Lake Tahoe

In December, we were invited to Incline Village Lake Tahoe for a few days by our friends, Ashlie and Rob Simpson. What an experience it was!!! We drove up to Tahoe on Thursday night -- an unfortunate time, really, considering we ended up right in the middle of a blizzard. Visibility was awful which made the whole drive stressful. And, right towards the top of the pass, our tire chains broke, leaving us stranded on the side of the rode in the middle of said blizzard. Soooo awesome. Because chains were required, we called AAA and were told it could be up to 3 hours for help to arrive. Luckily, Dave lied to me and told me it was only going to be an hour and a half -- with the truth I may have gone ballistic. As it was, we were both imagining those scenarios on the news where families get stuck in snow storms and awful things happen. All I kept thinking is: at least I'll be able to feed the baby!!! Fortunately, CHP happened by about 20 minutes later and informed us that we could continue our drive without the chains, as long as we drove slowly. We made it the rest of the way without incident and arrived in Nevada at 2am, with the drive having taken 5 hours.

Because we got into town so late, we decided to spend Friday hanging out and sledding instead of snowboarding (nobody wanted to get up early to hit the slopes). Seemed like a good idea, yes? Turns out, Carter's not such a huge fan of the snow -- especially when mommy and daddy don't think seriously about how to dress him. I thought about packing warm sweaters, a thick jacket and a hat for the little guy, but the cold air froze his poor hands and got into the space between his pants and socks. He was absolutely miserable. Dave was resourceful and put socks on Carter's hands and wrapped his bottom half in a blanket which eased the situation slightly. We ended our snow adventure by having a late lunch of pizza at a restaurant/bar with video poker. Right off the bat, Dave won $100!

On Saturday, Rob, Ashlie and Jackie went snowboarding and skiing at Diamond Peak while Dave and Carter hung out. They got some new chains for the car, and tried to gamble again. Yeah, turns out you can't have a baby with you when gambling in Nevada. Who knew? They then came by the resort to hang out and watch. We were smarter on the second day and left Carter's feetie pajamas on as layers. He was much happier! We made it home to Sacramento in about 2 hours without incident. And the learning curve associated with having a baby continues...