Snowboarding on Boxing Day

On the 26th, my brother Davis, Rob, Uncle Richard, Dillon and I all hit Heavenly for some snowboarding. It was awesome, and the snow was amazing since we had a huge storm on the 24th and 25th and had clear skies on the 26th. Love the blue-sky powder days! Uncle Richard and Dillon took some snowboarding lessons over Thanksgiving, and are really starting to pick it up! Below are a few pictures from our day. On the 27th, Uncle Richard, Dillon and I went again and had a great time. Below are a few photos from the mountain. Good times!

My handsome hubby and I. We have been having a lot of fun this winter at Heavenly.


My cousin, Dillon, is getting really good! I hope he comes and visits again soon.

My Uncle Richard did great as well! It was fun seeing him on the slopes.

Uncle Richard, me, Dillon, Rob and Davis. It was a great day.

White Christmas

We are finally getting settled into our new home in Tahoe, and it was a wonderful (and hectic) holiday. We had just a few short days to sort-of get unpacked in anticipation of family coming in for the holidays. Rob's parents came in from Florida, my parents came up, and my Uncle Richard and cousin Dillon also came up from San Diego. It was great to have so much family together. We had a big dinner on Christmas Eve, and the whole family over on Christmas to open presents. It was great. We also had a TON of snow. It is absolutely gorgeous. And the snowboarding has been incredible. Rob and I still can't believe we actually live here now, and we keep thinking we are only on vacation. Several times we have made comments like, "when we head back. . . oh wait, we live here now." I think reality will start to set in after all of the holiday festivities end and we don't have visitors any longer. :-) Below are some pictures from our holiday.

Our tree. We were really excited to get a real tree, and since we bought it on the 23rd (or was it the 24th?) we got it for $10! Waiting until the last minute pays off sometimes! :-)


My mom and Max reading a book by the tree. Too cute!


Max and his cousin, Elias. They love each other a bunch.

Elias and Rob's mom. Rob's parents brought out there little puppy, Bentley. The kids just love him.

Davis, Liz, Elias, Uncle Richard and Dillon on Christmas morning. I am so happy we all got to spend the holiday together.

Some of the fam opening presents.

Our family shot . . . I look exhausted (and was!) from staying up until 2 a.m. trying to finish getting presents together. And our kids wake up at 6 a.m. every morning. Ouch. Next year I am going to try to be ready for Christmas early!

Eli slept through most of the morning presents. He is a bit feverish the past few days . . . I think because he has two teeth coming in.

Max and his new keyboard/drum set thing. He loves anything that makes noise.

Max and Elias had a great time banging their drumsticks on these toys. Pretty cute to watch.

Outside in the snow with my little man.

The boys in their Christmas jammies playing together. They are such sweet kids.

A beautiful Tahoe white Christmas.

I Hate Moving

Moving stinks. . . . I am excited to be moving to Tahoe, but the actual process of packing, loading stuff up and moving it, and then unpacking is such a huge pain the butt. I can't wait until we are finally settled in. Rob's parents arrive for the holidays on Monday afternoon, so at least we will have some help with the kids while we are trying to unpack, etc.

Playing in the Backyard

Today was a nice day and we tried to take advantage of our last few days of good weather by playing in the back yard as much as possible. It is supposed to start raining a lot on Sunday and rain something like 8 out of the following 10 days. Great for California, but stinky for our move. Ah well. . . at least we will finally get some snow on the slopes and get some good snowboarding in! Just in time for us to get to Tahoe too!


Eli trying to eat his feet. . .

Max giving Eli a kiss. . . or biting Eli's head - not sure exactly what is going on here! Max now says "sorry, Mama" or "sorry, baby" when he does something wrong, but it sounds like "sa-tee." It is pretty cute and tends to get him out of trouble. :-)

Max loves his playhouse. He kept opening the door and yelling "Hi!" Then would yell "Bye" and close the door and look out the window (see picture below). I think we did this for 10 to 15 minutes.

