Snowin' and Growin'

We stayed in a little cabin along the south shore of Lake Tahoe with some of Lucas’ family last week. There was a leisurely drive around the lake with my sister-in-law Zoe, stopping at every thrift store my eagle eye spotted along the way (our favorite was Pass It On Thrift in Tahoe City where I made my one and only find, a gift-to-be, which I unfortunately can‘t tell you about).

We stopped at Sand Harbor where I took a peaceful walk along a beautiful little boardwalk trail loop, winding along the lake through trees and amazing snow covered boulders before ending with a view of the picturesque cove in the first photo.


We experienced the spectacular view of Emerald Bay on a clear sunny day. Clover experienced snow for the first time.

Made friends with the most perfect snowman I’ve ever seen. This jolly fella was just steps from the front door of our cabin. Built by previous inhabitants, presumably professional snowman builders.

Our cozy cabin’s big window looked right out at Mr. Happy Snowman with the lake and snowy mountains as his backdrop. It was an incredible view changing drastically from hour to hour and day to day as the light and weather shifted.


Speaking of weather we experienced it all, from fog to sun to snow to rain. On the day that it rained, the sun would peak out from the clouds leaving a gorgeous full rainbow going across the lake. There was even one evening when, as the sun was descending, the mountains off in the distance actually glowed PINK against the darkening sky.

We were also lucky to be in awesome company (love my in-laws), with whom we ate really wonderful meals and played several hilarious and spirited games of Apples to Apples when we weren’t group crossword puzzle solving on Sam’s Nook, ah, the wonders of modern technology.

Ok, so now that I‘ve shown you the pretty pictures and emphasized the positives, I’m gonna level with y’all… this trip was not all rainbows and stunning views… let’s just say three-year-olds can be really tough to deal with, yes, even cute little snow bunnies who like to dress up as adorable characters non-stop.

Clover’s been going through a very clingy phase with me lately, rejecting anyone and everyone (including papa, poor guy) who tries to help out. Grumpy, demanding, super sensitive. It’s true what they say about the “terrible twos” being a myth, it’s the “terrible threes” that are no joke.

Of course it didn’t help that she was sick for part of the trip either. Yeah, so, it ended up being a rough week in which I was surrounded by a winter wonderland that I couldn’t really enjoy, save for the that drive around the lake that Clover slept during most of. Not much relaxation to be had for this mama.

I spent the weekend trying to get back into a normal routine with her, recovering from our “vacation” and she’s actually mellowed out quite a bit since we’ve been home. I think she's going through one of her developmental growth spurts where she gets overwhelmed and it takes her a little while to get used to her newly expanded way of seeing and experiencing the world. That's my take on it anyway.

The day after we got home she was off to the hardware store with her papa dressed like a ballerina mouse... and somehow all the exhaustion and frustration seemed pretty worthwhile ;)

P.S. If you're interested, outfit details and a larger view of me and my pal the snowman can be found here.