Skiing in the Desert December 27-30, 2011

December 27, 2011.  Dave and I took the kids and Andy's friend Morgan skiing at South Lake Tahoe.  We stayed at The Ridge at Tahoe and skied at Heavenly for the first time.  It was beautiful but felt a bit like we were skiing in the desert because there was barely any snow.  They did a great job of making snow for the runs, but under the lifts it was completely bare ground with rocks and bushes.

Taking a break, waiting for the shuttle to take us back to other side of the mountain because there  wasn't enough snow to traverse back so we had to take the bus.  Ryan said next time he wants to bring  friend, maybe that will help him like skiing a little more...he did great though.  

Becca and I did a cross-fit class at the gym and it was hard because of the altitude.  At least that's what I'm saying...Then I had an hour of "Becca time" and we went shopping while Dave took the boys into the arcade.  Andy won big time!  We met them there and played a few games, then walked back to our place.
Dave and I went to a cooking class and learned how to make puff pastry with cream.
We had a great family vacation and everyone really had fun.  We missed Alaina a lot, but maybe she can come next time.

Spring Break 2011

We had planned to go to Utah and ski at Deer Valley for Spring Break, but when 3 of the kids complained about skiing, we decided it wasn't worth the drive. They always say we are never home during the school vacations (which is true) so I agreed it wasn't fair to spend their whole break doing stuff they didn't want to do AND be away from their friends. SO, we went to Tahoe to ski for just a few days and spent the rest of the break at home, only to find most of their friends were away for the break.

We had amazing weather... didn't even need coats (but I'm a wimp and wore mine anyway).

The kids all skiied the first day and we split up, then met for lunch on the mountain at Schafer's Camp. It's always delicious! Then Alaina went back to the condo because her ankle was hurting again. Poor thing. The next day just Andy, Dave and I skiied. It's been a long time since I have really skiied hard for a whole day and I got a little more brave and daring with each run. I took Andy to a "run" under the lift that looked like untouched powder, but was really more like cement. He was smart and went another way, while I proceeded to build up uncontrollable speed like never before and had the most massive wipeout! It was quite amazing. I knew I was going to lose it and just let myselft fall without fighting it. I slid under the chairlift, whizzing by about 10 chairs and could hear people gasping. Too bad my kids weren't there to see my spectacular crash!

When I finally came to a stop, skiiers brought me my equipment which was all over the place and I hopped up, feeling so refreshed! I had been so warm and the snow flying all around me had actually felt so great. I skiied the rest of the way to the lift with a little more caution and realized my thumb was throbbing. I took off my glove to find a bloody, already bruising mess. I thought that was pretty good, considering I probably could have broken my neck!

The snow was so deep! The third day Alaina wasn't able to ski but Ryan and Becca joined Andy, Dave and I and we had a great day. My thumb didn't hurt too badly and there were no more wipeouts. I am thankful that we were able to spend the week together and that Dave didn't have to work too much!

New Year's Eve 2010 at Tahoe

We spent the week after Christmas in our time share at Northstar at Tahoe. It was beautiful but freezing! Literally 8 below freezing one morning. Sadly, my Alaskan blood has thinned. You can see Ryan didn't seem to notice it is winter, as he played football in the snow in his shorts and tshirt...crazy kid! Andy made the cutest snowman and I had a great video of him clobbering it, but when I called tech support for help with my new iPhone4 (so this wouldn't happen) all of my new photos and videos were deleated...so he promised me he'll make another one next time we go.

We love celebrating New Year's Eve here. The Clements came over and the 4 girls got in the hot tub to watch the fireworks. They shoot off right by the gondola by the condo and it's the best spot to watch. Mica brought us Martinelli's and we all toasted at midnight. All but two of us stayed awake!!

Dave and I played with Tyler while Mica helped Alexa ice skate. Alaina, Becca, and Alyssa didn't need any help and zoomed in circles until they were too cold to stay out. A great Journey tribute band played at the stage at the end of the rink and brought back lots of memories!

Every year three of the kids tell us how much they hate skiing. (Andy loves it.) Every year we tell them it is fun. Someday I'm hoping they will agree. Notice that our soccer obsessed Ryan wore soccer jerseys over his ski jacket both days. That was the only way we could get him to wear ski clothes! All of the lift operators commented on them and he loved it.

We had two awesome, clear days and Dave and I loved seeing the kids ski together. They really looked like they were having fun...maybe we have some actors in the house.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

New Years Eve 2009 at Northstar

Happy New Year!!

They had a troupe of fire dancers come as part of the Village New Years Eve celebration. We decided they were a little creepy, but it was an interesting show.

As Ryan and I skiied our last run to our place we saw them setting up the fireworks equipment. They put on a great show and they burst right over our firepit! We played games and the kids pulled confetti poppers at midnight. I think it is the first year that everyone actually stayed up to see the ball drop!

Northstar at Tahoe: December 2009

Doesn't it look like they are having fun? Apparently they were miserable...

We made our annual trek to Northstar at Tahoe for the week after Christmas. As we were getting our snow gear on, we realized that the ski pants Ryan was supposed to have grown into wouldn't button and the new ones we bought Andy last week were mysteriously too small...so Dave took the girls up the mountain and I took the boys to the Village to get some new gear. We met them later and had a gorgeous ski day...along with about a billion other skiiers!

The three younger kids preferred to play in the snow and Ryan wore shorts whenever I didn't stop him. Dave and I decided that while we planned to ski three days, they only had to ski two. As I write this, I am thinking "had" to ski?!