Max is all about choosing his own clothes and today he absolutely HAD to wear his rain coat - even though it was a perfectly beautiful day. As far as I am concerned, if the kid is happy and warm enough, he can wear whatever he wants!

Tahoe Visit With The Miller Family

We recently spent a few days in Tahoe visiting our dear friends Mark and Alese, who were on vacation staying in their timeshare. It was wonderful to see them and their two daughters, Ava and Mia. We had a great time hanging out and watching our kids play together. We have spent a lot of time in Tahoe the last few weeks, and it is just getting me more and more excited to move. We are starting the move on Monday and I can't believe it! Goodbye Bay Area! :-) Of course, there has been NO snow in Tahoe all winter, but the weather report says it is supposed to snow for days and days starting tomorrow. So, I guess we will just have to move in the snow. That makes things a bit more difficult, but what do I really expect with us moving in the middle of December?

Eli's first pair of goggles. . . how cute is he?!? :-)


My cutie, Eli, wearing Rob's cap. Eli is getting a tooth! One of his bottom middle teeth is trying to break through. He seems to be handling it very well! Thank goodness.


Our Tahoe family portrait. :-)


View from the Gondola, heading up to Heavenly. We took the kids up there to play in the snow, since there was no snow on the ground in town. It was a fun trip up, until Max had a MELTDOWN.

Happier times on the gondola ride up. . . pre-Max meltdown. :-)

Looking out the window at the gorgeous view.

Eli enjoying the ride.

Eli is sitting up all by himself now! And he is scooting around a bunch and *almost* crawling. What a big boy.

My big boys. Max is really starting to talk up a storm. It is so cool. He is copying EVERYTHING. I really need to be careful. The other day I said "shit" and he said it too!!! Uh oh.

I love, love, love this picture. Eli was having so much fun riding on his dada's shoulders. Rob and I walked the kids from the gondola back to the resort we were staying at. I had Max on my shoulders for a while and the kids kept looking at each other and laughing. It was super cute.

Alese, Mia, Ava and Mark. What great friends, and what an adorable family.

So, this is a photo of Max towards the end of his meltdown. When we got to the observation deck off the gondola ride, Max was happy for a bit. But when I couldn't get him a *rock* (that is one of his new words) he went balistic and threw the biggest tantrum I have seen in a long while. It turns out he was super tired and finally went and stood in the corner of the Heavenly store and almost fell asleep. Since both Eli and Max were starting to melt down I decided to leave Mark and Alese to play with their kids on the mountain and I rode the gondola down with Max and Eli. On the way down, both kids fell asleep on me . . . Eli on my chest and Max fell asleep laying in my lap. So in order to let them sleep I rode the gondola up and down the mountain three times while they napped for an hour. :-) It was very peaceful.

Just before the aforementioned meltdown. . .

Playing with Mia.

Having a snack with Mia.

Hanging with my boys by the lake. Max kept trying to jump in the freezing water. He is crazy.

Max also was having fun throwing rocks into the water. Especially in the places he found ice.

Yesterday

Yesterday I took the kids to the Little Farm and then we went on a hike. It was a lot of fun! We are trying to get our Little Farm fix in before we move. :-) Max was cracking me up because one of the cows kept mooing over and over again and everytime it would moo Max would yell "Oh Nooooo!" and then would periodically moo back. Too funny. Our hike was a lot of fun and pooped the kids out (both slept the whole drive home!). Max is such an agile little guy - he was running down the trail, climbing over tree stumps and walking up and down stairs with no problem. He is getting so big.

We love the Little Farm - the Berkeley hills are so beautiful.


Max and his friend Snowdrop.

Exploring the farm.

Some of the cows just chilling out.

My little monkey man loves to climb the fences.

As you may be able to tell from photos in the previous post, Max wore the same outfit two days in a row! :-) He really wants to pick out his own clothes these days, and he wanted to wear this again. Who am I to argue. . . . sometimes I wear the same jeans a few days in a row! :-)

My little lovebug playing with leaves.

I love this picture. These boys really love each other - which just melts my heart.

Out on our hike.

We, of course, had to stop to play with various sticks along the way.