Northstar

After quickly putting away all the Xmas decorations, rearranging the house for company, we were set for the arrival of our friends for New Years.  Mike, Lilia and the kids arrived early afternoon on the 28th, about 5 hours after Frank, Rhonda and Royce arrived from Seattle. Once everyone was here, we hopped in our borrowed Suburban (Thank's Vato) and the Pathfinder and began a three and a half hour drive from our house to our hotel in Truckee.  It might actually have been closer to 4 hours if you count the fact that our hotel was a Best Western when we booked in Sept, but had changed the name to Larkspur Landing about two weeks before we arrived, and we drove past it several times before we were found out about the change.  We barely beat a heavy winter storm that came in and caused the last 25 miles to take the better part of 2 hours, as heavy snow caused lots of traffic.  But we made it and had a great time.

Our "borrowed" suburban.  It drove great int he snow, but we did have a few problems with it over heating.  Yeah, that's right, over heating in -4 degree weather.  We think the thermostat was sticking.  After letting it cool for about 10 min, it would work great the rest of the day.  Loved driving it in the snow with 4wd, made us feel real safe and held lots of our stuff.

Nate had to jump in the middle of the Cottle family photo.  Such a ham.

Not to be out done, he was in our photo as well.  He was so excited to finally be able to ski with Shayne & Chloe.

Here's Shayne as we were waiting for the bus, he found $40 in the snow.  He was generous enough to treat the other kids to gelato with his good fortune.  He's growing in a really nice young man.

Lilia getting the shot on the lift of the Cottles.

 Our first day skiing at Northstar was really cold.  The winter storm was in effect and we had lots of snow.  Deep powder made the runs slow and hard to turn.  The second day, the weather was much better only had about 2" of fresh powder and skiing was much easier.  Nate was a little cannon ball who loved to ski fast without much turning.  He skied from the very top of Northstar all the way to the bottom.  His only complaint was he wanted to do more of the runs with the jumps and tricks on them.

Nate's in the parking lot playing around.  He loves the snow and rarely complains about being cold, despite it being really cold up there.

Mike and Lilia near the mid mountain lodge.  We didn't get much chance to spend at the top of the mountain since we were dragging Nate with us everywhere.

Nate and I skiing, he doesn't turn much, prefers to go straight down.

 This video has two interesting aspects, the first is watching Chloe fall, the second is watching Nate ski backwards into the lift line.

Nate ready to get the ski's on and head up the lift. We couldn't find a good face warmer for him, they were sold out, need to get one vefore our next trip.

Maria playing with her new Xmas present, the Canon T2i, she loves the photos it takes.  After skiing all day, the kids were playing outside and Maria snapped this shot of Chloe.  

Lilia tried out the camera too, got this shot of us, while we were waiting for Mike to bring the car.  

Here's Nate being his silly little self.

We all know that Chloe is Nate's love, and he hammed it up here, making the moves on her at such a young age.

Here's the whole group at Mikuni's enjoying a great post ski dinner.