It was even better because originally I had booked us a 1 bedroom Villa at the Marriott Vacation Club in Lake Tahoe because that was all that was available. The morning we were leaving I checked online and saw that the Vacation Club next door actually had two bedrooms ones available. We had missed the cancellation window, but after talking to the property and the platinum reservation people everyone agreed to cancel our old reservation without penalty and move us to the other hotel. They were seriously so nice to me. And the best part was that it was for the same number of points! A total score! It was awesome to have more space to spread out, especially cause the kids had their own room.
Here's the kitchen.
Dining
Living Area. Our kids were fascinated with the fireplace. They couldn't be in any of those three rooms without turning it on. There were two bedrooms too, one off of the kitchen and the other one off of the living room area. 
This vacation we played a TON of cards. I taught the boys how to play "secret" rummy in the car one day when we were waiting for Ken's conference to get out. It's really Gin Rummy but I couldn't remember the name so now they call it secret rummy because you don't reveal your runs or sets until your hand is full and you surprise everyone.We also played a lot of Go Fish! The girls love that game, surprisingly the boys like playing it a ton too. It was really sweet to see them just start playing cards together in the morning or when they had free time.
By the time we got to Tahoe on Friday night it was already dark. We stopped for gas as we got closer and the kids saw snow piled off to the side of the parking lot and it was "freezing"! That's their words because it was seriously like 55 degrees, our poor children have forgotten what snow is like, but they were really excited. The whole reason we went to Tahoe was because they wanted to go to the snow for Spring Break.Anyway, after we got the kids settled at the hotel Ken and I ran to the grocery store a block away to pick up supplies and sleds for the next day. Imagine my happiness as the guy who is bagging our stuff is like, most of the snow is gone. Nice huh! They had just gotten 5 feet of snow the weekend before. We pretty worried about his comment.
The next day when the sun was shining we could see that while the ski resort still had snow, but that was high up in the mountains. We had debated about skiing but had decided against it since we were only going to be there for 3 days and it was expensive to rent the gear, buy the ski pass, plus send our kids to ski school. Maybe next year, but our major vacation for the year is this summer.
We hopped in the car and drove to two good sledding spots in the area only to find there was no snow. We drove about 30 minutes away to the third spot, and found our glorious snow! The kids were so excited!
It was a perfect spot to go sledding!
The boys put their gear on and hopped out of the car so fast that I didn't even have a chance to take their picture. Of course with the girls it took us 20 minutes of putting their gear on. Which included putting on gloves and boots multiple time cause they didn't feel right. But once they were down on the white stuff, they were awesome the whole entire time.
Rose and Ginger fit perfectly in all the boys old snow gear from Utah. We just had to buy them pink and purple gloves. Rose wasn't too happy that her boots had Spiderman on them but she was okay when we showed her that he pants covered him up so all that other people saw was black boots. Can you imagine the horror of our girly-girl wearing Spiderman boots? She was a good sport, but Ken and I are also realizing that we need to stop spoiling her so much too.Ginger on the otherhand thought it was awesome to wear her brother's clothes from the very start. It's not everyday that she gets to be like her brothers so she was more then pleased with herself. She's used to hand-me-downs though too. Whereas Rose is only ever used to picking out her own clothes.
We looked around in Austin for snow pants for the boys but didn't really find any good options and figured we could buy some when we got to the mountains. They didn't really end up needing them because it was a beautiful, sunny day and about 50 degrees outside. They wore their coats for a little bit but eventually they took them off when they got to warm.
I had bought three different types of sleds, but we also had swim stuff in the car and Rose had alot of fun in the beginning going down on an innertube. I should have brought the huge innertubes we have from floating the river. Those would have been perfect!
Ginger and Dad coming down.
Ken and Rose on the sled.
Darin on the surf board.
Nathan on the saucer. Those things are crazy! They spin all the way down the mountain and go superfast.
Me and Ginger on the sled.
Nathan started giving the girls rides on the saucer. Which totally terrified me! That's the good thing about having older brothers...cause he took them up and gave them a wild, exciting ride. But, he was also the sweetest brother and ran down the mountain after them. These are times when I wonder how I am so lucky to get to be their mom, it also happens to be the times that start making me cry:-) 
Love that boy!
