I’m sitting inside the Kirkwood lodge at the bottom of chair 5,  ironically the name of the lift is “solitude”.  Solitude is far from what the outside is like.  The wind is making us hear its voice as it howls across the resort, huffing and puffing like the big bad wolf and twirling the snow in every direction it can manage.  We are on day 3 of being snowed in here and this is the worst day of weather yet but we are still having fun.  Growing up in Michigan snowstorms are nothing, but to be honest I haven’t been in a storm like this since I was young and it can’t help but bring memories of my youth.  Just yesterday my kids dug themselves out a tunnel in one of the snowbanks.  My best friend Sherry and I use to do that all the time along with our stylish moon boots.  The boots were so huge that we use to make footprints in the snow and play “hunt for big foot”.  Thank goodness we made a tunnel because when we heard the big “bumble” we had a place to hide. Plus, it made a great place to throw snowballs from to hit the other kids.  Every kid should have at least one chance to build a snow tunnel in their lifetime.

 Even though we have woke up every morning here to either duck hunters guns or the sounds of avalanche booms it has been a wonderful get away.  The fun part for my husband and I is that our kids are getting “snow days”.  For both of us this was one of the best memories of both of our childhoods. Today was the first day the slopes didn’t open due to high winds but the kids are playing outside, throwing snowballs, and jumping off picnic tables in to huge drifts.  No matter how stressful it was earlier today with us needing to get back home nothing was worth killing ourselves.  We attempted to leave earlier today and got a mile down the road and had to stop because you couldn’t make out the ground out from the sky,   a little scarey.  You know it was bad when your husband turns the car around and you didn’t even need to nag or beg to stop and stay.  But we are determined to make the best of it.  Enjoying the beauty of the fresh powder, the warmth of the fire, the comraderie of fellow stranded guest, and the laughter of our kids will make for a great family memory. 

For those of you who ski or board the last couple of days have been amazing.  So much better then the rain we’ve been hearing everyone in San Jose is getting.  In fact, yesterday only 2 lifts were open and one of them was the one we use the most.  It was a great day.  At times it was like we owned the mountain being the only ones on it.  I loved it!  It was so peaceful and surreal and we were exhausted because of how many runs we made.  You can see how empty it was from the photo below of my boys and me at the picnic table.  Last we were so bundled up it was kind of a pain to go inside to eat so we had a snack picnic outside.  One of my favorite things is how they made snowcones out of the fresh snow and Dr. Pepper.  The kids loved it.   As fun as it has been we hope  to make it back down the mountain tomorrow.  I know Eric will have a hard time giving up his corner office but its time to get back to real life.