Nathan was quite impressed by this large pincone and wanted me to take a picture.
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- The houseboat we stayed on for the week.
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- Elias fell asleep each morning on a boat ride. He usually took two naps on the houseboat just like he does at home. It was noisier, but he was also much more tired from all the sun and play!
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- Beautiful Shasta lake
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- Playing games was one thing we did often. Grandma, Grandpa, Auntie Kristy, and Uncle Greg and playing pinochle. Uncle Scott is studying for his anatomy class.
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- We loved going off the slide. Elias never got to try it of course, but everyone else did. Here is my Dad having fun.
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- We brought two play yards for Elias. One for sleeping and one for playing. We brought this one up onto the upper deck so he could play safely up there. Here you can also see the only injury he got while we were there. He face planted into his toy box while crawling towards it and got a small mark on his eye.
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- Nathan loves this picture of Elias so I thought I’d include it.
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- Jelly bellies are a Shasta tradition. Uncle Greg and Uncle Scott are looking for certain flavors after Elias went to bed.
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- Elias got so much attention. He absolutely loved the trip. Here are Uncle Greg and Elias on the last day.
I realized my camera does not have any pictures of Elias swimming! I’ll have to post some of those later after I get the images from Auntie Kristy. We were thankful that everything went well and that we were able to keep Elias safe and free from sunburn!