Cold Blast

What a weekend!  For the first time since living in Minnesota I felt the bitter cold - the cold that's so biting it freezes your nostrils closed as you breathe.  And that was just so I could cross the parking lot at the hotel for a cup of coffee.

Just look at how much snow we woke up to Saturday morning!

OK so that was the mound left behind by the plow just inside our motel parking lot.  But it gives you an idea of just how much snow the South Lake Tahoe area received in the past 3 weeks - since we were there last.

Then we made the gorgeous drive up to our snow sledding location.

Some of the roads in Nevada hadn't seen a plow in a while - good thing we had the chains on all weekend!

Here's a comparison shot of just how much snow our little sledding hill picked up in a couple of weeks.  The picture on the left was Drew earlier this month - the right that same fence post - perhaps 12 inches above the snow level.  That railing in the background... completely buried.

In fact there were several areas that were so deep as we tried making our way up the sledding hill - Drew was completely buried!

Sledding itself was pretty rough on Saturday.  Really powdery and there weren't any sled runs already made - we had to make our own.  That lead to a cranky child because he wasn't getting anywhere.  So we decided to just play in the snow for a while.

Here's a little video of Drew playing with his "big ones" as he practiced those Rocky moves.

I tried to take one more family shot at the end, but Drew was DONE!  So we piled back into the car and enjoyed the view on the slow drive back to the hotel for naps.

OK well Mommy and Daddy managed a catnap, but Drew had nothing.  So we ventured out around Heavenly Village for some hot chocolate and  a look around an art museum that was showing some of Dr. Seuss' artwork.

It was a gorgeous sunset!

We stopped for some pizza and enjoyed the rest of the evening in our warm and cozy motel room!  The big fun came on Sunday.