Our First Family Snow Adventure

So I'm sure after reading the title you all must think that we are crazy to have ventured out to the snow with three little boys four and under and me fifteen weeks pregnant with our fourth. Well, think we're crazy because...we did it and it was so, so much fun! Our wonderful friends have a family cabin up near Lake Tahoe and they asked us and another family to join them for a few days of fun in the snow. Of course we signed up right away knowing it would be crazy and hectic but hey, it's crazy and hectic at home so why not add in a bit more chaos and have a good time too!!

We left the day after Christmas and finally made it up to the cabin around midnight. When three families of little children are all traveling together it can make for a long trip due to multiple stops and such. But we made it. Babies were nursed. Children were taken to the bathroom and the Dads even got to have a stop at In-n-Out to get some fuel to keep driving. When we arrived, all of us moms were busy getting the sleepy children into their beds while the Dads all unloaded the cars. Luckily, everyone went back to sleep fairly well, us moms organized all the food and meals brought up and the Dads got to drink a beer and hang out in the freezing cold to "cool off" after unloading everything. It was a perfect start to our trip.

The next day us parents got lucky that everyone slept in a bit and then it was off to start our day. The older kids took a hike out in the forest and played in the snow. Joshua only lasted about fifteen minutes outside. He was just too cold and didn't like being bundled up like a mummy. So he and I went back to be with the other smaller ones. The rest of the day was spent playing with the Wii, playing cars, shooting nerf guns and just being together with friends. After all the kids went to bed, us parents played a game of Scrabble and our friends quickly found out that my husband LOVES games and he's quite good at them!

The next day we ventured out closer to Tahoe to go sledding. We had a great time. However, there were a few snafus. For one, there wasn't any indoor area and all three of us moms had little ones who just couldn't be out in the freezing, snowy cold for hours on end. After about two hours Joshua just wouldn't stop crying. He was miserable. The older boys were cold too and so after much deliberation, Steve and I decided since it was late in the afternoon, we better head back to try and get Joshua a little bit of a nap. We also weren't able to make it up to the sledding area until lunch time making it a very late afternoon. So everyone got hungry and tired pretty quickly. But even with these set-backs sledding was still fun and we had a good time. The other two families stayed for another hour or so and then came home. It was also snowing a lot for the few hours while we were there so it was fun to see the snow fall. It just got pretty cold!

The next day we went out to breakfast and then headed home. However, we made a few stops on the way. We stopped to visit my grandmother in Pleasanton who is in Assisted Living. She is so sweet but she has Alzheimer's and has no idea who I am anymore. She did love seeing us though and especially loved the kids. We'll have to see her again soon. Then we stopped in San Jose to meet my new nephew who was born while we were gone. My brother Jason and his wife Theodora just had their first son on Sunday, December 27th named Christos. He was 6 lbs 7 oz and 19 1/2 inches. He is just beautiful. After seeing them it was time to hit In-n-Out one more time before heading home. We finally pulled in right at bedtime and threw everyone in bed. We were all exhausted! But we had such a good time.

Some of the funniest parts of the trip were managing all nine children, three families and all of the different schedules. Fortunately we are all very close friends and so we know each other well making it easy to navigate through the craziness. But trying to pack up, dress, feed, herd and direct nine little children (3 four-year-olds, 3 2-year-olds, and 3 babies...15 months, 8 months and 2 months) was quite a feat and to be honest, we were all surprised that we got as much sleep as we did. It was really a good time. And even though we'll have another little one next time, we're already signed up for next year!