3/12 March Trip to Tahoe

As a bonus for becoming a fractional owner with Hyatt Northstar, Hyatt offered us the equivalent of a 2-bedroom unit for one week for free. We used it to book a 3-bdrm and a 2-bdrm for three nights the weekend we planned to go to Tahoe with Vicki/Stew, Caroline/Rich, and Leilani/Al and their respective kiddies.

All of us except for Vicki/Stew drove up Thursday. Rich and Caroline made great time even with a stop to have their car checked. Vicki and Stew drove up Friday evening. It was snowing, and they got stuck around Donner. There was an accident and maybe a bear on the loose according to a traffic website. Cameron was a trooper through it all.

Zoe took a parent-and-me class with Rich Friday afternoon and took a full-day lesson the next day. She said she liked skiing and wanted to come back to Tahoe.

Maile and Hannah went skiing with Al on Friday. They did greens and a couple of blues. Maile did fine and didn't have any big spills. But the rest of the weekend she didn't want to ski. She said she didn't want to go fast. We told her she could just go on the greens, but she still didn't want to go. We didn't want to pressure her to ski if she really didn't want to, but at the same time I didn't want her leaving disliking or fearing skiing, especially after we just became fractional owners. Thankfully, she got back up on skis the next trip we took in April.

The agent we worked with to become fractional owners left us a welcome package. One of them was a $100 gift card for Schaffer's Camp (http://www.faulknerarchitects.com/schaffers-camp.html -- I included this link because of the photos). It's a beautiful lodge at the top of the mountain. So we decided that we'd all have lunch there on Saturday. It's not the easiest place to get to, especially walking with kids. Ask Vicki. At one point she was carrying Cameron and a sled. Only to be told at the gondola that we couldn't take the sled up the mountain. But in the end it was worth it.

We also enjoyed the spa, smores, and sledding that weekend.

Other photos from that weekend.

The kitchen sink was the perfect size to bathe Mathis.

Speaking of Mathis, that weekend was the start of a love/hate relationship between Mathis and Avery. I think she wanted to play with him, but a toddler playing with a baby doesn't really work. One time she tried to lift him up by his hair. Oops.

Early in the season Hansel bought these snowball sticks online.You can make and throw snowballs really far with them. You can see one in Maile's hand in the below photo. I'd never seen them before.

Family photo of the Yaus.

Each time we'd go down to the lounge/eating area the kids would sit at the same table and play boggle.