Darin on the sled. Ginger had been racing him down on her bottom (she was crazy and loved doing that)
When Ken started at the top of the mountain he was sitting on the surfboard. Halfway down though he some how got flipped into this position!
Darin and Ginger on the sled. Our boys really are the sweetest to their sisters. They include them all the time, but more then include them. They would search them out to give them a ride. Seriously, this is why I cried like 20 times on vacation.
Snowball.
Cutie-Cutie.
Dad taking Rose up the mountain.
Mom and Ginger walking back up.
That was it for Day One of sledding. It was awesome and we had lots of fun. Ken and I were tired so we talked the kids into eating our lunch in the car. Turns out after a full belly, hot chocolate, and getting warmed up that they were done for the day. Good thing too, sledding is exhausting!We went back to the hotel and rested for a little bit (Ken and I enjoyed the enormous jacuzzi tub with jets:-) Then we went out to a movie. We saw Journey 2 the Mysterious Island. Amazingly, the girls even loved it. I thought it would be too scary, but they really, really liked it.
I begged Nathan to let me take a picture of his hat hair and he finally relented. I think he is super cute!
The next day we woke up and it was snowing! When Ginger looked out the window she asked us. "What are those white crumbly things?" 
The kids were pretty fascinated with the snow, even though it was barely snowing.
By the second day Rose and Ginger were ready to sled down all by themselves and hike back up.
The kids loved the saucer so much that we picked up another one and they had a good time racing each other.
Or sitting in it and making snowballs to throw at everyone as they came down. Ginger thought that was hilarious and even threw one at me and Ken--sneaky girl!
Daddy's girl! Rose wanted to be with her Dad most of this day. Then again that's because she wanted him to hike her higher up the mountain and set her up to slide down.
Me and Ken went down a few times too. It was scary for me, he kept making our starting spot higher and higher. I don't like to be out of control and everytime I went down the sled would spin out of control and I would end up backwards. But Ken kept us safe and it was really thrilling for me. Probably not for him, but he likes me, so he kept taking me up.
Ginger and Ken.
Can you belive that, he takes her on a ride and then she pelts him with snow balls.
What an irrisitable girl though! Being the youngest lets her get away with being cheeky!
Darin
Ken on the saucer.
The girls attempted to make a snow man. Well techinically they did, it was only a foot high. There were only a two other families at this spot the 2nd day so we let the girls play off on the side while going off sledding with the boys.
Ken and Darin racing.
My men!
Me and the girls.
Darin took me down for a ride too and we laughed so hard the whole way down. We also got really wet in the slushy snow.
Nathan started using the surfboard to actually surf. He got pretty good on the gentle incline.
So handsome!
Darin and Rose ready to race.
Ken and me again. We finally learned on our last ride down that it works best if I am behind. Could have something to do with me wrapping my legs around Ken instead of dragging them in the snow because I'm scared:-)
Ginger slid on her bottom all the way from the very top of the mountain. Crazy girl!
Half-way.
Whoops, she flipped to her tummy! She loved it!!!
Rose became a maniac! She wanted to go higher and higher and loved every minute of her many, many rides.
The dare devil even insisted on going down backwards. I didn't think this was a good idea but Ken said she spins around so much anyways that it was fine.
Rose finally said she was tired after like her 50th run. Then she said, "The best way to rest was by going fast!" So Ken took her up another time. And another time after that, and after that, and after...
We need the hotel cart just to lug all of our wet snow gear and clothes back to the room.
Don't you love when your kids insist that they aren't tired and two seconds later they are like this...
That pretty much sums up the rest of our trip. We were exhausted, Ken had hurt his back pretty badly, so we were more gentle with him. We saw another movie, read books, played cards and just hung out together. It was such a great vacation! The kids want to do it again next year. I wish that we would have been able to stay for a week, but Ken wanted to get us home before he flew out of a mini-trip. That would have been pure Heaven!!!P.S.- Impromptu 3 night trip to the snow cost us a whopping $286. Woot-Woot! Crazy cheap considering valet parking for the hotel was $26 a night and I spent $100 on sleds. And that the room we stayed in was $575 per night, but we only had to pay $9 for the three nights taxes.
1 comment:
It looks like a fabulous trip! And you really know how to find the deals! Next trip we plan - will you be our travel agent? Heck - next time, we'll just come with you guys! ;-)
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