Snowy morning

We were lucky on the drive up, and didn't have to install chains, having spotted a two hour gap where the weather was a little lighter than the rest of day.  That let us get a little time on the mountain on Friday that we did not expect.  

Last Run

We got two feet of wet spring snow in tahoe so we are making a long weekend of northstars closing weekend. I was lucky that I was able to drive up without chaining up the car.

Day at the museum!

Easter Egg Hunt

After we got home from Easter services, the girls had their promised egg hunt.  With a little help, they found all dozen colored treats, and the (minimal) treats inside.  But they still got to wear their fancy pink bonnets ($1 each at Target!) for the day, which was their favorite part of the celebration.

Supper was mustard & minted leg of lamb, with lemony potatoes and a chevre/pear salad.  The kids helped with that too.



If you click on the photo above, you can see their egg hunt.

We miss you mom

Today marked one year since we lost J's mom.  To mark the day, we went to the small park across the street and released a bouquet of balloons for her.  The girls were amazed that we allowed balloons out of their clutches.  Earlier they had helped me make elderflower stuffed French toast for breakfast for their mom.  Yummy, although sticky...

Afterwards we went to the supermarket, where they sampled a little bit of everything, and then we came home.  Earlier we had taken some pictures of them in their new birthday tu-tu's which they love dancing and prancing around in.  Unfortunately those get glitter all over the house, along with little bits of fluttery toile.  After that they helped me roast a trussed up and brined chicken for supper.  While that popped and spattered away on the rottisserie, we watched a ski movie, during which they howled in glee when the saw all the snowy mountains.

Tomorrow is Easter, and the kids have put out carrots for the Easter bunny, and pink bonnets for themselves.  We will have some pictures of their new outfits as well tomorrow.  If you click the photo, you can see a slide show from today.

Snacking with the monkies

The girls at the zoo, enjoying a snack outside the monkey's compound

One giant step for man...

At FairyTaleTown

Birthday Party!

The girls had their 2nd birthday party at the park today.  They

• Played on the swings and slides with all their friends and family
• Ran around the bubble machine which generates a massive amount of bubbles
• Stuffed their faces with cupcakes, making sure to get lots of frosting all over their new clothes
• Drank their juice with crazy straws

They didn't even realize they had presents to open.  We'll get to those later. Upon coming home, they were so tired from all the excitement that they fell asleep for a couple of hours.  If you click on the photo above, you can see a long slideshow.

Ga Ga Arrives

We picked up the kids from Nonny's this morning and took them to Costco, where they sampled every kind of treat they could grab.  In addition to the usual sundries, we came home with petrale sole, sea bass, and gigantic U-8 shrimp.  

When we got home, granddad arrived and the girls demanded he read them books.  After that they watched the new Muppet movie as I prepped supper.  The sole was pan sauteed with oregano, olive oil, and sea salt -- it was delicious served with fresh squeezed lemons, although next time around I won't try to fillet the fish myself.  

We have been coaxing cooperation out of the kids since their birthday party is tomorrow at the park.  They are more patient when they know they are getting a swing ride tomorrow...and cupcakes.  Sunday will be busy, so it's going to be an early bedtime for all tonight.  We hope it's better weather than today's wind and rain.

The picture is M. curled up on the couch with a blanket, pillow, and an old copy of Sunset magazine -- which she is "reading".  

Playing in the Snow at Heavenly Valley

After J. got home we decided to take the kids up to Tahoe, where they could play in the snow and I could get some skiing in.  We bundled them up in their snow pants, jackets, boots and gloves and rode the gondola up to the Tamarack lodge area -- which is about 8000 feet up.  The wind, snow, and cold are all much more extreme than down at the lake level.  Fortunately the girls had a good window of time to play in -- romping all over the snow, trying to make snowballs, and then going to the lodge for hot cocoa.  Of course, despite having glove clips, one of the kids gloves did manage to escape.  Click on the picture below to see a slideshow of their adventure.



While they did that, I went skiing on the Nevada side of the mountain, where conditions were pretty fast for late March.  There has been a lot of snow recently, and cold temperatures, so Sunday was good and I was surprised by how dry/icy conditions were.  Normally one needs a mid day ski wax to keep going through the slush, but the mountain was free of that right now.

