I’m sure you are all dying to find out how our trip to the snow went, aren’t you? I bet your on pins and needles, right? Well we are back from Tahoe and I feel like I am waiting on my report card. I have been left wondering if the neighbors we travelled with still want to be our friends? Or better yet will they ever want to take a trip with us again? The jury is out for deliberations as I haven’t really seen or heard from them since we returned home. I did promise them t-shirts that say, “I survived a trip with the Blaustein’s” so hopefully they will come by to pick those up when they arrive. I know how I started this blog out doesn’t sound too promising, but truth be told, I actually had a great time with my kids in the snow and with our friends. So here is the snow report:

The coolest thing about going up to Tahoe is that it is only a three-and-a-half hour drive, which for us having just completed two back-to-back trips to LA, felt like nothing. We packed up our borrowed snow gear and the entire contents of our fridge and pantry and left Friday morning for Tahoe Donner. We joined forces with our neighbors, who we had never travelled before with, and rented a house with room enough to sleep ten, a hot tub, spacious kitchen, and game room. It was my first trip to the snow with our children; I don’t think they even knew what snow was prior to us going.

When we arrived in Tahoe Donner, I looked around at the locals who were wearing t-shirts and shorts, and worried that there wasn’t going to be much snow for our first trip. Luckily when we arrived at the house there was plenty of snow on the ground. We unloaded our stuff, unloaded the kids, and tried not to wreck the place before our friends arrived. One of the funniest things that happened was Georgia’s discovery of the VHS tapes. She and Olivia looked at those things like “What are these?” but I suspect that they knew that they were movies by the jackets on them. We had to laugh as I explained the primitive technology of VHS vs. DVD. But by the end of our trip, I hated those VHS because every day Georgia found it to be quite amusing to take each one out of its case and pile them around the floor in front of the television.

I was thinking about it today that sometimes I feel like the dad from Alvin and the Chipmunks, the only difference is that I am yelling, “Georgia!” instead of “Alvin!”. But pretty much “Georgia!” was the soundtrack playing in the background during our first trip to the snow. This is one of the reasons that I worry that the neighbors wouldn’t want to be with us again. Either Georgia herself or our choir of voices schooling her to “get down”, “stop that”, or “no” would probably be enough to drive anyone bonkers. Prior to our travels together, I think our friends felt that Georgia is just two, and being so young her behavior seemed typical for her age. However, as you might have figured out by keeping up with my blogs, Georgia is very excitable. Take a very excited kid put her in a cabin/house with two other kids, besides her sister, and put the four kids together in a room with two bunk beds. What do you get? You get Georgia bouncing off the walls until 10:15 PM on a Friday night. I don’t think my friend was very happy with us that we let the shenanigans drag on for so long. The next day when Georgia woke everyone up at 4 am I knew the answer for Saturday night was to have her sleep in our room on the pullout sofa. I felt bad though because apparently when their younger son is tired he isn’t too much fun to be around. I didn’t see that side of him over the weekend with them, but I think I would be willing to offer up a trade in the future giving them one overtired Georgia in exchange for their one overtired son.

After getting a bit of breakfast Saturday morning we headed outside for a bit of sledding by the side of the house. I found that particular sledding experience to be the most invigorating sledding of the entire weekend. The highlight was when Olivia lost control of the sled, slid over our friend’s son head (he was not injured or phased really), and slid down the hill while all four of us adults stood there powerless over stopping her as she rode down on an out of control sled. All I could think was “Please don’t hit a tree! Please don’t hit a tree!”. Olivia cried and was scared but she was okay when she reached the bottom. Her little hands were frozen (her gloves had fallen off) and our sledding adventure outside came to a brief hiatus.

We then headed to the Tahoe Donner snow play area where there was tubing and sledding for the kids. I really enjoyed being in the snow with the kids but I must say that I am so glad that it doesn’t snow in Petaluma because putting my 4, 2, and 10 month old in and out of snow gear was a big pain in the “tukhus” (as we say in my house). When I got the baby into her snow gear she just laid there and couldn’t move. I did put her down in the snow and she put her mouth on it right away to try and eat it. Adorable! We tubed and played until Brent got tired of lugging the kids up and down the hill and headed back to the house. Our friends continued on to try skiing at a nearby ski area. It was a great idea because we were able to relax, use the hot tub, and force mandatory naps on our over tired children (code for: we needed a break from them), and regroup as two struggling parents.

Sunday we awoke to beautiful fresh coat of snow. Since we didn’t have chains for our tires there was a bit of worry on my husband’s part about getting the mini-van out. I enjoyed the hot tub with my friends as long as we could until the kids found us and wanted to come in. We let them brave the snow covered path to the hot tub and joined us for snow eating and soaking. After we packed, we headed out to shovel the driveway so that we could attempt to get the cars out. I even loved shoveling the driveway but probably wouldn’t on a regular basis. I especially loved it when we had just gotten the van up the driveway and into a pretty clear spot when the snowplow came by and blocked our exit with a huge pile of snow. The rest of the day was met with more snow play at Soda Springs before heading out of Tahoe and home to Petaluma.

We had an amazing time in the snow with our kids. I would have loved time strapped to a snowboard and less time strapped to my baby but ultimately seeing the joy in my children’s young faces as they tubed down the hill was priceless. I am so glad that we took the trip and I am grateful that our friends allowed us to come along and share a space with them. I am hopeful that our friends will still be our friends after this experience together regardless of whether we were the easiest family to share a house with.  For now, there is no place like home (especially minus the snow clothes).