Dave, Andy and I had a blast skiing nearly all blacks and loving the fresh coat of powder.

Oh yeah! That tiny ant doing a spread eagle is me.

They are actually great skiiers...just lacking a little confidence. It took me a little over an hour to get Ryan off the run when he fell. A little to ambitious, perhaps? I am just grateful that we had terrific weather and that no one got hurt.

Tahoe, Again!

My brother, Brian, the hockey star

The second weekend in March I drove with Alaina, Becca, and Ryan to our place in Tahoe to see my brother play in a hockey tournament and my nephew ski in the X-Country Junior Olympics. What a talented family I have! My dad came from Alaska to see us all and he and Brian stayed with us at Northstar. It was great to see everyone! Andy had Youth Conference and Dave can't sit in the van very long because of his neck, so we missed them. Without the snow, it only took us 2 hours and 45 minutes! (see previous post for 7 hour trip...)
My Dad, brother, Brian, and nephew, Aaron, after a tasty sushi lunch
Alaina, Becca, Aaron (after his last race), and Ryan, with Logan Lion

The very most awesome ski days ever!

We rode the gondola up and found the most spectacular powder covering the mountain! We skiied for two days and the second day Dave met us on the mountain at Schaffer's Camp for lunch. His doctors wouldn't clear him to ski and his back is still hurting too badly anyway. I was just glad he got to see the kids ski a little.
Andy and I at the top of Lookout Mountain
Alaina and Andy with a funny statue guy
Alaina and Becca in the deep powder. We all loved making fresh tracks!
Becca is a little speed demon
The kids are all getting pretty brave and even Ryan skiied down Martis. It took a little convincing, but he was so proud of himself when he made it down.
Ryan hung out a Schaffer's Camp for a while to warm up and had the best hot chocolate in the world. Either that, or we were just so cold that it tasted amazing!

Whew!

Isn't this beautiful? I love how trees look when they are covered with freshly fallen powdery snow. I guess that comes from growing up in Alaska. After loading the Thule with all of the skis, boots, and poles, and the trunk with way more bags than we should need for a 3 day trip, the kids and I left Walnut Creek at 2:45pm. The plan was to pick Dave up at the Reno Airport (he'd been in Utah on business) and go to our timeshare in Tahoe. We were making great time and I thought we'd actually get there before dark, when the snow hit. I am glad I didn't check the weather forecast because I might have chickened out if I'd known what we were in for. To make a long story short, we ended up at a stand still for over an hour, then had to crawl behind the traffic that had been caused by a 22-car pile up! The scene changed from the above daytime beauty, to the below dark and dangerous.
We finally arrived at the condo at 9:45pm, a mere 7 hours later...it usually takes around 3 hours to get there. When we were stuck I kept thinking about how much worse it could be and how little we were truly incovenienced. We had a warm, dry, AWD van, the kids were watching a movie, they had car snacks, I had just filled up so we had a full tank of gas, and I had the all important hot tamales and peanut m&m's, because you really can't drive 4 kids alone without them! I even had internet access from my iPhone and was able to check my email. Ryan and I got out at one point to play in the snow, but a police officer told us to "get back in the vehicle!" I got ahold of Dave and he told me the road was closed from the airport to Truckee, so he had to get a hotel there. He met us the next afternoon, when the road re-opened and the shuttle picked him up because I was skiing with the kids.
It's a good thing that driving in the snow is kind of like riding a bicycle. You never forget how to do it.

Tahoe Fun

We went to our time share at Northstar for a few days and had the most incredible time. Poor Dave has a pinched nerve or herniated disc (we aren't sure which yet) so he wasn't able to enjoy anything, but I took the kids and did everything possible! We made s'mores in the firepit, went in the hot tub, swam in the heated outdoor pool, skiied, watched "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium" in a private 18-seat theater, went out for dinner, ice skated, played tons of games, watched "Wall-E", finished the Book of Mormon, and had whipped cream , with a little bit of hot chocolate :)!! All in two days!

A rare moment with Dave out of the condo, with high hopes that the hot tub would make him feel better...it didn't.
In the incredible 18-seat private theater, enjoying popcorn and hot chocolate. All four of the kids loved skiing, especially because of the sunny weather.

Mom and Alaina at the top of the Zephyr Lift.
Becca is a little daredevil and only had a few falls. She had a great attitude!
Ryan and Alaina took a little break to build this snowman while Andy, Becca and I went to the terrain park.
The Skiing Sisters.The girls and I ice skated while the boys played with Andy's new phone and waited for our table.

We had dinner at the Rubicon and brought Dave some pizza. Ryan didn't want to be in the picture, but you can still see the top of his head.

We had the best weather and made some great memories. I don't think I have ever been so grateful to see a parking garage (I have a little phobia!) as when I saw the signs saying "lot full" and "paid parking lot full". We drove right up to the garage and were happily greeted with "Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Bain! Take any spot and we'll take your things up to your condo for you." And they did. They brought all of our ski equipment to the Ski Valet and in the morning they met us at the lift with it, so we didn't even have to carry anything! Amazing service...they even popped popcorn and brought it to us in the private theater. The kids were in heaven, especially since they could operate the movie on the huge screen and replay all of their favorite scenes. And their in house masseuse didn't have any time available after the lift closed, so she gave me a massage during the movie. What a perfect way to end a fun family trip. I only wish Dave could have enjoyed himself, but we think he is on the mend now, after 4 doctor visits.