Lake Tahoe: Day 1

The girls got a whole week off school in February and since we missed the snow, we decided to take a vacation to Lake Tahoe.  We found a great house to rent in South Lake Tahoe that had two bedrooms, a large loft family room (where the girls slept), two bathrooms, a well-outfitted kitchen, and a living room with a cozy gas stove. It was a perfect home base for meals, board games, warming up (and drying off) by the fire, and relaxing with movies.

It also had a large backyard--shared in common with several other houses--and we immediately went outside to play when we arrived in the early afternoon. The snow was a bit old (no soft powder) and not great for packing into snowmen, but we made snow angels and found a tiny mound that--with a big push from Mom--was good for a little ride in a sled.

One. . .

. . . two . . .

. . . three!

 

Also good for a penguin-style belly slide:

 

Maggie burrowed her legs underneath.

Adah preferred digging. I think she was trying to create a fort, although it wasn't really deep enough to make much of one. Two days later we went sledding higher up in the mountains in very deep snow and she again spent most of the time digging out a big hole for herself.

 

After "warming up" to the snow in the backyard, we headed out to a real sledding hill. Sadly, though, the one that was listed online was not all it boasted to be and we had to settle for another one that some others had carved out of a hillside.  You probably can't tell in these photos--too many shadows--but the hill was a pretty bumpy collection of jumps and what otherwise might be called moguls. It made for some rough rides that hurt my back, but the kids seemed to like it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We concluded our sledding venture with a coyote sighting. Maggie saw it first and we watched it come across the road and crest the hill from another direction and then cross behind us and away. It looked pretty harmless--not likely to attack a pack of people--but I still gathered the children close to me until it was well out of sight.  And then, as the sun was beginning to set, we called it a day for our snow play and headed back to the house.