Our trip to the SNOW!

When Makena declared that she wanted a "snow party" for her 3rd birthday, I was thrilled. I love snow, and that's a fun theme! I really wanted us to take a trip to Lake Tahoe this winter so she could have a real snow experience. None of the dates and places I was looking at seemed like they'd work out. We didn't have the time off or money to make it happen. Then we unexpectedly got some Christmas money, had enough to pay our bills with some extra left over, so we made a last minute decision and booked a night at a nice resort. One night was all we could afford, but we were going to make the most it. Besides, it was just a test trip. If she hated the snow I didn't want to waste all that money for nothing. Pam found a place and said she was going to go for it. Usually I'm such a planner, so it was a bit of a leap of faith for me. But I was super excited!

We left on Thursday January 3rd. She was awesome on the drive there, she watched her DVD's and snacked. When we were about 10 minutes away from our destination she started to cry and lose it. She kept saying that she wanted to go home and go to sleep. :( Our new Christmas gift GPS directed us to turn right... onto a street that hadn't been plowed and was closed off. Thankfully we found a way around it!

We checked in and explored our room. We had a 1 bedroom suite, and it had an awesome enormous jacuzzi in the middle of the room.

After getting bundled we walked across the street and climbed over a snow plow made hill. I was at the top and about to step down and thought to myself, "Hmm, these boots are not for snow, I wonder if I'll slip." and sure enough, the second I put my foot down I slipped and landed on my bottom. I was worried I'd broken my phone which was stupidly in my back pocket. Thankfully it was ok so I could continue taking photos and video!

Pam and Makena went sledding first, and as they neared the bottom they turned backwards and Makena tumbled off and rolled face first into the snow.

It was hilarious, I wasn't even worried that she was hurt because she was laughing so hard! She got up and asked to do it again!

After dinner we went back out to explore the resort and found huge piles of snow around the pool area.

We had a delicious breakfast and got ready to go play again!

Each time Makena had to put on her snow mittens it was a struggle. I had zero patience for it. Pam was a trooper!

Throwing snowballs from a fort we found.

I was sad that it wasn't snowing so I threw snow at her to catch snowflakes on her tongue!

 Building a snowman!

She named her snowman "star blue nose" or something silly like that.

Pam kept trying to set up the camera for a photo of all of us.

We checked out of our hotel and went to Heavenly Village to look around. Makena saw the Gondola's, and we told her that they go up to the mountain and she said she wanted to ride it. We weren't sure if it was a good idea, since tickets were so expensive and we weren't going skiing or anything. But when she said that we decided to go for it.

Going up the mountain!

We stopped at the observation deck to check out the views.

And to have a hot chocolate!

Then we went the rest of the way up, and had lunch at the lodge. She was jamming out to the music. I ate fries and macaroni and she ate a plate of veggies and beans and olives and egg and cheese. Makena was thrilled when I let her have a Hershey's kiss.

Then she wanted to dance. I love when the mood strikes her, I hope she doesn't lose that love of spontaneous dancing!

We had such an amazing time and it was much later in the day than we wanted to leave, and we didn't want to hit the road when it was about to get dark. So I kept Makena busy taking photos and window shopping while Pam booked the cheapest closest hotel room for one more night in Tahoe!

We were walking back to the car and Makena wanted to take a photo of us by the frozen fountain. She stood there and took about 20 photos.

 She loves playing with our new phones and the camera filters.

In the morning we got dressed and played in the snow at our hotel. Even Rainbow bear was ready for the snow!

Licking an icicle.

A snow playground!

As we were leaving I snapped this photo and Makena shouted, "Mommy, I LOVE snow! Did you know this is real winter?!"

It was a great trip, I was so happy it worked out! Makena keeps saying she wants to go back to the snow and I totally agree. I wish we lived closer and could have real winters with snow!!