Snow Vacation

We had such a fun time in the snow this week! The last time we did a joint trip with my sister's family was the summer of 2014, when we were both pregnant with our girls. I blogged about it here. So this year we decided to spend a few days in Truckee playing in the snow.

 After we unpacked a little bit, Adam and Ryan headed straight down to the snowy backyard.

 This girl was so excited!

 There was a bit of an hill in the yard, so we were able to do some sledding.

 We discovered a snowman

 And then got into warm PJ's and settled in for the night.

My sister and I chose to cook all our meals in an effort to save money. That night we ate tacos and played lots of Dutch Blitz.

Monday night Adam and I slept horribly. Andrew was awake every half hour crying, and our room was like a furnace. I didn't doze off until close to 4am.

Tuesday morning was cold but sunny.

 We drove about 15 minutes to Soda Springs snow park.

 I thought this little girl looked so cute in her snow clothes and smile.

 Us.....not nearly as cute!

 Soda Springs was perfect. They had a regular area for skiing/snowboarding and tubing. And then there was a kids' area where they had this tube carousel.

 Small tubing hills.

 And even kids' practice snowboarding!

Andrew and Jenna never once complained about the cold or the snow. They absolutely loved it!

 My older boys alternated between the kiddie stuff and the bigger tubing hill.

 Lucas gave me a hard time about his snow overalls, but in the end I won and I thought he looked adorable.

 Another adorable fella....

 Lucas and Ryan came over and tried the kiddie snowboarding.

 While Auntie held a sleeping Andrew.

We ate lunch in our cars, and unfortunately Matthew had to sit out the entire day due to a hurt back. We were at the park from 10-4 and all the kids did great!

Snowball flying at me! Do you see it?

That night we ate chicken drumsticks and played a logic/trivia game that we found at the cabin. Unfortunately Ava was not feeling well for most of the trip, and that feeling soon spread.....

Wednesday morning we got on our snow clothes, and planned our day by the fireplace.

 We played out front.....

 Before heading down to Donnor lake! Have you ever played in the snow on the beach? It was a first for all of us.

If you didn't see the snow, you might think it was a warm sunny day at the beach. And honestly, I was wishing it was 85 degrees. I was starting to feel really chilled.

 We played along the shore, and discovered parts of the lake had a thin layer of ice.

 We picked up the ice, smashed it, and got out lots of aggression. It was like breaking glass!

 Can you see the giant piece of ice he's holding??

Then we found a smaller, frozen lake. Adam and the boys were walking out on it until I yelled at Adam to get them off. They complied, but then Adam decided to test the thickness of the ice by jumping on it. It cracked and down he went! Only a few feet, but he got pretty soaked. Too bad I didn't get an actual picture of him in the lake.

 Back at home we thawed out

And played some Jenga. It was around this time that I started feeling really achy and chilled. I lay down on a giant bean bag, covered myself with a blanket, and literally did not move for 2 hours. I wasn't sure if I was just sore from all the snow play, or coming down with something.

My parents came and visited for a couple hours that afternoon. I felt good enough to put on my snow gear and take a few disc runs down the backyard. I may have almost knocked Adam off a little cliff, because for some reason I couldn't figure out how to put my feet down and slow myself!

 The view from up on the balcony of the cabin.

That evening we ate ice cream, danced to Alexa music, and played more dutch blitz. I felt better but my throat was starting to tickle. By the next day both Adam and I felt pretty sick, Luckily it was time to leave and go home. Lyla, Bella, and Lucas all got sick that day, and now Ryan is also really sick.

I'm thankful most of us enjoyed the snow before we started feeling so crummy!

Although both my sister and I agreed that we would never want to live in the snow, (so much work getting kids in and out of snow clothes!), we all had a ton of fun together. Now I'm focusing on getting my family better because we actually have another fun trip coming up soon!