Dreaming of a White Winter Break

Sometimes it's hard to keep this up-to-date  - for instance, when spending 3 out of 8 weeks out of town, plus the time spent packing, unpacking, and managing the travel schedule of our ski gear.  So, better late than never, here's the highlight reel of Winter Break in Truckee.

We invited some school buddies to join us - Brennan was thrilled to finally ski with his friend William.  They are reasonably well matched in ability, and precisely matched in ambition and craziness.  I find that being responsible for 2 young lives cannoning down the hill and vanishing into the snow completely out of earshot has pushed me to be a much more aggressive skier than I have ever been inclined to be previously.  

Lucie and George, William's younger brother, are somewhat easier to keep up with - unless you count the time they both goofed the chair lift load and skied down into the ditch below instead.  They must have stunned the liftee into paralysis, and I was forced to abandon ship myself when it became clear we were about to sail past overhead.

Oh, well, nothing a hot cocoa can't fix.

It was fun for everyone to have a friend along - the boys are in the same grades as Bren & Lu, Erin is a doctor, Ned likes music and sports, and Baby Lauren and Roux share such interests as Things Left on the Floor and Drooling.  

Unfortunately, Erin couldn't get out of work for more than a few days, and they had to go back to San Francisco.  We would be stuck with each other for the rest of the week.

I guess there were a few exceptions:  the kids spent a day at Tahoe Donner in ski school with their friend Enzo.  And I don't know who these kids are:

Since almost all of my California skiing has been during drought years, I think "normal" is sunny days, closed runs, stuffing coats into lockers, and afternoon slush.  Which is what we had at first...

...and then it started to snow for real.

I'm not sure who was more excited about the new snow - Roux, who loved it so much she had to run in circles around the house -

- or these kids, who begged to shovel the driveway.  (8 weeks later, I'm fondly reminiscing about how easy it was to find the borders of our driveway.  Also, who begs to shovel the driveway???)

It also got cold.  Cold enough that we were glad for the freebie neck warmers - the kids preferred wearing them babushka style under their helmets and fleece gaiters.

We made it to Northstar 6 days total - plus the kids had their lesson day at Tahoe Donner while the adults ran some errands - so they did get a little burned out on skiing.  Sometimes they just wanted to make snow angels, or hide in the trees looking like some sort of mini-Bond Villain.

And the new snow meant the Tahoe Donner snow play area was finally open for business.  The snow was too light and dry for snowballs, and the tubing and sledding hills are pretty tame -

but it's hard to beat the price (free for members) and the location (next to the Rec Center, where you can retire after for a hot tub soak).

It was a fun way to spend school break, and nice to actually start enjoying our mountain house, now that it's mostly furnished and applianced and dimmer-switched.  We're getting good use out of our season passes, and learning our way around Northstar.

But it was a big week in the snow, and some of us need a little rest -