Skiing and Snowboarding

See his skiing in action here

We went to Lake Tahoe for Christmas. We are very blessed to have a family vacation home in such a beautiful place!

Levi went skiing again this season, he started last spring (at 2.5yrs old) and did great last year, but this year was even better! He is doing very well with his turing, and has good control over his skis. He can start/stop/turn/get off the chairlift all on his own (he needs help getting on because he is so short!). He can even "make a pizza" (wedge) without using an edgie wedgie now (an aid to help kids make a wedge shape, last year he just wasn't strong enough to put his legs in the right position without it!)

He also insisted on trying snowboarding, after using a box lid as a snowboard for several days, I let him try it out at a tiny resort with a great beginners kids area. He is 10lbs too light to make a snowboard flex (the starting weight is 35lbs), so he could pretty much only go straight. But he thought he was SOOO cool. I'm hoping he will stick with skiing for a while, he is good at it and its easier to teach!

Also he got a new helmet - a MUST for winter sports (skiing, snowboarding, sledding, ice skating).

Levi's First camping trip - And a BEAR!

We went on Levi's first camping trip, just an hours drive from our vacation home in Tahoe. We went to a campsite at Fallen Leaf Lake and decided to just stay one night for the experience. It was fun!

The bear story:

I rosted marshmallows for my mom, and she decided not to eat one of them so threw it in the fire. Jokingly I commented on how "a bear was going to come and eat it now"

5 min later, Levi and Nai Nai were getting some lemonade out of the bear-proof storage box, and I was sitting in a low chair on the ground by the picnic table.

All of a sudden I heard a 'crinkle' sound coming from behind me. Sense I could see Levi/my mom, I knew it wasn't one of them. I turn around thinking its a person, and its a BEAR!

There was a bear on the picnic table! It looked up at me, I think it saw me at the same time I did. I jumped up from my seat and said "Get in the car". My mom hadn't seen the bear yet, I said again "there is a bear, get in the car".

I started towards Levi (mommy instinct, even though my mom was already picking him up and slamming shut the bear-box) and we all got in the car.

The bear lumbered around for a while and walked off.

It had ripped open an empty cookie packet that we had JUST set on the table, knocked over the lemonade, stuck its nose in my lemonade, and sniffed the grill.

We asked the park ranger what we should have done, and she said walk diagonally away from the bear, which is exactly what I had done when I headed towards Levi.

It made Levi's first camping trip 'official' and will be a great story to tell!

Some other camping adventures: (We also went to Stanford Camp during the camping trip, also on Fallen Leaf Lake)

Kayaking

Paddle boat ride

Nature Walk (guided tour)

Catching crawdads (and letting them go right after pics)

Aquatica

We got a season pass to Aquatica, and Levi really enjoys it. They have a bunch of rides he can go on, as some don't have a height limit, they just have a 'must be able to hold the handles' requirement (which he can hardly do, but he is a strong swimmer, AND they require kids his height to wear a lifejacket anyway!)

While we were there, we learned about commissary dolphins, which are beautiful black and white dolphins. Levi asked the lady working there all sorts of questions about their names, what they eat, why they are black and white, how to tell them apart etc.

Butterfly Lifecycle

He wanted to hold it, but changed his mind once it was on his arm!

We were able to watch the lifecycle of a butterfly from caterpillar to butterfly! Much better than just reading a book, we watched the process from start to finish.

Little nature explorers

We tried out a ‘little nature explorers’ class at a new community center that no one knew existed.

They had the kids try and find a bird (they didn't see one), but they did find bugs, ants, coots, sticks and an interesting stain on the sidewalk. They had a good time, and it was a good activity to do outside sense it wasn’t so hot!

They did have a nice playground that is well away from the road, so maybe next time we will bring a picnic and hang out afterwards.