Last night it snowed another 3 inches, so we got up early, had breakfast and went back up to the mountain.  I skiied the Stagecoach and California areas, and conditions were terrific.  It snowed most of the morning and was the best I'd experienced in Tahoe all year -- fresh, light snow, with no crowds so one could ski as fast as they liked without having to worry about traffic.  By 1pm, the kids started getting tired, so I met everyone at the gondola and we all rode down together.  We put them into their pajamas, popped them in their car seats and headed down the valley.  After some (more) hot cocoa they fell asleep and snoozed the whole 100 miles home.

It was a nice mini trip.

Big shoes!

Spring conditions at Northstar

After finishing the second part of my exam yesterday, I was ready for some fun, so we went to Northstar for a day of skiing.  Conditions were spring like -- icy in the morning and slushy in the afternoon -- but there was an hour in the middle with soft corn snow, perfect for carving.  It's hard for snow like this to bump up, so everything was buffed smooth, and you could ride your edges nicely during that part of the day when everything was soft before getting mushy.

I learned a lesson: avoid the "Euro Snack Shack" at the top of the Comstock lift, where it took the two incompetent attendants 20 minutes to assemble a hot dog.  I begrudge the valuable ski time they wasted, and the $8 spent for that privilege.  Normally we take our own lunches, and surreptiously chomp them down in the lavish lodges, but today we forgot to pack them.  So I won't feel guilty the next time I do that either!

The kids had a good day playing at Nonny's and came home tired.  They had their bath, milk, and then fell asleep without any of the usual protests.  If you click on the picture above, you can see how bright it was up in Tahoe.  I took a photo of the marsupial mascot of the Northstar Ski School -- RipperRoo -- scurrying around the Big Springs deck.

Our first pic-i-nic

Taken in land park after a trip to the zoo.  Kids are lucky that Yogi bear has not come along to swoop up their basket.  They love chomping on their (tangy) dried fruit snacks.

A day at the Zoo

The girls went to the zoo today (thanks GaGa for the annual membership!) and saw all their favorite animals.

Click on the photo to see what they did.

The girls help grill a red snapper

We picked up a nice large red snapper for supper today. The kids were helpful, and assisted as I stuffed it with lemons, thyme, and other seasonings. They could not resist poking the fish eye as it reposed on the counter, feeling its strange squishiness on their fingertips. The snapper was fresh and quite delicious, having just been flown in from New Zealand. It's crazy how far seafood is sent in our modern world.

Click on the picture to see the final stages of the fish's path up the food chain.

A few ski pix from February

These were pictures that were taken by the mountain staff, and mapped onto our electronic ID's.

Pretty slick technology. [Click on the photo above for the slide show]

Unfortunately, not as many from Vail, as we did not see as many cameramen there as we have seen in Tahoe.

It appears that Kirkwood has joined the Vail family, so perhaps if there is some snow in the next month, we will make a trip there.

Vail

We had a nice trip to Vail the last few days, thanks to my mom and sister who watched the kids for us. J. has a new powder blue ski shell style jacket which seems to do a good job keeping out wind/cold/snow. I've still got my multi pocketed jacket (14 years plus of hard usage) and it's still going strong, other than maybe some Velcro losing its stickiness. We also got to use our new glove liners, which worked well. These are synthetic and are better than the cotton/Lycra ones of the past, which got threadbare fast.

There are some pictures (and captions!) if you click on the slide above.

Super Bowl Sunday at Heavenly

In the last 20 years, I've probably only watched one Superbowl. It's a great day to ski, since crowds are thin, and usually the mountain will offer some kind of deal to get business on what will be a low traffic day. Today was no exception: cold temperatures which are good for soft snow and nice conditions, clear skies with bright sun, and so little people that we could park right at the top of the California base lodge.

J. got both our RFid tags working so we could track our vertical, and get pictures as well. Click on the pic above to see what we did today.

