Tahoe fun

We are now on day three of my conference at Lake Tahoe. The conference has been a dud for me as the focus is on things that aren’t very closely related to what I do, but it has been really nice to be up here with the Andrea and Emmett as I have been getting to see to see them at lunch every day and the hours of the conference are shorter than work hours. We didn’t bring the cord for the camera so the fun picture for the day is some ion beam analysis picture from the conference. I felt is wasn’t fair to get to see all of these fun pictures all day long and not share (fun, fun, fun!)

We are staying in a huge house that is about ½ mile from the lake and about 5 miles from the conference. I have been mostly riding my little folding bike to and from the conference site which only takes about 20 minutes, but wears me out pretty good as riding hills at over 6000 feet altitude is pretty rough when one spends every day at 100 feet altitude. It is really beautiful up here and it hasn’t been crowded as it is the in-between season (and during the week). The air feels really fresh, the water tastes good, the stars are beautiful at night, there are trees everywhere, and the weather has been really nice. If is too bad that darn conference has to go and spoil everything.

The other good thing has been that we are closer than normal to grandparents. We have seen Andrea’s parents who stayed with us our first night here and we saw my mom last night in traveling to Reno. Between the trip to Reno and the trip up here we have reached a whole series of Emmett firsts: first visit to another state (NV), first time in the car after dark, first time at an altitude of 7000+ feet, first visit to P.F. Chang’s China Bistro, etc. Oh, and he had his first two-month birthday. There is something really nice about being just a few months old as nearly everything one does will be a first.

The other big news is that he has semi-located his right hand. He holds it up in a fist and stares at it with his mouth wide open, willing the fist to enter his mouth. Things very often look promising as his hand slowly makes its way to the waiting cave, but every time it gains too much speed and strikes him in the eye or the forehead. It really makes me realize how easy we have it that when things seem tough we can easily put our fists in our own mouths. Babies have it rough.