Can you believe Margaret is 11? As seems to always be, Margaret’s birthday fell during ski week. We were in Tahoe, so we went ice skating in the afternoon then had a nice dinner with the Walden’s that night. (We also had a dinner with Elizabeth’s family the next Friday). A low key birthday. Now we need to start planning parties with the kids friends.
Just a few pictures of the kids playing in the snow.
We had New Years again in Tahoe. We had about 20 people at the house. Bruce forgot to bring the fireworks, so we didn’t have pyrotechnics to entertain us, but we did have poppers as well as silly string to make a mess with in the street.
For the first time in years we all watched the ball drop in Time’s Square. We had to watch on CNN because the network feeds are delayed for us on the left coast.
I drove up to Tahoe today for some work and a meeting tomorrow. Well, I took the Mini, not thinking it would be an issue. You can see what it looks like tonight.
We were up in Tahoe and decided to go for a hike. We figured that it was mid September and that even the crowded places wouldn’t be. So we tried a hike that is supposed to be nice. Five Lakes near Alpine Meadows. It was a nice climb up to 5 alpine lakes. It turns out you don’t really see but 2 of them. There were a fair number of people on the trail. I just can’t imagine what it must be like in the middle of the summer when the place is crowded.
Susan, Margaret, Sam, and I (and the dogs) hiked up to and beyond the f tree. It was absolutely gorgeous above 8000 feet at the end of our canyon. I felt like singing “The Hills are Alive” the whole time I was up there.
We finally all (except Katy) made it back to Tahoe for the first time in a very long time. After the first night, we thought we might have to go back down because Elizabeth’s feet up to her knees were swollen. Fortunately, a walk through Page Meadows fixed that. The dogs had a good time as well. Margaret took all of the pictures. This may be the best one.
Today was a big family ski day. We spent most of the day on the slopes. We all made it to the top of Alpine Bowl today together. This was a first. Katy had done it many, many times. Margaret and I did it last year. This was Sam’s first time. The only one that didn’t thoroughly enjoy it was Pokie. The second time down, Margaret went down the top section on her bottom then hit a mogul and flipped over. We thought she might be hurt, but she turned over and was laughing (it was actually pretty funny to watch). It was a great day.
We (everyone but Susan and I) went ice skating at squaw. Sam was a natural. Katy and Margaret had a lot of fun.
Another great Christmas has come and (almost) gone. We all were up by 6:30 and then opened presents for a very long time. A lot of shovelling by me and everyone played with their new toys as much as they could. All-in-all a good day. We all watched the kid’s new movie tonight (Wall-E).
