It was a great plan, but you know what they say about plans. I plan, God laughs. It seemed like the perfect addition to Tags recent adventures: A snow day! I admit that all the great snow photos taken by people who actually *live* in the white stuff made me a little jealous. I haven't lived in snow since I was 7 years old; my children have never even seen snow fall from the sky (the soap bubbles at Disneyland do not count). What could be more fun than taking the kids and Tag for a snow day, right?! Wrong.

Homeschooling my kids has many advantages. It's something I love to do and am terribly proud of, my children love being homeschooled and are proud of their accomplishments and especially of their many varied experiences. What does homeschooling have to do with our snow day, you ask? Homeschooling does have it's drawbacks; I found out today.

I am blissfully unaware of 'The Break'. We teach and learn all the time, so there are no actual "breaks". My kids usually become flustered when someone catches us out on a 'school day' and asks them if their school is on 'break'. They don't know what that means. Apparently, neither do I. I do know that I live at the beach in California and that California is one of those places that has access to beaches, deserts, and mountains all within a couple of hours drive. I knew there was snow nearby because I could see it. But I never took into account The Break.

I got my first inkling that something was awry when we stopped at our favorite little burrito spot at the base of Arrowhead. There seemed to be a *lot* of traffic heading up that mountain. But it still didn't quite click in. I'm slow, really slow. When we got on the road and headed toward Big Bear on the 330, everything was fine...right up until we rounded the curve heading up the foothills. BAM! Bumper to bumper traffic as far as we could see! I thought it would be a good idea to pull off at the rangers station to see if there was something wrong up ahead. Maybe there were chains required...maybe an accident... I just couldn't figure out what was going on! Sure enough, the very sweet ranger, Joanne, let me know that the 330 was packed but the 18 and 38 were pretty clear. OK, we'll take the 18. Thanks Joanne.

That was the perfect choice, until the 18 and 330 merged and we were back in bumper to bumper traffic for another 5 miles. I had planned to stop at the sledding area and let the kids tube while Tag and I checked out the snow. After paying the $5 parking fee and standing in line for over 1/2 an hour, never moving an inch, and being told that "no dogs are allowed", we gave up and went down the road to Snow Valley. There was sledding until 8 pm, which was great since we'd already burnt hours backtracking and it was getting close to 4 pm. Paid *another* $5 to park there and found out that they weren't even selling tickets to sled (yes, more money to play in the snow you all have in your back yards!!) until 5 pm...and then no lift was running. This is not a small sledding hill. It's more like a bunny hill to ski on. The kids were tired and cranky and would have made maybe 2 runs (to the tune of $22 more), my dear husband was frazzled and had a headache, the dog was completely baffled by the in-out-in with very little play time, and I'd had enough.

We shot the photos in a snow bank in the parking lot. Whee. Fun. We were in snow just long enough for my kids to annoy each other, for Tag to dig a little and eat a little of the white stuff, and for me to lose my temper. It was time to eat another parking fee and go. As we left, in more traffic, it finally dawned on me. THIS IS THE LAST WEEKEND OF WINTER BREAK!! That's why every single person in California is on top of Big Bear mountain! It only took me 6 hours to figure it out.

Our final experience of the snow day came at 6:30 pm at around 8000 feet and 26 degrees. We were doing our best to get off the mountain before it started freezing again, and doing a horrible job of it. Traffic, starving children and dinner, and a whine from the back seat. Tag *had* to go. We pull off onto a deserted side road, it's pitch black out, so I jump out with my daughter to make sure nothing 'gets' them. Jumped out without a coat. Tag decides that smelling is much more important than GOING and while I'm turning bluer and bluer, he's exploring. After 10 minutes and no 'go', I gave up on him and then spent the next 45 minutes with my white knuckles wrapped around the "Jesus" bar in our van, sure we were going to slide over the embankment, not to be discovered until Spring.

I may know enough to teach my children English, math, history, social studies and science....but I don't know anything about school and their schedules. I should have known from my childhood that a "snow day" means everyone is out to play! Lesson learned.