Day 11: A Heavenly day

We awoke when the sun crept up. The room was still snuggly warm and if not for the anticipation of snow (and the noisy kids), I would have wanted to stay snuggled and warm. But that was not to be, and systematically as A-B-C, we dressed the kids layer, by layer and had them prepared for the cold day ahead. Today, was snow play!

But first, as always, being the breakfast family that we are, we headed to the lodge lobby for a cosy affair. Everything was served in good quality paper ware (great for recycling) and the food served was also healthy and hearty of granola, oats, milk, coffee, tea, bread, fruit.. it was perfect.

J and his granola bag

What's breakfast without a dose of chacha?

And then... the husband had his fix.

After fueling up, we decided to take a short walk to the cable lifts that would bring us up to the snowy mountains. Truth is, the weather was not cold enough for real, to bring about real snow. But not to fear, after our last disappointment of no-snow-show at Yoseminte, Heavenly definitely has (man-made) snow so hooray!

One little bundled up warm bunny

An excited child who couldn't wait to take the cable car

Before we could take the lifts to go up to the mountains though, we took some time to explore our options and after reviewing them, we opted for snowboarding - for the husband - while the kids and I were just going for snowplay. Sounds simple? Not really - we had to dress the part. And so began the tedious painful practical process of changing into the snow-waterproof clothes and boots so that we would be properly warm and dry. It took us (seemingly) ages to get dressed - picking the right sizes of jacket, pants and boots for 4 of us. There was also a locker that allowed us to put as much stuff inside as possible - except that being the kiasu over-worried careful Mother that I was, I seemed to need a bit of everything - milk, bottle, hot water flask, towel, scarf, snacks... the final bag that the husband and I still needed to bring up was still not that much lighter, to be honest.


Anyhow, we had to do a toilet stop before going off and of course that took forever. Peeling off the layers of clothes that we had just successfully managed to pull on - aaaahhh, it took time. And just about at this point, the husband start to rummage for his wallet. We searched, first slowly then frantically and could not find it at all. We ran back to the shop and asked the staff but no one saw the wallet. Finally, on a whim, the husband opened up the locker and - there it was. He'd accidentally left the wallet inside the locker and forgot about it - phew. After this scare, we finally headed to buy our lift tickets.

It cost us a bomb to go up the mountain in the cable lifts gondola! Tip - purchase them online, and you'll save some.

Happiness and excitement

My sweet, happy firstborn

Going higher

A panaromic view of Lake Tahoe from our gondola

Within minutes, we were off and... there was snow!

SNOW!

Didn't stop them when they wanted to sit down, just because

While Papa took off to try his snowboard, we entertained ourselves. 

Olaf and his carrot nose - was not too yummy

Oh Mommy I'm pretending to sleep

Me too!

While the husband was still snowboarding, I dug up the contents in my very heavy bag - fed the children snacks (granola bars were life-saving), hot water, cold water, milk.. the kids seemed to be very hungry. Perhaps it was the cold. So when he finally made it back - bum slightly bruised - we opted for a snow tubing for the kids. I stayed with them while the husband went off to not break his bones on his snowboard.

Pulling themselves up the little hill

Me watching them pull their tubes up 

Daredeveil K

Slightly awkward J (cos he was so tiny and so bulked up from the thick layers of clothes haha)

WHEE! MOMMY LOOK AT MEEEEE

Helpful K who tried to pull him... for all of 10 steps 

The tickets we bought for them lasted an hour, and they had a blast. I was worried that I'd have to pull their tubes up but thankfully, they were game/enthusiastic/found it novel enough to do so themselves and I cannot be prouder of them. In the end, we came up with a system where I'd help pull them up after they did so by themselves a couple of times. A fair arrangement that worked for all parties.

It was exceptionally thrilling to watch them squeal with joy and laughter from the kick of tubing down the slope. They had the option of (1) going straight or (2) going round in circles. The kind staff would then either give them a shove in a straightforward fashion, or spin them about while pushing them down. It was thrilling to watch and my heart was bursting with happiness with such simple observations. I think the lovely cold air, the refreshing freshness of the experience and the air just made everything so enjoyable. It was pretty kickass.

After about 40minutes they kinda lost interest, and started making friends with the staff. Here's a kind staff who entertained the kids by teaching them how to compress the snow into balls.

Learning to build snow babies

At the end of the hour, the husband came back - aching but nothing broken - and we headed to the next plot of area designated as "Snow Play Area". All the areas on the slopes were clearly labelled so that people knew where to go. As there was a wide expanse of land, we truly didn't explore too far off and maybe it was the bulky clothes, it did feel awkward and tiresome to walk too much. Perhaps that's why people ski on snow - a lot more graceful and fluid than trudging along (while carrying a big bag with two whiny children in tow).

Getting down and dirty in the snow

That's me. Doing nothing at all. 

We spent the next half hour building a snowman (unsuccessfully), playing snow bombs (the kids call them "FIREBOMBS!" and thankfully, the key target was the husband. Who was seemingly more than happy to be engaged in such childish violent  engaging play.

It was about 3pm that we decided to stop and head for our lunch. We had an expensive and mediocre meal of beans and chips and salad and fruit and.. beer. By then, everyone was feeling pretty low on energy (or full from food) and we just hung around observing people on the slopes.

Mandatory family shot in the snow #bliss

Jumpshot! Doesn't she look like a cute bundled up penguin?

The amateur jumper (who made it off the ground),
the professional milk-drinker (nothing will take his milk away from him!)

Papa and daughter jump combo

Mommy and son jump combo!

Riding the snowboard towards the gondola

The husband did a final run or two on the slopes again and to his credit, while not knowing how to skate nor snowboard properly, he did pretty well. Explains the nearly broken back. The kids had so much fun just throwing snow about - to the point that K had swollen and near-frost-bitten fingers and hands from the cold snow.

It started to get dark about 5pm and the resort was going to close, and so we headed down after a full day in snowplay. It was only a few hours, but I think that's how it is with winter time - short days and longer nights.

I craved for ice-cream so that's where we went next - an ice-cream stop.

Love

Happiness

After stuffing our faces with cold ice-cream (I love eating ice-cream in the cold!), we headed to the nearby supermarket to stock up on our pantry. Then we headed back to the hotel and settled on a very simple dinner of instant noodles.

  

Only on holiday - TV + instant noodles

It was also at this point that the husband started to look for his wallet again and to our utmost dismay, we discovered that we had really lost it the second time round. It was truly awful, the feeling of loss and we felt pretty bummed out. But hey. No one was injured, everyone was well and we just pretended that we could have just spent that money anyway. Time does make it better and today, when I'm writing about it, I feel less angsty and a lot more calm about it.

And just before I end off, let me put it on record that K's skin is so sensitive (always is, but more so in the dry weather) that she started to have scabby, nearly-scaly skin as it was so dry she couldn't stop scratching herself. Her eczema flared up pretty badly and after nearly two weeks in USA, her skin was in a pretty bad state. We had to moisturise her but it still didn't help change her skin back close-to-normal.

Also, one last thing - while on holiday, despite us being more relaxed about some things (like diet), discipline doesn't ever stop.

Here's the naughty boy in his naughty corner *wry face

Truly, it was quite a day and I'm glad we had this common experience of snow encounter with the family. The kids had a blast on the slopes in their tubes and it was so pretty - the snow, the air, the fun, their laughter... it was perfect. And so, here's a beautiful picture of my beautiful children that I kept in my head as I dozed off to sleep on this night.

Little angels

Day 10 of our holiday here.