Fireworks and Fun at the Lake

We had a great 4th of July celebrating with family up in Winters, CA! It's a small town, but they put on a great fireworks display that we can watch from Auntie Kate and Uncle Darsen's backyard. To top it all off, we get to swim in the pool and eat loads of summer picnic food all day long. Jake especially loves the water and just enjoys kicking back while we hold him. He also really enjoyed the fireworks and stayed up late to watch the entire show!

Watching the fireworks with Momma

Ooooh! Ahhhh! Our favorite fireworks are the sparkly ones that look like fairy dust

The next day we left for a mini-vacation up to Lake Tahoe, which is one of our favorite places! We were super excited to have a fun couple of days with the little man lounging by the lake and soaking up the sun. The trip started off a bit rocky because Jake was really whiny and cried a lot on the way up, so we had to pull over several times to let him stretch out and relax. During our trip Jake was pretty fussy and on Friday night he didn't sleep much. In fact, he cried off and on most of the night and threw up all of his meals the next morning. By early afternoon, Jake seemed okay and didn't have a fever so we went to Baldwin Beach (one of our faves), but he continued to throw up anything we gave him and was very lethargic. At this point, we were concerned that Jake had altitude sickness and were really worried that he might not be getting enough oxygen since his breathing was really shallow, so we decided to take him to the local Emergency Room.

Once at the ER, the medical staff checked his vitals, which were actually really good -- oxygen saturation was 95% (good for such high elevation), good blood pressure, sugar levels good, no fever. They also had an x-ray taken in case Jake's g-tube had slipped out -- nope, it was still in. They decided to give Jake anti-nausea meds and we administered a bolus feeding to ensure he could keep his food down, which he did. By the end of the visit, the physician determined that Jake likely had altitude sickness and advised us to take him to a lower elevation. We agreed that a trip that night would be too much on him, so we brought him back to the hotel to have a good night's sleep and left for home the next day.

Although it was a bit of a rocky adventure, we still got to enjoy the lake and soak up the sun, so it was worth the trip. We squeezed in as much fun as we could and are now better prepared for our next adventure!

At the top of Harrah's overlooking the mountains

Our cousin Rosie is visiting from Scotland and went with us to Tahoe. I snapped this super cute pic of her enjoying a little snuggle time with Jakers

Chillin' in our new beach tent

Toes in the water...testing it out (yep, it's cold!)

Checking out the view of the Lake

Looking at the fish from the inside of Taylor Creek Stream Chamber



This beautiful butterfly followed us on our way back along the creek trail -- it reminded us of little miss Kaitlyn : )



A little girl gave this to Jake when we were in the ER. Her dad was in the room next to us with a bad cut on his leg and she thought Jake would like this book. Incredibly sweet!!!



Josh and I have always wanted to do an old west photo together and we think it turned out pretty cute (baby bump and all). I couldn't pull off the serious face as well as Josh and Jake


Lessons learned: 1.) No more long car rides for Jake and 2.) avoid high elevation trips. That said, we'll be looking into RV rentals so Jake can travel more comfortably and seeking out suggestions for lower elevation spots to travel to.