"Ski" Trip

Some of Mark's family rented a house in Bear Valley in Northern Cal last week, so we went up there for a few days, and we had SO MUCH FUN! It's a seven hour drive for us, and on the way we passed lots and lots of "Happy California Cows"...

When we arrived, we couldn't believe all the snow! Our local mountains in L.A. are primarily ice and man-made snow, so to see feet and feet of real snow was very exciting for us. I'm sure people in other parts of the country would like to punch me in the face, but it's a novelty for us.

The house was beautiful, and it had everything - five bedrooms, which slept the 12 of us comfortably, big walk-in showers, heated floors, a foosball table, fireplaces, big TVs.

The front porch and the side view...

Our cooler on the deck...

Inside...

I think we were all equally amazed by the size of some of the icicles hanging off the house...

The kids liked eating them...

Unfortunately (or probably fortunately) I didn't bring my camera when we went skiing, but this pic of me attempting a snow angel pretty much sums up my first skiing experience...

I fell going down the "hill" made for 3 year-olds, I fell getting off the chair lift for the much, much bigger hill I was FORCED to go down by my instructor, and then I fell down that hill. Twice. When I told the instructor I didn't feel quite ready to go down the big hill, he literally pushed me onto the chair lift, despite my pleading. Mark somehow missed my You-better-save-me-from-this! look. The instructor tried to get me to go up a second time, but I had one ski off before I could be shoved into the chair again.

Technically, I returned to the house that night in one piece, so I'd call it a success, but I think I may be hanging in the lodge with my cocoa next year.

The next day was much more my speed. We played in the snow with the kids all day sledding, building a snowman, and having a snowball fight.

The snowman has two eyes, but one was a white bottle cap. Then the snowball fight started...

Mark got a little excited and started throwing huge ones...

And then this little guy wanted me to put the camera down and participate, so he came and threw a few snowballs at me...

Mark and I discussed putting him in our suitcase, but figured his parents would probably notice he was gone. We had such a great time and we all agreed this needs to be an annual thing. Count us in!