Heavenly Village

Our most recent trip was to Tahoe to use our trial timeshare package that we had purchased at a fair for $199. It included a 3 night/4 day stay at the Marriott Timber Lodge right next to the gondola (we stayed across from the Lodge at the Marriott Grand Residence Club - pretty much the same thing) and paid an extra $99 to upgrade to a 1 bedroom suite with a full kitchen. We had to attend their timeshare presentation, but got $100 back from it. I love nice vacations on the cheap!

We were so thankful that our friends decided to go up that same weekend. We put the 3 girls in ski school for a day and let the teachers do all the work. John, Sydney and I rode the gondola up to the top. That was the most expensive ride ever- just to see our daughter on skis. John actually got to see Lauryn ski. I had to take Sydney back down the mountain b/c she was freezing so I missed Lauryn entirely. But John took lots of pictures and video.

I remember my first ski lesson was when I was in my early 20's. I also remember that it was HARD! and TIRING! I remember how anxious I was every time I had to get off the chair lift. I would try so hard not to fall in a heap immediately after standing up from the lift so they wouldn't have to stop the lift and wait for me to get up and out of the way, which, unfortunately, has happened.

So I wasn't sure how Lauryn would fare. But the slope was nearly flat and they got to ride a "magic carpet" back to the top each time. Lauryn didn't quite get the concept of turning or slowing down, so she would usually just parallel down the hill and then fall over to stop, whereas everyone else would make their wedges big and go down slowly. It seemed the girls got the hang of things by the end of the lesson and were making it down fairly well so I was more than happy!

We all thought the girls would be exhausted after the day's lesson (8:30am-3:45pm), but they still had enough energy to go to the arcades after dinner. Sydney even got in some DDR.