Lake Tahoe - Holland Ski Trip, Winter 2003

Friday, February 28 - Sunday, March 2: The Holland Clan Getaway Click here for the photo gallery And then it was winter again. Well, okay, it was almost spring...but there was still snow to be had, to it was time for the annual Holland Ski Trip to Lake Tahoe. Thanks to some excellent research from Dave, we scored a fantastic cabin in the Serene Lakes area of Tahoe. It was enough to prompt oohs and aahs from everyone involved -- although some of the noises might have been groans coming from Lori and Jeff, who volunteered to sleep in the loft when there weren't quite enough bedrooms to go around. Still, the spacious living room, beautiful dining area, and the killer view across the street of Serene Lake made up for a lot. The Rieds, the Bessers, the Holland patriarchs, the honorary Hollands (Aussie Paul and Gen) and we converged for the weekend for slipping, sliding, snowballing, snowboarding, and skiing. Dave, Aussie Paul, and Gen headed up for the slopes a day early for "adult ski day," hitting Sugar Bowl and getting their big-mountain fix. The rest of us met up on Friday, and celebrated with dinner prepared by Kathy and an evening of board games (including Scattergories, which quickly became the cabin favorite). On Saturday, it was Kid Day, and the clan headed to Soda Springs for some fun skiing, boarding, and snow tubing. Meanwhile, CC and Kathy held down the fort at the cabin...CC because she was recovering from a recent knee surgery (argh, her second!), and Kathy to work on some projects. Dinner that night consisted of two gigantic lasagnas (CC's note to self: never again! Too much work!) and salad, which the cold but happy crew tucked away. More Scattergories that night, and we decided that a dictionary would soon be required equipment when Aussie Paul kept coming up with random words he swore were real things in Australia. (He was almost as good at bluffing as Dave, who scored many unearned points on answers he fabricated with a straight face.) Sunday was a goof-off day, as Aussie Paul perfected back flips off the porch and we had a cabin-wide snowball fight. Meanwhile, Dave and Aussie Paul constructed a sled run on the side of the house, and Dane, Tate, Justin, and David had a great time trying out the twists and turns. The quick weekend was soon over, but at least everyone got their Tahoe fix for the year. On to 2004!