Good times were had by all.

Although I am thoroughly enjoying the arrival of spring in northern California, we wanted to hold onto winter just a bit longer to go skiing in Lake Tahoe last weekend. Our friends Chris and Naomi went with us.

Moments to hold onto --

• Steve and I hadn't been downhill skiing since living in Rhode Island four years ago. (Yes, Rhode Island, the little state that could, actually has a ski area--Yawgoo Valley.) Much to the amusement of Chris, my sweet husband kept comparing Yawgoo to the Sierra at Tahoe ski resort..."This bunny hill is way bigger than the one in Rhode Island"..."This ski lift is longer than the one in Rhode Island"...."There's no rope to pull you up the hill like in Rhode Island..."

• The wave of relief that rushed over me when I spotted Steve on the Sugar 'n Spice run. We had gotten separated in a hairy moment early on and when I got to the bottom, he was nowhere to be seen. Somewhat worried, I headed back up to the summit to do the run again in the hopes of finding him. Sure enough, there was husband, leather jacket and all: falling, slowly getting back up, skiing a few feet, and falling again. Bless him. Maybe he wasn't quite ready for that run. As he puts it, "I love to ski. I'm just not good at it." He is the most good-natured person I've ever met.

• Waking up to nearly two feet of snow Sunday morning.
  

• Me actually thinking I could handle even 5 seconds of an advanced run. It was the last one of the day and I thought I'd take a shortcut to the end--next thing I know, two things happened. 1) A skier behind me yelled, "_ _ _ _ me!" (Apparently I had messed him up?!) 2) I wiped out. I slid down the rest of the incline on my arse.

• Stuck in gridlocked traffic the next day heading out of Tahoe (roads had been closed, everyone wanting to get out of town before 9 more inches of snow hit), we got bored and started pelting Chris and Naomi's car in front of us with snowballs. They were unarmed.

• Being proud of my husband who didn't need to pay no stinking $30 to have snow chains put on our tires, like other people stuck on the side of the road. He could do it himself.
  

• Halfway home Chris and Naomi turned off the highway and onto an unmarked exit. We were thrilled when we eventually saw the sign for Madrona winery -- we were going to go wine tasting in the Sierra Foothills, an area we hadn't explored yet! Yay for fun friends.
  

There was more, too--brand new sleeping bags, margaritas, freeze-dried ice cream sandwiches (my favorite camping dessert, although we weren't camping), and the luck of my husband playing Let it Ride and winning money within minutes. I heart weekends.