road trip

jesse and I joined some of his family on a road trip to gardnerville, nv. gardnerville is right outside of lake tahoe. we were visiting my brother in law’s family there and seeing the area.

it took us about 7 hours to get there. we drove through mammoth mountain and it was gorgeous. there was snow everywhere from the last storm that hit. the roads, thankfully, were clear. once we got there, it was c-c-c-cold! we needed lots of layers to keep warm.

we ate VERY well while we were there, too. they fed us until we almost popped. one night we went to a local restaurant called jt basque. the food is served family style in many courses. each meal consisted of soup, salad, lamb stew, ranch style beans, choice of entrée (sirloin, lamb chops, etc.) fries, coffee and ice cream. it was soooo good. the history of the building is that it was originally located in virginia city and was taken down to the valley on stagecoach. it was originally a brothel and when they took down the wallpaper they found the walls filled with bullet holes. on the ceiling of the bar area, it is tradition to write on a folded dollar bill, put a tack in it, and use a silver dollar coin to throw it up and make it stick on the ceiling. if you catch the silver dollar after the dollar sticks on the roof, then you get a free beer. jesse was the only one in the group to catch the silver dollar on the way down, all on the first try. a lot of people in our group tried to get the dollar up and everyone got it. most of them on their first try. the people working there said they have never seen so many people get it on their first try. ever.

the next day we had reservations to go snowmobiling up in lake tahoe. we are NOT used to cold weather, so we don’t really know how to dress. they told us to dress in layers and we ended up having to borrow and rent some items.

I can say that it was an amazing time riding through the trees all the way up the mountain to the ridge. we stopped to take some pictures from up there and I tried and realized that my point and shoot wasn’t working. I thought my batteries died, but I later realized that they just froze. my camera started working again, once we got down off the mountain. I had to “borrow” some pictures that the others took with their cameras, so I can have some of the view. I can also say that I have never been so cold in all my life as I was up there. I had two pairs of insulated gloves on and my fingertips were frozen. my nose and cheeks wanted to fall off. any bare skin that was showing started to tingle and burn. someone had said that with the wind chill, the temperature was in the negatives!!!! we were up at about 10,000 ft.  there was between 2-3 ft of snow up there. afterward, we were able to thaw out in a local restaurant. we were exhausted when we got back down the mountain.

new years eve we went to my brother in law’s brother’s house. hopefully that makes sense. we had a really laid back time and when we were counting down, we were able to talk to ellie on the phone. jj was sleeping. as we were counting down, I could hear ellie counting along, but when we got down to 0, she kept counting and then all of sudden, she screams, “it’s time, it’s time”. it was so cute.

it had only snowed in flurries the first couple of days we were there, and of course, the day we were planning to leave, it starts dumping snow. there was at least 6 inches of snow on the ground when we were leaving. we had to put chains on some of the way and we had to take a roundabout detour to get home. it took us about 2 hours out of our way to get back home.

we couldn’t wait to see the kiddos and give them big kisses. once we got back home, it was cleaning time and trying to get back into the swing of things. jj starts back at school today. there are lots of things to do to get ready for the new year.

p.s. here is some cool news, I just found out I won a kindle!!! our local library is getting new e-readers to check out to the public and for publicity, they were giving away a kindle if you filled out a survey online. I actually won!!! I was so happy. I go this weekend to pick it up and they said that the local newspaper will be there to take my picture. so I will scan the picture in to show you all when it comes out.