Snow days

This weekend Bill and Cindy Scott came to Reno for a little skiing.  We had not had any new snow since December, and skiing was getting marginal, but Bill always brings snow when he visits and we had about a foot of fresh snow.  That was the good news.  The bad news was that it was still snowing lightly and the light was really flat.  We had several very nice "social ski" runs and then Cindy, Bill and I went into the lodge to recover and Calvin found heaven in the chutes.  

Saturday we took a short snow shoe to the train tunnels at Donner Summit.  Calvin went about 50 yards on solid ice into one of the tunnels then slipped and fell flat.  The rest of us looked at the ice and said "no way."  Calvin clearly needs better adventure buddies.

Do you love the lovely soft focus lens I used?  I need to look for fingerprints on the lens before I take a picture.

Calvin was scouting the tunnels as a potential winter camp out location for the Boy Scouts.  They are really cool looking.  I'm not sure that I would actually like to sleep there.

But it was a great Saturday adventure.

A last random look at Maui

Nothing much is happening at home right now, so I'll finish up with a few more random pictures from Hawaii.  One of the surprise highlights was a visit to the Aquarium in Maui.  Calvin and Zach could have spent all day there.  I loved the walk through tunnel where you could see sharks and rays swimming over head.

After the Butch's family left we managed to entertain ourselves a little.  We went back to the petroglyphs we saw last year and continued up the trail to the Iao valley until we hit the first stream crossing.  It is supposed to be a challenging trail with many stream crossings.  I used the excuse that I didn't bring any water shoes and Calvin didn't protest too much since he didn't have water shoes either, so that hike will have to wait for another visit.

But mostly we just hung out on the beach reading and watching waves hit the shore.

Life is good.

Jungle adventures

Another Maui tradition is driving the road to Hana.  Driving the 620 curves over 68 miles with a 5 year old prone to motion sickness and a 3 year old did not sound like a fun time, so we drove a couple of miles down the road to Twin Falls and hiked up a short trail and called that our road to Hana experience.

This is the classic Emily picture. She filled 4 very large memory cards on the trip.

More attempts at the elusive family portrait.

Austin and Calvin hiking down the road

Zach with his gap toothed grin.  He lost a tooth while we were watching a Hula show at the mall.  Butch and Emily had slipped out to do a little shopping when Austin bumped Zach's mouth and the tooth fell out. He could hardly wait until his parents came back to tell them and he was richly rewarded with amazement and hugs.  I hope he appreciates how much love he is loved. And what great parents he has.

After we left the jungle we went to Ho'okipa beach to watch the surfers, but the surfers weren't nearly as interesting to Zach and Austin as running through mud puddles in the rain.

Lahaina 2013

 There are certain traditions that you must observe when visiting Maui.  One is a visit to the banyan tree in Lahaina for family photos. So we spent a fun evening in Lahaina admiring ourselves with cameras.

 Ignoring the signs about not climbing on the banyan, Zach and Austin hopped right up for a picture.

It was a little rainy while we were there so we saw some spectacular rainbows.

We found another tree that didn't have signs about climbing.  That made everybody happy.

 And no trip to Maui would complete without whale watching.  It was high season for whales, so we saw spouts and splashes all the time.  Past experience tells me that taking a picture of a whale is usually not successful, but taking a picture of people watching whales is another story.

 Another traditions is eating a traditional Hawaiian meal.  After our very first "authentic" meal many years ago we are a little more selective so we opted for a traditional plate lunch with macaroni salad and rice instead of lomo lomi and poi.

With tropical drinks of course.

Maui 2013 Beach and pool time

We just got back from a two week vacation in Maui.  We had a wonderful time and yet it is really great to be home again.  Butch and his family were there for the first 10 days and that made it twice as fun.  Zach and Austin have non-stop enthusiasm for life and Butch and Emily encourage and nurture them with non-stop love. What a treat to get to spend time with them.

We all spent a lot of time digging giant holes and creating complex sand castles on the beach.  Zach's specialty is creation and Austin's specialty is destruction.

Beach time was usually followed with pool time to wash away some of the sand.

Even the big kids saw a little water slide action.

 This is Austin's signature move going down the slide backwards.  Both boys are pretty fearless in the water.

We stayed to watch the sunset one evening and they were still going strong.

Hawaii is really a kid's paradise.

Frosty Mug

The highlight of last weekend was a visit to the iconic A&W in Reno.  I practiced using my phone camera and after a couple of shots figured out that I was in video mode. 

 Truthfully nothing satisfies quite like a "frosty mug" even if it is diet root beer.

Roatan 2013

We just returned from a trip to Roatan with Sarah, Toby and Clare.  The only reason you would want to go to Roatan is to scuba dive or seriously relax.  Calvin, Sarah and Toby got into the diving but Clare and I went after the "seriously relax" option.  We stayed in a lovely home right on the beach with a small pool and a lovely outdoor deck.  It was close to a good grocery store and several convenient eating places and that sums up what we did for a week.  A little diving, a lot of eating and a lot of relaxing.  Calvin is our main grocery shopper on vacations and makes sure that there are at least two desserts for each day of the trip.  Some of our "eat in" meals were a little sketchy, but we always had a great dessert.

We brought the camera, but I have to admit that most of my pictures were total disasters.  The last time we were in Roatan I found myself interested in fauna and flora of the island, but this trip Clare seemed to be the most interesting thing around and I hardly noticed anything else.  Clare has an adorable lightning quick smile and I would say that I missed it 100% of the time, so you'll just have to imaging how cute her smile really was.

The Boredelons look a little angelic at dinner.  Calvin took this picture

It rains a lot in Roatan, but most of the storms passed by quickly.

There was a dive site just off our beach, but Calvin was the only one willing to brave the waves to swim out to it.  This lovely beach is swarming with sand midges.  I spent about 20 minutes on the beach our first night there and got over 50 bites on my legs.  I hardly noticed the bites when they happened, but my legs looked like I had chicken pox the rest of the week.  I gave the beach a wide berth after that.

Clare had great enthusiasm for everything.

Sorry Sarah for the terrible picture of you, but I wanted to show off Clare's curly hair.

And then I noticed how similar Clare's hair color is to yours.  I don't usually look at the back of your hair.

We ate a couple of times at Temporary Cal's Cantina, so named because it is hard to make a go of a restaurant in Roatan and the owner didn't want to make a permanent commitment.

Good times splashing in the pool.

This is the view that I loved waking up to each morning.  A great master bedroom!