Tahoe

At the end of January we went to Tahoe for a couple days with my parents.  This was the first time Ava got to play in the snow.  We weren't sure if she would like it, but now we know she LOVES it.  She had so much fun and didn't want to come home.

We arrived in the late afternoon with just enough light for Ava to try out the snow around the timeshare.  As soon as we unpacked the car Ava wanted her snow clothes on.  Since I wanted her to have a good experience I decked her out from head to toe with warm, waterproof gear.  She stayed warm, dry and was SUPER happy.

She found an igloo someone started and tried to add to it.  The snow was hard and icy, so it was hard for her to build up the igloo.  Ava gave up on that idea and moved onto sledding down a tiny hill outside our front door.  It was the perfect little hill for her to try sledding and overcome any fear she had.  Ava had so much fun and didn't want to go back inside even though it was getting dark, cold, and we were all hungry.  We had to remind her we could play the next day and she finally gave in.

That night we had a nice dinner out and then hung out in the timeshare.  Upon Ava's request we played Hungry Hippos and watched "The Empire Strikes Back."  Ava loves to talk about being frozen in carbonite and wanted to see that part of the movie.

The next morning we got ready and headed out to a real sledding hill.  Ava was super excited and did a happy dance when we got there.  The snow was still icy, hard, and not compacted.  It made it difficult to climb the hill because we kept sinking into the snow and getting stuck.  Ava didn't care and made it work.

At first Ava wasn't interested in going down the hill.  She just wanted to play, make a snowman, and snow angels.  While she played with Papa and Nonna Rich and I took turns sledding down the hill.  It was fun, bumpy, and not too fast.  It was also nice because it wasn't too crowded.

After a bit we convinced Ava to take a turn on the sled.  Once she went down the hill that is all she wanted to do for the rest of the time.  Rich and I took turns riding with her, but by the end she was going by herself and loving it.  Ava was sad when it was time to go, but happy from all the fun we had.

That evening we relaxed and hung out again.  We watched the first part of "Return of the Jedi" because Ava wanted to see Han be saved from the carbonite by Princess Leia.  We were all tired, so we went to bed early to prepare to leave the next day.

The next morning we got ready to leave, but Ava needed more time in the snow.  Rich and Nonna took Ava to a small hill at the backside of the timeshare property while Papa and I packed.  Ava and Rich did some more sledding and they built a bigger snowman.  They were having so much fun we almost were late to checkout.

It was a fun, but exhausting trip.  We are happy Ava had so much fun and we are enjoying watching the videos from the trip.  Now that we know Ava loves the snow we will have to make more trips to play.

Day 1:  Getting all the snow clothes on.

Ava is ready to go and just waiting for the slow adults.

We found a giant snowball.

Rich and Ava throwing snowballs.

We had a lot of fun playing Hungry Hippos.

Ava's Happy Dance.  LOVE IT!

Grrrr...I'm ready to tackle the hill.

Ava and her tiny snowman.  We forgot the carrot and other stuff in the car, so she improvised.

Ava having a good time playing with her snowball.

Rich got a little air hitting this bump.

Headed up the hill.

Rich and Ava getting ready to sled down the hill.

Ava and I smiling from all the fun we had sledding down the hill.

Weeeee!

Ava really wanted to try snow, so we found the cleanest, whitish patch of snow we could.

Ava ready to be pulled back to the car.