Like Allie said in her Friday post, the girls on my mom’s side of the family get together every year for an annual Girls Getaway Weekend and this was our 11th year!!  For me, this was my favorite year so far.  In part I think it had to do with the destination – I’d never been to Tahoe before and it was SO beautiful! A weekend there only scratched the surface.  But it mostly had to do with the fact that every year as a family we get closer and closer and I was excited to spend time and catch up with everyone!

So here we are arriving at the Reno airport! (Yes, I can now say that I’ve been to Reno!) Our family literally represents the 4 corners of United States: Alaska, Northern California, Southern California, Georgia, Florida, Massachusetts and Washington!

The group: Candy, Shannon, Joann, Emily, Kim, Allison, Patty, Joan and Kelly!

Then it was off to Tahoe – We settled into the hotel, had lunch and went to the grocery store to stock up for the weekend.  Here is the beautiful sunset from the first night!

That evening the cousins made fajitas for dinner and we stayed in and played some of Milly’s favorite games!  Bingo was her favorite:

The next day we took a boat cruise around Emerald Bay… This is a MUST DO!

Snowcapped Mountains!

Glamourpuss!

Me & Kelly (When I was 3 I cut my own hair because I wanted it to be short like Kelly’s!  Patty was not happy.)

Pulling into Emerald Bay!

And this is why it’s called Emerald Bay…

Below is picture of Fannette Island – a tiny little island in the middle of Emerald Bay.  Allie and I learned a little bit of family history during this cruise!  Both of our parents grew up in California and vacationed in Tahoe.  My mom told us that as a kid she learned to waterski Emerald Bay and my dad and his friends used to jump off Fannette Island to show off to the tourists on boat cruises!  Cute.

Sailboat & Mountains

Stay tuned for Part 2 of GGW – Lake Tahoe that will be posted on Sunday!