Valentine's at Wolfe Lodge

We were fortunate enough to be invited to spend "lover's holiday" with our good friends Cheryl and Russ (and their kiddos Charlie and Rowan), Rick and Cheree (and their boys Alex and Andrew) and Bob and Carol (Cheryl and Cheree's parents) up at their Donner Lake Cabin just outside of Lake Tahoe.

There was talk about a winter storm heading our way but we casually looked the other way and headed up the hill. Boy were those newscasters right (finally)!!!

But it was all worth it once we got up there.........although the process was an experience of it's own. Our 45 minute drive ended up taking 2 hours filled with snowy mountain roads. FUN STUFF! Luckily, we had Kell and Kait there to sing us songs for the whole trip. I can't get enough of their singing.....even though they have their daddy's tone deafness! :-)

Saturday morning, a few of us decided to venture out for a little ski adventure with the kids. Fortunate for me, Kellyn and I had a little "Mommy/Daughter" ski day together. This was her first time on skis and I can't begin to tell you how proud I was of my little snow bunny! All it took was her watching Charlie get on the ski lift and that's all Kellyn wanted to do! We would get to the bottom of the hill and she would look at me and say "let's do that again!".

Russ did an awesome job (skiing backwards mind you) of catching the action on camera. Charlie and Kellyn were by far the cutest things this mountain has seen!!

As you can see.........Kellyn was just plain "pooped" after skiing.

After naptime........it was time for the "festivities". Carol, Cheree and Cheryl are the craftiest people I know and they certainly know how to make a kids day!! The cabin was decorated with balloons and red streamers, along with other little V-day nic-naks.

The kids had a BLAST making their Valentine's place mats......there was stickers, glitter and glue all over the place!!

Then Cheree made sugar cookies and let the girls decorate. Mind you, Kaitlin is just for looks here. She did NO decorating.........instead.......she had a stockpile of cookie dough that she was consistently eating. Love that little monster!

Charlie let me put her hair up in ponytails and we just all couldn't get enough of her adorable little "do". Those 3 little heads together were the hit of the party!!!

Finally............a group picture after dinner. From left to right: Rowan, Kelly, Kaitlin, Alex, Andrew and Charlie.

After dinner, each kid was given a little bag of play money and were instructed to purchase their movie ticket from over-worked and under-paid Bob at the ticket counter. The feature show of the evening was "Over the Hedge". Whatever $$ was left over was to be used to "purchase" snacks during intermission.

The next morning........all snugged in their jammies - the girls gathered together for morning cartoons while pancakes were being made. Couldn't resist this adorable picture!

With bellies full and several feet of fresh snow (which was STILL coming down!!).....we headed outside for some sled time. Something about little poops in snowgear just makes me smile. Charlie was hilarious walking around the house with her helmet and goggles on.....we need Kait to do that at all times!

Cutie Kait taking a break from sledding

And off they go!

We had such a great time........we extended our trip and extra day. Granted, we were pretty much snowed in regardless but it was a win-win situation!!!

Kellyn really made us so proud this trip........this was the first time she's slept outside of a "crib". We put her sleeping bag on the floor at the foot of our bed and tucked her in, telling her to be a big girl and make us proud. That she did!! She slept in that spot for 12 hours solid each night.....and waiting each morning for us to ask her to come join us in bed. What a big girl she's getting to be!!!

We can't say THANK YOU enough to our fabulous hosts at Wolfe Lodge. They were so generous to share their home/time with us........and were so gracious in pretending not to mind our nasty unshowered selves. Doing a whole lot of nothing is really exhausting!!!