A Quick Trip to Tahoe

 So, on a whim, Jon and I decided to take a the kids on a little family vacation. He was taking the day off to go to the ultrasound on Monday, so we figured he might as well take Tuesday off also so we could go do something fun. We have promised the kids all winter that we would go sledding and figured this would be the perfect time. Tahoe is only 4 hours from us and we knew it wouldn't be too crowded this time of year (and during the week) so we found a cheap, but decent hotel, scrounged up some snow clothes (thanks to everyone who lent us stuff!), and headed out to show the kids what snow is. This was Matthew's first time ever seeing it, and Emma hasn't seen it since she was 18 months old....so it was basically her first time. They were SO excited.

Matthew was so excited to go to the snow that he stayed awake the entire 4 hour drive, even though he was obviously very tired. When we got to Tahoe, we checked into our hotel, got our snow clothes on and headed out to the sledding hill. When we got there Matthew had fallen asleep. Jon tried to wake him up, but he was out! So I sat with him in the car while he got his much needed nap and Jon and Emma went to check out the snow.

Emma LOVED the snow, but was not impressed with the sledding....granted we didn't pick a great hill. She did try a smaller hill later and ended up loving it.

Jon was totally in his element. 

Matthew finally woke up and went straight for the sled. He loved it!

He looked SO adorable in his little bib snowpants...I may just have to buy some for him.  :)

There was a pretty big patch of fenced in snow right outside our hotel room. It was PERFECT for the kids to play in. 

This morning we let the kids play outside the hotel while we packed up and got ready to go (and I tried to get over my morning sickness...blah!) When we were finally ready we started driving toward home, looking for another, better sledding hill. We happened to pass a snow play/sledding area that had several really good prepared hills. We had to pay but it was worth it...the sledding was SO much better there. It also started snowing right before we got there, which the kids thought was great.

I went down with the kids a few times, but mostly volunteered to be the photographer. Pregnancy and sledding don't mix well...

Matthew insisted on pulling the sled all the way back up the hill by himself.

One of Emma's favorite things was making snow angels. She told us she was going to make 18 of them.  :)

Such a fun little vacation. I love taking trips with my family. I love experiencing new places and things with them and having time to enjoy just being us. I'm glad we finally got to introduce the kids to the snow...though I still have to say that I much prefer visiting it than living in it.  :)  It was so fun to see the kids' excitement over every little thing....the snowballs, icicles, falling snow...everything was so magical. It was a little sad to watch the snow turn to rain and see all the white on the side of the road turn brown. I definitely think we'll be back next year.