Ski, Sun and Fun Weekend

The Bear Valley Gang
[click on any photo for a larger image]
If you haven’t been up to the Sierras this year, you’re really missing a treat. Sonya, the kids and I were all invited up to our friends Robin and Ron’s cabin up at Blue Lake Springs this past weekend to celebrate their daughter Tessa’s fifth birthday. We were joined by their son Walker and two other families, Steve, Tracy & son Matthew, and Anne, Doug and their kids Ayla and Jason. It was a weekend filled with skiing, sledding and lots of fresh mountain air.

We were all able to enjoy the 15+ feet of snow that was dumped on the Sierras during New Year’s in what felt like 70 degree weather each day. It was a sun and snow filled weekend topped off with great company. Our hosts treated us a wonderful weekend at their mountain retreat, and somehow made a deal with Mother Nature to top the weekend off with some of the best weather I’ve ever experienced up in the mountains.


Wingaurdium levio'sa
We were the last ones to arrive on Friday night, but we were welcomed with ice cold beers (we must have looked pretty haggard, because everyone was handing us beers!). Ayla, Karsyn, Matthew and Tessa were all enrolled in ski lessons on Saturday morning, so it was great to be able to wake up less than 45 minutes from the resort (day trips from the Bay Area usually require 4am wake up calls).


Tessa, Karsyn and Ayla learning to ski
We trekked up to the Bear Valley Ski Resort Saturday morning and got all the kids setup with their gear for their morning lesson. Sonya and I decided to split a days worth of skiing while the other watched Ryan down in the lodge. I took the morning shift, getting in about 15 runs, primarily on Bear’s backside.

The snow was a little crusty in the morning, but it softened up as soon as the morning sun got a chance to beat down on it. It was the first chance for me to break in my new boots, so I had great conditions and new equipment! There really is nothing better than comfortable feet on the slopes!


Ready to tear up the hill
By the time I got back to the lodge in the afternoon, the kids had wrapped up their lesson and were practicing their new skills on the bunny slopes. I got to enjoy lunch while Robin and Anne held Ryan (thank you, thank you, thank you ladies), before heading out to see how the kids had progressed.

To my amazement they were all little downhill demons, zipping down the hill like they had been skiing for years. Kids have no fear (I guess you have farther to fall when you’re all grown up), and this pack of munchkins was no exception. [Checkout the video] of them buzzing down the hill.

After a great day of skiing we all headed back to the cabin to enjoy a fiesta, complete with Senorita Robin’s margaritas (que lastima! muy bueno!). I figured the kids would have all been dead tired and in bed early, but most of them were up until 10. The margaritas apparently acted as a sedative for a few hours, but somewhere between midnight and 2am that sedative wore off, and my left knee reminded me that I am no longer 18 and I am not half the Johnny Moseley that I used to be.


Robin & Tessa
We woke up on Sunday to a tasty breakfast, then took all the kids back up the hill to do a little sledding. Everyone (including moms and dads) took turns bouncing down the hill on sledding disks. What a blast!

It was a perfect weekend.

[Click Here] to see more photos in the photo album I setup.