Chris Turns 40, a Tahoe Adventure

This April we celebrated Chris's 40th birthday by heading to Tahoe for a weekend of fun in the snow!   California had an epic winter of rain and snow fall in the mountains.  We managed to miss this record snow by staying local and not traveling much.  When I asked Chris what he wanted to do for his birthday I was happy that he said he wanted to take his parents up to Tahoe with us.  As part of his present, it snowed the first two days of our trip so we got to wake up to fresh snow and play to our heart's content!  The weather and scenery were perfect.

The boy's excitement for Tahoe has not dissipated in the 11 months since we have been up there.  When we told them we were going to Tahoe they chanted "we are going to Tahoe" over and over again.  Mary and Oscar thought it was amazing that they had so much excitement for a vacation that involved nothing commercial.  I chalk it up to their genuine love of adventure!

We spent our time sledding, hiking, on a few dates, building snowmen and drinking hot chocolate.  We had to build snowmen over and over again because it turns out that Hank loved to destroy them!  Brady built a little snowman on top of the hill on our first day there.  It snowed overnight so the little snowman got covered in a thick layer of snow.  When we went out exploring the next day I found where the snowman was buried and I was going to let Brady dig it out.  Hank wandered past where I was standing before Brady got to me.  Hank walked by, did a double take, sniffed the tiny pile of snow, got a devilish look in his eye and pounced right on top of the little snowman!  That dog sniffed out the snowman under 8 inches of fresh powder. Hilarious!

We took everyone out to our favorite waterfall.  The road to the waterfall was still closed due to snow and ice.  We used the truck's 4 wheel drive and got back to reasonable parking area.  We walked to the trail head, traversed some massive snow banks and walked on top of some snow mobile tracks.  The tracks were pretty firm but if you broke through, my leg sank in up to my groin!  It was so incredibly peaceful back there.  It is rare to be able to find a place in California where you feel like you are all alone.  I felt like we had those woods to ourselves.  The waterfall was flowing and there was still plenty of snow all around to make it so beautiful.  It was a special treat to be able to share this with the McLeans.

On Sunday we got a surprise text from Brady and Brody's best friend.  They were in Tahoe too and we meet up for some sledding.  It was such a relaxing and fun trip!