Lake Tahoe

The week before Christmas, we drove up to Sacramento for an overnight stay with our college friends. We then headed up to Lake Tahoe where my parents joined us for 4 days of cabin life. It was ideal, perfect, easy, wonderful and the perfect pre-Christmas week ever. The cozy 3 bedroom cabin fit us perfectly. There was a very small hill in the back for the kids to play in the snow. Two miles away from the cabin was a small ski resort that had a section roped off for sledding. For 3 days, we were regulars on that sledding hill -- the kids couldn't get enough.

We usually had 2 adults at the top the hill helping the kids get into the sled and send them down the hill. Two other adults were at the bottom on the hill catching the kids. We only missed each kid once.... well, I guess twice for Jack. For Brooke, she went sideways, under the fence and ended up off the snow right before the parking lot. For Jack, he came down straight off the hill, but was going too fast to be stopped, slid right under the fence and ended up in the parking lot. And the second instance for Jack... he was heading sideways (like Brooke), only instead of going under the fence, his face hit the pole and that stopped him. But even with these 3 instances, the kids got up laughing (granted -- the pole took a little longer to laugh it off) and went right back up the hill to go again, and again, and again, and again....

Our last full day there was Brooke's birthday. The birthday girl spent the day with a permanent smile on her face going down the hill sledding. Her day ended with a princess cake and presents.

I couldn't have asked for a more ideal vacation. The kids were amazing on the long drives, everyone got along great, the kids loved being introduced to the snow and sledding, and it was just easy and relaxing.