I was out of it on Monday and forgot about meeting my high school friend, Alex for lunch. Luckily she was running late and that text prompted me to hop in the car! Tennis clinic was canceled due to rain so I had more time after HIIT and a WD run. No dance this week due to spring break. Abby tried out for track. Marly tried out for swim. I orchestrated afternoon activity pick ups so I could sneak out for a quick girls beach weekend retreat with Rachael and Julie. Rachael’s daughter was sick so I headed out there first on Tuesday afternoon. I enjoyed a nice solo ruc on the beach listening to After the Hurricane. I messed up Marly’s athletic packet to try out so I had to rush and call in favors from my neighbor to help. Julie met me out first. We went out for a sushi dinner. Rachael finally showed up later. We stayed up late chatting. The condo was a perfect oasis in the middle of the week. Wednesday we went on another beach walk, hot tub hopping and a walk to dinner. The moon was gorgeous on the beach on the walk home. We went for an ocean night swim and then more hot tub hopping. Thursday morning we packed up and headed out. Lots of laughs and soul renewal. I drove all the way up A1A and met my pal, Jess and her sister for lunch at Jax beach. Phil enjoyed TPC for the day. Voss had soccer practice, I walked with Laurie and we packed up all our snow gear. We met the crew for after dinner drinks at Lillians. The Bodeck sisters ended up showing up! Friday morning I started at Play Day helping with the mixed up relay. There was drama in the neighborhood on the Westside so there was a lock out at the middle school. That complicated things for pi day. I was still able to get in there, make it happen, love on some teachers and then pull my kids out early. We picked up Ellie a bit early then made it home ahead of schedule. We Ubered to the airport to kick off our spring break trip. We flew to Atlanta for a 45min lay over! Of course the gate was moved so we had to take a tram to the next gate. We made it and guess who was on our flight to Reno? Our ole Michigander pal, Gilbo! We got into Reno around 10pm and walked to our hotel. It was close but still some drama. Lots of tired people so showers and right to bed. The next morning, rocking east coast time zone, I got up, made a coffee in the lobby and walked back to the airport to pick up our rental car. My friend, Heather hooked us up with the discount and we got a nice Expedition with AWD. We stopped at CFA for bfast then Walmart for groceries and headed up the mountain. We high fived Uncle Matt on his way down the mountain (he ended up in the sky lounge with the Freemans!) We spent the first day kina bumming around Heavenly Village. We had lunch on the lake at Riva Grill and played in the snow. That lobster bisque was perfect! We sat in the hot tub and the kids found a super steep sledding hill by Matt’s place. I couldn’t watch and went inside to read One by One, my spring break read. We had an early dinner at Base Camp pizza and walked around the shops. Sunday morning Phil wanted to ski but it was windy and I wanted to avoid the weekend crowd. We went to mass at St. Theresa’s. The kids brought up the gifts. Gorgeous stained glass of scenes around the lake. We built a snowman and had lunch at Yellow Submarine. We did a 2 mile hike to Emerald Bay, just gorgeous scenes with each turn! We sat around the fire pit at South of North Brewery sipping local beers. Phil did some gambling at Harah’s. The kids and I did a little shopping and had another snowball fight on the beach. We had an early dinner at the Tahoe Tavern (fried Salmon yes please!) and then early bedtime. We got up on Monday and headed to the ski rental place and were talked out of renting that day. We went to the Boulder lift and were talked into skiing. It was snowing but then the sun popped out for a bit. We got 3 day lift tickets. Matt’s friend hooked us up with half off passes and then the guy working the window went and grabbed 3 more! We went back to rent gear and made it back to Boulder. The older girls headed up and away. It took me a while to get the younger two geared up. Snow falling made clicking their boots into their skies so difficult. Lots of frustration that first day. It was cold! It was neat skiing through the snow (with like 3 inches on top of the skis!) and gorgeous with the snow falling. It was good to have that first day to get our ski legs back again. We stayed close to Boulder that first day. Ellie was brave and got us to go further up. We skied until close and went back to the house and crashed. We warmed up with chili, hot tub time and early bedtime. Tuesday we were back at it. We spent at least 30min in the parking lot putting boots back on. The gear is the hardest part! Finally on our way. The sky was perfect blue with fresh powder. Gorgeous ski day! We made it to the California side and tried lots of runs. Phil wasn’t feeling as well and spent more time in the lodge. Ellie was the most adventurous. The other kids made their way over, too. We skied until close again and had pizza for dinner at Matt’s place. More hot tub time and early bedtime. The final day of skiing, we were pros. Marly convinced Phil to come up with us and we all did some family skiing on the California run with gorgeous views of Lake Tahoe. Ellie and I went off and tried a black diamond called Ellie (it wasn’t nearly as bad as it looked! I think the blue moguls are worse.) We did runs from the Roundabout on the California side (accidently going on a double black diamond with lots of scary rocks and fallen trees) and made it just in time to the Perimeter on the Nevada side. It was another perfect ski day! Marly even landed a free pizza for lunch. Of course we skied until close and returned our gear. We had enough time to clean up, pack up, refresh sheets and towels for the next guest and eat dinner. We drove back to Reno, returned the car and flew back to Atlanta. Phil upgraded us to comfort plus but we slept through all the perks. Another quick flight from Atlanta to Jax and then Lyft home. We were wiped out! The red eye was brutal. We went to breakfast then took a nice nap. Ellie babysat. Abby went to dance. Voss went to soccer. I went to sleep by 9pm and then overslept and was late to tennis clinic on Friday at 10:30am! Guess I was tired! Spent the day unpacking and doing laundry. We met the Freemans for dinner at TCC and ended up late night at Lillian’s with the Strassers. Saturday I drove Marly and Sophie to Target and the pool then went for a neighborhood walk enjoying all the blooming azaleas. Ellie went to the beach with friends. Phil and Voss played soccer at the park. We went to 5pm mass then met the Freemans at Lillian’s to watch basketball. We are having a quiet Sunday morning now. Ellie is at mass with the Fredlands (since she missed mass with us last night) Marly is babysitting (that’s was prompted us to go last night). I am finally back on east coast time! Abby and Voss are glued to screens. Voss has a soccer game later today and then Phil scheduled family soccer after. Here are the pics of the last two weeks.