It's Heavenly!

    Isn't this heavenly? Yes it is, it's Heavenly Ski Area at Lake Tahoe. On our way to our next job as Innsitters we stopped here for a week of family ski fun. We've skied lots of places but I really think that Heavenly  is the most scenic ski area ever. Bright blue Lake Tahoe is spread out at the bottom of the runs and it almost looks like you could ski right into it. WOW!

 One of the funny things about Heavenly Ski Area is that you can ski back and forth from Nevada to California. Sometimes it's hard to decide which state to ski in!

 Of course the little  ski bunny took another lesson and then went skiing with TayCee and Grandad [that's a  little stuffed bunny that Grandad is wearing in his sweater].  She's really getting bold and even skied one run all by herself [with just a little help from Grandad].















 At the end of the day, we took the aerial tram down to the base of Heavenly Ski Area and all the way down we could look out over stunning Lake Tahoe.

There are lots of other fun things to do at Lake Tahoe in the winter. We spent one day Nordic skiing at Northstar Ski Area. I do not know what this caboose is doing here in the woods but it made a great resting place. We skied about 8 miles at 9000 ft elevation and I was tired! But it was a lovely day and there was no one else on the trails with us, just lots of snow covered trees - so beautiful!

 Heavenly Ski Area has a charming village with shops, restaurants and an ice rink so of course the whole family wanted to go skating before dinner.


                          

                          It was heavenly!

Snow Play

This is our "ranch" in the snow. Kirk and I no longer take innsitting assignments over the Christmas holidays so that we can spend some fun days at home playing in the snow with our family. It's especially great when we have these two little snow bunnies to play with. We made a snowman [Charleigh helped with that] and we had a snowball fight. Here we are having fun on a sled but we also have fun on skis.

 Guess who had their first ski lesson at Mt Hood Meadows ski area this year? Yup, the littlest bunny, ! Here she is checking out her equipment with Grandad. Her skis, boots and helmet all had stickers that said Eleanor on them - how special! Mt Hood Meadows has a great beginner program that includes a half day of day care [ so Mom can go skiing with us] , equipment rental, a lift ticket and a one hour lesson.

They make it so fun for the little ones with a special area roped off for snow play. Her instructor even pointed out the UNICORN prints in the snow!

 Here she is after her lesson using her lift ticket and already going up on the "magic carpet" and skiing a few runs with Grandad and TayCee. We all had such fun playing in the snow!

          

What she really likes to do is "ski fast", "ski fast Grandad". It's so great to see her little face light up and see how much fun she has playing in the snow.
Pretty soon she will be out skiing her grandma.




Here we are "apres ski" all tired out but happy! Next, upstairs for hot cocoa and cookies then home to the snowy ranch!

What a great ending to our family holiday celebration.

Now back to work for the two lazy innkeepers!