Yoooo, this past holiday weekend was one for the BOOKS. We took all the kids, loaded them up into our SUV and drove up to Truckee to let them have their first ever ski lessons *insert freaked out emoji face!
You proooobably don’t know this about me, but growing up … I actually went to Tahoe every. single. year. I hated it. I really, really hated it. I didn’t like being cold, I didn’t like being in the snow, I was always done skiing by lunch but my parents would want to stay all day, so I’d be stuck in the lodge BY MYSELF. This was before cell phones and internet and honestly, I’d be so exhausted a lot of the time that I would just want to go back to our room/rental and relax. But no, I’d have to wait for my mom and dad. We also used to go every year (to NorthStar resort) during Christmas week. This was probably once my brother and I were in high school, so we were definitely too old for Santa but still, there were never any Christmas presents, never any Christmas magic. Christmas morning was waking up in a strange resort, surrounded by freezing snow, eating breakfast at random diners or restaurants with strangers.
I write all that to say, it took having three kids of my own and taking them up to the snow myself to realize how much of a privilege it was that my parents did this for my brother and me. I don’t know that I loved that Christmas was so non-traditional and un-festive, but skiing year after year … and then snowboarding year after year, what a gift that was to us. I’m not super skilled at it but I have to admit, I’m actually way more comfortable on the slopes than my husband who is usually the more adventurous/athletic between the two of us.
SO ANYWAY, let’s jump into the weekend! I talked to a few friends of mine who are pros – like I’m talking hardcore, go to Truckee/Tahoe every weekend, have a second home there – for some advice before our trip. The #1 tip they gave me was HAVE LOW EXPECTATIONS. So that’s exactly what we did. We left on Saturday to avoid the crazy Friday rush of the holiday weekend. I was able to squeeze in a Bar Method class before going (hello, #75Hard!) and we took our time loading up the car before getting on our way.
We stopped by the Vacaville outlets on the way up, ate lunch, did some shopping .. I mean, when I tell you that we took it slow, we TOOK IT SLOW. A few hours later, we finally made it to our home for the weekend!
Immediately after arriving, the kids wanted to get into their snow gear and play in the snow. They had so much fun making snow angels and having snowball fights! Like, I said – I really don’t like snow and don’t like being cold, but somehow, being out there with my kids made it one of my favorite things ever.
I caught E throwing a snowball at baby A’s face with my phone and it was SO funny. It wasn’t even a snowball, it was really just a tiny fistful of snow but she was SO MAD about it hahahahaha.
Also, D & daddy were rough-housing in the snow but it got a little too intense for the little guy when some snow accidentally went down his jacket. He was so sad and hurt … daddy offered to stick his own face in the snow as payback and you should have heard D’s belly giggles after hearing daddy roar from the cold snow on his face 😉
Baby A was done pretty quickly so I stayed out with the big kids … and I can’t remember if it was them who asked me or if I just remembered suddenly but I basically realized all of a sudden that I hadn’t brought their bedtime blankies (loveys) to sleep with. D loves to talk a big game about being a big boy but look at his tears because he wouldn’t have his blankie that night LOL. Also, I forgot to pack PJ’s for D so … clearly, this was not a well thought-out trip for me.
After playing in the snow, we decided to clean off and go grab some dinner. The restaurant we chose was maybe 15 minutes away but D & baby A knocked out COLD and HARD in the car. Guess playing in the elements is exhausting!
The next day, everyone woke up bright and early, ready to hit the slopes! The big kids were actually so, so, super excited about ski lessons and baby A was down to hang in the lodge with daddy. Hubby has said that he probably wants to take another ski lesson before getting on skis himself because it’s been so long so he offered to stay back with the toddler while I enjoyed some time on the mountain.
They told us that if we came to pick up our kids around 10-15 mins early, we might get to catch a glimpse of them coming down the mountain. We made it there just in time to see them both coming down on their skis … and then FALLING and eating it at the bottom LOLOL. Clearly, they still need more lessons 😉
After ski lessons, we all headed back to the lodge for lunch. It actually worked out that two members of our family had been sitting in the lodge all morning because that place filled up QUICK at lunchtime and thankfully we already had a table set aside for the 5 of us.
After lunch, everyone was tired and ready to go back to the rental house so we dropped off our equipment and called it a day. Plus, baby A REALLY needed to take a nap since she’d missed it the day before when driving in the car.
I thought everyone was sooooooooo tired but once baby A was down for her nap, the big kids wanted to go out back and build a snowman. How could I say no!? Plus, I needed to get in my second workout for the day (#75Hard) so I thought I’d count being out in the snow with my kids as that.
Have you ever tried to build a snowman before? It’s actually harder than I thought it would be LOL! Don’t hate on my snowman building skills, guys!
Okay, if you follow me on IG (@sophiaksays), you would have seen this on my stories already but … we were supposed to stay two nights in the Airbnb and the plan was to leave super early on Mon AM to beat the traffic back home. But honestly, guys? The home was SO gross and dirty. I don’t understand how – this host was supposedly a “super host” and reviews actually mentioned how clean the house was but guys, they didn’t even have toilet paper in the house for us. I mean, they had the one roll that was on the thing but that was it. There are 5 of us … so we had texted/emailed if there was more toilet paper somewhere, and also we had a few other questions about the rules they had listed, but even after 24 hours NOBODY responded. Even now, Tuesday evening writing this post .. NOBODY HAS RESPONDED. WTH?! Plus, the home description failed to mention that it was RIGHT by a train track and you can HEAR the train ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT. The train would pull its horn and just blast at 10pm, midnight, 1am, etc. It was INSANE. So anyway, you might think I’m high maintenance but I just couldn’t hack “roughing it” for another night, especially if all we were going to do was sleep and then leave first thing in the morning. So we made an impulse decision to pack everything up after dinner and we got on the road at around 7:30pm.
Even though it was a little late when we got home, it was SO nice to shower in our own clean bathroom and sleep in our own clean beds. On Monday morning, we took the day easy doing laundry and spent some time walking on our local trail, too.
Also, I had a surprise for the kids that night. I had given D some BB8 pajamas for his birthday but the girls didn’t know that had I also scooped up some new Frozen 2 nightgowns for them with that order. I held onto them for a few days because I wasn’t sure when to give it to them but I decided to go ahead and make their weekends complete. E was the MOST excited for it 🙂
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