Calderwoods: Washoe Valley, NV

Cody had New Years Eve and Day off this year, so we decided to pack up and drive to the Reno area to visit Cody's cousin and his family for New Years. We left early Saturday morning and arrived late afternoon. They live between Reno and Carson City in a pretty valley called Washoe. Russell and Laurel have 3 kids close in age to our kids. They were able to meet and play this summer at a family reunion, so we knew they'd have a blast being together again. Sunday we took a drive over to Lake Tahoe. This first picture is at the beach in South Lake Tahoe. We drove around the lake to the northside and then back to Reno and to the Washoe Valley were the Woolstenhulmes live.

Tucker took this picture for us. It was sooo cold by the lake with the wind blowing. Cody wanted to ski so badly. Heavenly ski resort is in the middle of town. Lake Tahoe is one of the deepest lakes in the world. I've been there in the summer many times, and so has Cody, but we've never been in the winter. It was really pretty with the snow everywhere.

Tucker and Eli got along great playing our Kindle. I should probably have my kids have less "screen" time, but when I need to rest, it's the easy solution. I think Eli is more sad that the Kindle left than us. Every morning he would politely ask me if he could play a game.

They have a very large toy room and it looked like this pretty much the entire time we were there. It has a door though to keep the cold and noise out. All 7 kids are in the below picture.

Laurel had been waiting for a blue sky morning with the frost on the trees to get out and take some pictures. The fog is usually pretty thick and they had a sunny morning. I joined her for some photography.

It reminds me of Midway with our frosty mornings.

On New Years Eve we drove over to old Virginia City mining town. Virginia City was the most important settlement between Denver and San Fransisco in the late 1800's and helped Nevada gain it's statehood, although the population of Nevada did not warrant statehood at the time. At it's peak, the population of Virginia City was about 30,000. Now it is about 1,000. The Comstock Load produced $700 million worth of gold and silver in those days. It is impossible to imagine what it would be worth today. (I totally copied and pasted Laurels description from her blog.)

The Catholic cathedral, St. Mary's in the Mountains. They had free tours. The inside was beautiful with all the stained glass windows.

We also took a tour of the Best & Belcher mine shaft. This was our tour guide Mark. He looked like he could have been an original miner and he badly needed a denture. There were hundreds of mines here in the day and I believe he said only seven of them made the owners rich. The Best & Belcher was not one of those! You actually enter the mine shaft at the back of a saloon (the city is built into a hillside) so this is the only mine tour open in the winter.

We were instructed to wear hard hats because the average height of a man back in the day was 5'4". That means I'm the average height of a man back in the 1800s. My how things have changed.

Cody and Russell. I learned a lot about the Calderwoods during our short visit. These guys would talk about summers spent with their Grandparents in Teton Valley, ID. Laurel and I would just laugh and roll our eyes at their stories. We both married into the family the same year. She is a talented artist and has a blog about her paper art. http://laurelthepaperartist.blogspot.com/


Tucker and Aubrey exploring.

The Silver Queen consists of 3,261 silver dollars and 28 twenty dollar gold pieces. She's found in the Silver Dollar hotel in a saloon with a wedding chapel in the back. Cody and Russell said that one of their aunts married in the chapel many years ago.

The sign in the 2nd window says, "Painless Dentistry".

Kate, Aubrey and Eli

Blake and Kalli. I just loved her with her crazy hair and fun personality. She would come and run into my arms everyday. Our babies were like 2 peas in a pod. So many of the same 2 year old mannerisms.

We had a great time visiting and learning about history. That evening, after eating out at Red Robin for dinner, the adults stayed up until midnight playing games. I rang in the New Year with a caramel apple I bought in Virginia City. Unfortunately we couldn't find any news stations showing the ball drop in New York City. Maybe it played at 9:00pm when NYC was really celebrating the New Year.

Cody drove all the way to their house, so I finally got my turn on the drive home. Cody decided to keep Aubrey company in the back. Our kids are awesome travelers. We made the drive in 8.5 hours including lunch and rest stops.