Ski Weekend with the Cortez Family

Last weekend, the rain finally stopped, and fortunately, we had planned to go to Tahoe.   The timing could not have been better--about 10 feet of fresh snow!  

 Even more fortunately, our friends, Sue and Ben, and their kids Cruz and Whitney were able to join us.

We had great weather-blue skies and not too cold--and great snow for skiing.  

 The kids had a lot of fun hanging out and also enjoyed walking off of our second floor deck and into the snow--it was that high!

For dinner, Ben made some delicious chicken pot pies.   It was great catching up (it had been too long since we did) and enjoy some winter fun together.

Double Digits

 Last week Alaina celebrated her first decade.   Over the weekend, she had a sleepover birthday party and had 4 school friends stay the night.   

The party stated with a taco bar.   The girls then decorated pillowcases and eye masks with fabric markers.   Afterwards was cake--I found Alaina a cute bunny cake and presents.   We then had a scavenger hunt, and finally ended the activities with a movie--the girls chose Pirates of the Caribbean.  The girls headed to bed around 11 but were still chatting when I fell asleep.  In the morning they had a pancake breakfast before heading out.

  

On her actual birthday, Alaina had school and piano.   Afterwards, we had a family dinner with Grandpa and Marilynn.  Alaina again chose Salisbury steak and mashed potatoes for her dinner, and for dessert, an ice cream cake with strawberry ice cream.

 

For his birthday present, she got a desk for her room.   Jason spent a long time yesterday putting it together, and then we rearranged the furniture to make room for it.   She is pretty excited to have her own workspace in her room!  Check out the before and after pictures:

 

Electricity Woes

 Well, 2023 is off to a bit of a rough start for us.

As we were driving home from Tahoe on New Year's Day, we got a text from our neighbor saying that they had been having power surges at their house.   Our electric company came out to investigate and declared it was fixed.

Two hours later, our other neighbor texted to say his house was on fire.   Thankfully no one was inside--they were out for a walk--but the fire, which started in a surge protector, caused significant damage, and their sprinklers did even more.

We came home to a fire crew in the cul-de-sac.   Luckily, no fire in our house, but we did also have several charred surge protectors.   Additionally, our furnace, microwave and bathroom fan no longer worked.

By then the electric company was back and assured us that this time the problem was really fixed (but was it?).  We did not sleep well, and left all the bedroom doors open and unplugged as much as possible out of fear.

The following day, we had an electrician out who got our furnace running again but could not fix the microwave or fan.   Other neighbors had similar issues--one house lost an oven, another a refrigerator/freezer, etc.   And everyone on the street had fried surge protectors.

Ugh--who knew something like this could even happen!   Thankfully, the electric company has admitted fault, and we hope to get reimbursed for our damages.   But, what a pain!

Meanwhile, fast forward a few days to Wednesday--we got a massive storm that hit California--an atmospheric river/bomb cyclone as it was called.   Winds hit up to 100 mph.   So guess what--we lost power!   It was off for over 14 hours.   

So a rough electric week!   We are feeling about ready to go off the grid!!

Christmas and New Years

 We spent Christmas and New Year's up at the cabin.   It was another strange weather holiday week, but we made the best of it.

This was the first Christmas in a very long time that just the 4 of us celebrated together--my dad and Marilynn spent the holidays in Chicago.    We enjoyed a quiet holiday together, and luckily Santa visited before we left for Tahoe!

Ethan's favorite gift was a new ski jacket, and Alaina's was her rainbow bunny squishmallow.

In Tahoe, we did a lot of downhill skiing, especially towards the beginning of the trip when the weather was better.  When we arrived we had about 6 feet of snow on the ground, but over the course of the week it warmed up, and the snow began to melt.   

  

Jason and I also enjoyed some XC skiing too.

Our friends the Rollins flew in from Minnesota to spend New Year's with us.   We enjoyed catching up.  Their son Matthew is 12 and got along quite nicely with our kids.

  

Unfortunately the bad weather continued during the Rollins' visit, and on the 30th we had an epic RAIN storm.   This actually caused some major flooding, and kept the kids from skiing.  In the evening it turned to snow--and the snow it did!   We got almost 4 feet in 12 hours!

The rain plus the snow caused a local creek to flood and prevented the kids from going out skiing again--the road was impassable:  

The adults decided to snowshoe--we ended up doing an almost 6 mile loop which was super ambitious considering the snowfall rate (as high as 7 inches per hour!), and the fact that the "trail" was ungroomed and full of heavy snow.   It was much much harder than anticipated!

We rang in the new year with oven ribs--they were delicious--but did not make the Serene lakes 9pm party as it was cancelled due to the snow.

We all left on New Year's Day--after digging the Rollins car out!

Unfortunately, our New Year at home got off on the wrong foot, as the storms in Marin caused our cul-de-sac's electricity to short circuit and surge.   We lost several appliances including our mircowave and furnace, and all of our surge protectors were blown--some visibly smoky.   Our neighbors were not so lucky, as one of these surge protectors caused their house to catch on fire!   Luckily no one was home, but they have significant damage.   So 2023 is off to a great start.