Typically, for Thanksgiving, we host friends/families that have no family around or place to go. Having no family around ourselves, we love doing it and feel blessed by spending our holiday with such great friends. Except for this year...all our friends seemed to have had other plans. Some had family come in town while others went to see family. So we found ourselves with a free holiday and took advantage of it to get out of town for a little getaway...Tahoe! It was actually the perfect Thanksgiving for us this year. Young has been working SO MUCH and we've seen very little of him, it was so nice to just be a family for a few days without distractions. We look back and see how the Lord moved in every situation to give us time away.
We drove up Thanksgiving morning and had dinner reservations at the Thanksgiving buffet. We dressed the kids up in their finest...Timo was so excited to wear his suite and tie just like his daddy!
We had a super yummy lunch...so good. They had game stations set up outside the restaurant for the kids. Timo tried his best to play be we just don't understand the games...we haven't hit the gaming stage yet. But they had fun trying and Yound and I enjoyed coffee and dessert together while they played.
We finished up just in time for the afternoon Smores by the fire pit!
After our late lunch we changed and headed out to the snow. There wasn't much snow around except what was being made on the Northstar slopes. Since the Ritz is right on the slopes, we were able to play a little but it was mostly icy snow, not powder. That didn't stop the kids from trying to make the most of it.
That night we wanted to get in the Christmas spirit so we watched The Grinch on the ipad. Daddy crashed about 2min into it...he was exhausted!
The next morning we had breakfast and the kids were excited to "find the bear" the hotel does for the kids. The staff hides the bear in the living room area, you have to find it and take a picture of it with your phone, show it to the staff and get a prize.
They had made snow all night long (we heard the blowers all night long) so we knew there would be fresh white stuff to play with...only it was too packed and icy to do much. The kids tried their best to make a snowman...
We decided to head out on a hike and explore the area...which means picking up lots of sticks!
I like the outtakes...we asked a friendly stranger to take our picture and he was so patient with us...
The Ritz had an afternoon Kids Club craft time so we took advantage of the break, dropped them off and Young and I headed to the spa. He took a dip in the pool while I enjoyed the complementary hot cider and warm molasses cookies...mmmmm, so good. We picked them up at 4pm, just in time for afternoon smores...Timo was becoming an expert at catching his on fire after about the 5 marshmallow! I gotta say, the Ritz is all about families and had so much to offer for kids.
On the heels of smores, they began gingerbread cookie decorating in the living room area! We were slowly getting into the holiday spirit....but feeling tired from our day of hiking. Nothing like a lot of sugary marshmallows and gingerbread men to get them energized again.
That night we took the gondola down to North Star Village for dinner and were treated to a perfectly clear sky to see the Milky Way! I'm not sure who was more exited, Young showing Timo or Timo seeing it for the first time. Either way, father and son had a moment. Then crashing hard after a good day.
We were leaving the next day so we got up early to go on a big family hike up the mountain...and collecting more sticks. The kids LOVE to go on long hikes and Young out did himself on this one. We headed up, up, up to an old abandon ski slope with an amazing view. It was a hard hike and I'm impressed that the kids made it all the way up. Playing commanders in the Army going on obstacle courses helped. There was still a little snow on the hillside from the snow a few day before. Just enough make it fun, not miserable.
Guess this used to be the Boondocks trail, we found this old sign buried under brush. Going up was the hard part, going down was the most fun.
We returned to the hotel to check out and the pastry staff was putting up the gingerbread house. They were asking all the kids to come and "help" unwrap candy...genius! great way for free labor!
The bellman offered the kids a rid down the the car...I tried to take a video but he was zipping them down the hall way too fast.
We would have loved to stay long but we had commitments back in SF. It was a short but oh so sweet little getaway, perfect for our family to send some quality time together.
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