There were two odd things that happened today at the mountain: a glider crash landed on one of the lower California mountain runs, and they had to clear out the parking lot (where I was waiting) to land a medevac chopper (which I don't think was related).

It was a long day trip, but thanks to my mom for watching the girls today, so we could go for the day.  

Group picture from the top of Lookout

This picture is of our whole group, on the backside of Northstar, in the new area called Lookout Moutain.

 

The terrain in this area is much steeper than the rest of the mountain, and is a good area for advanced skiiers to play in.

Skiing with Pi Lams at Northstar

A nice few days with old college alumni up at Northstar, staying at one of the guy's slopeside house.  Click on the picture above to see a short slideshow.

Conditions were very fast, enhanced by the fact that with this group you had to ski aggressively just to keep up.

Ice rink

Appropros for another icy day.

N*

Official Pictures from Northstar & Heavenly

With the Epic pass and/or RFid ski pass, the mountain has official photographers stationed at vista points taking photos of guests.  Here are pictures from our recent trip.  In each case, the lake in the background is the deep alpine waters of Lake Tahoe.

You can tell that they are higher quality than camera phone style pictures; their cameraman was working with a Nikon with a heavy duty flash set up and zoom lens.  This seems to be a pretty good perk for customers, who will probably respond well with photo purchases.

Backside runs...

...were not really any better than the front side.  It is snowing now though.

Flurries at N*

Eating our sandwiches at the fancy zephyr lodge watching the snow flurries start.

Northstar...

...was uncomfortably icy today.

We need some snow.

twins tent city

Current demands: unlimited hot chocolate, snow that sticks to the ground, and colored goldfish snacks. They would also be open to negotiatiations for a horsey and a cow - perhaps at nonnies house...

A wind scoured day at Heavenly

It was icy skiing today, much like Vermont.

The highlight was seeing the medevac chopper land and take off from the Sky lodge. We were glad not to be getting a ride!

Tomorrow we go to the north shore.

A pictorial map of where we skiied on Jan 17

I found this in my files, as I had forgotten to upload it last month.  Most modern phones now are tracking your location, and you can up the frequency of locates (if you want) which is is interesting when you are traveling / biking etc.

The MyTracks application is even more powerful.  The above is just what the phone keeps track on its own, without you doing much (other than turning on MyTracks in this instance).

Law Enforcement will find this good way to track people.

Busy little ranch helpers!

The girls got to watch the ranchers work the cattle today, which made them hungry for a snack. They also got to feed the horses a snack of carrots, which made them thirsty for hot chocolate. Lots of animals and lots of food. Perfect vacation.

Tahoe

The Ranch!

The twins are having a great time on their godparents ranch. Today they saw cows, chickens, horses, and tractors!

Gingerbread Haus

The twins decorated their gingerbread house today, and amazingly enough, followed instructions to NOT eat all the icing and candies that get glued on to the house. Much of the sprinkles were spilled all over the floor, so cleaning up was a mess. Not as impressive as my sister's gingerbread creation. Click on the picture to see a full slideshow.

I'm making some bolognese sauce in the slow cooker, so the whole house smells like tomatoes and fennel.

New Years Day at the Park

To start the New Year off right, we took the girls to the park to play on the jungle gym. They had a great time and met some other kids there as well. Now they are napping after clambering all over the park for an hour.

I forgot the memory chip for the camera, so I used my HTC phone to take these pictures, which were then wirelessly synced to PicasaWeb, and then resynced back to my computer for editing. It's clunky that way, but it sort of gets the job done. Even though it's another gadget to carry around, I much prefer my Canon S90 for taking pictures -- it's compact and produces high quality images.

Click on the picture above for a slideshow.

Nostalgia for Moses baskets

The girls have become a bit crazy for their Moses baskets again over the last week. They have done this quite a few times. I showed them the picture we have of the two of them, swaddled, sharing one basket, and that is what seemed to start the current craze. They barely fit...

Happy New Year.

Baby kitchen!

The girls have a new kitchen to play in, thanks to their aunt.

 

Later this afternoon, we'll drop them off for an overnight play date.

 

They start saying "Nonny's" once we tell them where we are going, repeating it endlessly, like a rain dance chant.